Use Creative and Inexpensive Brochures to Get Your Message Across

Brochures are a standard marketing tool but as any marketing professional can tell you, boring is the kiss of death for a marketing campaign. There is no limit to how fancy, elegant, or high tech a brochure can get. The real limit is the budget. Brochures are generally meant to be printed in bulk and disseminated broadly, so they must be attention-getting, but at the same time not too expensive.

Online brochure printing makes the design process easy and keeps the cost low. Most online printers offer free brochure templates to select from, so more than half the work is done for you. Here are some ways that brochures have been used creatively and effectively without resorting to high-priced designs.

Scratch n’Sniff – Manure! Ottowa County, Michigan had a problem with idealistic city dwellers moving to the country for the fresh air and wide open spaces. The problem was that these particular “nature lovers” were moving into farm country and then complaining and even filing lawsuits regarding the noise, dust, and odors produced by working farms. The county produced an informational “know before you go” brochure that literally had a Scratch n’ Sniff patch that smelled like manure. Nothing like the real thing to make you think twice, eh?

Humorous Wording for Serious Matters. Lehi City, Utah wanted to present the City’s Minimum Housing Code safety and livability requirements in a way that people would actually read. They designed tri fold brochures with the Top 12 Code Violations and named it the “Dirty Dozen List for 2010.” Each violation was presented with a brief descriptive heading and a humorous “AKA.” For example, one was:

These are just two of the many ways business brochures can be done in a nontraditional way that is not any more expensive than it would be to order brochures with a basic text layout than no one would care to read.