If your business has decided that creating a great brochure is the right way to go, then we should congratulate you – the brochure is an underestimated tool in the marketing industry, and regardless of how many new ways of advertising there are, the brochure will always have its place as a tool for reaching many people at a very low cost.
The brochure has an excellent return of investment – provided, of course, that it is designed the right way. So where do you start? How do you come up with that ideal brochure for brochure or leaflet printing that reaches as many potential customers as possible? Here is your step-by-step guide to designing a beautiful and effective brochure.
Write a letter first
This may seem like a silly idea – and one that takes a lot of work, too – but it’s incredibly important. Writing a letter to your elusive customer will not only straighten out your own thoughts about who you are as a company and what your company has to offer the customer, but also how you perceive the customer to be. In other words, it forces you to narrow your thoughts down, put them into logical order, and make it all clear.
The next step is more difficult, but equally important: cut it down to the bare minimum. You may have long sentences – cut them down into short statements. You may give a lot of explanation – ask yourself: is it necessary? Cut it all down and keep your message as short as possible.
Design
You should understand that your target demographic has certain preferences. This means that they enjoy certain colours, enjoy certain fonts, and enjoy certain graphics. Do your research on this, and then figure out how these gathered data fit into the message you’re trying to convey.
Colours have a certain psychology behind them. Graphics are important because, as the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. But you need a lot of text as well, so arrange your space so that each is used to its full advantage.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes
You’re not going to get the design right on the first try – however, you can get new ideas and make improvements if you imagine that you are the customer and see what works or not. Be objective, and be honest with yourself. Do you need to trim down the text? Do you need more graphics? Are the colours right?
You have to remember that designing anything (a house, a car, a brochure for brochure printing) is actually a process – it’s something that has to start with a basic idea, a basic goal, and then gets adjusted according to the feedback that you get. It’s an exciting process, actually – so have fun with it.