11 tips for designing your brochure

A good brochure is an essential part of the marketing mix for business success in tourism. Your brochure must be brief, communicate effectively, and reach and motivate a prospective customer to purchase.

Before designing, or redesigning your brochure, consider the approach your competitors are taking? How are they selling their products and services on brochure racks? Which competitors set themselves apart? In their design? Content? Contact Information? Call to action?

What will motivate consumers to pick up your brochure on a display rack? It’s important to remember that your brochure needs to support your branding efforts. It needs to reinforce your corporate identity. Too many businesses abandon their branding efforts, providing a brochure that does not support design consistency.

Here are 11 tips for designing your brochure:

1. Keep your message clear, descriptive and simple using an easy to read font style and colour.
2. Use great images. Great photography sells.
3. Use text sparingly. Use blank space to your advantage. Create bulleted lists and bold elements making it easy for consumers to scan your brochure.
4. Make your brochure design stand out from the competition.
5. Great writing [content] is as important as great design.
6. Include a clear call to action. What is your call to action? To motivate consumers to call for tickets or reservations? Visit your website? Redeem a coupon?
7. Use customer testimonials. [I visited a client site where they had received several great customer "tour" testimonials. The problem? No one was asking for permission to use them.]
8. Use a consistent theme that supports a cohesive marketing and brand strategy.
9. Don’t use a common template.
10. Stay away from industry jargon. Focus on the experience.
11. Include all of your contact information – telephone, email, website address. Make it easy for people to contact you.