Printing a brochure: why and how

Brochures are a staple in business. Your business card might offer a nibble of who you are, but the brochure is more like a full appetizer sampler of what you stand for.

Maybe you’ve decided you need a brochure – or need to refresh the outdated one you already have. What should you consider before you design and print?

 

Do you even need a brochure?

Ask yourself this: do you think you need a brochure just because, well, businesses need brochures? If that’s your primary reason, we need to dig a little deeper, because printing just for the sake of tradition is never a good idea.

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, then designing and printing a brochure probably does make sense for you:

Do you find yourself talking to customers in situations where asking them to look up your website for more information is inconvenient for them? Would it be more compelling to have something printed (with photographs and ready information) to hand them?

Do you want to try to capture a specific market through the mail? Print houses like ours can generate mailing lists for you based on a myriad of criteria, and physical mail still has higher open rates than email does.

Are you trying to reach a demographic that does not spend as much time online – or who needs to be able to access your information offline?

Does your business have visual appeal? Maybe you’re selling your own photography or someone else’s home, and you know that if the customer could just see how beautiful your thing is, they’d be interested. Or maybe you’ve got a really great way to explain financial investment or an important message about child adoption and you want to capture that in an infographic. Grabbing people’s visual attention is a great first step to generating a lead.

Do you need to leave information about your business in places where you won’t be available in person?

Do you find yourself in situations (such as a convention), where you can’t talk to everyone at once and all the new people you’re meeting start to run together, and you want to leave people with a good reminder of what you do?

Yes, it’s the age of online marketing, but there are still so many reasons to get your business onto a printed page. So let’s consider the smartest ways to do just that.

 

How can you print the brochure you really need?

A brochure is a very affordable marketing piece, but you do want to think carefully about its content and design. Here are some important questions to ask yourself:

What function does this brochure need to serve?

Does it convey important legal or medical information that your clients need to know? If so, you may want to focus more on making sure the text is clear and accurate, and a simple tri-fold brochure with a straightforward layout may be all you need.

Does your brochure need to capture a customer’s imagination and make them ache to learn more about your business? In that case, you may want to develop an unusual design with eye-popping photography, sophisticated colors, and cool folds. Here are just some exciting examples of ways – there are so many more! – that your brochure can go beyond just conveying information to become a truly memorable piece.

Does your brochure need to be a handy reference guide? You’ll want to choose a paper and a shape that lend themselves to frequent use and portability.

How long do you want to be able to use this brochure?

In most cases, you’ll want a brochure to have a good shelf life – at least a few months, if not a year or more. If you’re changing logos or moving locations, for example, you may want to wait to print your brochures until after that’s settled – or print a short run for now.

Bear in mind that we have an inventory and fulfillment system so that you can store excess brochures with us, and ship them as needed to yourself or your other locations, or we can mail them directly to individual customers.

How do you plan to distribute your brochure?

Will you ever mail this piece? If so, talk with your print rep about how to design it well for mailing. If designed properly, a brochure can mail inexpensively. A good print rep (like one of ours) will steer you away from mistakes that could cost you thousands of dollars at the post office.

Does your brochure need to have a certain shape for distribution? For example, if you plan to leave your brochures in tourism offices, you’ll need your pieces to fit into their standard-sized racks. Otherwise, your brochures might end up on a side table where no one can see them – or even worse, in the recycling bin.

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about even when designing a basic brochure. But don’t worry: this isn’t rocket science. Our print reps are happy to talk through exactly what YOU need, and answer all the questions you didn’t even know to ask, so that you end up with the perfect brochure for your needs.

Ready to get started?