When designing a vitamin brochure you’re faced with the difficult task of getting your selling points across to potential customers within a very small space.  Much like articles on the Internet, most people will only read one or two paragraphs before moving on to something else, and in the case of a brochure, the next stop is probably the trash.  Like many things in life, less is definitely more, and if you can tell your consumer a compelling story about why they need your product with just a few paragraphs and pictures, you’re likely to land a sale.

Determine Your Audience and their Interests

  • Who would purchase this product?. Who would benefit the most from taking it?  Are they young or old?  Blue collar or white collar?  Are you trying to sell supplements to body builders?  Or is football season coming up and are you trying to market protein powder to local teams?  Whoever your audience is, adapt the theme and tone of your language accordingly.

  • To engage your audience’s attention, include one or two images on the cover of your brochure along with several catchy phrases.  For instance, if you are selling a body building supplement you can place an image of a body builder alongside an image of your product with short list of questions designed to draw your reader in.  “What to lose weight?  Build muscle?  Make every minute of your work out count?”  Questions like this tease the reader and make them want to read more.
  • If you need some inspiration for catchy headlines, cruise over to Yahoo News, AOL’s homepage, or just about any celebrity gossip website.  Whether the article’s offering to show you this summer’s hottest celebrity bodies, who the latest politician in rehab is, or why the a certain sports team will likely dominate this year each article promises to impart some scintillating token of information in exchange for you attention for just a brief period of time.

Include Rich Information that is Short and to the Point

  • Tell them why your product is Amazing! Just imagine that you’re sitting with a potential customer, ready to make a sale, but you can only use four sentences to extol the benefits of your product.  In reality, you can write much more than that in your brochure, but the point is to keep it brief and easy to absorb.  This is especially important if you have your brochures at a venue like a gym where potential clients are likely to flip through the brochure during the two minute walk to their car, before tossing it on their seat and moving on to other things.  Because you only have a brief period of time to impart you information to the customer, pictures are often useful.  Just remember to use them in moderation or you’ll end up a photo album that detracts from the text.
  • The actual text of the brochure should be descriptive, employing adjectives that play up the strength of your product.  Instead of saying that “Vitamin-E can improve your skin’s health,” talk about what it does specifically for the consumer, stating “Vitamin-E is a natural product that revitalizes and rejuvenates skin for a firm, youthful look.”  Remember, your brochure is there to communicate everything you would if you only had a few minutes to talk up your product.
  • In the text, be confident about your product.  Assume that you will make the sale, and don’t use weak words like “if” or “maybe” (i.e. “if you buy this then…”). Get excited about your product and let this show through in your writing. Remember, if you’re bored writing the text for your brochure, your readers are probably going to be just as bored reading it!  To hold the reader’s interest, keep the text conversational and casual, not stuffy and academic. Just like a normal conversation, it’s ok to use a little humor to pump up the energy of the text (but stay away from the knock-knock jokes).

Be Kind to Your Reader’s Eyes

  • Once you’ve created the text for your brochure, it’s time to move on to the nitty-gritty of brochure making — starting with the look of the text itself.  When selecting a font your number-one priority is readability.  While that really amazing graffiti font might look interesting on an art poster, it’s worthless if your audience can’t figure out what it says.  If it seems too busy, then it probably is; keep the point size under between 10-12 point font.  To minimize distraction try to use no more than three type faces, and don’t use more than one text alignment.  Also, make sure that the text is clearly distinguishable from the background.  How many times have you been reading an article and had to squint to decipher a sentence that has been absorbed in the shadow of a picture it crosses?  Formatting like this is distracting from the overall message, and in a brochure you’ll lose one of your valuable selling points.
  • After you’ve completed your brochure, take a step back and really look at it.  Would you take the time to read it if it was presented to you?  Is there anything that you could improve on?  Show your friends and family and ask them what they think.  It’s better to put your ego aside and find out ahead of time if you don’t have a compelling brochure rather than to spend your hard earned cash and discover it’s a flop.
  • When you’re ready to actually put together the layout of a brochure you can turn to one of the hundreds of brochure companies listed on the internet for publication or take one of the lower cost do-it-yourself options.  Several online brochure making sites like “My Brochure Maker” offer free templates for building your brochures.  You can also use Microsoft Word to create a brochure by breaking a page into three columns and treating each column as one of the panels on the brochure.  This can get a bit tricky though, and you need to take time to carefully plan out how exactly you will fold the brochure when it is finished. If you choose one of these home-made options, you can simply print out a copy on your computer then take it to a copy store and make photocopies.

Conclusion

  • Brochure making is really an art (as any graphic designer can tell you!), so try out several different styles of brochure and see which one gets you the biggest response.  It may take a little trial and error, but it’s worth it to develop a decent brochure.  After all, a really good brochure is like a salesman in paper form—just a whole lot more compact and recyclable.  And best of all, your brochure will never charge you a commission!