Three Things You Should Know About Brochure Design
January 13, 2010 – 2:41 amHave you ever considered that a booklet can be one of the most important of all your marketing materials?
It is a simple piece of paper but the original impact that your leaflet creates is profound. If it’s shabby and unappealing your prospect is left with the same feeling. This will weaken your business development.
Having a leaflet professionally designed and published is a key to winning in a packed market. Taking the time to make sure that your booklet presents all the key data in a way that is easily figured is something that only a professional can do.
If you are just getting started in business you may be tempted to do your booklet yourself. When I first started in business I did everything myself – not a good choice. That is why it took me 12 years before I was even comparatively prosperous. Heed my warning – go professional from day one on your merchandising materials. They are an investment and not an expense. Professionally created materials will deliver you customers and the cash flow to follow – the reason why you are in business.
A brochure has to use eye-catching design. It has to be brief in terms of the message and last but not the least, it must be successful in enticing people to make that call of action.
Here are three key design rules to follow when making a brochure. Use them and you will see your results flow.
1. The cover:
The cover is your sales representative. Brochures are quite inactive creatures and you are not often able to ‘walk’ people through your brochure. So you need to excite people to read further. The cover is the beginning point so must be tantalizing and sharing the KEY values of WHY someone should read further. It should answer the WIFM question – What’s in it for me.
A great design company will show you at least three to four cover designs for your pamphlet. Analyse these designs to examine which stimulates you the most. Ask your protagonists their impression. Does the cover answer the question WIFM? If it doesn’t arouse and answer the WIFM question, then skip to another design that works or get it redesigned. Taking the time here to get it right will pay bounties later.
2. The Content:
Once they are past the front over then the message has to become the salesperson. So once again, the pressure is on to be good. Do not opt for cheap incompetent content writers or ask the designer to write the content or worst still do it yourself. Instead make sure that a professional copywriter is doing the work. If your design company does not have a copywriter then hire one yourself.
Ensure that all the key questions that a future customer will have about your product are answered in a way that gets them to call you for more information. Do not go into ‘overkill mode’ and inundate them with too much information at this point in time. Remember the brochure’s job is to energize and get people to call you.
3. The call for action:
If your prospective customer has read the booklet then you have done a good job. All you need to do now is give them a compelling reason to contact you NOW.
Having things like a free call 0800 or’00 number clearly shown (in big letters) can make a important difference. Having an email address is a clear bonus. Make sure these two are clearly placed in large clear type.
Even give your customers a special voucher on the leaflet or reference code can help. But above all, make sure that you add a clear call to action. One way to do this is to readdress the KEY value of your service to your prospect in a way that will get them to take action. Remember value is everything. People only purchase something that is of value to THEM.
4. The piece that got forgotten:
I did this on purpose and only said there were 3 points. Well the final point is the one that can get neglected. It is the ‘dummy’ one. Have you checked that you have these on your brochure:
Phone number | Fax number | Email address | Web address | Country of operation | City / area of operation | Company name | And have you proof read for typo and grammar errors?
Discover how creative brochure designs can accelerate your business growth using qualified graphic design professionals. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
categories: advertising,marketing,brochure,graphic design,graphics,brochure design,marketing materials
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