In follow up to last week’s brochure design tips, we thought we’d discuss why you should consider printing your brochures digitally, rather than rely on good old lithographic.

Digital is being hailed as a revolution for small business’ print marketing: compared to litho, digital is quick, often cheaper and can deliver messages personalised to your customers’ interests.

Why is digital printing different to lithographic?

Traditional litho ‘offset’ printing requires the creation of a plate for every print, which is then used to transfer the image via a rubber blanket onto the paper.

Litho is great for printing 1000s of catalogues, magazines and books at a relative low cost. But its cost is less attractive when you’re only after a few hundred brochures and flyers.

Digital printers, on the other hand, don’t require the creation of a plate. Instead they use software to render digital images directly onto the press, bypassing the need for an expensive plate altogether. This offers numerous benefits…

What are the benefits of digital printing?

Cheaper – without the need to create a plate for every image, small businesses can print small quantities of brochures, flyers and business cards cheaply. There are already a few web-to-print businesses (such as moonpig.com and lulu.com) that have sprung up to capitalise on the low cost of small, customised print runs.

Faster – each litho print run takes a long time to setup. Digital presses, however, can be setup quickly and are capable of enabling next day, or even same day delivery.

Greener – the elimination of a plate, and shorter make-ready, means you also don’t need all the other printing materials and waste that go along with them. So you no longer have chemicals, ink and paper filling up your bin; and because you only print what you need, less chance of obsolescence. Some digital printing machines are even designed with their own recyclability in mind.

Customisable – every print can be customised to include unique content, such as the customer’s name, personalised URL and relevant images. Personalising marketing helps improve the response rate because people are more likely to engage with content that’s relevant to their interests. Litho, on the other hand, only allows a static ‘one size fits all’ message per print run.

High quality – the quality of digital printers is rapidly improving, and is almost indistinguishable from traditional litho. Their reliability is also getting better, and eventually they’ll be just as consistent, and competitive, at long print runs too.

Digital printing puts one-to-one marketing into customers’ hands

Digital print has opened up print marketing to small businesses by making it cost effective to deliver timely, relevant and personalised messages. This is the type of marketing weary consumers are crying out for, so digital print technology has arrived at just the right time.

Here at bda we’ve experienced first hand the benefits digital print offers for one-to-one marketing. In a recent campaign for Siemens, digital printing enabled us to create individual brochures personalised to match the responses customers logged on their website. This enabled Siemens to not only deliver marketing finely tuned to their customers’ interests, but also saved cash because they only needed to print what was requested, rather than end up with a pile of unwanted brochures gathering dust.

Litho still has a role to play in printing mass produced materials. But for fast, cost effective and personalised one-to-one print marketing, you have to go digital.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

With all the fuss about the internet, it’s easy to forget about one of marketing’s workhorses that’s helped businesses promote themselves almost since the invention of the printing press. The fact is that a large proportion of people still prefer to receive offers in print, which is why the humble brochure deserves to be respected.

A brochure should reflect your expertise, professionalism and the quality of your products. And it needs to be eye catching and captivating if you want it to effectively promote your company.

But even creating a simple brochure in which all the elements are working together can be a complicated process. So to get you started, here’s bda’s top ten tips for designing brochures you’ll be proud to hand out, and are more likely to be read and responded to:

1. Identify its purpose – what do you want the brochure to accomplish? Do you want it to announce a new product? Raise your company profile? Or generate sales? Deciding on your brochure’s aim early on in the design process is vital because it will influence its tone, appearance and the result you can expect to achieve.

2. Work out the hierarchy of info – write a list of all the points and information you want to include in the brochure. Then put them into a prioritised list ensuring all the most vital info is at the top. This will make it easier to plot out what needs to go on each panel of your brochure.

3. Use high quality images – your brochure should provide a visual feel for who you are and what you do. So you should invest in high quality stock images or professional photography that reflects the expertise of your company. Trying to save money by using free clip art or pictures from a friend’s camera is only going to cost you in the long run in lost sales.

4. Make sure it’s well written – your brochure’s words need to appeal to your target customer, sell your benefits and reflect your personality. So choose your words carefully or hire a copywriter to choose them for you.

5. Select an appropriate font – the style of lettering you use will influence your brochure’s visual appearance and reflect the personality of your company. Try and avoid over used fonts, and don’t necessarily copy whatever’s popular at the moment. Font fashion changes quicker than that on Oxford Street.

6. Proofread – read through it several times, read it out aloud and read sentences backwards before you sign it off. Spelling mistakes can damage your credibility, and lead to your freshly printed brochures only making it as far as the shredder.

7. Paper quality – select paper that’s within budget and reflects the quality of your product. Normal weights for brochures range from 80gsm to 350gsm, whilst there’s a wide range of qualities to choose from. Choose paper that reflects your brand message without bankrupting your marketing budget in the process.

8. Choose a finish that enhances its appeal – there are a huge range to choose from, such as gloss varnishing, embossing, foiling, laminating and special finishes such as flitter etc. So choose the type you think best enhances your brochure’s feel, look and message. As with paper quality, some special finishes can be expensive, so ensure you get different quotes before committing to production.

9. Personalise to improve response – customising your brochures with personalised URLs (PURLs) as part of an integrated campaign can increase the response rate because people love seeing their own name in print. Modern tracking also enables you to capture data you can use to make future campaigns even more personalised and targeted.

10. Be realistic about what your brochure can achieve – after you’ve decided on all the elements above and sent your design off to the printers, you shouldn’t sit back and expect the sales to come rolling in. Ultimately, your brochure is a teaser for building intrigue and interest in your products, services, company or event. Long-term marketing success lies in capitalising on the interest your brochure builds through follow up activity, such as email campaigns and sales calls, and continuing to deliver relevant messages your prospects are happy to receive.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.