Brochures and Flyers That Stand Out

Brochures and flyers are the cornerstones of many branded marketing campaigns. They're sent in the mail, left on door knobs, placed under windshield wipers, presented on point-of-sale counter top displays, used during sales pitches, left as leave-behinds and more. Every successful company prints brochures and flyers, and marketing professionals are often scrambling for inspiration on how to make their marketing materials stand out from the competition. Two of the best ways to immediately impact your audience and entice them to take a closer look involves the creative use of sizes and colors.

Colors

Even though your brochure and flyer color schemes have to match a theme or a logo that doesn't mean a little creativity can't make your designs pop. Pay attention to the theme to find engaging images with interesting color combinations that match the logo. This could be as simple as incorporating a close-up shot of an orange, complete with shading and bright neon highlights, to complement an orange grower's logo on his brochure; or as involved as designing the colorful array of beach umbrellas for a surfing apparel company's flyer. You're not limited to the colors in a company logo, either; make the logo small and surround it with neutral colors and you can make the rest of the brochure or flyer as colorful as you'd like. Another way to incorporate eye-catching colors into your brochure and flyer designs is to color design elements different than readers expect. You could try red waves against a black horizon, for instance, or a purple cat or a pink airplane. If the company in question has a well-known branded logo, try coloring the logo differently to match the theme, as in making a blue logo green for a campaign featuring the company's preservation efforts. Often, brochure and flyer designs can be augmented with unique-colored shapes that act as separators for different regions of images and information such as a red petal-shaped background behind the images in a florists' brochure or some squiggly lines between the headline and the main content area. You can make extensive use of this technique in your designs, and you'll never run out of new shape and color combinations to experiment with.

Sizes

Simply stated, oversized brochures and flyers get noticed first, get picked up more and get read longer. It goes to reason that they affect a higher rate of return than their standard-sized counterparts. To boost the return on investment on your next campaign, have your brochures and flyers printed larger than usual. Standard brochures are often 8.5-inch by 11-inch, but an 8.5-inch by 14-inch or 11-inch by 17-inch brochure will be highlighted against a sea of competition. For an even bigger impact, go with an 11-inch by 25.5-inch brochure - your customers can't ignore these! Similarly, standard flyers are sized 8.5-inch by 11-inch will have more impact at large sizes up to 13-inch by 17-inch. The only difference between brochures and flyers is that flyers can also have impact at smaller sizes, such as small club cards that fit conveniently in a wallet or purse or thin, strip-like flyers that can be stuck in books and other small areas. You can also try going with an odd size such as 10-inch by 5-inch and orient your design to be held like a newspaper or treasure map. Everyone prints flyers and brochures; it's up to you to take strides toward making yours get noticed before everyone else's. Follow the tips outlined above and spark your own creativity to come up with your own ideas, and your promotional pieces will be primed to reel in interested parties. Now your content just has to seal the deal!