Seventy-five years later, brochures have yet to go extinct.
We get it. You may think anything that first grew popular during the Truman presidency in the U.S. would lose its swagger. But, brochures adopted digital formats decades before digital transformation haunted traditional media. So, they haven’t struggled as much as their cousins—newspapers and television.
There are three challenges businesses battle to overcome: They struggle to find (1) the time, (2) budget, and (3) strategy to help carry out their marketing objectives and skyrocket sales.
The kicker? Brochures conquer all three. Because they’re affordable and easy to produce, more businesses need to learn how to make a brochure.
In this blog post, we’ll cover:
- What is a brochure?
- How to make a brochure in PicMonkey.
- Brochure design tips.
Let’s get to work.
What Is a Brochure?
Brochures are condensed brand literature that educates readers about a product or service. They offer a captivating summary about one or more elements in a brand experience. And, they make a call-to-action (CTA) that readers can take to further engage with the brand.
Brochures aren’t exclusive to the corporate world. Universities and nonprofits use them to drive application and donation numbers up.
At their core, they work best when they target the right audience and deliver enough info without overwhelming readers.
Most brochures embrace three types of folds: The bi-fold, tri-fold, and Z-fold.
- Bi-folded brochures are divided into halves like a novel or textbook.
- Tri-folded brochures are divided into thirds. Tri-folded sections don’t have to be split equally.
- Z-folded brochures open in the opposite direction they close from. Z-folded sections also don’t have to be split equally.
How to Make a Brochure in PicMonkey
Professional designers admit they spend up to forty hours on a single brochure. Not everyone can carve out that much time in their schedule. With PicMonkey, it’s easier than ever to make a brochure in minutes.
Here’s how to make a brochure using PicMonkey:
1. Decide What Type of Fold to Make
Before making your brochure in PicMonkey, decide what type of fold you want to divide your brochure with.
Go with a bi-fold when you have too much or too little technical information to deliver in a business context. Bi-folds can shine as an uber-technical educational tool or bonus marketing touchpoint for your audience.
Use a tri-fold when looking for a viable in-betweener option that’s budget-friendly and still cares about curating a highly-interactive experience for readers.
Form a Z-fold if you want a design that pops out from afar and keeps things fun with B2C audiences.
2. Select a Brochure Template or Blank Canvas
In PicMonkey, click Create new > Templates. Search “Brochure” in the Templates sidebar. Select a brochure template in the results for it to appear on your canvas.
Prefer to start from scratch? In PicMonkey, go to File > Create New > Blank Canvas. Scroll to Print Sizes or type your own dimensions into the dimension boxes in the top-right corner of the blank canvas screen.
Then click Make it!
Pro tip: If starting from scratch, use the Collage Maker to create grids that you can design in, or use the Alignment Palette to temporarily turn on grid lines.
3. Swap Photos and Add Graphics
Click Photos and Video > Add photo or video. Choose where you want to pull images from, including your computer or the stock image library.
Click Graphics to browse thousands of graphics from the drop-down menu.
4. Customize Text
Click Text > Add text to add a new text layer, or swap out the text that exists on your brochure template. Customize your text however you want.
Try out text effects like curve, outline, drop shadow. Change text color, fonts, size, and shape.
5. Download and Print Yourself or Send to Your Local Printshop
Download your design as a JPG, PNG, or PDF (PicMonkey Pro feature). Share digitally or print.
If printing, you can use PicMonkey’s crop and bleed feature to account for bleed space prior to sending to your printshop.
Brochure Design Tips
Congrats! Now you know how to design a brochure. Take these expert tips to heart, and you just might watch your brochure become an instrumental part of your content strategy.
1. Determine How Much Info You Really Need
Only add a lot of information when you have to. If you’re putting together a user manual for a new car, you can write about tedious details at length. Since lives depend on this knowledge to be shared, you’ll have room to address topics like vehicle specs and safety ratings.
2. Life-Sized Visuals and CTAs
Meanwhile, if you’re just doing whatever it takes for sales prospects to remember your name after a conference, keep it simple by emphasizing your brand wordmark across massive imagery and adding call-to-actions (CTAs) that nurture the next steps in the customer journey.
3. Let Your Customers Rave About You
Be careful not to over-sell your audience too soon. Ask your loyal customers to give testimonials that help verify how legitimate your brochure’s message really is. Your brochure’s messaging should tackle pain points that are relevant to your target audience.
As tempting as it is to declare that brochures made a comeback, they never even left. Instead, brochures adapted little by little to an evolving digital landscape.
This transition has empowered more people to create professional brochures. Brochures remained true to their educational instincts, which are more human and less sales-y.
So, if your goal to teach others about X, Y, or Z is genuine, you’re in great hands.
Cover image via klyaksun.
Source link