What makes an effective business brochure?

Creating brochures or flyers to market your business is a significant investment in time and resources. If done correctly, they can be one of the most cost effective and surefire methods of advertising, but with the profit margins for small businesses as thin as they are, you don’t want to take any chances with making a costly mistake. The typical brochure costs roughly fifty cents apiece to print, and if you are planning on mailing them, that price doubles to a dollar each. Make sure that your money is being put to good use by following these simple guidelines to making your brochures more effective.

What is the purpose of your brochure?

The first thing you need to understand is what your customer wants from your product or service. What aspects of your business should you highlight to help attract potential new clients? Enlist the help of your existing customer base by asking them what is most important to them about your product. What features do they like? Why did they decide to do business with your company? You can also ask your sales people or other employees what feedback they typically receive from customers. Incorporate all of this feedback into choosing what elements to emphasize in your brochure.

Include a call to action.

You should have a specific goal in mind for what you want your flyer to accomplish. Include a call to action in your flyer that will get potential clients to engage with your business. Whether that is “Call now!” or “Like us on Facebook,” decide on what action you want the audience of your brochure to take if they are convinced by your pitch.

 

What can you do for your customers?

Rather then telling readers all about your company and its accomplishments, remember to focus on what your business and its services can do for them. People make purchases based on how they affect their self interest and self image. If you cater to that when designing your brochure, it will be far more effective. In a similar vein, don’t fall into the trap of putting a picture of your building on your brochure.

Even if it is large and impressive, your customer isn’t concerned with that when considering a purchase from a business. They are primarily interested in the product or service itself, not your business.

Have a strong headline.

Choose a few key points you want to emphasize to turn into bold headlines that get your pitch across. Most of your readers will not take the time to read your entire brochure, even if they are interested. At best, they will skim through and look at the sub headings and key phrases. Take advantage of that fact by making your headlines and graphics as dynamic and attention grabbing as possible. People’s attention naturally gravitate towards lists and bullet points, so this can be an efficient way to impart information to your reader.

Finally, give your audience a reason to engage with your business right away by including a coupon or special offer with your brochure. You can make the free gift or discount time sensitive, to add further incentive for them to act fast. You can also ease their fears about potential purchases by including information about a refund or money back guarantee.

Keep it simple.

Write copy that is simple. Avoid long complete sentences – like this one – that go- on-and-on without end, and use simple to the point sentences, to get your points across. Use no more than three font types, two is even better.

Leave plenty of white space. White space makes reading your brochure easier. When you try to squeeze too much content into a page you overwhelm your readers.

Use relevant images.

The right images help you tell your story more effectively. Use your own photos instead of stock photos. Invest in hiring a photographer to get the right images for your brochure. If you can’t use your own photos and you must use stock photos, try to find some that don’t look like stock photos.