How can I create a sales brochure and strengthen my brand image?
The sales brochure is an essential communication tool for successful sales prospecting, especially in the B2B sector. It allows you to highlight your strengths and develop your reputation.
Whether in paper or digital format, creating a sales brochure is essential for effectively canvassing your prospects and acquiring new customers. But for a sales brochure to be truly effective, it must be created according to the rules of the art.
Format, style, content, structure, visuals... There are 6 key steps to help you create the ideal sales brochure, tailored to your customers' needs.
Sales brochure: definition
The sales brochure is a communication and sales medium with many uses:
- presenting the company in a concise way ;
- to promote an offer, whether products or services, or competitive advantages;
- convey a brand image and marketing message;
- guide the sales pitch and encourage sales, thanks to the summary of key arguments on which they can draw;
- Remain in the minds of prospective customers, who can keep it and refer to it at a later date;
- develop the company's reputation, by being shared from hand to hand, or from mailbox to mailbox.
This document is a classic in prospecting, but also in inbound marketing, using quality content (hello content marketing) for commercial purposes, particularly for purchases that require a bit of thought or a new product range.
It's an excellent way of demonstrating your professionalism and standing out from the crowd, with plenty of space to develop your key selling points.
How to create a sales brochure in 6 steps?
1 - Define your objectives
The first thing to do is to define your objectives. Whether they are commercial, marketing or financial, defining them is essential if you want to create a sales brochure that is appropriate and, above all, effective.
🎯 So define your objectives and targets, as well as your budget.
Ask yourself the right questions:
- Do you want to present a particular product range?
- Or more generally, do you want to develop your brand image?
- With what type of customer (the famous marketing persona)?
You can use the SMART method to define your objectives. This will enable you to start thinking about the format and quality of the brochure, and therefore the budget you need to allocate to it.
2 - Drawing up the brief
💡 Producing a sales brochure also involves creating an editorial and creative brief, possibly your specifications.
Start by taking stock of the situation, diagnosing your business: what are the elements that need to be highlighted, the tone and style to use in relation to your target audience? The key is to focus on the essentials and produce a summary that packs a punch.
If you want to convey modern values, it's best to go for an innovative sales brochure, with a 3D format, for example. For a younger target audience, an online, interactive sales brochure is the way to go.
3 - Choosing your medium and format
✅ Choose the medium and format : depending on the previous answers, opt for :
- a leaflet with flaps,
- a single-sided or double-sided page,
- a brochure
- a pocket with flaps,
- A thicker or thinner paper weight,
- portrait or landscape format,
- a 100% digital brochure.
It all depends on the target audience, how the brochure is to be distributed, the quantity to be printed and, of course, the budget.
☝️ While the traditional presentation brochure is often in A4 format, for example an A3 folded in 2 for a 4-page brochure, the PDF format allows more freedom.
4 - Writing the content
🖌 A few tips:
- Start by listing all the essential information to be included on your brochure and prioritise them in order of importance. This is where you should start.
- Organise your data by reading level (boxes, text in blocks, columns, etc.) so that it is dynamic and key information can be found at a glance.
- Depending on the format you've chosen, you'll have a rough idea of how much space you have available.
- Make an initial mock-up to see if you need to summarise more, remove some of the text or revise the format.
Your sentences should be concise and clear, and your spelling impeccable.
Step 5: Select the visuals
🌠 Choose the visuals: whether they're computer graphics, illustrations or photos, they must be of good quality.
They will have the merit of airing out the brochure and making it more attractive.
They should also be in harmony with the colours of your graphic charter and with each other.
Step 6: Creating the brochure
🚀 Start creating! There are several types of software available to you:
- Graphic design software such as InDesign or go through an agency, and ask for several versions from the person responsible for creating your sales brochure before validating it and moving on to its distribution or printing, before which you'll also ask for a proof (bon à tirer).
- Software for managing sales offers, which can be used to create sales pitch templates and customised sales proposal documents, among other things.
- There are also other sales support tools enabling you to considerably increase your conversion rate and therefore your sales.
💡 Looking for the best tool for your needs? Maybe it's in our comparison of software for creating sales brochures!
Bonus tips for creating an attractive sales brochure
Adopt the AIDA method
Often mentioned, here are the basics of the AIDA advertising method:
- Attract attention: make an impact so that the reader wants to skim over the document. To do this, start by talking about your target audience and the issues they face, then talk about yourself;
- arouse interest: get the reader to scan the brochure, using headings, sub-headings and catchphrases;
- provoke Desire: by offering quality content and visuals, the prospect will want to go on to do some in-depth reading;
- Encourage them to take action: give them the information they need in a visible way, encouraging them to visit your site or give you a call.
Entrust the creation to a competent person
Your sales brochure is a reflection of your company. If it's mediocre, you'll be penalised more than anything else.
Depending on your budget and in-house skills, you may need to outsource the design to a communications agency or freelancer, either for the advertising or the graphic elements.
Entrusting the promotion of your sales brochure to a professional can also be beneficial. Various online communication channels are available:
- social networks (Linkedin)
- websites
- specialist articles, etc.
Be concrete
It's not about selling dreams, it's about reassurance.
Don't hesitate to include success stories, testimonials from satisfied customers, concrete examples of your work, your prices, your labels, your certifications, your partners, etc.
Avoid any information that is quickly out of date, especially if you print your brochure. Otherwise you'll have to update it regularly and that will become costly.
Apply the basics of design
Here are a few:
- The font must be legible and you should use 2 or even 3 maximum (one for the headings, one for the text, for example).
- The text and layout should be airy: you can't say everything, your brochure is a medium that should make people want to find out more. If it's too compact, it simply won't be read.
- The most important points stand out in larger words, in bold or in colour.
- There should be a balance between text and images, of the order of two thirds/one third.
- The dominant colours of your brochure are those of your visual identity. As for the fonts, choose a maximum of 3 to avoid a cacophony.
- The resolution of the brochure should be of good quality, but remember to save it for the web if you are distributing it by email, otherwise it will be too heavy. It will also take too long to load on your website. Think UX (user experience)!
Don't forget the mandatory information for your sector
Tax terms, reminders of the law, respect for the environment - find out what information is compulsory on your sales brochure.
If you're in any doubt, you can take inspiration from what your competitors are doing, or ask your agency or printer for advice.
Examples of PDF sales brochures
You can create a sales brochure free of charge online, in particular on Freepik in EPS or PSD (Photoshop) format. You can use it as a basis, as long as you give credit to the author and master the graphics tools, of course.
Sales brochure template
Innovative sales brochure
Luxury sales brochure
☝️ Whatever the type of sales brochure, it must present at least:
- your visual identity: your name, your logo, your colours, to be distinctive,
- your contact details: telephone, email, website, so that you can be contacted,
- your added value: your products and services and their benefits.
Now it's up to you to create the sales brochure that suits you!