A successful business strategy is often defined by a good advertising and marketing plan. Look around. Any venture that lacks the proper come-on to customers is almost always doomed to fail. Take a start-up Web design company, for instance. If its proprietors do not make the business known to prospective clients by placing ads on the Internet or by informing the local neighborhood of their services, they will mostly likely get only one or two orders a month, majority of which will be from relatives and close friends who are really left with no choice but to help their friends' ventures flourish. This is where an effective and catchy brochure comes in. In an age where the Internet is the weapon of choice for most advertisers, a lot of people still prefer the feel of something concrete in their hands, as if to prove that the business truly exists and is not fly-by-night. Printing a brochure that strikes people's attention easily will do the trick. Why do you need a brochure? If designed and distributed properly, a brochure printing could the singlemost important traditional advertising strategy your company could have. Sure, a poster does the same thing, too, but brochures are easier to hand out and pass around and don't take up much advertising space. Brochure printing is synonymous to traditional advertising as milk is to coffee. You may not have a brochure printed for your business, but doing so would make the experience sweeter and more interesting. If you're chatting with someone you don't know too well and would like him to know about your business, you could start with a brochure that sums up all you have to say. A brochure is non-intrusive and non-aggressive. That means, the person you give it has the option to take a look at it now or set it aside for later. The important thing is, he will most definitely take a look at it. And if your brochure is printed in an enticing way, it will be something he will never forget. How do you design the right brochure? Most brochures are printed in the tri-fold, 8.5 by 11-inch layout, but you can experiment with their size, depending on the look you want to achieve and your budget. They can either be full-color and two-color. Full-color brochures are relatively expensive because they require more printing processes to be completed. Full-color brochures are not always the more effective choice. If you're artistic and know how to play with different shades of gray and white, you can produce a brochure that trumps even the most gaudy looking ones. Of course, the content on your brochure should be brief. The purpose of brochure printing is defeated when you try to write a semi-novel on it. Remember, majority of businesspeople and clients have short attention spans because of the plethora of advertisements around. Keep your pitch short and simple. To sum up, brochure printing should answer the what, where and why of your venture. Your mission fails when the brochure reader will not be able to identify what your business is all about. Brochure printing is not an obsolete advertising tactic, no matter what other modern marketers say. After all, brochures are the ones that more often end up being stuck to refrigerator doors and used as makeshift bookmarks. They have better recall.
