Brochures are great marketing tools used to sell your products and services. In a world dominated by digital and online marketing, traditional print brochures still continue to remain an effective tactic. They can be easily handed out, and your customers can carry them around and refer to them quickly at any time. Most importantly, they can be mass produced at low costs. As brochures have a limited amount of space on which to provide information, you can take the opportunity to fit the most important and engaging aspects of what your company does and has to offer.

Here’s what you need to know when designing a brochure:

What are the design objectives of your brochure?

Before you begin designing a brochure, it is important to first outline the objectives of your brochure. What are you trying to achieve through your brochure and its design? Once you have defined your objectives, you can design your brochure to fit those objectives.

For instance, if your objective is to grab the attention of readers and make an emotional connection, you would probably need to design a brochure that will make a meaningful impact on the reader.

Choose your layout and fold

Choose the fold of your brochure depending on how you want to organize your information. Typically, the front is used to command your reader’s attention about your product or service. The inner pages contain answers and more details. The last section provides a call-to-action and offers more contact information for your reader. Here are some types of brochure folds:

Get your copy right

Excellent copy is crucial to great brochure design. A copy that is kept simple, short and succinct allows your brochure’s design to shine even more. Include only the most engaging aspect of what your company does and has to offer, and exclude any information that is not relevant. This allows you to persuade your readers better. Remember, less is always more.

Design tips to make your brochure more effective

Here are some helpful design tips for when you get down to actually designing your brochure:

• Quality printing techniques can enhance your design and boost the message you are trying to convey: Examples of techniques for you to consider include die cut (cutting irregular shapes in the paper, which creates unusual effects) and spot UV coating (which can help create a glossy emphasis on certain words or images)

• Fonts: It is important to select the right fonts for your brochure, as fonts must be legible enough for readers to understand what they are reading. Typography, which is the visual art of written words, is an integral component of design. When done correctly, typography can enhance your brochure’s design.

• Type of paper: There are different types of paper to choose from, and you have to consider factors such as paper density and finish. For instance, a glossy finish will make your brochure look more elegant. It is important that the paper your select fits with your company’s brand image and the message that you are trying to convey.

There are numerous design companies that can assist you in designing a brochure. As a one-stop service provider, Verztec Consulting is one of the few global content consulting experts that offers content development and publishing services under one roof. VerztecPublish™, the design division of Verztec Consulting, combines the best in design and multilingual communications. We apply our diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on design solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

Electronic Direct Mail (eDM) form an integral part of any marketing communications toolkit and are often the workhorse for lead generation campaigns. Getting familiarized with the fundamentals of creating eDMs and the constraints you may have to work around is therefore crucial.

Let’s explore some of the fundamentals for more effective eDM creation.

Keeping Subject Lines Short and Sweet

A subject line should help convey your key message upfront. Where possible, let readers know what the message is at a glance and what’s in it for them should they decide to open your eDM.

When a Picture Isn’t Worth a Thousand Words

Getting images in your email disabled by email clients is common. Design your email content such that the message gets across with or without images. If you are including images, accompany every image with relevant ‘ALT text’—this is the text that shows up in place of a disabled image—that way, readers know what the image is about at the very least.

Limit Use of CSS

Well-designed layouts using CSS may look good on internet browsers but they are generally not well-supported across email clients, not to mention the differing email protocols of mobile devices. To play safe, stick to the use of html tables for layout. It may be old-school but it gets the job done.

Optimize for Mobile: Give a Heads-Up with Pre-Headers

If character counts have to be short for eDMs, they have to get even shorter when displaying on mobile devices. Where possible, try conveying your key message within the first 15 characters and include pre-header text to give a preview of what the message contains; if your header captures readers’ attention, your pre-headers can build upon it.

Optimize for Mobile: One-Column Layout

Create content that can be easily scanned by users, mobile users in particular. Adopt a one-column layout which frees users from the need to scroll horizontally. The easier it is to read, the more likely it will be read.

Optimize for Mobile: Finger-Tapping Good

Design your CTAs to be at least 44px by 44px in dimension (when using buttons) to make tapping on them finger-friendly; and make it easy for readers to spot them by leaving ample white space around any of these buttons.

CTA which are Focused

Limit each eDM to one CTA, or if more than one are required, develop a hierarchy, in which readers are cued via visual prominence, as to which CTA is the main one. For example, if an eDM is focused on getting sign-ups for an event, designing the sign-up button or link to be the most prominent makes sense, with less emphasis on a secondary CTA such as “Learn more about Our Company” or “Click Here for Directions to Event”.

Don’t Cramp Everything into a Single eDM

Including more content may result in none being read. Instead of including more text, be sure to include ample white space and a clear visual hierarchy of what is most important in your content. Whether it is through the use of headers, typography or design layouts, maximize impact, and finish it off with an unambiguous CTA.

Get them Loaded Fast

All the effort that goes into a well-designed edm will go to waste, if the file size gets too large. Large file sizes may prevent content from loading as fast as they should, encouraging readers to head for the exit. This is especially true for mobile users who may face more limited bandwidth and distractions.

Large file sizes may also trigger spam filters. To avoid deliverability issues, design your eDM to be approximately 100kb or less in size. Keeping your eDM within the recommended file size also means limiting the size and number of images in your eDM; a high image-to-text ratio such as 80% images and 20% text may raise the red flag on spam filters.

Doing More with Less

As can be seen, doing more with less, particularly in the case of mobile eDMs, is increasingly required for eDMs to be effectively received your target audience. Start working with your team on creating eDMs that do more with less.

How Verztec can Help You

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers website development and localization services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website development solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.