Creating a Brochure For Your Business

Marketing is more than just having a website. Many people are cautious about doing business with an online company; therefore a major tactical marketing tool is the printed brochure. Your business should have a brochure or a form of printed material to send out to customers and prospects. This tool offers you a tactile and memorable impression of your business even when their computer screen is turned off!

Here are a few tips on how a brochure will support your marketing efforts and increase sales!

Know what your audience wants: Write your content from your readers point of view. This means your copywriting must tell a story that will engage your reader. An excellent way to plan for this is start with a list of questions that the reader would like answered, and build your content from there.

Encourage your reader to keep reading: Great design is key. You have to look professional and competent; this needs to be conveyed through layout design and writing. Have compelling copywriting and visual design to keep your reader engaged in scanning your brochure. You have 5 to 8 seconds to grab their attention, make this impression count!

Use quality photography: This is important! I cannot stress this enough; this rule applies to all forms of marketing. If your photography is poor, your product is perceived as poor. So do yourself a favour and get those images perfect. Hire a photographer to shoot all your products, but if you can’t afford one right now, read up on how you can improve your skills. 

Keep it simple: It is tempting to use a variety of crazy typefaces when you are creating a brochure. Keep in mind, that simplicity is key here, choosing the right font is essential to set the tone for your business. 

Call to action: Just like selling online, you must have a call to action on your brochure. Regardless of how you plan your brochure, there’s only one way to end it. Ask for action. This can be a phone call, visit your website, or even ask the reader to pin this brochure up on their wall.

Speak about your reader’s needs: It’s okay to give a “little” backstory about yourself, but don’t get carried away. More importantly, the writing should focus on how your business can help or solve their problems. This is more interesting to them than describing yourself for half the brochure!

Following these simple steps will create engagement and possibly gain a customer!

Good luck!  

New brochure to solve an old problem...

MEI_1.jpg

How do you take the mundane and make it more interesting? In this case, MEI are experts in repairing the controls commonly used in your neighbourhood McDonald's restaurant. In the brochure we visually bridged the gap between the object and the consumer – emphasizing the common-sense, low cost, environmentally friendly choice of repair with a little bit of humour along the way.

Questions about photo resolution…

Questions about photo resolution come up frequently, so I hope this helps everyone! 

RESOLUTION OF PHOTOS FOR COMMERCIAL PRINTING

< 500KB only suitable for web
500KB - 1MB suitable up to 1/8 page size
1MB-1.5MB suitable up to 1/4 page size
1.5MB - 2MB suitable up to 1/2 page size
3.5MB  suitable  full page size
> 3.5 MB very large files are sharper and crisper and very welcome

 Never use software to force the resolution of the file larger. This does not improve quality.

CAMERA SETTINGS

Minimum requirements: A mid-range consumer camera or better. (Compact point-and-shot cameras and smart phone cameras can only produce small images for commercial printing)

Resolution: Set camera on highest possible quality setting

File type: If the camera supports RAW format, this setting will create the best quality photos. RAW format can only be viewed in professional software so it is best to set Camera on RAW + JPEG. This will produce two images, a high quality RAW photo and a jpeg for proofing.

JPEG: If camera only supports JPEG format, this is acceptable as long as highest possible settings are chosen.

Shout out to my friend Tammi  for sharing this with me!

 

Our new site!

Finally, we have launched our new website.  We hope you enjoy it and we hope to keep this page busy as we launch new projects. See you soon!

A time-out for some inspiration

Paris at dusk

Paris at dusk

How do you celebrate 11 years of business together? You run away to France and Italy for some inspiration. We filled up on art, design and wine and are back and ready to get going!