What makes a brochure stand out above the rest? What makes our audience decide to read it and also hire or buy what it offers?
If you are thinking of developing a brochure for your company, we reveal the key steps to make a professional brochure that meets its main objective: Help you sell more. However, you can’t create a great brochure with a bad brand logo. First things first, so be sure to check out LogoGrupo for a great logo, before anything else.
1. Define your goal
What do you need the brochure for? What action do you want the receiver to take after reading its content?
The general objective of every brochure is to communicate something to a certain audience. This communication aims to get your recipient to take a subsequent action: a purchase, a request for a medical appointment, a reservation, etc. Moreover, for our design to work, it is essential to write clearly, what we are after.
Writing your goals is the basis for creating the brochure. This is what we call “briefing”.
In short: “Get a briefing.”
2. Know your target audience
Who are you going to contact?
It is important to establish whom you are going to talk to and know their interests well in order to capture their attention and take it to your field.
You must collect as much information as possible about our target (how they express themselves, what language they use, hobbies, concerns, needs, etc.). This information will serve to decide the tone and aesthetics of the design. To adapt it more to your tastes and interests.
3. Define the content
What do you want to tell how?
Once you know what your target audience is, the next step will be to define the content. What texts, what images or illustrations will accompany it? What additional information will you include: contact, website, logos, etc.
– The text:
Sometimes we offer a good product or promotion and for lack of understanding (confusing texts, lack of information, etc.) or for abuse of flat and boring texts that tire the reader, the brochure does not do its job.
Therefore, it is vitally important to focus the texts on conversion, take into account the resources that marketing offers us and use the right words to awaken something in your audience: curiosity, fear, need, …, and finally convince him that he needs what you offer him.
Remember that a brochure is not a book, so you must summarize the information and show it in a clear and orderly way. But, above all, the information must be understandable so that the main message reaches the recipients. Too much information only leads to confusion and causes the message to be lost.
And not least … don’t forget grammar and spelling! Check texts and take care of spelling and grammar to give a serious and reliable image of your company.
– Images:
The image must occupy an important role in our brochure because it has a great power of attraction towards the receiver and also, they help to rest your eyes during reading, they serve as a guide to move our eyes through the content and make the text not seem boring and feel like reading it.
-The Structure:
Storytelling: Tell a story.
Every good story is made up of three parts: approach, knot, and outcome. Design your brochure so that each space tells a part of the story.
Whether your brochure is diptych, tri-fold or one-sided, the rules are the same, only the arrangement of the information changes:
At first, it begins with an introduction, a headline that encourages readers to continue reading, which creates a need for them that you will later solve.
Continue with the development, answer the question, and provide a solution to that need by counting the benefits of what you offer.
Lastly, it ends with an attractive hook that calls for action. Don’t leave out this point, the call to action, because even if you have the most attractive brochure in the world, if you do not provide enough motivation for the public to act, the brochure will not be fulfilling its function.
4. Be true to your brand image
Maintain the line and tone of your company or product. Be faithful to your values and company philosophy, this will improve the recognition of your brand. If you stray from your path, you will be confusing your audience. And you will give a bad image of the company.
5. Choose the right format
The brochure offers endless possibilities: single-sided, double-sided, diptych, triptych, elongated, horizontal, foldout, accordion, die-cut, etc. It allows you to play with the folds to offer the reader interactivity and you can see original things:
To know which format is best for you, you must have the content well tied and take into account your budget. From there you will analyze which format best suits your needs and what you can invest.
6. Take care of the design
A poorly designed brochure will take potential buyers into the arms of your competitors. Investing in good design is taking care of yourself in health.
As we have previously commented, the image and the distribution of the content is essential for the message to reach the public. With a good design, the correct choice of fonts and images. And the use of an ordered grid where the information is hierarchical and clear. You will ensure that your brochure does its job.
7. Choose the right material
What material is suitable for what I want to transmit? What thickness, finishes, and textures are appropriate?
You can choose from many materials for your brochure: polypropylene, textile material, paper. Each of them also offers you other possibilities, for example within the paper, there is a multitude of different weights (80 gr, 100 gr, etc.) and finishes (coated papers, gloss, matte, laid …). Keep in mind that a brochure printed on low-quality material, for example on a paper of low gr, will not obtain the same results as a brochure printed on a 250 gr paper, with greater consistency and that to the touch gives us other sensations completely different.
Make a calculation of what you are willing to invest in advertising and get good advice about the possibilities that each material gives you to choose the one that best suits your audience, with what you want to transmit and with your budget.
8. Printing
Printing is one of the most important factors. You can bring sensory experiences to the receiver with a wide variety of inks and finishes that can be applied today: metallic inks, ultraviolet inks, dies, reliefs, stamping, etc. The type of printing also affects: whether it is offset or digital.
Choosing the right print and post-print finishes will also go hand in hand with your budget and you want to communicate to your audience.
9. Go beyond
Surprise your audience.
Creativity is important to differentiate yourself from your competition. Bet on an original and unique design, so that your brochure stands out even if it is stacked next to other brochures.
An original brochure that catches the attention of the recipient will have a better chance of being kept longer or even be shared or shown to others.
You can also choose to give away free samples of your product in the brochure or promotional gifts, which will serve as a claim.
But remember, no matter how original and different your brochure is, if you don’t get the message across it will be money wasted. Therefore, creativity must go hand in hand with functionality.
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