The Basics of Printing Marketing Brochures Online

Brochures are standard marketing items, but hiring a graphic artist to design one for your company can be quite expensive. Online brochure printing companies not only provide quality printing services at great prices, but they are also often set up with guides and software to help you do your own design. Here are some basics to get you started.

Brochure Styles

Flat, or no fold brochures, are meant to be looked at as a whole page and are usually printed on both sides. The half fold is not used often for small business brochures, but is popular for large brochures, forming a small booklet. Trifold brochures are very common and actually have two folds, but result in three panels on each side of the paper. The gate fold is folded in the center, and then the two sides are closed like a book. This style can be useful if a longer sheet is desired, without producing an awkwardly-sized brochure when it is folded. For a longer brochure that is intended to be viewed at once, an accordion fold (basic zig-zag folding) makes the brochure easy to open.

Writing Brochure Content

A brochure that is intended to sell your company should be designed to do just that. Make sure the cover is attention-getting and represents your company. One large image has been found to have the best effect as far as the visual impact goes, but it should be carefully selected to express your position.

If you have a folded brochure, make sure your content is organized to keep the reader moving through. Pictures get better response than drawings, and captions are likely to be read, so always include one with each image whenever you print borchures.

Make the benefits of your product or service clear and always remember the basic marketing goal, and ask for the sale. Tell the reader to call, detach, and return the enclosed postcard, etc. Let them know what you want them to do. Tell them exactly how to get this value that you’ve been promoting to them; it would be a shame to print brochures, only to have potential customers walk away because they didn’t know how to get more information.

Printing Options

When you are checking out prices, be sure to find out whether folding is included. If you are a do-it-yourselfer or have a bored receptionist, then maybe it’s worth it to you to save some money and do the folding yourself; but you certainly don’t want to drop ship a bunch of brochures to a show and have them not be folded, if they are printed with that design in mind. Many printers offer an aqueous coating or paper upgrade at no additional charge.