Ways to Use Brochures in Your Marketing Campaign

If you’re looking for ways to use brochures in your marketing campaign, you need to first determine the thrust of that campaign. After all, you need to know your desired outcome so you can best determine how any type of advertising, like promotional brochures, can help you in that goal. Basically, promotional brochure printing enables you to print out hundreds, even thousands, of promo materials at drastically lowered cost, and have those materials sent out to your target audience to increase the recognition of your business within your community in general, and your audience in particular. But, in order to fully maximize the benefits of this form of advertising, you should know how brochures can really help you to gain the increased customer base and revenues that you’re looking for.

Peak their interest

Effective brochure marketing relies on the interest of the reader to start looking through the brochure; once they’re attention is caught, it’s up to the content within the brochure itself to truly hook the reader in and gain their patronage. Whether you’re marketing river tours in Mississippi or real estate in Ohio, the principle is the same: know what your target audience wants or needs, and show them how your products or services can fulfill that desire. By using eye-catching graphics alongside informative word content, you can create within the viewer the desire to take advantage of the products and services you offer. The trick here is to catch their eye and interest and hold it; you need to make sure you don’t lose that interest.

Further capture attention

That’s where layout and graphics come in to play when you’re looking for ways to use brochures in your marketing campaign. First of all, you should know how a brochure works: depending on the size and fold options you choose, your brochure can range from two pages to six. Each of those pages has the potential to bring in customers, as long as you capitalize on that potential. For instance, the first page, being the first thing seen by the viewer, should feature the title of the brochure and a relevant, beautiful photo in order to catch their eye, and their interest. The interior of your brochure should hold the majority of the word content, along with supporting photos and graphics to help the reader to visualize the words therein. Bullet points and sub headers allow the reader to skim the brochure to reach the points that truly matter to them; by being able to do that, the reader is less likely to set down the brochure out of boredom or lack of interest.

Finally, ensure that your promotional brochure printing techniques include coordinating color schemes and that the content therein is focused, confident and persuasive. You want your potential customers to be so intrigued by the services or products your business has to offer that they’ll want to come in and check it out for themselves. Effectivebrochure marketing is your chance to bring in the additional customer base, and therefore revenue, that your company needs to thrive in today’s cutthroat world of advertising, without spending thousands of dollars every month on expensive marketing campaigns.

Top 5 Ways to Use Brochures Successfully

Advertising in today’s market is a must; no longer can most small or even larger companies rely solely on word-of-mouth advertising or referrals to stay open. With the greater need for advertising, however, comes a market clogged with various marketing methods that can range from highly effective to annoying nuisances. If you want to increase your customer base with a reliable and affordable means of advertising, here are the top 5 ways to use brochures successfully, and get on the road to effective marketing today. Using brochures the right way First of all, your effective brochure printing strategy needs to be focused; rather than vaguely referring to any particular product or service you offer and hoping that the customer will draw their own impressions, you should always have a pre-determined idea of what exactly it is you’re going to be marketing, and focus on that idea. Adding extraneous information could confuse the reader, or cost you their interest completely. Of course, on the last page of your brochure, you can add little reminders of your other products or services as added advertising, but keep the main thrust of your brochure as a whole focused on what it is you’re trying to sell to the reader. Keep your brochure easy to skim through. Instead of writing out your information in paragraphs with nothing to distinguish between them, use sub-headers and bullet points that allow the reader to jump to the parts that interest them. Successful brochure marketing centers around providing the reader with a reason to come into your office or shop, but if they can’t find the particular reason they need buried within the words on your brochures, they simply won’t. So make your brochures something that the reader to go through at a glance, and the interest sparked will have them reading the whole brochure in no time. Know your audience. If you’re going to be marketing your company toward a certain demographic, make sure you know what it is they’re interested in/in need of, and use that knowledge to create interest in your company. It doesn’t matter what other aspects of effective brochure printing you adhere to if your brochures are not certain what the people you’re trying to entice are looking for when they seek out your services or products. Knowing your audience can help you to create a brochure that really speaks to them. Finally, you have to know exactly what it is you’re marketing, and it’s always best if you have a general idea of what you intend to say and show in your brochure before you even start the creation process. Knowing what you want to convey to your reader will go a long way to lending the brochure a confident, persuasive air; furthermore, by knowing what you want to say and how you want to illustrate it, you are reducing the risk of your brochure appearing ill thought out or sloppy or forgetting major points altogether. Preparedness is your best chance for successful brochure marketing.  Adhering to the top 5 ways to use brochures successfully can make a world of difference in the efficacy of your company’s brochure marketing strategy.

The Next 6 Things You Should Do for Printing Brochures Success

Print brochures are a necessary part of marketing any small business. Customers usually want some sort of publication they can take home to review. Brochures also help raise awareness of your services and your company in the local area. Plus, companies can mail out brochures to customers as part of a marketing campaign. Once you get the brochures back from the printing company you can do a lot with them. Let's take a look at the next six things small businesses should do after getting their brochures back from commercial printing companies.

Get brochure success!

1. Prepare a mailing list for a part of this batch of brochures. If you thought ahead, you saved space on the back of the brochure for address labels. Mailing lists can be culled from customer newsletter subscriptions, catalog subscriptions or even purchased from special companies. It's easy to import a mailing list into label making software for printing.

2. Prep the brochures. This step includes folding the brochures if the printing company didn't do it and sticking them in envelopes or adding mailing labels to them. If you have hourly employees, this can be something for them to do in between customers.

3. Set a stack on your counter space. If you have a retail location, set brochures out in plain site for customers to see and take. You may also instruct employees to place a brochure in each customer's bag at check out. This helps ensure that brochures get into the hands of customers.

4. Ask other local businesses to put out a stack of your brochures. You can place them in card racks in entryways or on countertops. Offer to do cross-promotion with other businesses in exchange for the advertising. For instance, offer to display some of their brochures on your counter space in exchange for the same.

5. Contact the US Postal Service about the FREE Every Door Direct Mail Kit to help you get started with direct mailing of your brochures. This kit will guide you through the process of sending out mass mailings with the USPS. Marketers have to follow certain rules regarding mailing lists and even having their lists up to date with the current USPS forwarding address database. This kit will explain it all.

6. Order another batch of print brochures from the printer before your current batch runs out. Once you get started handing out, mailing and distributing those brochures, they disappear pretty fast. Most printers are able to print out a rush batch of brochures in a few days at an affordable price.

These steps go a long way towards making effective use of your brochures from the commercial printing companies. Customers can be found in all aspects of life, so don't ignore any marketing possibility. Even hand out brochures on the street, if you have too. Direct mailing of brochures is also another option for companies looking to reach new customers. Get started early with implementation of a marketing plan for those brochures. Otherwise, they won't do you any good just sitting on the counter.

The History of Brochures in Marketing

Brochures have had a longstanding history in the field of marketing; from the time that the printing press made printing marketing brochures more accessible and (eventually) more cost effective, marketing campaigns have used this relatively inexpensive form of advertising to its fullest advantage. Since the 1800s, businesses have made use of brochure printing to provide advertising to the masses in the form of graphics and text to convey a simple message: you need our products and services, and this is why.

Taking a look back

The history of brochures in marketing is a varied one. With the widespread escalation of advertising in magazines and newspapers, business owners began to see the advantages of using smaller, scaled down versions in the form of single-sheet black and white brochures as a means of simple marketing. Because of this rise in printed advertising, especially that of brochures, commercial printing services became a popular enterprise, making brochure printing even more available though still very expensive. Although the advantages associated with this type of advertising were numerous indeed, the cost associated with printing out brochures for advertising purposes often could not be justified by businesses, and so they were forced to find other means of advertising.

With the advent of the off-set printing press, the 1950s and the 1960s saw a dramatic decrease in the cost of printing brochures, as well as a widening in the available colored inks and papers to be used. Printing in full color, for brochures and other promotional materials, became widely popular, though still much more expensive than its black and white counterparts. Furthermore, the offset printing press provided a much higher quality of printing, so businesses found themselves turning to the offset press for their brochure printing needs more and more, turning brochure marketing into a highly successful enterprise.

With the invention and subsequent huge popularity of the desktop PC in the 1980s, publishing marketing materials like brochures became an at home prospect; graphics software and quickly developed, ever improving printers made printing marketingbrochures at home or in the office more available, though not necessarily easier or more cost effective. Non-professionals now found themselves capable of designing and printing out promotional brochures with the ease and quality of the printing companies they’d previously turned to for their materials. Some software programs even began providing templates and layout schemes for amateurs to create and design their own brochures with ease and skill previously associated with the professionals.

Modern day printing

Today, between the ease and availability of at home or online printing for brochures, the historyof brochures in marketing has skyrocketed to unheard of proportions. Everywhere from doctor’s offices to school libraries to hotel lobbies to rest stops along the highway, we can find examples of advertising brochures intended to spark an interest within the reader to take advantage of the products, services or adventures within the folds of these brightly colored, informative brochures illustrated with gorgeous photos and graphics. Brochures have not lost their ability to draw in the attention and attraction of the consumer, and can still be found in the hands of readers all over looking to get a little insight into whatever the brochure has to offer.

The Hidden Mystery Behind Printing Brochures

Printing brochures is a little different from a normal printing task. This is even more exaggerated with bulk brochure printing. You see with printing for trade companies the brochure companies and other printing groups heavily optimize their process to do exactly what it needs too. This allows for great efficiency and cost savings, but little in the way of flexibility. It would be difficult to suddenly change a printing press design to press sheets and suddenly press out brochures instead.

Mass brochure printing

Brochure companies have to modify the printing process for bulk brochure printing. There are several aspects of mass producing brochures that are different from regular print. First, brochures are in color, so they have to use color printing press by default. Next, brochures are usually printed out at different sizes than standard paper, so the presses themselves have to be designed to handle different paper types and sizes. Third, brochures are printed on both sides at once. This means either running the brochures through a second time for the other side, or a press that can print to both sides at once. Finally, they will need a means of quickly and reliably folding the brochure into place.

Of course, there are a lot of similarities with normal printing. A lot of the process is similar to sheet printing. That is when a large roll of paper is fed through the printing press and then cut to the right sizes. This usually includes printing on both sides of the paper at once. The biggest difference many modern printer shops have to account for with printing is the folding stage. This can be done very fast with specialized machines.

Trade company printing

Printing for trade companies also requires that they handle the process from start to finish. They will receive the designs that are send over. They make a test print, or a small batch, called a proof that can be sent over to the client. This allows the client to okay the final product before any mistakes can be made on the final finished product. Doing so will prevent both sides from fighting over a product neither wanted. Now, they must also handle the issues of folding the brochures, packing them up, and sometimes even mailing them out. This requires a specialized process for each stage, as well as warehouse space to store everything as its being processed.

When a company wants to have a brochure made they must first design the brochure. This is usually done on a computer with software that has templates for brochure layouts and folds. There are several different brochure designs, some of them require special manufacturing additions to make. After the design is made it is sent to the printing company. They will check the design to make sure it is workable, then send a proof back to the client. Sometimes the proof is merely a digital image of the final product. After the client makes changes and approves the design, they print off and fold up the brochures. This batch is usually mailed to the client.

The Guide to Printing Brochures and Flyers Effectively

The world of brochures and flyers printing involves plenty of ink and paper. It also involves a lot of pre-planning and design to get just the right kind of look for print brochures. A good designer will help out with the creation of a brochure or flyer. Most print companies will help their customers out with the process of prepping a document for printing, but they can't help customers create the right designs. They also can't help make customers with their marketing plans.

Marketing with flyers and brochures

Flyers and brochures are both documents that companies use to market their services and to help make potential customers more aware of them. Print brochures and flyers are tools for building the company brand. This is something that businesses should never forget. Sure, a flyer can be used to let customers know about an event or service. Brochures are excellent tools for providing more detailed information about a service or company. It does get the word out to customers. However, the primary purpose of these publications is to let customers know that you exist.

When designing effective looking documents for brochures and flyersprinting companies, you need to keep the brand in mind. Flyers and brochures should not only look good, they should follow the company brand and style. If your small business doesn't have a brand or style, get one. Brand is everywhere people turn these days. It's the logo on a can of soda or the distinctive color used in a popular restaurant chain's decor. This style is replicated in the print publications and websites of these major companies. That's because the more customers see the brand, the more established the company seems and the more likely customers are to recognize the product. Any small business can build their brand using this technique.

Your ultimate goal

Before settling down with print companies that specialize in brochures or flyers, think about what you will want to do with those publications. Your small business needs a plan. Brochures can be sent in the mail, displayed in card racks or handed out. Flyers can be posted in other locations, handed out or placed in the mail. Look at the cost of printing up lots of brochures or flyers. These publications don't cost much, but they have a low conversion rate. So, you'll need thousands of flyers and brochures to get a decent turnout of customers. Getting these publications into the hands of potential customers is another task altogether. You really need to decide on a plan of action and scope out potential locations to post those publications. Don't be afraid to reach out to other local businesses.

Naturally, printing up brochures means paying attention to design and finding the right company. Deciding on the appropriate design for each publication isn't hard. Just follow your company brand for inspiration. Once printed, you'll need an effective plan for getting those brochures and flyers in the hands of customers. Consider the plan before deciding on the company. It may have an effect on your final budget.

What is CMYK?

In the art and design industry you commonly hear the acronym “CMYK”. What is CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key? They are the basic colors used in color printing. These colors have been around since, more or less, the dawn of color printing. They are the cheapest and fastest way for commercial printers to print out color images, and if you look closely at old pictures and comics you can actually see the separate colors in pixilated dots. Using a CMYK color chart, you can get most any color out of them. It is less seen these days due to advances in technology. However this process is still one of the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable methods of printing color.
What about colors?
More to the point what is CMYK useful for is tricking the eye. Colors are different frequencies of light, or combinations of those frequencies. Our eyes aren't perfect, and even less so our brains. So, they take and average out the light they see, into approximations. When you have two sets of very small dots of color mixed in together, you eyes will average them to make a new color. Cyan, magenta, and yellow are the three basic colors that can be merged together in this manner to make most any other color. They are printed down as a bunch of small dots in various densities to generate the colors. In addition, the background color, usually white, and the key color, usually black, are added in to make the color light or dark.
The CMYK color chart is a chart of what proportions of each will yield which colors. More specifically not all printers have infinite resolution and printing quality, so you have to use the colors listed in the color chart if you want them printed out. Now, modern commercial printers have printing methods that can usually get any color you want, but this is not cheap. If you want to have a nice mass produced color scheme you must stick to the color pallet that is provided for you and design your artwork following it.
Taking note of CMYK colors
The most common places where you will encounter the CMYK colors are with large scale bulk printing that is cheap and disposable. A common example of this is newspaper comics, or older cheap comics from the 70s. Some mass produced pamphlets and fliers can use this process as well. Another more recent trend is to print T-shirts using the color method on them. However most instances of CMYK have been upgraded so that you can use any four colors on a given print run. So as long as you stick to just those four colors for the whole print run, it is almost as efficient as normal CMYK.
CMYK allows for a great deal more flexibility with colors and design than you might first imagine. As such, it is not to be underestimated as a viable design and printing solution. This color printing process will allow you to get a large scale print run of materials for a fairly cheap and reasonable price. Plus, it is also compatible with older printing methods.