“How much for a mani-pedi?”
“Do I have to sign up for a full year or do you guys offer monthly memberships?”
“Where’s the pool?”
“Is there a monthly fee on your checking accounts?”
“When did this place open?”
“Do you guys have anything gluten-free on the menu?”
“What’s the name of your oldest third cousin on your dad’s side?”
All of these are questions people might potentially ask you if you’re an owner or an employee at any number of businesses. Okay, they probably won’t ask you that last one about your cousin. But the others, you might hear ten or twenty times a day, depending on what kind of establishment you’re running. Now, we’re sure you and your co-workers are extremely personable people and that you love engaging with customers. But the time spent answering these run-of-the-mill questions might be better spent actually taking orders and signing people up once they’ve had time to consider their options. You can make it easy on yourself and your customers by printing clear, concise, full-color brochures that contain all the information they need, in a well-organized, portable format. Your customers will appreciate the convenience and clear messaging, and your employees will definitely be thankful for the relief the brochures offer in the way of answering frequently asked questions.
But once you’ve decided to print a brochure, there are still a few more things to consider. The first is what information you’d like to include on your brochure. The easiest way to plot your brochure design is to separate your info into categories before you even begin the layout. For example, if you’re a restaurant owner or the marketing director for a restaurant, you may want to separate your information into these five categories: contact and location details, appetizers, main courses, drinks/desserts, and special event info. Once you figure that part out, you will be able to make the next important decision about your brochure: what kind of fold you’ll need. There are several folding options many printing companies typically offer. One is the tri-fold. This is where the sides of the page are folded into the middle so that each basically overlaps the center segment. This would probably be the one to choose for your restaurant brochure, as it gives you six surfaces – one for each category of information you’d like to feature, and one for the cover page.
The tri-fold can be modified by folding the page in half first, horizontally, before doing the above-mentioned tri-fold, which will result in six separate areas of the page on each side.
Then there is the four-panel roll fold. In this fold-style, a piece of the page is folded inward and then folded again and again, as though it were rolling to the other edge. It’s a fun one – everyone likes rolling things up and unraveling them. Another popular fold for brochure printing is the accordion fold. The name is fun and it is pretty accurate. It gives a solid description of the fold it describes, in which the page is creased three times in such a way that the brochure would form a W-shape if you were to stand the folded page up on a table.
Then there are two different kinds of gate folds. One is known as the normal, or single gate fold. This is when both sides of page fold into an oversize gutter in overlapping layers. The double gate fold is when the gate fold is taken one step further and folded over in the middle. The Z-fold entails folding the page in two back-and-forth folds, resulting in three separate panels that form a “Z.” The double parallel fold, another popular fold-style, is the result of folding a piece of paper in half horizontally, and then in half again and then finally the French fold is when a piece of paper is folded in half two times, at perpendicular angles, resulting in four segments on the page.
So many options to choose from, and that’s even before you start planning the actual brochure design! But for the ability to supply your customers and staff with the convenience a quality brochure affords, it will be well worth the effort. If, on the other hand, the task just seems to daunting, consider consulting some design professionals to alleviate the burden.
About Jenny DixonJennifer has been apart of the EliteFlyers.com team for over 15 years. She brings a deep understanding of web marketing, thoughtful strategies, that she's able to design, manage, print, deliver multi-media campaigns to meet all client's goals. Her personal portfolio includes high-end design and printing of business cards, flyers, post cards for elite businesses and individuals from all over the world.
