Brochures Introduce Your Business
Once upon a time real companies had offices and 3-fold brochures. These days companies have websites and virtual assistants, so is there still a need for brochures and fliers? Look in your mailbox. There are more fliers out there than ever!
Brochures are an introduction to your services. No-one has to wait for your brochure to load and they can write on it. They can be left at trade booths, business centres, libraries and hotels.
More than any other media, the front of the brochure must stand out and catch attention.
Tips for Brochures
- Bleed, bright colours and photos all attract attention so use them!
- Think about what you really sell: happiness, knowledge, comfort….. This is your core service and it should be featured on the front face of the brochure.
- Your website is a better place to list all of your products and features. Use the brochure to send only one or two key messages to a general audience.
- Take advantage of the web to move detailed information online and lighten the load on your brochure. Use the brochure to attract attention and get people interested.
- Make the brochure includes a call to action. Your brochure is a selling job, not a bullet list of features.
- Write for your reader.
- Place the contact information on the middle back fold. Once the 3-fold is folded, it will seem to be on the back.
- Make sure you include contact information and your web URL in a prominent place.
- Add interest with lots of photos, a strong layout and interesting (but readable) fonts.
- Consider 4-folds and standups as alternatives. 4-folds provide a bit more space and look luxurious. Standups on heavy card stock are less expenive but very expressive.
- If you do a stand up, consider shaping the paper to reflect your product. For example, a windows company might round the top to suggest an elegant window frame.
- Make the brochure more luxurious with the best photography you can afford and a good print job. Use large photos at high resolution that print cleanly.
- Consider making the inside of the brochure fold out like a single poster that can be posted on an office wall or kitchen fridge.
- Take advantage of digital printing to create a series of brochures. Talk to your printer. You can create one generic file that contains a field that is updated according to some criteria. For example: a different offer or price depending on where the brochure delivered; or brochures personalized with customer names inserted. It doesn’t cost a lot more than an ordinary print run and it costs a lot less than doing a number of separate print runs for different brochures with different offers.
Brochures are usually quite pedestrian but they don’t need to be. You should think about the style of your company and design accordingly.
Business Cards are Still Necessary
Digital media aside, nothing is easier to exchange or leave behind on a counter than a business card. Lots of places will let you put a small pile on their counter or pin one to a bulletin board.
Many designers think that they best cards are the ones that stand out because they fold up, come in a cute shape, are super-glossy, or over-sized. These are all tactics that make people notice your business cards and pick them up. This is fantastic, as long as they don’t throw them away afterwords because the cards don’t fit in a card holder.
Tips for Designing Business Cards
You won’t go wrong if you remember 2 things: your card should say why it should be kept and it should make it easy for people to contact you when they need your services.
- The design of your cards should match your overall style as represented in your brochures, websites, office decor, logo, and unique selling proposition.
- People should easily be able to read your name, contact information and what you do.
- It should be really really clear from your business card, what you do. The card will be the only tangible thing of yours that most people have when they get back to the office. It must help them remember you, your company, and why they should keep the card.
- Keep the design simple so that the important information is easy to find.
- Make sure you include a name. People like to work with people, not companies.
- Include a phone number or email address prominently on your cards.
- Include a website address so that people can find out more about your company on their own.
- People generally prefer to work with a company that shows stability, so if you can, include a physical address.
- Make the font(s) large and easy to read. Make it easy for people to find you.
- Leave a space on the card so that people can write a note to themselves about why your company interested them. For the same reason, avoid textures and glossy finishes. At least make sure the back of the card can be written on. NOTE that the backside of the paper stock for most DIY inkjet cards repels ink.
- Add a QR code or bar code so your business card can be scanned digitally.
- Take advantage of the back of the card. It’s a great place to add a special offer or an appointment time.
- Leave off any information that is subject to frequent change. Most printers print a minimum of 500 cards per order. You can always add a fancy sticker.
- Your card design should be simple, easy to read, but unique.
- DIY cards are better than nothing, but the print quality doesn’t match what printers can provide: brighter colours, heavier stock (100lb or heavier) , cleaner edges.
- Try something different: red and yellow both attract attention, although yellow is not a popular colour.
- Vertical designs fit card holders and are unique.
- Rounded corners fit card holders, feel nice to handle and make your card stand out in a stack because of the gap.
- Photographs build credibility. Options include your office, your face, your product, a happy client.