Making the Most of Brochures

Learn the right ways for making the most of creative brochures

Business brochures introduce your company to potential customers. Unlike larger companies, small businesses can't depend solely on name or logo recognition and print brochures can help get your business known in the communities it serves. Before you're ready to design and print brochures, though, you should plan your brochure.

The technical aspects of creating brochures, such as design and printing specifics, come later. Right now you should focus on making the most of creative brochures that focus on what you say about your business and how your business brochures back up your message with photographs or artwork. Printing a brochure often represents a significant expense for the small business, so plan carefully before handing over text and photos to a brochure service or graphic designer. Ask the following questions as part of the planning process.

1. What information must your business brochure include?

2. What do you want your customized brochure to say?

3. How can you reinforce your brochure's message visually?

 

Create brochure "must haves"

Creating customized brochure text (graphic designers and writers call that text "copy") for your print brochures gets your business's unique message out in the world, but make sure you include necessary information as well, like contact information, web addresses and any industry-specific legal notices. If you make a list with all this information, then you can simply hand it over to your copywriter when the time comes.
Try: Montana State University has a brochure copy checklist to use as you create brochure copy or talking points. You can learn more about these items--and determine which ones your business may or may not want to include--at the website for Randall Rensch.

Compose several key points, rather than trying to write the copy in business brochures

When you make a brochure you'll get the best results by focusing your business brochure around a few key ideas. You don't need to write the copy yourself (unless your business is copy writing) but you should have an idea as to what you want your print brochures to say.
Try: HP and StockLayouts offer a brochure content worksheet that you can view at Issuu. This will help you determine the focus for your print brochure. If you'd like more guidance, then you can learn more about creating customized brochure copy at John E. Fike Copywriting & Content.

Find ways to visually drive home the message in your business brochures

Few people will pick up and read business brochures that contain copy only. By now you should have a good idea of what written content you'll have in your company's print brochure and all you need to do is find ways to visually reinforce your message in your print brochures. This is also true if you want to create online brochures for your website. While brochure services and graphic designers who create brochures for businesses like yours will ultimately design your brochure, as the business owner you can and should think about these things and communicate with the brochure design team.
Try: If you don't have photos, then you can either ask your brochure service about providing them, browse the business brochure stock photo gallery at Fotosearch or download photos from the free image library at Hewlett-Packard.

 

• You may have read this guide and thought to yourself that your company doesn't need to hire a copywriter, graphic designer or brochure service. While you could probably create brochures on your own, you will save time, money and headaches by hiring someone to create brochures for your business. The software needed to create brochures that professional printers can print costs several hundred dollars, not to mention image editing software and time spent learning the software.
• Brochure printing is a separate cost from writing and designing business brochures, so make sure to budget for printing as well as writing and design. If your business has a tight budget for printing brochures, then ask your designer about ways to cut costs, such as using two colors instead of all of them.

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