by Kallen Evans
Professional
biography:
Kallen Evans is a full-time
golfer and a part-time student with hopes of a successful career in marketing
and advertising. Before starting his graduate degree at Weber State University,
Kallen graduated from the University of Utah with honors in strategic
communication. During his time at the University of Utah Kallen participated in
a student-run advertising and public relations agency that worked on projects
for companies that included RC Willey and Rockwell Watches. During the winter,
when he is not on the golf course helping young children discover the love of
the game, he is in the office designing flyers for real estate listings at
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Utah. Besides golf, his other hobbies include
playing basketball, exploring the outdoors, traveling, attending concerts and
watching movies. Although currently single, Kallen hopes to have a large family
of his own with a life dedicated to his faith, wife, kids and community.
My dental brochure
experience:
The punk rock band Fugazi
released “Waiting Room” in 1988. The lyrics to the first verse are:
“I am a patient boy. I wait, I
wait, I wait, I wait. My time is water down a drain. Everybody's moving.
Everybody's moving. Everything is moving. Moving, moving, moving. Please don't
leave me to remain in the waiting room.”
Many agree with Fugazi. A
waiting room can be painful. The last two months I have spent significant time
in a waiting room to see the dentist, but not to get my teeth worked on. I’ve
been seeing the dentist about a waiting room brochure.
Designing
a brochure for a dental office wasn’t painful. It was fun. It provided me an
opportunity to help both the dentist, and his patients. The dentist I worked
with felt the public was being taken advantage of by insurance companies and
the dentist came up with what he believed was a solution. He was trying to get
more patients on a fee-for-service-basis and be less dependent on third party
contracts from insurance companies. He had set up an in-house dental benefit
plan for his patients to replace the need for private dental insurance. I was
asked to help share his solution by creating a brochure for his waiting room
explaining this in-house dental plan that can save patients money and the hassle
of working with large insurance companies.
When
I started this dental brochure I was apprehensive. I didn’t know anything about
the dental profession so I became familiar with some dental terms and studied
the dental industry. I found some fantastic blogs on brochure design and
researched them. I called AlphaGraphics and FedEX Office looking for a design
professional to mentor me. No names came to mind. Unsure of my next step, I
remembered a friend who owns her own company, Rachel Avonlea Design. She
specializes in wedding announcements and custom chalkboards. She received her
graphic design degree from Utah Valley University. She agreed to offer
suggestions and answer questions so I felt ready to start my brochure.
A dental brochure is a specific
niche. There are not a lot of dental specific brochure resources on the web. I
want to change that. My goal is to help others design a great dental brochure. I
have narrowed down the most helpful tips from the blogs I researched and
included them below.
16 Tips for designing a
tri-fold dental brochure:
1. Get to know the dentist
Ask the dentist why they need a
brochure. They are also a consumer and get printed material thrown on their
desk. The dentist may be fond of the brochure approach because it has been a successful
tool others have used to convey messages to them.
Often the dentist wants a
brochure due to previous success with them in their waiting rooms. You may only
need to update the information and design of their current brochure.
A brochure is a communication
tool. You will need to be able to capture what the dentist wants to portray in
the brochure. If you are not sure what kind of information they want to
portray, take time to talk to them. They would much rather get every detail
correct than have you guess and print hundreds of costly brochures on their
dime.
There are a few things you can
do to get to know your client better:
1. Get
to know the dentist’s practice. Keep up with their industry. It is impossible
to become an expert in their field, but understand their language, problems and
concerns.
2. Respond
to the dentists emails, texts or phone calls promptly. If they ask you a question
and you don’t know the answer or solution, it is important to reply.
Acknowledging you heard them and are working on a solution is good.
3. Let
the dentist know your plan and your next step. They will be impressed you have
made plans to progress this relationship and you are working hard on their
brochure.
For more on getting to know your client, see:
2. Know your audience
Who is likely to see this
brochure and follow the call to action? If you are designing a waiting room
brochure it is going to be read by various audiences.
Your
audience has a full range of dentists to choose from. By understanding this you
will know what the audience is looking for and you will be able to better
anticipate competitors moves.
Knowing
your audience includes knowing how to communicate to them. Some suggested steps
to help you better communicate with your audience are:
1. Use words and phrases your
audience understands. Do not use acronyms unless they are universally known.
Don’t use technical dental terms that will confuse the reader.
2. Be concise and talk about
what’s important to your audience. The brochure might mention how they can save
money. That’s important to all audience members. Get to the point quickly.
Don’t make assumptions. Assuming
you know the customer’s preferences is a bad idea. Brochures can be tricky as
they are almost considered old fashioned. They are printed, not digital. You
can’t swipe right or “Like” the brochure. You must physically touch it, hold
it.
Ask
customers for their opinion on the message you want them to receive through
reading the brochure. In my brochure, I needed to know if dental patients would
be interested in an in-house dental benefit program. The dentist already had
many people signed up by talking to them face-to-face so I knew people were
interested and the desire was there. If you do not have this information, set
up a survey. Try using SurveyMonkey. SurveyMonkey lets you create and publish
online surveys in minutes, and view results graphically and in real time. It is
a free service. You can email your survey out to patients and get their
feedback within minutes.
For more on getting to know your audience, see:
3. Find a great example
Obvious, I know. Foolish
people may find one brochure at a local business or online and base everything they
do on that example. Don’t just grab the first one you see. Truly find a great
example. Run into many businesses and collect brochures. Don’t just look at the
brochures found on the top 10 suggested Googled sites. Work for these examples.
Collect at least 20 great examples of brochures before you start designing your
brochure. Professional golfers often study and analyze the best swings in the
game to better understand their skill. The best shooters in the NBA try to
repeat the form and action of the greatest players of all time by studying
their examples. Designing a brochure isn’t different.
4. Use a tri-fold layout
Brochures have limited space.
After including attention-grabbing visuals, contact information and
testimonials you only have a few sections to describe your call to action with
text. A layout will help you decide where to place information.
1. Front
cover – The front cover in a tri-fold brochure should be visually appealing and
entice the reader to open the brochure and read more. The cover should include
the logo and dental office name. Do not overcrowd the cover. A good rule of
thumb is to place the name of your business or the title of your brochure on
the top third of the front panel.
2. Back
cover – Do not put anything on the back cover other than contact information.
The dental office name, address, phone number, email address, and website
information is appropriate. A little social media push is wise too. Letting
your audience know you are on Facebook, Twitter and Yelp will remind them to
check-in or write a review.
3. Inside
front panel – This is the most important panel. Use it to summarize why the
customer should choose this dentist or product. Include a testimonial here.
While this is the most important panel, write it last. By writing the other
information first, you will have a better idea of what you want to summarize on
the inside front panel.
4. Inside
three-panel spread – When the brochure is open, you will have three full panels
to write a complete description of the practice or the product. Some ideas
include:
·
A one or two sentence description of the dentist
or product. Word it in a way that makes the reader feel “smart” for choosing
the dentist or the product.
·
Mention the comparative advantages. Customers
want to know why they should choose this dentist or product.
·
Tell the reader the process. Describe how they
can follow the call to action.
·
Let the reader know if they have questions they
can talk to the receptionist or the dentist for information on the services or
product.
For more information on tri-fold layouts, see:
5. Keep it simple
You can overthink the
design of the brochure. Focus on the target. Focus on getting your message
across. Don’t overcrowd the message with things that aren’t vital to the
message you are portraying. Simple design keeps the audience focused on the
message and doesn’t overwhelm their thoughts with visuals.
For more on keeping it simple, see:
6. Be unique
Make something unique. You don’t
have to make something so fancy it has 3-D pop outs or holographic images. Just
be different - not only different from your competitors, but different from
other brochures in all business sectors.
The customers might not be
handed the brochure by a salesperson or a receptionist. They might grab the
brochure off a desk or out of a rack. Make them want to pick it up and read it.
Part
of being unique is being creative. Think of a design that can still be noticed
when it is among other brochures in a rack. Your client will love it when you
can offer them a creative design, unique and original.
For more tips on being unique, see:
7. Don’t forget AIDA
AIDA
is a common principle with brochure design. It stands for Attention, Interest,
Desire and Action. It is an acronym that should be in your mind throughout the
creation of your brochure.
It makes sense that attention is
the first step of the AIDA principle. How can you get a member of your audience
to take action if you don’t have their attention? This can be done with the
first page of the brochure. Make this page grab their attention.
Interest
is the second principle. You need them to want to know more about the message
you are conveying. This is a good place to introduce the benefits and
advantages the reader will have if they implement your call to action.
Desire.
You need the reader to want what you have to offer. Include in this principle
testimonials. Having a current customer recommend the reader take advantage of
your call to action is a great way to generate desire.
Action
is the final step. You have successfully got the reader through the first three
principles, now you just need to get them to act.
For more information on AIDA, see:
8. Use compelling visuals
Photos and graphics are
the first thing the readers notice. Colorful images and beautiful photo spreads
increase the audience’s interest.
Graphics
should look professional and polished. You should only use the most clear and
attractive photographs and images. Don’t use grainy, stock images you pulled
off of the internet. Use original images. The readers will appreciate them.
There
is such a thing as too many visuals. It is a challenge to provide the right amount
of text-to-visual ratio. While visuals are processed faster, text can provide
greater understanding.
For more information on visuals, see:
9. Choose correct colors, themes and fonts
Bright colors
really give flyers a much needed punch and attract attention. Colors are a huge
help in making a brochure or flyer interesting and pleasing to the eye. If you
don’t use complementary colors or you use too many distracting colors you may
shoot yourself in the foot. Remember, the information is the most important part
of the flyer. Don’t distract from the call to action.
A
theme is a good way to keep the colors coordinated. If you are designing a
brochure for a company that makes tents, it would be a good idea to use an
outdoor photo. This outdoor photo might include a bunch of green trees, or red
rocks if the photo was taken near the Grand Canyon. The designer of this
brochure would keep a green theme if using the trees or a red theme if using
the red rocks throughout the brochure.
It
is important to have the right font. Too artsy and it can be distracting and
hard to read. Too dull and it can bore the reader and they will put the
brochure down and move on to the Sports
Illustrated or People magazine. Consider
size when picking a font. Use a font that looks good when made a bigger size.
For more on colors and themes, see:
10. Include a clear call to action
Wording
telling the reader to do something is a call to action. It could be to visit a
store, sign up as a volunteer, sign up to vote, pledge to give blood at a blood
drive, etc.
Be specific with your call to
action. Provide detailed instructions on how to take the next step. If you do
not include specific action steps the reader may lose the message and
motivation to take the next step. Your brochure will be pointless if you do not
provide a call to action asking the customers to do something in response to
the information they received in the brochure.
The most important thing is that
your message, the call to action, is clear. Don’t overcrowd the main message
with pictures. If the main message takes text to explain, use the text.
Make sure the call to action is
obvious. Ask yourself if you can clearly define and see the five W’s and one H
are prominent. These include the who, what, when, where, why and how.
When including your call to
action check for your company name and logo. Make sure it is present and in a
noticeable spot. Check the contact information: address, phone number, email,
and website address. Explain how the reader can use your services or take
action.
For more on call to action, see:
11. Use images, charts, headlines and bullet points
The
best way to manage your space is to use images, charts, headlines and bullets.
You will need to think creatively about how you want to lay out your design.
Simplify
your brochure. Your audience doesn’t want to read large blocks of text on a
small sheet of paper. A good way to combat having too much text is to use
headlines and bullet points. Charts and images will work for a good breakup of
text bodies too.
Do
not overload your audience with too much information without giving them some
sort of visual bookmark. A visual bookmark is an image, chart or headline that
grabs the reader’s attention and give them a place to mentally mark important
information or pick-up their lost place in the brochure if they get distracted.
If
there is a chart to help the reader understand your call to action, or steps
necessary to complete your call to action, use them. Double check to see if
they are easy to understand, fit the theme, and are not too distracting.
Headlines
are promises to the reader. You are promising the information following the
headline will answer questions regarding the headline. Use powerful headlines.
Three simple headline options are:
1. Use
the words “how” or “how to” to show the content is going to be useful. You
could say: “How to lower your dental insurance bill.”
2. Ask
a question. Make the question something the reader will want to know the answer
to. An example could be: “Are the insurance companies charging you too much?”
3. Offer
something new. You could say: “Introducing a way to skip dental insurance.”
For more on images, charts, headlines and bullets points,
see:
12. Make this brochure worth keeping
Don’t waste your time
designing a brochure that readers will simply throw away. Make the information
so useful they will put the brochure in their purse or their suit pocket. The
audience member should appreciate the design and the beauty of the brochure. If
they take the brochure home with them and leave it on a countertop or dresser the
chances they read it again and see the call to action are higher.
I liked the way Apryl Duncan
stated it:
Let's say you have a dynamite
brochure about your company's travel packages. Your travel agency offers a
getaway to the Bahamas in May and June but in July and August you offer a
package to Hawaii. While your potential customer may be very interested in your
travel packages, they're not ready to think about vacation because they're
still trying to pay off Christmas debts. But they decide to save your brochure.
After all, your travel agency offers packages all year long and they might just
decide to take a week off in June. So they're interested. Just not right now.
Brochures can really help boost your company's sales...both now and in the
future (https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-write-subheads-38723).
For more on making your brochure something worth keeping,
see:
13. Proofread, proofread
Proofread your brochure multiple
times – multiple meaning upwards of 10. Check spelling and grammar. Don’t
simply rely on the spellcheck feature. It identifies words spelled incorrectly
but often misses the words used incorrectly.
Look
for “widows” and “orphans.” A widow is the last line of a paragraph that
appears as the first line of a new page or leaf of the brochure. An orphan is a
paragraph that starts at the end of the page and contains just one line. With a
little editing you can avoid these.
M.T
Wroblewski explained:
Proofreading is to business
communication what buffering and polishing is to woodworking: One little
blemish detracts from the entire piece, causing the overall impression to
suffer. Mistakes and imperfections in any kind of work convey carelessness, and
in the workplace, the stakes are even higher: A piece that is ridden with
spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors is difficult to read and
undermines the credibility and authority you probably have worked hard to achieve
(http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-proofreading-workforce-36110.html).
For more on proofreading, see:
14. Print a few copies
By now you have a finished
brochure that has been proofread multiple times. Print out a couple of them.
The colors may look different printed. Often the colors come out a shade darker
than expected.
Pick a high quality paper. Coated
paper is treated to give a glossy or matte finish. A product on coated paper
looks more expensive and professional.
Paper density refers to the
thickness of the paper and is measured in GSM (grams per square meter). A
higher GSM is a thicker paper which may be suitable for a brochure. Brochures
should be printed with 170-300 GSM.
For more on printing, see:
15. Rack ‘em
A good test to see if it
will look flattering displayed in the office is to organize the brochures in
the way they will be distributed, whether by rack or spread across a coffee
table. This will help you get the best idea of how they will look in their
ultimate setting. If you stick them in a rack, will your brochure stand out
visually and create enough interest for someone to pick up? Does the title of
the company or brochure get cutoff by the tops of the brochures that are in the
rack below them?
For more information on a rack test, see:
16. Get the boss’s approval
Hopefully you have built a
healthy business relationship with the dentist. Show him or her the brochure
before you print them in bulk. See if he or she is pleased with the final
product. Don’t be afraid of critiques. Listen to the dentists and apply what
you both feel appropriate to better the brochure.
Inside the life of a
full-time designer: Interview with Rachel Pinnock
I
approached Rachel about being my mentor and professional design expert with
this dental brochure. She laughed and explained she was no expert, she feels
blessed with a unique design ability. “It may be cliché, but I truly believe
people either have an eye for design or they don’t,” Rachel said. “Design is
something that will always be evolving and changing.”
Rachel
owns her own business, Rachel Avonlea Design. She specializes in wedding
announcements and custom chalkboards. She received her graphic design degree
from Utah Valley University. Being a designer has led to her working with
various people, some not so pleasant. Like many of us, she has had bosses or
jobs that don’t share her same vision. Regarding working with an uncooperative
client, Rachel said:
In design, your client is the
boss. They have the final say. It can be frustrating working with some clients
because you usually know what's
best, in terms of design, for the client or
company. The balance is finding the right way to ‘sell’ your ideas and designs
in a way that the client will get excited and stand behind. As long as you make
them feel like their ideas have been heard and explored, they will usually be
on board. But sometimes it’s just out of your hands and that is when it gets
frustrating.
My
design process for the dental brochure came from Rachel. She explained her
design process as defining the root problem, understanding the audience and
then finding solutions. This process includes doing research by conducting
surveys or talking directly to the client and using the client’s research. She
comes up with a goal or a vision and starts brainstorming by sketching models.
After she has sketched out her ideas and has polished a design she wants to
work with she takes her ideas and converts them to a digital platform. When she
feels she has a good rough draft she will take the product to peers and the
client and ask them for suggestions. She goes through many revisions.
Revisions and critiques are part of design. Rachel
accepts criticism and feels it is vital to success:
Every day is critique day in the design
world! I have to be open to criticism or I would never progress and learn as a
designer. Without critiques and feedback, designs will probably fail. I've
learned that not all criticism is helpful and productive. You have to give and
take with critiques that you receive. It depends on who is giving you the
criticism and their credibility to the subject manner.
I relied heavily on Rachel’s expertise,
even though she claims not to be an expert. I would often get frustrated after
multiple revisions. As soon as I thought I had the perfect brochure and was
ready to hand it over to the dentist, I would notice a small glitch or would
get a suggestion from Rachel or a third-party proofreader that would notice
something. This led me to believe that no brochure is perfect. Take criticism
and learn from it.
Conclusion:
Some
may say print media is dying. In 2015 Jackson Connor of the Huffington Post
reported that marketing agencies spent nearly $540 billion worldwide on
advertising. There was a reported 15.7 percent growth in digital media. For the
first time, radio was predicted to see more advertising money than magazines in
2016.
So
why would placing a brochure in a dental office waiting room be a good idea in
an age where people spend their extra time on their smartphones replying to
emails or checking Facebook?
The
answer is simple. If you work with a dentist that truly believes they are
offering something that will enhance the lives of their patients – if you catch
the vision – you will help get the news across anyway possible. A brochure is a
great start. Patients will explore the waiting room looking for material to
read. If there is reading material that will explore dental options to better
their experience and finances they will want to learn more.
Brochures
are a fantastic advertising tool. They can be placed in pockets and purses for
later consideration. Many use their phone to read an article and get
interrupted halfway through it. They rarely go back and read it. Hopefully, the
brochure will be a physical reminder to the patient to further consider and
research the call to action you and the dentist teamed up to share.
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| designcrowd.com |
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| cluedentalmarketing.com |
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