Sunday, June 2, 2013

HOW TO DESIGN A TRI-FOLD BROCHURE

Tri-fold brochures printed in full color are a very powerful advertising, sales and marketing tool. A well-designed printed full color brochure is sure to get an excellent response and a high ROI. If you have a good sense of design and are comfortable using professional design software like Photoshop™, Illustrator™, InDesign™, Quark™ or other professional design software you may want to design your brochure yourself. Most people in business don't have the time or knowledge and hire a professional graphic designer that understands all the technical stuff involved designing a color printed brochure.

A word of caution, many small business owners think they don't have the money to hire a professional graphic designer. The idea of a printed color brochure is to attract more business. If the design, the text or both is not created correctly and there is technical printing issues you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

Keep in mind; no one knows your business better than you. A professional graphic designer is an insurance policy for the success of the job. Make sure you know what you want and keep control. Make the changes you deem necessary. If you spend some time doing your homework and thinking about your tri-fold brochure you should know what you want. Many design customers know what they don't want after they see it. By having a clear picture of the finished brochure you can save a lot of time, money and aggravation. Over the years I've seen this happen over and over again. It's not the printer's fault. Remember the old saying "garbage in, garbage out".

Before you even think about the design think about what you want to say. You know your product or service better than anyone else. A brochure contains more information than a flyer. The most common for a brochure size is an 8.5 X 11 tri-fold. No matter what kind of fold you choose if you take a piece of 8.5 X 11 paper and fold it into thirds you have 3 panels on each side, each panel is 3.366." Brochure templates online are free and it's a good idea to use one for your copy layout. You can design your tri-fold brochure using all 6 panels or use the backside of the brochure opened to 8.5 X 11.

The front panel of the brochure should feature a photo or illustration. The design should be compelling so your brochure will be opened. Keep the copy to your logo, headline, subhead, company name and 3 to 5 bullets listing your products or services, don't forget to make sure your phone number, address and URL are correct.

The inside panel behind the front panel of your tri-fold brochure should have a photo or 2 and tell the reader the name of the product or service. Your tri-fold brochure should explain all the features and describe what the product or service does to make the reader life better in a short few line of copy. Bullets should tell the customer exactly why they should buy your product and how it will improve their life, for example:
• Guards against cracks 

• Moisture resistant 

• Dries in 2 hours 

• Easy one-step application
 
• Protects your investments

The back middle panel and right side pane can be used with additional copy that may include more detailed information about additional benefits or specs of product and or service.

The next brochure panel is on the right. It folds inside to the left inside and can be used for anything you want to get attention. Keep in mind that this panel must be about.062 narrower than the other panels so when it folds in it doesn't touch the middle panel fold line. The brochure panel that forms the back cover side is the outside middle panel. Be sure to make a strong closing with a call to action and a small discount code or other free benefit that will increase your response. The great thing about using a code is that you can track the effectiveness of the brochure.

If all of this is not for you, contact an online printing company and ask if they have an in-house design service or can recommend a designer that knows how to design a tri-fold brochure. If the online printing company recommends a designer you can be sure they know how to set up files for print. If the online printing company can do the design for you let them do it so they become responsible for the quality of the printing. Even if it's more expensive consider you are buying an insurance policy to make sure the job is printed to the highest quality.

Marketing professionals with big custom printing budgets use full color printed tri-fold brochures to increase sales and brand awareness. Small and medium sized business can level the playing field with wholesale priced high quality cheap full color brochures you can order online.

Now is the time to take the challenge, which could put your business on a new road to success. It costs nothing more than a few minutes to see how affordable and easy using a personal online color printing service is. Make your business stand out as a leader in your field. Go to Color Printing Pros and see all the useful custom printed marketing tools to help you make your business grow.

POSTCARDS - A Cheap and Effective Marketing Tool

Postcards are one of the oldest direct marketing tools that are still effective today.

In our high tech digital world low tech postcards are still the best, fastest working direct marketing tools ever. If you don't believe me, check your mailbox. Don't think the companies that stuff your mailbox are stupid. If they didn't make big bucks, you wouldn't get all that mail from the same companies over and over again.

Postcards Get Noticed

A well-designed inexpensive postcard campaign with strong call to action copy will keep your company at the top of the mind of customs.

Postcards Are Cheap

Postcards when compared to other marketing tools are the cheapest to print than they ever have been. Online printing companies make it easy to find the best value cheap postcards without spending a lot of research time. As a matter of fact, full color postcards are cheaper than two color cards were just a few years ago, so you get more bang for your buck. You can buy 5,000 4.25 X 6 high quality full color postcards for under $160

Postcards Are Read By Almost Everyone

It's harder not to read an interesting postcard than to avoid reading it. An eye candy design and a compelling offer can catch your eye and it's difficult not to read it. Nothing else in your mailbox can capture that much attention except a large check from the government. Most junk letters never get opened unless they looks official. People don't have the time or care to read. Flyers can also have too much to read and they instantly get tossed. On the other hand, postcards are noticed and read because the message requires just a second to decide if you're interested or not. They don't have to be unfolded and they don't waste time with a lot of words.

Postcard Campaigns Return a High ROI

If you plan on sending only one postcard, you may be wasting your money if you are trying to determine the results.You don't have to have a huge mailing list to monitor your postcard stats. If you don't have a lot of money to test the direct mail marketing waters- and what small business does-, you can print wholesale inexpensive postcards in short runs of 100, 250, 500 or 1,000. The trick is to send them every 4-6 weeks to the same list. Each time with a different offer. It's not the quantity, but the frequency that keeps your brand in front of your customer.

Postcard Effectiveness Testing is Fast and Easy

Use short run postcards to try different ideas and see which ones have the best returns. Once you know what works slowly increase your mailings and keep on checking results. The best value for short run postcards is about $55 for 1,000. You can send as few as 100 cards at a time to spread your mailing cost. Just make sure you change lists.

Postcard Printing Tips:

1. When buying cheap postcards online, don't buy the cheapest deal you can find. Cheap looks cheap, feels cheap and can represent your company as cheap. Considering the size of a postcards, the paper stock should be the issue unless you are printing hundreds of thousands. The minimal card stock weight should be a heavy 14 Pt or extra heavy 16 Pt.- either UV or matte coated card stock.

2. If you're distributing the card through the mail, the address area should NOT be UV coated. UV coating is a liquid laminate that can't be overprinted with a personalization or address for mailing. There are two solutions for this issue. Order your cards with UV coating one side matte coating one side or pay a little more have your cards printed with spot UV coating so you can decide what is to be glossy. Spot UV coating is an eye candy wow factor effect that will catch attention so your card has a better chance of standing out and getting noticed.

3. Bigger is better when it come to postcards and diamonds. Postcards are available in many sizes. Small 4 X 6 and 4.25 X 6 postcards can be sent at lower postcard postal rates. You'll save money but lose impact. If you're going to do it, do it right.

4. Print "SAVE THIS CARD," you'll be surprised at how many will then save it. If you say it, they will be it.

5. Be sure to put a time limit on your offer. Add a tracking code so you can identify the mailing you sent out. The offer should be redeemable only with that code. Customers like to receive codes because they are identified as being special.

It doesn't matter if you have a small local pizza takeout or you're selling tours to Europe nationally, the key is to make sure you have a "can't refuse" offer and your card looks impressive. You don't have to spend much money to get a postcard campaign going. Plan to send six different postcards in 6 months and you will make money fast and easy once you get your program started. Remember it takes money to make money and cheap but high quality postcard campaigns will make you money and a high return on what you have spent.