Three Ways to Customize Brochures for Maximum Impact

Brochures are a traditional marketing tool for almost every industry, but that doesn’t mean they have to have an old-fashioned design. In fact, brochures can be printed on die-cut stock so that they don’t even have to have the traditional shape, although most designs do.

Whether your business is providing a service or selling some kind of product, brochures give you an opportunity to present the best of your work in an affordable and easily delivered format. It’s not unusual for tri-fold brochures to be printed with a center back panel laid out as an address form for mailing so that the brochure can be sent through the post without needing to be put in an envelope. This can be done in such a way that the address panel blends into the rest of the design, or the back page can be done as three very distinct portions so that it doesn’t matter that the middle part is an address page.

The following suggestions are a few ways to design brochures for maximum impact. Each of these ways is tailored to a specific industry and even though it may not apply to your business, the concept may stimulate an idea for just the right imagery to incorporate into your brochure printing.

Photography Studio Marketing

Clearly, if your business is photography, presenting images is critical in your brochure’s presentation. Anyone can take one good picture, but what you want to communicate is that you take all good pictures. You also want to demonstrate the many styles available, or if you are very specialized you may want to emphasize your artistic style. You could use the front of your brochure to display a particularly attention-getting image that you have produced and on the inside present a series of small frames to allow you to include as many images as possible in order to maximize the exposure of your work.

Bakery Brochure

In designing a brochure to advertise a bakery or restaurant, you want to use words and visual images to simulate the senses of taste and smell. Food photographers have many techniques for creating images that evoke a sense of warmth and sweetness and comfort. Often, these techniques are done with lenses and lighting, but they may also incorporate manipulating actual food items to make them shinier or more colorful. Include these kinds of images along with text that not only defines the type and quality of your wares but also describes the feelings associated with consuming them.

Floral Brochure

As a florist you want your brochure to assure potential customers of the freshness and beauty of your floral arrangements. Whereas restaurant brochures often include menus with pricing, floral prices change much more frequently, so you may want to avoid including dollar amounts on your brochure. You can, however, include price ranges if you find that your customers frequently ask about prices when they see your existing brochures. You will also want to include as many pictures as possible of actual arrangements that you have done. Nationwide services such as FTD have made it possible for customers on the other side of the country to order flowers from you for delivery to those in your own community by standardizing floral design. For this reason, you may want to include some of the standard FTD arrangements, but be sure to include some unique ones, too, along with verbal explanations of what makes your arrangements unique.