So many times when someone comes to us for marketing services, they already have in mind what they want – and it is a brochure. They believe a printed brochure is marketing magic that will cause customers to swarm to their business with bucket loads of money in hand, ready to purchase whatever they are selling. And by a brochure, they have in mind a "standard” sized 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper folded twice so it makes a tri-panel brochure.

Functional brochures

Let’s talk about the function of a brochure. From a marketing perspective, a brochure is a tool to help a customer get closer to a sale. It takes on one of two forms: communicating information about your products and services or as an advertising sales pitch. It simply needs to do one or the other. Making a decision about the function of your brochure is your first step.

Let’s say you are producing a communications brochure. The function of your brochure should be to convey key information that helps describe your products or your services and makes your customer more aware of your offerings. You should emphasize only the finer points of what you are producing. Highlight the best aspects succinctly. Remember that brochures are not novels. The one big mistake made in producing a communications brochure is using too much text. Remember that what you say is important, and you need to be careful with what you publish, but most people will never read your oh-so-important text. They will simply look at the pictures. So your visuals need to be stunning. If you are using photography, I strongly suggest you use a professional photographer who knows how to light and bring out the best features of your products. If you are using some other kind of graphic, make sure it is well done. Visual appeal is paramount. Graphic elements make or break a brochure.

On the other hand, if you are producing an advertising brochure, there are three key ingredients to make it work for you. First, make sure you are grabbing the attention of the customer. You can do this in many different ways, but there has to be something to make the customer want to pick the brochure up and read it. Once again, visual appeal is key here. So is your message. It should convey that you can solve a problem or fulfill a want/need for the customer. Second, the sales pitch has to be clear and catchy. That includes using a hook to entice the customer to consider making a purchase. This can take the form of an incentive to buy now, such as a discounted price, added benefits if a purchase is made before a specific time deadline, etc. If you fail to include a hook, you will fall short of making a sale. Finally, to be effective, your brochure should have an action point that is the next step in making the purchase. This could be going to a web site to order, making a phone call, filling out a purchase agreement, etc. Your action point should be very easy for them to accomplish.

Design function

There is another aspect of functionality of brochures that has to do with its design. How is it to be delivered to the customer? Will it be mailed, hand delivered, etc.? Is it a stand-alone piece or is it part of a larger package of materials? Does it have a greater function for other pieces, such as holding more information in a pocket or leaving space for a business card? Make sure you take all of this into consideration during the designing of your brochure. Back to the comment I made earlier about "standard” tri-panel brochures. This size of brochure was made to go into a rack of brochures – to be one of many in a display. Rack brochures don’t happen too often anymore. So if that is not the purpose of your brochure, why would you be confined to that format? Be creative. Print is one of the most expressive of mediums ever invented. There is never a good reason for a badly designed brochure. That includes the size and shape of the brochure as well as the graphic elements. Use some creativity. As a marketing piece, your brochure needs to stand out from all the others, and especially from what your competition is doing.

Take a look at this video for more cues for your brochure design.

Print is a medium that you can touch, unlike most other marketing mediums, and it has the most flexibility in terms of creative design. In a world where so much of our marketing efforts are put into an online presence, a well thought out brochure can be an effective marketing tool that sets you apart from everyone else. But standard brochures are… ho hum! If you are going to print a brochure, make sure it stands out from the crowd.