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Brochure Design

The Do-It-Yourself Route

Check out our brochure fold and layout templates if you need help creating your company brochure.Templates are available for all the standard brochure sizes and folds, as well as free pre-designed brochure templates. It’s easy to replace text, logos and images with your own custom information for a professional looking brochure design.

Design for Your Purpose

The most important part of print marketing is to include a ‘call to action’ that prompts your customer to do something, so design your brochure with that purpose in mind. If you want the brochure to get noticed, use striking, bold art work. Touch it up with special, custom effects like foil stamping, embossing and special coatings. If you want people to write on your brochure, don’t coat it in a glossy finish. If you want to really stoke engagement, use cool folds that call out for someone to open the brochure.

Layouts and Folds

Once you have a purpose in mind, the next thing to consider is how the brochure will be folded. A tri-fold brochure is the most common, by far, but you can go much further. Here are some examples. 

• Tri Fold
• Half Fold
• Iron Cross
• Gatefold (Open or Closed)
• Stair Step
• Accordion
• Z Fold
• Barrel Roll
• Double Parallel
• Snake Fold

Not sure about designing your brochure? We’ve got your back.

Design can be tricky. Let our team of experts make sure your brochure’s design is eye-catching and attention grabbing using custom printing and finishing options. Our highly qualified graphic designers will work one-on-one with you to create custom pieces that show your business off and astound your customers.

Did we mention custom design is wallet friendly? Call 800-924-2041 now and let us quote your design project.

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Brochure Marketing Tips

Define Your Purpose

Why are you making a brochure? Marketing either drives a specific action (call you for a consultation, come in and make an order, etc) or trying to drive awareness of your brand. A brochure can do both – often at the same time – because there’s so much space on the brochure itself and because it can be divided into discrete panels by folds. Think about what you want the marketing to do, then design everything about the brochure around that idea. Brochures can be folded in interesting, engaging ways. These interesting folds make all the difference because it means someone holds your marketing material that much longer, engages with it that much more deeply and recalls it more easily.

Keep it Simple

Keep your brochure simple and on point. Give only one, clear, easy-to-act-on call to action. Don’t tell customers to call you and go to your website. Just pick one – and consider picking a call to action that’s easy for you to track and measure. You want to know how much bang you get for your buck. Design should be clean and easy to read. A brochure is a tool, and reading it is how you use the tool. Would you use a power drill that took 10 minutes to power up? Why would someone read a brochure that has the important stuff hidden under a bunch of junk graphics? Keep it simple and it will be more effective. Keep your messaging to as few words as possible, and use images or graphics to inspire.

Benefits or Features?

Marketing gurus will tell you to never lead with features – always talk about the benefit of your product, solution or offer. Focus on how it will make your customer’s life better, use that hook to explain what it does. But, brochures have a place as a feature-list. If you’re in need of a quick and effective way to get your product’s features front and center, a brochure will do the job. In general, however, always lead with benefits. Make that the focus of your marketing.

Make it Trackable

If you are including an offer, URL, or phone number on your brochure, try to make it unique for that brochure. That way you can track all the calls to one specific number or all of the emails to one address, knowing it came from that brochure. The fun thing about print marketing is, once you put something into the world you don’t know where it will end up – you may get calls from people that you never targeted but are great customers anyway.

Keep Your Brand Consistent

Use the same brand colors, logos, slogans and general look and feel across all of your marketing. Don’t make a brochure that looks wildly different from anything else you’ve done – or at the very least, include your standard logo on the brochure. Keeping your brand consistent will make it easier for potential customers to remember and find you later, when they are ready to buy.

How Many Brochures Do You Need?

This seems like an obvious question, but you should know how many brochures you’re going to need before you order. The more you order, the cheaper they are – so don’t sell yourself short. Likewise, don’t order too many, especially if you’re bound by a time limit (like a tradeshow or special offer) or if you just don’t have the storage space to keep them all.

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Brochure Pricing Considerations

So what goes into the cost of printing brochures? Several things can affect the cost.

Ink Options

All brochure and flyer printing comes with 4-color printing on the front. The second side can be ordered also with CMYK 4-color process, or with black ink or left blank. Pantone or metallic inks can also be used on request. Gloss UV coating adds an ultra-shiny and protective finish for a “rich,” high-end look and feel.

Paper Stock and Brochure Costs

The number one thing that changes your cost is the type of paper you use. Premium papers have a more luxurious feel, but they cost more. Typically, thicker papers cost more too but our print consultants can help you pick the right paper that fits your budget and purpose. Paper is really important to a brochure because the paper determines how the brochure handles being folded, it literally changes the structural integrity of the piece. All of the paper we use at Printing for Less is top-of-its class – we refuse to use cheap, crappy paper that can’t hold ink, fold properly or stand up to everyday abuse. Even if you choose our affordable option, you’re getting quality paper.

Custom Effects and Brochure Costs

Adding custom effects like metallic ink, foil stamping, die cuts, embossing and debossing will add cost. Some effects cost more than others, especially die cutting and embossing which usually requires a custom die to be made. Our print pros will help you make the decision about using custom effects. We want your marketing to work, so we’ll tell you if we think custom effects won’t make a difference for your project.

Quantity

Because of the initial setup costs associated with offset printing, the more pieces you print, the lower the cost per piece. It’s quite a bit cheaper to print a larger quantity once than half that quantity twice, so print as many as you think you can use before you’ll have to change the content of your piece.

Brochure Holders

Need a custom printed holder or display for your brochures? Try our brochure holders that can be custom printed to compliment your brochure and enhance your branding.