By: Patrick Renick CS-443

Do You Need a Brochure? There are many ways that one can successfully promote an organization, business, event, product, or service. Before spending time and money on one or more, consider the characteristics of your audience and decide which method will work best.

What is a Brochure A brochure is a professional, effective, and cheap way to provide information to your audience. Designed for people to pick up easily. Can be placed in a rack outside of businesses. They can also describe a program or class that is being offered. Brochures do get the word out, but they are not as effective as radio, or television advertisement.

Targeting Your Audience Is your audience specialized or familiar with your subject, or are they a general audience. How will your audience use your brochure? - For example, is it a “how to” that people will keep, or is it to promote a one-time event? How will the brochure be used with other marketing tools?

Determine the Purpose Are you persuading or informing? Having one primary purpose can be more effective than producing a generalized brochure that tries to say everything and ends up saying to much. Don’t overwhelm the brochure with to much information. Get to the point early.

Determine the Call to Action A call to action is a way of telling a reader to do something. - Example: Make reservations, sign up as a volunteer, visit a store, or a fill out and mail in order form. Provide the reader with specific examples and instructions to help them take the next step. Action steps are important, the reader may not get the point of the brochure and not be motivated to take the next step.

Creating your Brochure A brochure should be clear, attractive, and brief. Grab attention - If a brochure is in a rack with many others it has to stand out. - Make sure the cover will attract a person by using catchy phrases or images. The entire look - Attractiveness determines how likely a potential customer is to pick up your brochure. - The design, including colors, fonts, graphics, and layout, all impact attractiveness.

The 5W’s and the H The reader needs to understand the information and not be left with questions. Who is the business or sponsor? What is the service or event? When is the event? Where is it located? Why should anyone attend? How do I accomplish this?

Be Brief Think of your brochure as an appetizer. It should offer a small taste that makes the reader want more. Include five or fewer key points. Only use the most necessary information. Use pictures, charts, and drawings rather than words when possible. Use bullets to break copy into small, easy to scan chunks.

Long- Term Effectiveness Make your brochure worth keeping. Give you audience a reason to hang on to it, even if they decide not to call or buy right now. Include “how to” details, this makes the brochure valuable and more like to hang on to.

Organize Information Use subheadings, text boxes, and bullets to break up text and organize information. Readers like brochures that are easy to scan and read in sections.

Layout The way the information is presented helps determine how useful the brochure will be to a reader. Good brochures present a logical pathway through the panels. Must have a good descriptive image that is backed up by good descriptive text.

Size and Format The size of a brochure is usually determined by the amount and type of information you need to include. Examples: - A simple rack card that is printed front and back but has no folds. - A brochure with four panels or six panels. - A very detailed brochure with eight panels or more.

Back Panel The back panels are an easy to find place for contact information. Adding a map next to contact information is very helpful for potential visitors. Mailing information can also be placed on the back panel, allowing the brochure to be mailed without an envelope.

Graphic Design Effective graphic design helps grab attention. - Contrast shows relative importance, without being told, you know larger text is more important than smaller text. - Repetition attaches meaning to new things. - Alignment creates order. It allows you to quickly connect elements across the page. - Proximity groups things within a hierarchy and creates new sub hierarchies.

Visual Weight Size - larger text carry’s more weight than smaller text. Color – Some colors are perceived as weighing more than others. Example: Red is heavier than yellow. Density – Packing more element into a given space, gives more weight to that space. Value – A darker object will have more weight than a lighter object. Whitespace – Positive space weighs more than negative space.

Do a Final Check Check spelling and grammar. Don’t rely on spell-check. Watch for widows and orphans. - A widow is the last line of a paragraph that appears as the first line of a new page. - A orphan is a paragraph that starts a the end of the page and contains just one line. Include cost, such as admission price, when possible. Double check that the five W’s and the one H are prominent.

References Dunkin, Apryl. (unknown date). Five Essentials For Planning An Effective Brochure. About.com.advertisement. Retrieved from Bradley, Steven. (2009). Visual Hierarchy: How Well Does Your Design Communicate. Vanseadesign. Retrieved from Porta, Mandy. (2009). Creating an Effective Brochure. Successdesigns. Retrieved from effective-brochure/