Does Your Brochure Need a Facelift?

Particularly for a small business, brochures can be one of your most effective sales and branding tools. In just a few pages, they tell people who you are and what your business is about.

Is your brochure ready for a facelift?

If so, here are seven tips for making the most of the opportunity.

1. Stay Focused

A brochure isn’t a catalog. It’s not intended to be everything to everybody. Create different brochures for different product lines, different target audiences, and even different events.

2. Targeted Versions

Increase the power of your marketing by targeting brochures to specific audiences. Instead of creating 10,000 of one brochure, for example, try printing four different versions—2,500 of each— designed to appeal to different segments of your customer base.

3. Unique Imagery

It might be tempting to keep down costs by using free or inexpensive royalty-free images. However, generic images can hurt your brand. These images may look slick, but they don’t help to tell your story. Plus, they can damage your brand if people see those images somewhere else. Using traditional royalty images or hiring a professional photographer is worth the investment.

4. Limit Your Font Choices

Don’t over-clutter your space or create visual confusion with too many fonts. A good rule of thumb is to use no more than three fonts in any one piece.

5. Use White Space

The purpose of a brochure is not to pack as much information into its pages as possible. Brochures are informational, but they are designed as door openers, not sales closers. Be selective. Use white space to create breathing room to keep the design clean and inviting. Tell your audience just enough to pique their interest and get them to take the next step.

6. Use High-Quality Stock

People associate the quality of your paper stock with the quality of your products. Don’t skimp!

7. Include a Call to Action

Even though you might not want to give the hard sell, you still want a call to action. Otherwise, your audience may just read the brochure, then set it aside. CTAs are critical to getting your audience to take action.

Over time, your customer base changes. Your products change. Your brochure needs to stay updated, too. Consider a redesign of your brochure today.