How to create an outline for your brochure
Creating the right outline for your brochure is key to its success. Brochures are about the structure and pace of the information and how you prioritize and present it.
- Think about what you want to achieve from this marketing brochure and its role in your wider sales and marketing strategy.
- Devise a hook to get the interest of your target audience. Include this in your title or the first page.
- Carefully consider the customer journey. What information will they need at which point, and why? What is the right order to present this in? What will make the most sense to the reader?
- Create a page plan and map the priority information to each page. Craft a compelling headline (more on this next) that clearly sets out the intent and themes of each section and don’t deviate from that.
- Be ruthless with the content you are including. Ensure every content element and sentence can justify its place on the page. Brochures can be long-form content assets if necessary. But it’s best not to overwhelm your lead with too much information or information that isn’t relevant at this stage. As we mentioned earlier, adding links to external resources is far better than keeping the main layout clear and uncluttered.
- Test the content journey and user experience out on colleagues as well as peers who don’t already have a good understanding of your brand or products. Find out what elements do and don’t make sense to them and which messaging works or otherwise. What are you missing, and what hasn’t earned its place on the page? Then make adjustments accordingly. If you are unsure, create several versions. Once you get those all-important audience insights, you might reintroduce content elements or reappropriate them for other content assets.
How to craft the perfect headlines for your brochure
Crafting the perfect headlines takes time. You need to strike the right balance between grabbing your reader’s attention and giving them a clear idea of what to expect from each section of the brochure. How you frame the headline will depend on your brochure’s subject matter and layout. Here is a checklist to run each headline through before you decide on the perfect one.
- Is it specific? Your headline should have its own content ‘identity’ and stand out from the others.
- Is it 100% clear what the section covers?
- Is the benefit of reading obvious?
- Is there a strong hook?
- Is it the right length? Too long and it is hard to digest, too short, and the section’s themes and objectives might not be obvious.