Developing a good tri-fold brochure to promote a business, product or service can be accomplished with relative ease and reproduced inexpensively. But it is not something to be done casually or quickly. Careful forethought is imperative before diving into the design process. Follow these few important steps to ensure the final product is professional and captures the attention you want.
Identify audience
The first question to ask before beginning is “who is my target audience?” While this may seem a simple first step, many marketers fail to narrow the playing field and instead jump into putting words and photos together on a page. Identifying the people you want to attract with the tri-fold brochure will make or break the success of any campaign, large or small.
Write the copy
Determine who is going to write the content. Pick a subject matter expert or someone with experience writing copy for promotional products. Regardless of who is writing the prose, always begin with an outline of the key content you want included in the product. This helps to focus thoughts and ensure the most important information is not left out. Use a conversational tone, keep it simple and do not use a lot of industry jargon or technical terms, unless that lends itself to satisfying your audience. The vast majority of tri-fold brochures are on standard 8 ½ by 11-inch paper, limiting the amount of text needed so including only the relevant data is vital.
The Illustrations
As you did with the text, put careful thought into the images to be used. Determine where the photos and illustrations will come from and only use high quality photographs. While using images taken with a point and shoot camera, or a smart phone may be tempting, don’t do it. Those images may look great on a computer screen but not in the finished product. They will often turn out grainy or blurry. You have a number of different options for finding high quality images: produce the images yourself, hire a photographer or purchase stock images from on-line stock photo agency for the tri-fold brochure.
Using illustrations along with high-quality photos will also boost the impact the brochure has on a customer. Integrate your logo into the design and develop original artwork or charts to easily highlight costs, unique feature of the product or business.
Putting it all together
Provide all the components to a graphic designer for the layout and ask him or her to save at least one of the panels for the address label for ease of mailing and eliminating the need and cost of using an external envelope.
When receiving the draft look it over carefully. Find someone who has not seen the tri-fold brochure and ask that person to proofread it. If it is in full color, print it on a black and white printer to see how it looks.
After changes or corrections are made, proof read it one final time. Mistakes and sloppiness are a death sentence in promotional materials. You often only get one change to make an impression, so make it a good one.
– ArtworkAbode
