How to Create a Brochure for Your Business in 10 Easy Steps

A brochure is a beautiful way to introduce your company, establish your brand image, and provide information about your business. A beautifully produced booklet is like a menu in a restaurant. It provides customers with a preview of what to expect and describes everything in an enticing, attractive way.

Every Small Business Needs a Well-Designed Brochure

A brochure is sometimes referred to as a pamphlet or booklet. You might think you don’t need one because you have a small business that doesn’t need fancy marketing materials. Every business, however, needs printed marketing materials. They will give your business legitimacy. 

Despite the proliferation of websites and online advertising, printed product stands out. Every prestigious, well-known company has a professionally printed brochure, pamphlet, or booklet that reflects its public image. These companies don’t use cheap, hastily printed flyers. They ran off a copy machine. Why should you? A well-designed, professionally printed brochure will make a powerful impression. 

It’s Your Introduction to the World

Your online, while effective and efficient, still has its limitations. A brochure presents your company in its best light. As a small business owner, you can use it to: 

How to Make a Brochure For Your Business That Works

What goes into an excellent brochure? You need all these elements. 

• • Copy: The text should convey who you are, what you offer, and what customers can expect when they do business with you.

• • Design: Make a statement with an eye-catching design that shows you at your best.

• • Color: What colors best represent you?

• • Paper: High-quality paper gives your brochure an elegant look.

• • Print quality: Choose a printer with experience printing full-color brochures. Accurate brochures are professionally printed. 

Steps To How To Create A Brochure For Your Business

If you want to make a business pamphlet brochure, these steps will help you get started. We’ve included professional tips to help you prepare your files for delivery to a printing company.

1. Determine Its Purpose 

Your first step in creating a brochure is deciding what you want it to do. What information would you like it to present? Would you like to describe your services? Do you want the customer to fill out a form or take other steps? 

Some brochures can serve two or more purposes. Are you a restaurant owner? Could you create a brochure that also functions as a menu? A real estate agent can showcase recent listings in sales brochures. A bed and breakfast can include a comment card for guests to leave reviews. You can add a form for customers to fill out if they want to be on your mailing list or receive a sales call. 

2. Choose the Right Design 

Your brochure should be eye-catching. It needs to stand out from all the other pamphlets on the rack. A striking, professionally designed brochure will have bold graphics and bright colors, making it the center of attention. 

There are several-fold types, and each has an array of brochure sizes. 

 

 

• • Tri-fold: This is the classic fold with three panels. A tri-fold brochure fits into a standard business envelope.

• • Bi-fold: Two panels allow for large graphics and text.

• • Accordion: This creates a brochure you can read from side to side as you unfold it.

• • Z fold: Z fold and fanfold are other names for accordion folds

• • Open gatefold: This creates a dramatic look with two folds on the cover that open like a gate.

• • Closed gatefold: This adds a fold to an open gatefold to fit standard envelopes and racks. 

Think about the design that will show your business in its best light. For instance, a gatefold is an excellent way to showcase a particular property or a gorgeous single item. An accordion allows you to print a local map on one side. A tri-fold brochure provides room for more text if you want to add detailed descriptions or business history. 

Pro tip: Start by sketching a rough design on various fold types. You can use plain paper to produce a brochure template you can follow. 

3. Keep It Simple and Straightforward 

The best brochures are those with straightforward text and design. That doesn’t mean they’re plain and boring. It means they’re easy and enjoyable to read. 

If you provide a professional service, tell the story about how you’ll solve your customer’s most pressing problems. If you run a vacation lodge, tell the story of a marvelous vacation your customer can have there. Does your shop’s location have a unique history? Tell that story. 

Select graphics that tell the same story. 

Don’t stuff every picture or piece of information into your pamphlet. You’re not writing a book. Trying to cram it all in will produce a crowded, messy design. Choose a clean design with lots of white spaces. The key ingredients are a crisp font, sharp graphics, and sparkling content. 

Pro tip: According to marketing research, using a single bold illustration on the front of a booklet draws more attention than a group of smaller pictures. 

4. Decide On Your Colors 

Colorful brochures are bold and memorable. Choose colors that match your company’s logo and other branding. 

Think about the business you own. We associate specific colors with certain companies. For instance, a spa would use tranquil, ocean-inspired colors like turquoise, pale green, and sandy beige. These colors are soothing and uplifting. Choose cute graphics and bright pastel colors if your business caters to children. A financial services company or funeral business might choose a dark navy or burgundy to convey a severe look. 

Pro tip: CMYK is the standard color mode for offset printing. CYMK is an abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow, and keyline, the four colors used in printing processes. When you design a print file, be sure your application is in CMYK mode. Many graphic software applications use RBG as the default color mode. While CMYK files do not look as vibrant as RGB files on your monitor, they create the best results in the printing process. Using CMYK produces the most vivid printed materials. 

5. Select Your Images 

Which pictures, graphics, and images will make the best impression? In most cases, photographs are the best choice. Photographs give a sense of immediacy. You can follow these tips to select the right ones. 

Show your business in action. Choose photos of people using your service or enjoying a meal at your diner. Use pictures of the jewelry or plumbing supplies you sell. If you offer professional services, include a photograph of yourself. People are more likely to respond to a brochure that features an actual person. 

Use eye-catching images. Use that to your advantage if you’re located in or near an area of scenic beauty. Highlight the region with a landscape shot. If you take pride in your business locale, use a picture of your town. Make sure all your photos are vibrant and of high quality. 

Use company images. Use your company logo and other images unique to your business. 

Pro tip: A professional printer will accept most file types, including Ai, BMP, EPS, GIF, JPG, PDF, PNG, TIF, and TIFF. You will get the best resolution using JPG files because they use a compression algorithm that produces smaller files. When

You select from any other file extensions, please.

Please make sure to correct all the layers in your design submissions. 

6. Write Your Content 

You may have a rough draft or a well-developed idea of what you want to say. Now, let’s polish up your draft. When you write your copy, remember most people spend only seconds glancing at a brochure the first time they pick it up. Keep their interest by following these tips. 

Writing marketing copy is a skill. Consider hiring an expert to write your copy, or you can report it yourself following these tips. 

Could you put your primary marketing message on the cover? Don’t make people guess what’s going to be inside. Think of the body as an advertisement. What’s the essential thing your advertising is selling? 

Could you highlight key facts. Be sure to put prices, hours, locations, directions, phone numbers, and other important information in a prominent place? Don’t make people hunt for this. 

Could you go into detail? A brochure gives you room to go into detail about your business, product, or service. If someone’s reading it, you already have their attention. Break up long text with headers and photographs. 

Include a call to action. Decide what you want the customer to do. Do you want them to visit you, call you, or mail in a form? Could you make sure you include the request in the brochure?

Pro tip: Once you design your pamphlet, you can continue using the same one as a brochure template. Later, you can use the same template to produce updated booklets and other materials. 

7. Select a Font 

Your font choice is essential to your brochure’s readability. Use fonts that are clean and easy to read. The tiny print will annoy most readers. Use clear, familiar fonts like Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman, or Garamond. 

Could you keep the font choice consistent? Don’t use more than two font styles. Use larger fonts or bold type for the headers. 

Pro tip: When you submit your files to the printer, be sure all your files are flat and outline all fonts. Sometimes, the printer may need to have your selected fonts. In that case, you’ll get almost identical substitute fonts. You can minimize variations if you use vector-based applications like InDesign or Illustrator. Save final proofs to JPG or TIF extensions. 

8. Paper Matters 

Paper choice is essential. The final look of your brochure depends mainly on the paper you select—both the finish and the weight matter. The thick, substantial paper gives an impression of elegance and luxury. Lighter paper can feel flimsy. 

Most brochures will look their best on medium-weight paper with a glossy finish. Glossy paper is the most popular type for pamphlets because it has a sharp resolution, bright colors, and a high-end look. An uncoated or matte paper will produce a sophisticated look. 

Pro tip: If your design includes black graphics or fonts above 36 points, those elements should use Rich Black. While a computer screen can only cast one variation of black, commercial printing techniques use many variations of black. Rich black is the deepest and richest of all. Create rich black with CMYK values of cyan(C)=30, magenta(M)=30, yellow(Y)=30, and black(K)=100 for coated paper stocks. For uncoated paper stock, use cyan(C)=2, magenta(M)=20, yellow(Y)=20 and black(K)=100. 

9. Work With an Experienced Printer 

All your hard work designing and writing your brochure will go to waste if you use the wrong printer. Look for a printer that offers web-to-print solutions. 

Once you have a brochure template, maintain brand consistency by using it to create business cards, banners, signs, flyers, catalogs, and more. Your printer can help you maintain a consistent image. 

A professional printer will tell you how to format and deliver your final design. 

When you receive the first proof from the printer, check the following: 

• • Is the text legible?

• • Are images clear?

• • Is the font sharp?

• • Are there any typos?

• • Are the colors correct?

Pro tip: Don’t rely on the computer screen image. Print the proof out to get a good idea of how it will look in its final form. Final submissions should have a resolution of 300 to 350 DPI. 

If everything is fine, could you give your printer the go-ahead?

Brochures Can Boost Your Business 

A brochure represents your business. A well-designed, attractive booklet can help you market your business. You can start with a printing company that can help you. At 180 Link Print Shop, we specialize in printing brochures and other materials for small businesses. Reach out today for assistance with all your printing needs.