10 Feb How to Design a Brochure Worth Keeping
Digital marketing can reach a large audience, but it can’t reach everyone. Online media can’t help you during in-person promotions or when you’re meeting people face-to-face. This is where brochures and other print marketing materials come in. But in order to make your brochures effective, you need to be able to design a brochure that someone will want to keep.
People pick up brochures because they’re interested in a product or in search of answers. They hang onto them so they can use them again—like repeatedly referring to their favorite restaurant’s takeout menu, or to remember the details of an upcoming event.
Brochure Layout and Design Tips
Structure is important because it guides your readers through your key points. The easier it is to read your brochure or locate important information, the more likely someone will save it to refer to again later. Here are some basic layout tips for designing a brochure.
Start with a bold, eye-catching cover panel that features your promotion and a compelling headline.
The inside left panel should include a brief introduction with engaging visuals and concise copy.
On the inside center panel, provide a more detailed explanation of your product or service, including features, testimonials, or success stories to build credibility.
The inside right panel can emphasize a call to action, such as how to purchase or get in touch, paired with any special offers or discounts.
Finally, the back panel should include your contact details, social media links, and any other relevant information that will help keep your brand top-of-mind.
How to Create a Catchy Brochure
To make your print marketing efforts worthwhile, you need to design a brochure that is memorable. You don’t want someone to glance through it, fold it back up, and set it aside, forgetting what was there. But what makes someone want to hang onto a brochure? How do you get them interested enough to save it for future reference instead of throwing it away?
First of all, you need to meet your audience on their own terms. How does your ideal customer like to be approached? What type of language do they use? Which images would catch their interest? The more you can narrow down your niche, the better. Knowing your audience will help you determine which colors, graphics, and fonts to use.
You also need to use a design layout that makes your information more memorable. For example, if you are introducing a new product, you’ll want an appealing image of the product and a tagline that boasts its unique selling points. If you’re not a graphic designer, you can use a template to take the guess-work out of layout. That way, it will have things like bleed margins built in and it will be formatted correctly for print.
Free Software You Can Use for Brochure Designs
Canva: This tool is growing in popularity for a reason! Canva has several great brochure template designs for free, as well as premium layouts available to subscribers. Membership also includes access to millions of free graphics, photographs, and images.
Adobe: A classic choice, many designers prefer the Adobe Creative Suite. This software is usually expensive, but Adobe does have a free tool called Express with some brochure templates you can manipulate.
Piktochart: Want some extra help deciding on design, layout, and wording? Piktochart offers an AI assistant that can create a brochure from a one-sentence prompt. It gives you over twenty semi-complete designs to choose from, including different images and suggested text relevant to the prompt. However, only your first two designs will be free—after that, a paid upgrade is required.
Print Your Brochures Locally at Mousegraphics in Tempe
Once you have your brochure designs ready to print, send them to Mousegraphics! Working with a local print shop means that you always get quality results. When you print with an online retailer, the final product can come back with the wrong colors or be printed off-center. At Mousegraphics we’re hands-on the entire way. Our professionals will make sure every detail is right. Call us at (480) 894-1992 today to request a quote.
Featured image used under creative commons license – commercial use (02.10.2025). Photo by Pixeden on DeviantArt.