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Designing paper marketing materials like business cards and brochures can be a fun exercise, especially for a new business. It somehow makes an idea seem more real and respectable. But these things can get expensive relative to the value they create. As a result, it's quite easy to overspend on the design and printing of slick brochures.
Larger businesses, of course, are justified in purchasing large quantities of slick marketing materials. But most small businesses can get by in the early years with materials that come right out of an office color laser printer. At Bastien, we consistently landed multi-million dollar projects using little or no offset printing (aside from business cards).
Laser technology is inexpensive enough that most businesses should be able to afford it, and the quality is excellent. You can really go the extra mile by purchasing a high-gloss laser paper. I'm partial to 80 lb. Centura Book Gloss, but you will probably not find it at the big office retailers. It's likely that you will need to find a wholesale print supply store that can order it for you.
As with the Internet, it's extremely important to keep focused on your unique clientele. All writing and graphic design should be targeted to your audience. A common mistake is to think that people will actually want to pore over your brochure and catch the really cool design features you came up with. Don't get me wrong--really cool design features are great--but your primary job in designing a brochure is to elicit a response of some sort.
The response you are trying to get will be different for different type of businesses. But it may be things like:
- A phone call
- An e-mail to you
- A visit to your website
Don't just leave your readers hanging with the knowledge that you're business is a great one. Once you've convinced them of that, ask them to act on it. So if you'd like a website for your business, please
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. ;-)
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