Small business brochures on a tight budget

What size and layout is best for the affordable small business brochure? A big part of this question is answered by looking at your budget. If money is not a concern, then all options are open, limited only by your (and your designer’s) imagination. If your budget is small, a lot depends on how and where you’ll use the brochure.

Things to consider for optimal brochure size:

Will the brochure be on a display rack at your place of business?
Here, size is not a constraint. You only need to make sure that the brochure is in a prominent place so customers will see it.

Will the brochure be distributed at off-site client meetings or conventions?
This is a little tricky. One opinion is that marketing brochures at these events should be large for easy visibility. On the other hand, it may be difficult for a customer to carry around a large brochure. If the brochure is too big, or has too many inserts, it becomes unwieldy and discarded. In this situation, limit your brochure size to one that fits in a typical pocket folder.

Are you going to mail the brochure?
For mailing, size and paper type definitely matter. A brochure exceeding standard letter dimensions will cost more to mail. Since mailing costs also increase with weight, paper stock must not be too heavy. An 8.5 by 11 inch tri-fold brochure is the most affordable to mail as it fits neatly in a standard letter size envelope.

Next to consider are printing options.

Color or black and white?
A well known marketing phrase is ‘color sells’. Unless you’ve a good reason to opt for black and white, you really should budget for color printing. Printing in color doesn’t have to be full color. Spot color printing, ie, black and white plus one additional color, may be more affordable.

What about odd shaped brochures?
Many people like the idea of a brochure in the shape of their product, for example, a car-shaped brochure. This is certainly a unique way of marketing a product, but remember, printing a brochure with an odd shape will be more expensive. Standard paper sizes don’t exist for odd shapes and paper is wasted because fewer brochures can be printed on each sheet.

These are just a few of the issues to be aware of when creating a brochure for your business. An experienced graphic designer can help you decide what trade-offs to make for a high quality and affordable brochure.

View samples of single fold and multi fold custom brochure design:
Tri fold, multi fold, booklet and special shape layouts