Things To Consider Before Start Designing A Business Brochure

How hard can it be to do a brochure design? Just write the benefits of your products, use some photos, add a logo, and boom! Your Company profile is ready. Right?

Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. You have a few seconds to catch the eye of a running passer-by. And even if someone takes one, what are the chances that they will be interested in your business? You see, everything depends on the way you present it.

That’s why before you jump into the actual designing process, we want to discuss 9 things to consider before starting designing a business brochure.

So, get ready to learn the secrets and change your marketing game.

What is a Brochure? What’s the difference between Business Brochure and Company profile?

A business brochure mainly highlights the business’s most important products and services and their key benefits for the company and its user. It shouldn’t be mistaken for a flier or catalog though. Business Brochure is a vital marketing instrument that helps you to attract valuable stakeholders and clients.

On the other hand, a Company profile means a complete outline of all the crucial and key details and facts about the company. That comprises the company mission, vision, objectives, goal, future predictions, annual sales & profit margin, etc. It covers a broad area of your company, while the brochure covers a specific segment of your company. Rather the most important one. 

We’ve seen all kinds of brochures. Whether they were handed to us on the street or mailed to us. Or from a company visit.  

“In this digital age, why would anyone spend on a business brochure design?”  Well, there are quite a lot of benefits.

Business brochures provide total marketing solutions. It targets those audience groups who are more interested in print media than online tools. It gives you a more vast area to communicate and share your business information.

And when you have done your website design and development – you can even add the business brochure PDF to the website. It allows your website visitor to have more vast knowledge about your business.

In this article, we’ve shared step-by-step guidelines for designing a business brochure. 

9 Things To Consider Before Start Designing A Business Brochure

1. What Is Your Purpose?

 The very first thing to consider is your purpose. And if you are a professional designer yourself, learn about your client’s business purpose. Sometimes they simply want a new brochure because the old one failed. In such a case, you have to help them recognize their purpose too.

You see, the design of a brochure greatly depends on why it is needed. Do you want to increase sales and conversions? Then the outlet here should contain images of products showcasing prices under different categories. You have probably seen such brochures in the grocery shops or super malls. 

Or the purpose might be solely brand awareness. Suppose you opened a new restaurant. All you want for the brochure to achieve is making people aware of your location and telling their friends. In this case, the brochure doesn’t need so many panels. But the address and contact number along with the brand name must be highlighted to make people remember it.

2. Who Are The Customers?

After you have settled on the purpose, the next step is to study your readers or customers. Do they only grab the brochures that look interesting at the first glance? If they read it while waiting for their turn in the lift or subway, you better keep it short. Otherwise, nobody would bother reading it fully. But the case will be different for customers who are above 40. They would like some detailed benefits written below each product. And reviews would be great motivation for them.

Likewise, for a tour brochure, there should be a lot of high-resolution pictures of destinations and itineraries. The same strategy won’t work for a consulting firm where images can’t help much. 

Hence, knowing the market segment you are targeting will give you a clear vision of how the brochure should look like. 

3. Shape 

We have to choose among trifold, bifold, no-fold, z-fold, or gate fold shapes. All of the shapes are very popular for different purposes.

For example, when you design a company brochure that reflects the ambition, history, or goal of a company, trifold shape serves the best. You can join the cover panels on top to create one big picture of the company. Again, if you want a sale brochure with product listings, z-folds would be a great choice. Simply, z-folds offer more space to write and show photos of the products under various labels. 

However, no-folds are awesome for spec sheets or menu cards. Yes, you can print your menu in the form of a brochure if you have a takeout restaurant. People can use these brochures in the future to reorder from your place.

In short, every shape has a story. You have to decide how you want to tell yours.

4. Font 

When it comes to the font choice, don’t be too creative. Yes, you read it right. Use your creativity skills in other aspects of a company profile design to set yourself apart. But only in this case, go with the standard choice that works for everyone else.

For example; Helvetica and Rockwell are the perfect choices for the headings in your brochure. These fonts are easy to read and don’t strain the reader’s eyes. Unlike a wedding card, fancy calligraphy or difficult-to-read cursive can only demotivate the busy passer-by to read further. Besides, never use more than three font types in your business brochure. It distracts the reader and doesn’t let them focus on the main points.

Another important thing to consider is the font size. Keep the headings bold and large. And also, the contact information should have a decent size, so it can easily grab attention. In short, while deciding the right font type, “keep it simple” is the mantra.

5. Color

This is where you can be the most creative. A beautiful color palette has the potential of making people look twice. 

When writing the text or copy, don’t underestimate the power of the color white as a background. Many clients think white is boring or not creative. 

Sorry to burst the bubble. But there is a solid reason why many marketing agencies still use white as a background. It invokes the feeling of cleanliness and freshness.

You don’t have to use white only as a background. Go for colors that match your logo. As a result, the whole feel of the brochure will change. 

For example: if you have products that save the environment, use colors like earthy green along with white. Or, you can use bright hues for a tour brochure with lots of pictures. The key here is to make sure that the colors don’t clash together. It should blend together perfectly.

6. Images

You can’t compromise with the images you use. All the photos must be of high resolution. It’s better to use no photo at all than pick any random photo you have.

No two photos should serve the same purpose. Make sure each and every image is relevant to the point you are referring to. Not just that, how you organize the products for a picture also holds importance. It’s okay if you are not a pro photographer yourself. There are graphic designers on Fiverr, who are happy to do the work for you.

If you are not a fan of clicking real photos, stock photos from Google are always available. Just make sure that they are not too obvious. Save the photos in.png, .jpg or.ppt format for better quality.

7. Copy

We can consider it the heart of your brochure. This is the text people will be reading. Use it to introduce yourself, your team, and your company. Share your goals and journey with the readers. There are many competitors in the market. Tell your customers what makes your products unique and more valuable.

Make the sentences short and simple. Don’t use the term “customers” in your writing. Instead, you can go with “you”. This gives the impression of a personalized message. 

Try to write the copy based on the customer’s perspective. Don’t stuff the brochure with paragraphs that won’t be useful to the readers. Think about what they want to know about the product and keep answering one by one. 

And, as we mentioned above, you can always hire a professional copywriter to edit and improve your copy. 

8. Paper Stock

It is the core of everything. What type of paper will work for you depends hugely on your budget. The more weight you add to the paper, the costlier it gets. The most common choices are 70, 80 or 100 Ibs. 

70Ibs papers are the cheapest option and work fine for text-heavy brochures. But the 80Ibs ones are a little costly. They provide extra weight so that it can stand on its own. And, if you want something more rigid, go for the 100Ibs papers. However, you can’t fold them multiple times as it is harder than the others.

Now, it’s time to select the coating. You can choose either gloss or matte. A glossy coat is better if you include a lot of colorful images. It will brighten up the colors and make them interesting to look at. Want a more professional look or high-class touch? The matte coating is for you

Finally, if the brochure is for a charity event, we suggest you use uncoated paper only. If the text is well-written, even a cheap piece of paper can go a long way.

9. Attractive Call-To-Action

You must have encountered CTAs while scrolling a website. Its purpose is to invite the reader to make a specific move. The same goes for your brochure too.

Imagine you have designed the best brochure possible. But what do you want them to do? Do you want them to stop by your shop, or grab the discount offers? 

These small phrases like ‘shop now’, ‘hot deals’, ‘sign up now’ etc can convert the reader into a customer.

But before you select the CTA for your brochure, determine your goal. Preparing this for an event? Then the CTA should go like “sign up now”. And, for a clothing store that has opened recently, the right CTA would be “visit us here”. 

Placing the CTA correctly is another tactic to get the best results. Don’t put it on top of the page or make it too large. Remember that you should only invite the readers when you are sure they have been convinced. Also, don’t put the CTA in a place that contains other actionable phrases. It can confuse the reader and put them off. 

Wrapping Up

Many people consider digital marketing as the enemy of all traditional methods. But if you look around, you will see the truth. Booklets, pamphlets, and brochures are still a great medium of marketing.

In fact, many customers are more inclined to a company that approaches them through these traditional methods. 

In a world where every company is obsessed with online presence, using brochures for promotion can really set you apart.

And that was all the things to consider before starting designing a business brochure. Hope you enjoyed it.