October 27, 2022
Businesses can plan their marketing campaigns around using print marketing tools, digital strategies, or a combination of both. Depending on the industry your organization serves, your marketing budget and the target demographic you want to reach, using a variety of print marketing campaign tools can be a more budget-friendly option for some businesses.
One of the sometimes overlooked print marketing tools that a business should consider is an informational booklet. Highly versatile and customizable to any type of industry, informational booklets are the hardworking cousins to larger, more formally bound books and they can pack a lot of information into their smaller size.
Most businesses use different print marketing tools like flyers, posters, postcards and business cards. Each contributes a specific role in marketing a company’s products or services. But an information booklet is a little different because of its capacity to contain a large amount of information. Small informational booklets or pamphlets:
If you are considering developing informational booklets as part of your marketing campaign, you can take your concept to print in just a few simple steps. Let’s look at what you need to know to create a great-looking informational booklet that you can use in many ways to promote your business, products, or services for years to come.
Before you start the planning and development process, partner with a printer that offers all of the services you will need to make this printing project look fantastic without having to do it all alone. Printing companies like Publishing Xpress have the resources you need to design a booklet that looks professional.
Your printer should provide access to professional design experts who can help with your project’s cover design as well as offer support tools and guidance during the development and printing stages of your project. Partnering with a reliable, trusted printer means that you won’t have to worry about the design or printing of your new print marketing tool.
The first step in creating the content of your booklet is to determine the purpose of the project. Ask yourself the following questions to reveal the purpose of the project so the content will be created with it in mind from start to finish.
Who is the targeted demographic? Consider who will be reading the booklet and choose the content and voice that appeals directly to the expected reader. If the informational booklet is for general company information, less specialized wording might be used than if it was targeted for use by repeat customers or decision-makers who are already familiar with the industry.
Will the booklet be an overview of the company or focus on one or more products, services, or benefits of the business? General information booklets are organized differently than booklets that highlight key concepts within the greater business.
How will the booklet be distributed? Informational booklets may be handed out to all potential customers to provide an overview of the business, given at meetings discussing specific products or services, provided to customers in response to specific information requests, or distributed in another situation unique to your business. But determining how often the booklet will be utilized and for what purpose can help you to choose the layout, length, and ink color choices that make the most of the booklet’s marketing power.
What do you want readers to do with the information? Decide if the purpose of your booklet is to encourage customers to partner with your business, to choose a specific product or service, or some other action that supports your business. The call to action or CTA will be the guiding principle in the content you create and should be directly included in the text of the booklet. The CTA plays a pivotal role in the layout, pictures, and graphics and text used in the booklet, because the reader should have all of the information they need to act after reading the booklet’s contents.
Once you have focused on the purpose of the booklet, who will be reading it and what you want it to accomplish, it’s time to start developing the content. But just like when an author begins a novel, the beginning is where a reader gets hooked and decides if they want to read more.
Start the booklet with an attention grabber to set the stage for the content and create interest in the booklet’s content. Using a story to illustrate the company’s heart or explanations about how the business got started are both great options to kick off an informational booklet since they both provide a starting point to introduce the business while giving an opportunity to shift into the more focused content in the rest of the booklet.
In addition to creating purpose-driven content, ensure that your business’s name, brand, and contact information are clearly presented in more than one location in the publication. If the CTA involves connecting with the business, include all necessary information so that the reader can visit the website, call the store, or contact the business in the right way.
Don’t make the common mistake of cramming too much information into your booklet. Instead, use standard design principles to present your business in a way that matches your brand aesthetic and keeps the booklet uncluttered and professional. Some format and style decisions to consider are:
If the budget allows, consider hiring a professional to assist with the non-text portions of your booklet.
The length of the booklet can impact the paper you choose for the booklet itself. When you use heavier paper for the cover of the booklet, you may need to include fewer than 80 pages in the booklet while self cover books that use the same paper throughout the entire booklet will likely be able to reach up to 80 pages.
In addition to the weight of the paper used on the booklet’s interior and covers, decide on the ink colors. Full-color printing throughout a booklet looks fantastic but a well-designed booklet using only black ink can be just as effective, especially with a beautiful cover and well-thought-out branding placement throughout.
Once you have prepared your project draft, be sure to have multiple sets of eyes check it for errors or problems. There is nothing worse than catching a spelling error or content mistake after a project has been printed! When you are confident that your informational booklet is in great shape, order your booklets and start making plans to put them to use when they arrive ready to go.
Just about any kind of company can benefit from using an informational booklet to help market their business. Health care businesses use booklets to present services to customers, explain medical procedures, and clarify treatment plans. Hospitality businesses use booklets to advertise different properties or services they offer. Service providers like caterers, photographers, and beauty operators use them to explain offerings and show examples of their skills.
All kinds of businesses have a need to present their company’s products, services, or business concepts to customers or potential clients. And if you start off by partnering with a trusted printing company like Publishing Xpress, your informational booklets will help you market your company in a useful and meaningful way that you can use for many years to come.
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