Printing brochures can often mean a heavy upfront investment, they take time and effort to create and in some cases, a fair amount money to produce so you need to make them as effective as possible to ensure your investment is worth it. But how should your business go about doing that?

What Makes an Effective Brochure?

There are a number of things you will need to take into consideration if you are looking to make your brochures as effective as possible. The biggest and most important factor is to understand your audience as best as possible. Without having a clear understanding of who your audience is, what questions they are asking and what they are looking for, how can you possibly create a brochure that will appeal to them?

This can be a very daunting task, but taking an AIDA approach to designing your brochure is often the best way to ensure your prospects get all of the information they need in a logical order. AIDA standing for Attention, Interest Desire and Action will give you a great framework for what information should be included and in what order, making your brochure all the more effective!

What Should A Brochure Include?

Photography

Think about the last time you saw a great brochure and what made it stick in your mind, 9 times out of 10 it won’t be down to the font used or the colour of the logo. Almost always it’s down to photography (and high quality print of course).

High quality photography and imagery are crucial to brochure design. No one wants to look at 4 or more pages of solid text, and text alone will never sell your products/services, particularly if they are of high value. Ensure to include images throughout your brochure in relevant places to demonstrate your products/services in a visual way. Not all prospects will be interested in reading pages and pages of text, so let your imagery speak for itself and tell a story alongside your written content. High quality imagery is particularly important for businesses with more visual products e.g. estate agents, property developers, photographers, wedding planners etc.

When choosing images also ensure they have a consistent finish. Try to stick to graphics or photography and not use both to ensure your brochure has a consistent design and feel all the way through. It is also crucial to ensure your photography is of high quality. There really is little point in investing in high quality print unless you have high quality imagery to match this.

Headlines & Bullet Points

Again, solid blocks of text will never allow your brochure to make an impact and will unlikely ever represent your service or product offering in a way that appeals to your audience.

Adding headlines and bullet points to your brochure allows you to break up walls of text and answer your prospect’s questions at a glance- generating more interest and if generating interest at a glance doesn’t make for an effective brochure- then what does?

Try to use your audience’s potential questions as headlines within your brochure to peak interest and make the best use of the (often limited) space you have. Bullet points can also be a great way to save on space, and give your audience bite sized pieces of information which are easier to absorb and more likely to stay with them for longer.

White Space

Many businesses make the mistake of trying to fill all of the space they can within their brochures. Sure, you have a lot to say and yes, a brochure does have a limit on how much information you should include- but that doesn’t mean you should try and cram all the information you can into your brochure. This only makes it more difficult for your audience to read, thus less effective. Just include the information your audience needs.

Using white space throughout your brochure will allow you to break up the information, make it easier to absorb and make your brochures more aesthetically pleasing. White space is considered ‘breathing space’ on a page/screen, so try to emphasise white space around important parts of information for example next steps or your business’s contact details ensuring your audience is able to take this in.

How Many Brochures Should You Print?

Deciding how many brochures you should print can be difficult and a misjudgement can either mean you aren’t able to provide your customers with the information they need or that you are left with piles and piles of left over brochures which do no more than gather dust- an expensive mistake to make, especially if you have ordered high quality print!

CMP have the ability to print in very low quantities so you only print what you need and no more, offering your business the ability to print brochures on demand, with very quick turnaround times. This can be particularly useful if you are looking to print high-end brochures or other print material in smaller quantities, making CMP the ideal print provider if your business is looking for a full solution.

CMP, based in Poole, Dorset also have an experienced team on hand to help if you need advice on designing or printing your brochure and with extensive experience with estate agents, property developers and marketing and PR agencies you will be in very capable hands!

If you would like more information on CMP’s brochure printing capabilities, take a look at our Brochure page or give us a call on 01202 739 993 and a member of our team would be happy to help.