Trade shows and events can be a great way to network and gain awareness for your company outside of typical marketing. They allow you to get more personal with potential customers, talk face to face, and give them incentive to come back later. One of the best ways to ensure that you aren’t forgotten after they leave your booth is brochures.

Brochures have been used for years as a way to market beyond just your booth at an event. They allow you to stay in customers’ minds for longer and share important information about your company.

Not only that but brochures allow you to use both text and images to sell your brand. They also help you tie in all aspects of your company. This is why brochures still matter and how you can make your standout at a trade show.

Why Brochures Still Matter

You may be asking, but do brochures even matter anymore? How many people actually use them or read them? Well, you would be surprised.

When you are at a trade show you have maybe 5 solid minutes to sell your company to a new customer. Then they will walk away to another booth or get distracted by something else. Trade shows are busy, and the floors are typically packed, so what do you do when someone walks away after only a 5-minute sales pitch? You give them a brochure. 

Brochures are a great way to continue selling your brand. They are small and easy to hand out while you are talking to someone. Or you can have them displayed on your booth so people can grab them before they leave. Or have someone hand them out to people passing by that don’t have time to stop. They allow you to stay in someone’s mind even after they leave. They also allow people to continue to revisit your brand when they have more time after they get home.  

Brochures are still very relevant today. Even with technology being people’s main go-to for marketing, brochures can still be very helpful. A lot of times people attending these trade shows still prefer to have some form of physical media to take with them. Or depending on your target audience, they may prefer physical media to technology. So, don’t discredit brochures, as they are still the number one selling tool for trade shows and events. 

Tips for Making a Good Brochure

Not only is it good to have brochures to hand out at events, but they also need to be relevant, eye-catching, and useful to the reader.

Sure, you could simply whip something together on your office computer and print it off at work. But most of the time, it won’t look great, and it will be poor quality if you are using plain printer paper.  

Consider using someone on your design team or hiring outside help to create an eye-catching and good quality brochure. Then, once you have one go to a good printing company, like Direction Printing, and ask to have it printed in the best quality.

Your brochure doesn’t just need relevant information it also needs to look nice and be high quality if you want people to hang on to it.

Here are our tips for creating a good eye-catching brochure to hand out at your next trade fair.

Eye Catching Front Cover

The first thing people are going to see when they look at your brochure is the cover.

It needs to stand out from every other brochure that is going to be handed to them, so you need to create a standout cover with engaging visuals.

It should be bold and colourful and reflect your target audience as well as your company. 

The cover of the brochure should set the tone for the rest of it. If the cover is boring, people are going to ignore it and move on to something else. However, if it is intriguing, people are going to want to keep reading.

Start by including an image. It should reflect your company, so either your logo or a product or something designed specifically to represent your company or brand. It should also capture the attention of your target audience. If you are targeting Gen Z, maybe make it bolder and more colourful. If you are targeting people over 50, maybe don’t include memes or Y2K design elements.  

Perhaps consider working with a graphic designer to help you design an image or graphic for your front cover. This is not something you should be putting together at the last minute on an old laptop. This needs to look professional as it is a direct reflection of your company. By working with a professional designer, you can ensure that it not only looks good and professional but that it is also of great quality. 

Consistent Branding

It is one thing to have your brochure look good and capture the attention of your audience, but it should also match the rest of your branding.

If your company colours are blue and orange and your brochure colours are pink and green, that doesn’t really match. You need to have consistency across all forms of marketing and branding. If it is off, then it makes you as company look bad and like you don’t care. 

Not only should the colour scheme match the rest of your branding but everything else should as well. Use the same font you use everywhere else. Don’t suddenly change your logo or key features of your branding. The key is for it to blend in with everything else. 

Perhaps consider using the front of your brochure as the model for larger posters around your booth. That way it not only matches your brand but also the rest of the booth and makes that connection mentally for your customers. It will also help them remember which booth they got the brochure from as the image of the poster will pop back up in their minds. This also helps create brand awareness. 

Focus on Your Reader’s Needs 

A brochure, of course, is not all about visuals. The content inside is the main feature and therefore a lot of thought should go into it.

A brochure needs to keep selling when you can’t. So, it should talk about what your company does, what you sell, how much it costs, and potentially even new deals or products you just added.  

However, none of these matters if the customer doesn’t want to buy it or can’t see how it benefits them. Rather than talking about you or your company, talk about how you or your company can help the customer. Customers don’t care unless they can see how something benefits them. Whether it be saving them time or money or even both, they don’t care unless they can see that. Target the brochure to your audience and focus on what your audience needs. 

Include a Call-to-Action

After someone is done reading your brochure, what do you want them to do next? Do you want them to give you a call? Go to your office for a consultation? Email a sales representative? Follow you on social media?

You need to consider this when making your brochure because you will need to include a call-to-action. 

Ideally you should include multiple calls-to-action that are subtly placed throughout the brochure with one final obvious one right at the end. However, if you are unsure how to do this, one obvious call-to-action right at the end will also do just fine. It should be easy to read, clear what you are asking them to do, and be followed by clear instructions. 

It's one thing to ask someone to give you a call or email or visit your website, but if they can’t figure out how to do that then what’s the point. Make sure you are being extremely clear you don’t want them to have to put in any extra work to find the information.

Some key things to ensure you are included are your phone number (company or personal), email address, physical address of your office, social media accounts, and your website address. Make sure these are easy to read and easy to find, typically at the bottom of the last page is a good idea. 

Link Them Online

Finally, a good idea is to link people back online. Most of the world revolves around the internet these days and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

So, making sure to link people online is a safe bet. Not only are most people already online all the time, but it allows your customers to continue learning about your company. If they follow you on social media, then they will be reminded of you every time you make a post. If you link to your website, then they can continue to learn more about you and potentially buy your products or service right away if you sell online. 

A great way to link your brochure back to the internet is through a QR code. Then people can simply scan it without having to type anything into a search engine and be brought straight to whatever you want. It also means they can continue to rescan it whenever they want. 

We hope this was helpful and informative on why brochures still matter for trade shows and events. If you are interested in printing some brochures of your own, give us a call or email today and we can get you started. 

Thank you to all of our amazing clients from everyone at Direction. We appreciate the opportunity to work with you and we look forward to 2022!

All the best for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Halloween to all our amazing clients!

From the whole Direction Team, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and all the best for a happy and safe New Year!

From all of us at Direction, wishing you an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Halloween from Direction Printing!

The last few years have shown an ongoing movement within the print industry to become more environmentally friendly. There are many forestry programs that provide jobs as well as a supply of raw materials for printed materials. A huge amount of recycling to offer renewable materials, but there is also an energy component to creating those materials. The largest challenge is to come up with sustainable materials.

So what is the right step for your company? While most larger companies have already made the switch to offer greener solutions, it’s never too late to start! Today’s consumer is much more environmentally aware and wants to make sure that they’re doing their part as much as possible. Making decisions to support companies that support recycled materials or paper from sustainable sources is a factor these days. Budgets are of course a factor as well, but there are some options that do not break the bank.

FSC stocks are a simple option that allow businesses to help with the sustainable forestry movement. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. The FSC does this by setting standards on forest products, along with certifying and labeling them as eco-friendly (FSC information taken from Wikipedia). What that means is that by printing with FSC regulated stocks, you’re supporting their efforts to manage forests in a way that makes them sustainable.

Another option is choosing stocks with a higher than average recycled content. Most stocks have SOME % of recycled materials, but there are specific stocks that have 50% or 100% post-consumer recycled materials used in the manufacturing of that particular stock. Choosing this option is sometimes more expensive, but you’re helping keep the paper/pulp from recycling programs circulating with a new life.

There are great solutions such as using hemp products as well. Which could be another article all together. But to start, hemp is 7-8 x’s more recyclable than paper. Paper is only 3x’s recyclable. Hemp paper does not require bleaching, which means less chemicals, it is stronger thus longer lasting and 1 acre of hemp produces as much as 4 acres of trees yet only takes 100 days to grow to a stage where its fibers can be used.

Ink is another thing that people don’t usually think of as having environmental impact. Many printing companies (Direction Printing included) have made the switch to using inks, coatings, and chemicals used in print production that are vegetable-based wherever possible. Traditional inks that are petroleum based which can be much more harmful to the environment. They can eventually lead to contamination of the local groundwater and soil.

Vegetable-based alternatives are typically better for the environment and have less of an impact during the recycling process as they tend to be removed easier during the washing processes. But don’t let the fact that they’re vegetable-based make you think that they’re inferior, they still produce results as good as standard inks.

Overall production processes are also becoming more efficient as each generation of equipment is engineered and re-engineered. While there is obviously always going to be power needed for any type of manufacturing process, printing included, the simple changes/switches in lighting and power saving equipment are helping to reduce the energy used per project.

If you have a mandate or project that you’d like to have a quote on for more environmentally-friendly options, we’d be happy to discuss.

The “Wow” Factor

Let us help you create a unique wall. We can work from existing graphics or create something new to compliment your space. The installation process is simple, only a few hours and then you can enjoy the “wow” factor that a full wall graphic brings to an office, retail or even residential location.

Contact us today to discuss further!

Merry Christmas from Direction Printing!

From the entire Direction Team we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Here's a tasty recipe for gingerbread cookies to bring you some holiday cheer!

Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups flour
½ cup white sugar
½ cup butter softened
½ cup molasses
1 egg
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp nutmeg (grated or ground)
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Directions: (makes approx. 24 cookies)
Note - Mix all dry ingredients together first and then add the wet (egg, butter and molasses).  
In a large bowl with mixer at low beat all ingredients together.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate dough in bowl for 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 350°
Grease cookie sheet with butter
Lightly flour your working surface and your rolling pin…take the dough out (divide dough in half) use first half and then the remaining half.  Roll dough out to be 3/16” thick and punch out your desired shapes and place cookies ½ inch apart on a baking sheet. 

Bake for 10 minutes, 12 minutes max. Cool cookies on cookie rack then decorate as desired. 

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving from Direction Printing!

Hoping you enjoy the first over-eating holiday of the season and on that note here are some of the things that our team posted on our chalk wall when asked, “What are you most looking forward to eating at Thanksgiving?”

- Garlic mashed potatoes with gravy (can't go wrong there unless you're a vampire)

- Turkey - dark meat (yes!)

- Brussel sprouts (guess to each their own...)

- Yorkshire Pudding (nice!)

- A WHOLE pumpkin pie (that's a winning idea!!)

What are YOU most looking forward to eating at Thanksgiving?

And to our American clients/visitors, guess same question, but you will have to think ahead 1.5 months!

Welcome to another Printing 101 blog entry - Holding it all Together – Bindery Basics

Ever wonder what the best way to bind your project is? There are several different options and it really depends on the type of project/preference and the page count. Here is a breakdown of the most common types of bindery for easy reference and comparison.

Saddle Stitching (Stapling) – This is where there are 2 staples put through the stock to hold pages together (sometimes 3, if needed). Great for lower qty page count projects.

Pro’s: Inexpensive and fast to produce, project lays relatively flat when open to a page (not so much for higher page counts), adds minimal weight so especially good for mailing, easy to insert into envelopes

Con’s: Limited page count

Detailed Spec’s: Minimum 8 pages up to 76-80 pages based on 80lb text weight (increments of 4 pages needed for this bindery type). The max. page count is based on best performance - Add’l pages are also possible, but they cause spine creep (see previous blog entry) and the force of the stitching can sometimes create issues of strain on the cover and the center panels.

Perfect Bindery – This is essentially where all your pages are glued together along with a cover that creates a spine for your project.

Pro’s: Can accommodate a lot of pages and creates a very professional finished look, easy to insert into envelopes, spine allows for design/text when on a shelf

Con’s: Takes a bit of extra time to produce (1-3 days), projects do not lay flat when open to a page

Detailed Spec’s: Minimum 48-52 pages up to 310-330 pages based on 80lb text weight (increments of 2 pages okay for this bindery type). There is standard glue available for shorter term catalogues and a PUR glue, which is much stronger for longer term use catalogues to help insure the pages don’t fall out easily with repeated use.

Plastic Coil (Plastikoil) Bindery – This is where a series of holes are punched through collated sheets and then a plastic coil is threaded throughout them and bent on the edges to close up bindery. Available in many colours

Pro’s: Can accommodate a lot of pages, colourful options available, project lays flat when open to a page

Con’s: Takes a bit of extra time to produce (1-3 days, depending on qty)

Detailed Spec’s: Minimum 20 pages up to 290-310 pages based on 80lb text weight (increments of 2 pages okay for this bindery type). Standard colours are black and white, but there lots of other colours are available (some are special order). A bonus is that this bindery type could be opened up if typos are found on a page so that it can be swapped out (vs. having to reprint the whole project.)

Double Loop Wire (Wire-o) Bindery – This is also a method where a series of holes are punched into collated pages and then a metal double loop wire is put in and then pressure closed (squeezed).

Pro’s: Can accommodate a lot of pages, project lays flat when open to a page,

Con’s: Takes a bit of extra time to produce (1-3 days, depending on qty)

Detailed Spec’s: Minimum 20 pages up to 240-260 pages based on 80lb text weight (increments of 2 pages okay for this bindery type). Black and dull gunmetal or gloss metal are standard. Other colours available, but will be special order. As with plastic coil, this bindery type could be opened up if typos are found on a page so that it can be swapped out (vs. having to reprint the whole project.)

Here are some add’l types of bindery available:

Corner Stitching (stapled corner) – This is just as it sounds, a staple put into the top corner of a project to hold the pages together. Some projects are done this way for economy or simplicity.

Case binding (hardcover) – This is for high-end books or catalogues meant to be kept around for a long-term use. Expensive when compared to other options.

Loop stitching – This is sort of a version of saddle stitching that is designed to include a handy loop so that you can put your project into a standard binder (vs. having to do 3-hole drilling).

Plastic Comb (Cerlox) – While similar to double loop wire (Wire-o) this type of inexpensive binding is most common in copy shops or educational institutions. Simple to be put together but tends to come apart after a lot of use (as it’s just tension on the loop of plastic and nothing is permanently attached).

Feel free to contact us if you’d like to know more about different bindery options and what might work best for your project. We’d be more than happy to provide a sample for your review as well!

"27 April, Icograda's anniversary, was designated World Graphics Day in 1995. It is an opportunity to recognise communication design and its role in the world.

Design shapes our world in every way, affecting our understandings, opinions, actions and decisions. Design determines the impact of information, whether it be through colour, form, or type, including the smallest street sign, the websites we browse, the products we purchase, or the books we read." - ico-d.org

http://www.ico-d.org/connect/features/post/295.php for full article

We at Direction want to celebrate how design impacts our lives from the packaging that helps you identify ingredients and nutritional information in your food, the signage that guides you on your way to work or even the conundrum created when trying to choose which mustache t-shirt to buy!

Hoping everyone can spend 5 seconds thinking about how much design effects their lives on a daily basis!

Cheers to all the graphic artists out there working hard!

It’s that time of year – egg nog, jellied salad, ugly sweaters…

We always look forward to working with you, but at Christmas we like to take some time to spend with family. So, it will be regular business until Fri Dec 22nd - then closed the week of Christmas – reopening Tues Jan 2nd. We’ll be back refreshed, 5lbs heavier and ready to take on the New Year.

From the entire Direction Team - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hello! Welcome to the new directionprinting.com – Grab a coffee and stay a while...

We have worked to incorporate more content about who we are, what we do and more importantly what we can do for you and your business! Our new site obviously lets you read all about our company and the services we offer, but we’ve now added additional resources and specials that will be updated regularly, so check back to see what the current deals are.

We’ve also added a blog where we will post what’s new at Direction, explain a print term or process to expand your print knowledge or just report in on something new and exciting within printing. Or a killer chili recipe, you never know what will pop up…

Thanks to all our current clients for choosing Direction and we look forward to meeting some new faces and showing you The Direction Difference!