Writers Who draft brochures that showcase the very best of your company, your product or your services. Let’s look at how to make sure your brochure stands out for all the right reasons. Well-written, well thought-out brochures leave a lasting impact.
There are a lot of brochures out there that simply don’t hit the mark. They let the business down and are, frankly, a waste of time and money. But it is possible to make sure the effort you put into creating your brochure really pays off.
At its simplest, a brochure is a short booklet that contains information about a product, service or company. It’s generally used for promotional purposes. It can be handy for introducing what you have to offer, handing out at events, or emailing to interested customers.
A good brochure is interesting, intriguing, useful or educational – or all of the above. It should persuade the reader to take an action – whether that’s to set up a meeting, reach out for more information, sign up to a mailing list, or buy the product or service on offer. It showcases your product, service or firm, so you want to present yourself in the very best possible light.
You need to be crystal clear about what you want to achieve with your brochure. So sit down and answer these three questions before you even think about getting started.
Are you clear about what you want your brochure to convey – its purpose or goal? In other words, what exactly do you want people to take from it – and what do you want them to do once they’ve read it?
Next, have a think about your target audience. Define who you want to read it, when, and why. Will it be handed out at meetings or conferences, emailed to potential clients, or downloaded from your website? What level of understanding or knowledge will your typical reader have? What will they want from it?
Once you know your objective and your target audience, you can decide the right messaging and content to include. Remember, you can’t be all things to all people, so pick one overarching message. Be as tightly focused as you can and ruthlessly cut irrelevant information.
Once you’ve decided what you want to achieve from your brochure (your objective), who you want to say it to (your target audience) and what you want to say (your message) you’re halfway there. Now, you want to map your brochure’s structure.
You’re now ready to plot the outline. The front cover will usually just hold your headline and subheading. The back page is often just contact details and your final call to action – though it can hold a little more if you want to keep the page numbers down. The contents and a brief introduction should entice the reader to read further.
Remember to include the most important information – the stuff your reader is here for – right up front. They can then delve deeper if they like.
All this gives you a great starting point. There are just a few more things to keep in mind when putting your brochure together.
1. Follow general good writing principles, like:
2. Break it up. People skim read, so the last thing you want is dense blocks of text. Leave plenty of white space, and include bullet points, headings, infographics and visuals to split up text. Include bold callout boxes that stand out, with interesting quotes, tips, stats or facts.
3. Focus on benefits, not features. Features describe what something does – benefits describe why that matters and how it helps the potential customer. Why should someone choose your company, products or services – what’s in it for them?
4. Choose quality design and print: Whether your brochure is going to be printed or online, it needs to look the part. If you’re printing it, don’t go cheap or flimsy. Consider the materials and ensure it looks and feels high-end to reflect you as a professional business. Think of how it’s going to be used – will portrait or landscape work best? A4 or A5? How many pages should it be (the shorter the better, generally, in today’s time-pressed age)?
5. Go pro when it comes to design: As you’ve just seen, there’s a lot to think about. A professional graphic designer can advise you on all these things, and make sure your brochure is visually gorgeous. In our opinion, money spent on a good professional designer will never be wasted.
6. Include testimonials: People love to know what others think, and testimonials can build trust and credibility. They’re powerful proof that people have confidence in your brand.
7. Add a case study or two: Case studies are more in-depth than testimonials. They’re a great way to bring your product or service to life and help people understand how you could solve their pain points, without being too salesy.
8. Have a clear call to action. This is super important. What do you want the reader to do after reading your brochure (your objective)? Make this very clear, and include all the information people need to take this specific action. If your brochure is printed, QR codes that sit on the back cover can be a handy way to direct people to where you want them to go.
9. Make it useful. This encourages people to keep your brochure so, even if they’re not ready to buy now, you’ll stay front of mind. Can you include something as an extra that might be useful? Like a recipe, some tips, a map or a calendar – It just needs to be related to your offering.
10. Proof, proof and proof again. And never proof your own copy – ask someone else to review your work with fresh eyes.
Hopefully this has given you a helpful guide to writing a great brochure. But if it all sounds too tricky, or you don’t have enough time to do the hard yards yourself, please get in touch. Writers Who love nothing more than getting stuck in, learning all about you and your brand, and creating a brochure that lands with impact.
