Brochure marketing can be a key revenue driver for many businesses but it’s something that needs careful planning from the outset. This is especially true in today’s hyper-competitive business environment. We all want to turn leads into prospects and prospects into sales and profits. So if you are looking to have a brochure created to convert your prospects into profits then please jump to our brochure design page to get the ball rolling and get in touch for a free quotation.
Why do you need a marketing brochure?
With the high number of opportunities available online these days, it can seem a little antiquated to use a brochure. However, look at it this way, people are bombarded online and it’s easy to flick or swipe past the noise! In contrast, a professionally designed marketing brochure can be a fantastic tool. It can help you to generate business that otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to get by just being online.
Discover the benefits of having an expert undertake your brochure design. If you think it could benefit your business then check out our top brochure design tips below on how to increase the success rate of your next brochure campaign.
Brochure design tip 1: Know why you’re creating the brochure
Before you even start the process of creating a brochure it’s important to know why you’re producing it; is it for brand awareness, to push specific products or to generate leads for a service?
To build a better brochure start with the end in mind. Identify what you want your prospect to do after they’ve read your brochure (and how do you want them to feel about your products and services) and then reverse engineer everything from there.
Once you know your goal for the brochure then you’ll know how to measure the success of your brochure campaign too.
Brochure Design Tip 2: Are you selling a service or a product?
Product-based business brochure
If your company sells products, then displaying these prominently will likely be the main aim of your marketing brochure design. Visual aesthetics should be emphasised in your printed materials.
These might include close-up colour shots of the product itself, attractive packaging or photos of the items in use. The price of your products must be made clear, along with a range of benefits to the user. Descriptions should always be given, along with options such as sizes or colour variations.
Service-based business brochure
If you are selling a service then there should be much more focus on the use of text to describe to the reader how your service will be the solution to a problem they are experiencing.
Whilst there should certainly be a strong inclusion of high-quality images in any marketing brochure design, there should be a greater emphasis on the text descriptions of the services that you provide to clients.
Each of your services should be divided into distinct sections with clear information. Include hard-hitting bullet points which allow your readers to understand how you can help them.
Brochure design tip 3: Understand your niche and target audience/target market
Understand what makes your perfect customer and what would make YOU their perfect supplier.
Pay attention to what your most successful competitors are doing. What are your best customers say about your business? Use this to inform your brochure decisions.
You should endeavour to make the whole process as simple and pleasant as possible for your potential customer to become a client/user of your business!
Brochure design tip 4: Now you’ve identified your target market, address their needs and tailor your message specifically.
One of the most important things you can do when creating a new brochure is to focus on your ideal prospect and perfect customer. Make smart and informed design decisions based on what will interest and attract them more than anything else.
If your brochure isn’t perfectly tuned to meet the needs of your ideal prospects then you’re going to lose out to your competitors. Put in the time and effort into the research of your prospect’s and customer’s pain points, understanding their needs and creating marketing messages that attract them.
This is key because a site manager looking for tools in a brochure will be more interested in the certifications and detailed information of the products. Whereas a fashion or property brochure will be very much focused on the presentation of the product so the potential customer can visualise wearing it or being present in the space.
Brochure design tip 5: Keep to a colour scheme and stay on-brand with graphic designs and fonts
It can be really easy to want to include a variety of fonts and colours in your brochure to try and capture attention. DON’T.
The brochure will be much more successful if you focus on your core brand colours and themes. In the long run, this will give your prospects a much better and consistent experience with your brand and they will know what to expect.
This also means that because you have exercised restraint with colours and fonts that when you do highlight information it’s much more likely to resonate with the customer.
Brochure design tip 6: Manage the attention span
Your customers will most likely be short on time or want to make decisions quickly. Make sure you capitalise on their attention while you’ve got it by being clear, concise and to the point. This will increase the chances you will convert their business.
Brochure design tip 7: Simplify Your Messaging (And Marketing)
Something that masterful marketers understand better than anyone else is the importance of focusing on ONE single thing when building marketing assets.
A lot of business owners, entrepreneurs, and marketers feel like they have to overload their brochure with as much information, as many pitches, and as many details as humanly possible – even when they know full well that the space available in their brochure is very limited.
Again, this all goes back to understanding your perfect prospect and ideal customer and zeroing in on the most pressing pain point or the most important thing they want to achieve. You must design your brochure around that singular element.
You want everything to reinforce that sales message, that lead, and that hook. Anything that doesn’t support that singular message is to be removed from your brochure ASAP. It’s only going to add confusion to your keys messages.
Brochure design tip 8: Design Around Your Sales Copy
Direct response masters and world-class copywriters know that the majority of brochures are first designed to look slick with very little consideration to the sales copy. Often, important and engaging text information is added wherever there’s a bit of leftover white space – almost as an afterthought. There’s no faster way to shoot your marketing message in the foot by taking this approach.
At the very least have the flowing order of your sales copy agreed before your designer starts work on laying out your brochure. Once you see your brochure take shape adjustments can be made at the proofing stage to perfect it.
Brochure design tip 9: Remember AIDA
Leverage the AIDA formula – Attention, Interest, Decision, Action (a proven marketing formula that has stood the test of time because of how well it works) and then build the rest of your brochure around that.
Let your brochure do the hard work when it comes to getting your prospects to take the next step in your sales funnel – whatever that may be – with a pitch carefully crafted to hook them in.
You will want to make sure that you have used powerful images in your brochure to help support your sales messages. Images and text that work together will have an emotional connection with your customers and prospects. By using this technique you will more likely create a desire in your offering which will lead to a decision being made. This decision could well be to buy or at the very least make the next step in the buying process.
Brochure design tip 10: Features and benefits, but benefits above everything
Make sure you tell your potential customers the benefits your products or services provide. What problems do they solve? How do they make life easier, get things done quicker, save time or save money in the long term?
Make a list of all the best benefits your products and services offer. Thread these into your sales copy or simply list them as bullet points.
Brochure design tip 11: Pricing
Be clear before you begin this process about where your company lies within your particular niche. Are you operating a budget operation which appeals to the masses or a luxury brand which produces high-priced items? By understanding your company ethos and marketplace position, your designer will be able to accurately suggest various design elements that may be suitable for your brochure. For instance, a brochure for a luxury brand may well feature a more open layout style with large high-quality images. It might be created from higher quality paper stock and have additional special print finishes such as varnishing or foiling.
Brochure design tip 12: Always Include a Clear Call to Action
You would be amazed at the number of brochures out there that are a little bigger than a business card. They are often packed with facts and information but not really including anything that pushes your prospect to take the action you want them to – to visit your website, to request more information, to reach out for a call for a consultation, to place an order, etc. This is a huge problem.
To eliminate this as much as possible you must ALWAYS include a crystal-clear call to action.
Think about where this brochure fits in your marketing funnel. Where is your prospect going to be as far as your sales process is concerned? Then build it out to encourage them to take the next step that gets them closer to taking the next step. Do you want them to find out more information by calling you or visiting your website? Or do you want them to sign on the dotted line and buy from you?
The chances are that your brochure isn’t going to be large enough or detailed enough to handle the entire sales process from start to finish.
Recognise the limitations this form factor inherently has and work around them. Use this as a hook to get prospects deeper and deeper into your sales funnel so that you increase conversion rates later down the line.
Brochure design tip 13: Use relevant and exciting imagery
You might not deem your products as visually appealing but even the most run-of-the-mill products can be exciting to a prospect if the supporting imagery is framed and shot properly.
Even if it’s a product of necessity and a tool to help someone do their job, you need to use your imagery to highlight how great your product is. Use a professional photographer to capture your images. Try and avoid taking snaps on your mobile’s camera. OK, the quality of mobile cameras are getting better these days but your images won’t be the same as those taken by a professional using an SLR camera.
Unless you need to photograph a unique product or location you can purchase high quality, royalty-free images on-line from a diverse range of libraries. Just check the image usage license restrictions before you publish your brochure. Your graphic designer should be able to advise you about this.
Brochure design tip 14: Make it easy for your prospects to contact you
To get a customer over the line you need to make sure it’s easy for them to convert. Depending on your product or service their preferred means of interacting with you is likely to differ from customer to customer. Having got your prospect to a point where they’re ready to take the next step only some may prefer to contact you by phone. Others may prefer to email you. You may find some may want to jump to your website for further engagement and complete an enquiry form online.
If you’re looking for leads then make it easy for the customer to communicate and engage with you. If you’re looking to sell products directly from your brochure then make it a simple process with clear instructions. This is especially important if they have never bought from you before.
Brochure design tip 15: Leverage social media
Chances are your target market may not always be at a point where they are ready to immediately convert. With that being the case ensure that you publicise your social media channels and that they are up to date.
Potential customers will most likely want to take a look at your social media pages and to read about your products/reviews. This will give another perspective and viewpoint about other important information about you as a business that will help them to convert.
Get a positive ROI on brochure design
Brochure marketing today can offer an incredible return on your investment. This is especially true since the physical marketing spaces are a lot less crowded and a lot less cluttered as more and more businesses fight for attention on-line.
Even still, though, you need to make sure that your brochure is customer-focused. Smartly designed, and carefully constructed brochures can be an important part of your marketing efforts.
If you do invest in having a brochure created for your business, the last thing you want to do is direct too much money towards over fancy designs and expensive printing costs. You may then discover that your brochure isn’t doing its job when it comes to winning clients, converting customers, and helping you win lots of new orders.
Armed with the inside information above, though, you won’t have to worry about being disappointed in your brochures anymore!
Building Better Brochures with These Tips and Tricks
A lot of otherwise really smart and savvy business owners end up building glossy, full-colour, absolutely gorgeous brochures that are little more than pocket billboards – pieces of marketing material that look great but aren’t adding anything to your bottom line.
Think about what your perfect customer is worried about most? The problems they want to solve ASAP? The obstacles they see in their way? What would their ideal solutions look like? You can now tailor your marketing using these key insights when producing your brochure. Let the design of your brochure do all the hard work to help you win more clients and increase your sales.
Call in the Pros to Build a Brochure That generates revenue!
Whether you’ve completed brochure marketing campaigns before or not, the chances of it being a success are greatly increased when you use an expert to help you craft it.
We are brochure design experts that know how to leverage the secrets of direct response marketing. We can carefully weave your branding and imagery into a sales-focused design, and we’ll make this key marketing asset a big piece of your overall sales puzzle – something that attracts more customer enquiries rather than one that looks over-elaborate and fussy.
If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you transform your marketing with better brochures built to grow your business, get in touch today for a free consultation.
