How do you create a sales brochure that reinforces your brand image?
Sales brochures are an essential communication tool for successful sales prospecting, especially in the B2B sector. It serves to highlight your strengths and develop your reputation.
Whether you opt for a paper or digital format, the creation of a sales brochure is essential if you want to effectively canvass your prospects, and thus acquire new customers. But to be effective, you need to follow a number of best practices ☝️.
Format, style, content, structure, visuals... we'll walk you through 6 key steps in creating a sales brochure with impact.
But first, a brief definition.
What is a sales brochure?
A sales brochure is a communication and sales tool with multiple objectives:
- to present the company in a concise way ;
- to promote a product or service offering, and its 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;
- stay in the minds of prospects, who can keep it and refer to it later;
- increase company awareness, since the sales brochure can be shared from hand to hand, or from mailbox to mailbox.
☝️ This document is a classic in prospecting, but also in inbound marketing. Indeed, it induces the use of quality content (hello content marketing 👋) for commercial purposes, particularly for :
- purchases that require reflection, ;
- presenting a new product range.
The sales brochure is an excellent way of demonstrating your professionalism and standing out, via a medium that allows you to develop your key arguments!
💡To know: there are different types of sales brochure, depending on your objectives. For example
- the corporate brochure, which presents the company, its history, values, activities and assets;
- the product or service brochure, which, as the name suggests, highlights one or more specific products or services;
- the event brochure, designed to promote an event.
Why choose a sales brochure? The main advantages
The first promise of the sales brochure? Grab your prospects' attention. A concise format, a clear presentation: your message is conveyed fluidly and effectively.
At the same time, it reinforces your brand image. Professional, well-designed, it inspires confidence and helps you stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
✨ Here are some of its key benefits:
- Its visual impact: with its graphic appeal, it captures attention quickly.
- Its accessibility: easy to distribute, it adapts to different media, both paper and digital.
- Extended reach: a brochure can easily be shared. A great way to increase your visibility!
- Practicality: it serves as a reference for your sales force, who can use it to support their sales pitch.
When you produce a sales brochure, you're investing in a tool that enhances your communication and helps you make a lasting impression on your prospects!
What should a sales brochure contain?
An effective sales brochure is based on clear, structured content. It must reflect your value proposition while meeting the expectations of your target audience.
👉 To this end, here are the essential elements to include:
- An eye-catching cover: logo, slogan, impactful visual... the aim is to grab the prospect's attention at first glance!
- A succinct presentation: summarize who you are, your business and your values, in a few inspiring sentences.
- A detailed offer: clearly describe your products or services. Emphasize the concrete benefits for the customer.
- Powerful arguments: highlight your competitive advantages. For even more impact, don't hesitate to add precise figures and examples!
- Professional design: avoid "old-fashioned" layouts and visuals, and stay in harmony with your corporate identity.
- Calls to action (CTA): in digital versions, encourage your prospects to take the next step (contact, quote, trial, etc.) with intelligently positioned calls to action.
- Full contact details: make sure your contact details and website address are clearly visible.
- Testimonials or references: reinforce your credibility with customer reviews and other case studies.
💡 Tip: always maintain consistency between text and visuals!
How to make a good sales brochure in 6 steps?
1 - Define your objectives
First and foremost, define your objectives. Whether they're commercial, marketing or financial, this is an essential step if you want to create a sales brochure that's both appropriate and, above all, effective.
Determining your objectives will also determine your budget!
To do this, ask yourself the right questions:
- Do you want to present a specific product range?
- Or more generally, do you want to develop your brand image?
- With what type of customer (the famous marketing persona)?
💡 Tip: why not use the SMART method? This is how you begin to consider the format and quality of the brochure, and therefore the budget to devote to it.
2 - Drawing up the brief
Creating a sales brochure also involves drawing up an editorial and creative brief, and possibly a set of specifications.
How do you go about this?
By taking stock, by diagnosing your business: what elements should be highlighted, and what tone and style should be used in relation to your target audience? The key is to focus on the essentials, and produce a concise yet powerful report.
👉 F or example, if you want to convey modern values, it's in your best interest to opt for an innovative sales brochure in 3D format. For a younger target, an online, interactive sales brochure is the way to go.
3 - Choose your medium and format
Depending on the answers above, opt for :
- a folded leaflet ;
- single or double-sided page;
- a brochure ;
- a pocket with flaps;
- thicker or thinner weights;
- portrait or landscape format;
- 100% digital brochure.
In fact, it all depends on the brochure's target audience and distribution method, the quantity to be printed, if any, and the famous 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
🖌 Here's some advice:
- Start by listing all the essential information to be included on your brochure and prioritize them in order of importance. These are the ones to start with.
💡 Tip: rely on a CRM like Salesforce Sales Cloud. By centralizing customer data, it simplifies the personalization of your sales brochure content. It helps you identify your target's needs, integrate relevant statistics or create impactful messages. So you can respond precisely to your prospects' expectations! - Organize your data by reading level (boxes, text in blocks, columns, etc.). The aim? Make the document dynamic and ensure that key information can be found at a glance.
Depending on the format you've chosen, you'll have an idea of how much space you'll need. - Be concrete. It's not about selling dreams, it's about reassurance! Therefore, don't hesitate to include success stories, testimonials from satisfied customers, concrete examples of your work, your awards, labels, certifications, partners, etc. Avoid any information that becomes obsolete quickly, as this will force you to make costly updates on a regular basis.
- Produce an initial mock-up to determine whether you need to synthesize more, delete part of the text or revise the format.
Your sentences should be concise and clear, and your spelling impeccable.
Step 5 - Select visuals
Now it's time to choose the visuals, those must-haves that have the merit of airing out the sales brochure and making it more attractive 🤩.
Whether infographics, illustrations or photos, all these visuals must be of good quality.
Also, select elements that harmonize with each other, but also with the colors of your graphic charter.
Step 6 - Creating the brochure
🚀 Now it's time to get creative!
Here, several types of software are available to you:
- Graphic design software, such as InDesign, which integrates advanced features for elaborating and customizing visuals, structuring content and guaranteeing impeccable layout.
- Sales offer management software that, among other things, enables you to create customizable sales pitch frames and sales proposal documents.
💡 We recommend that you apply good design practices. Here are a few you should know:
- Choose legible fonts, and limit their number to two, or even three maximums (one for titles, one for text, for example).
- Aerate your text and layout. You can't say everything - your brochure is a medium that should make people want to know more. So avoid overly compact content that prospects won't connect with.
- Highlight important points with larger words, highlighted with bold or color.
- Balance text and images, on the order of two-thirds/one-third.
- Opt for dominant colors in keeping with your visual identity. As for fonts, choose a maximum of three.j
3 Examples of sales brochures in PDF format
#1 Sales brochure template
#2 Innovative sales brochure
#3 Luxury sales brochure
☝️Pour As a reminder, whatever the type of sales brochure, it must present at least:
- your visual identity: your name, your logo, your colors, to make you stand out from the crowd;
- your contact details: telephone, email, website, so you can be easily reached;
- your added value: your products and services, and their benefits.
Now it's up to you to create the sales brochure that suits you!