Four steps for creating a successful brochure
1. Set your communication goals
Creating paper communications means that you have a goal in mind. This support must be chosen carefully to avoid making mistakes in its nature.
First of all, you should understand and analyze several points that may seem insignificant, and which are the reason for your communication support:
- Who will use this communication medium?
- In what context will this medium be used?
- Who is the recipient of your brochure?
- How long will this brochure last?
On the basis of your answers, you will understand quickly whether the sales brochure is the right medium, preferably a flyer or a web page.
Once you are sure of your need, you will then decide the purpose of your presentation and therefore the key messages.
As a matter of good practice, it is important to:
- Do not confuse the message with too much information,
- Focus on a specific objective,
- Carefully select the elements of your brand identity,
- Maintain consistency between the different information provided,
For this, we advise you:
Use short, clear and concise sentences,
Keep the content between the pages,
To respect your brand identity and editorial line,
Do not mention dates or numbers that will change over time (if your brochure will be used for a long time),
Determine the calls to action on substance and form, to optimize the gain of returns.
Those are the main rules to follow, as of course there is a lot we could go into.
2. Compose your message and calls to action
It is important to ensure that the texts in the brochure are written in such a way as to make it fluid and accessible to as many people as possible. The principles to be observed are as follows:
- To add a tagline to your document and attract the interest of your prospect.
- Emphasize strong messages to help identify key messages.
- Prioritize the texts to ensure fluid reading through a common thread.
- Choose the most important information to optimize space and improve readability.
- Don’t forget the captions and mentions, especially if you don’t own all the sources used or if your offers contain conditions.
- Include a summary or comparison to quickly view or summarize the offers you offer.
- Demonstrate the benefits for the customer and possibly make a link with the product features.
- Cluster ideas by themes and avoid duplication.
3. Design an attractive and striking layout
To be seen and appreciated visually, your brochure must have an attractive and striking design. Because, If you want your brochure to be read, it must be seen first.
Above all, as we often repeat for the realization of any support: respect and apply the elements of your brand identity. Indeed, your brand is easily spotted and identified by its logo, its colors and its signature. Your brand identity reflects your message and transcribes your values. Don’t turn away from it, no matter what the occasion or purpose of your brochure.
Moreover, the print production line imposes precise design rules:
- Use the right template for your brochure. Many printers can provide you with a blank template for this purpose.
- Maintain technical margins. This margin must not contain any text or visible elements during printing, because it is an area that delimits the shaping of the document and may be subject to a slight offset.
- Utilize sunk funds. Located just after the margins, the bleeds delimit the division.
- Use the CMYK colorimetric mode. This printer-friendly mode allows you to achieve a color rendering similar to your design and optimize print quality.
- Create your document with 300 DPI resolution. This is the standard resolution for quality printing. For the web, the resolution is 72 DPI, which is not enough for printing because it is too blurry.
4. Choosing your provider according to your in-house skills
You have the possibility to produce your brochure in-house externally or to delegate part of the design or production.
According to the production process chosen, you must either have the necessary knowledge of the printing production line, or call upon the best corporate brochure designing company. The printing standards are to be complied with and influence the creation of your media from an ergonomic, graphic design and print management point of view. Common mistakes include using an online printer when you don’t have the necessary knowledge, and having printing management problems because standards are not met; or using a quality printer without achieving the expected success because the design itself is not good enough.
To work in the best conditions, the creation of a graphic design document such as a brochure, should start with a kick-off meeting to discuss the ins and outs of your activity, the characteristics of your targets and the objectives targeted by your marketing actions. Then we advise you to work on a graphic design track before starting the creation as a whole, so as not to waste time on returns. Once the graphic design track has been validated, create the entire brochure and refine it to obtain the desired result.