If you think that product brochures are redundant in today’s time and age – you are wrong!
Even in 2021, product brochures are a wonderful tool for you to market your product attractively and compellingly. Since they are quick and easy to distribute, they are a great option for start-ups and small businesses to guide the spotlight towards them. In addition to that, they are also potent in helping bigger companies leave a lasting impression on their clientele, summarize their expertise and mission statement, and grab the attention of their existing/potential customers.
However, the brochure creation procedure is nowhere near easy!
Not only do you have to let your creativity flow, but you also have to make sure that all the teams and departments in your organization are on the same page about what you ultimately want to deliver. Due to this, the review and approval process is specifically more demanding and requires you to pay 100% attention to it. With all the responsibilities associated with this procedure, it really is not hard for things to take a turn for the worst!
So – what’s the solution? How can you ensure that the brochure creation procedure is seamless and under control?
By optimizing it!
Optimization of the design process is the foolproof way to take the challenges out of this task, and in this article, we will look at how exactly you can optimize your design process.
Table of Contents
Why is Product Brochure Creation so Hard?
Before we dive into the way to optimize your product brochure creation procedure, let’s look at some of the aspects that make it a challenging process, to begin with.
We will look at multiple elements individually – however, the biggest reason why product brochure creation is hard is that there need to be many people involved. The more collaborative the process is, the better results you are likely to get. This means that there will be many different perspectives, suggestions, and techniques that have to fit in the design process. Needless to say, this results in certain challenges.
Who Should be Involved?
We’ll get to the challenges in a minute, but first, who is to be involved in the creation process, to begin with. Let’s see
Project managers
Your project manager will be entirely responsible for handling the process. It is ultimately the job of the project manager to guide the project to completion. It doesn’t matter if the project manager is strictly from the marketing team or a general project manager hired for that particular time and project.
Marketing team
The marketing team should also be involved in the procedure. At the end of the day, your marketing team will bring your design dreams to life. These professionals will ensure that the product brochure does what it’s supposed to do, i.e., attract your audience.
Design team
This one’s obvious – but you need to get the design team involved. They will be the source of creativity you need behind your brochure and thereby construct the perfect product brochure that aligns with the nature of your product.
Product team
Lastly, the product management team is another crucial member of the design process. The product management team keeps in check how accurate the product brochure is and whether or not the depiction of the product is true to the product itself.
What are the Challenges?
So, what are the challenges the product brochure design process comes with?
There are multiple files that you need to handle.
Since many people are involved in the procedure, there are likely to be multiple drafts of the brochure design. This means that there will be a lot of files that you need to manage and save. The number of people involved also means that they will work on their project individually, which means that having a collaborative platform and a centralized file can be quite a struggle.
The feedback rounds during the procedure are longer.
More people also means that the feedback round is longer. When you aim to consider feedback and suggestion from everyone involved in the project, it will certainly take more time to get all of it in. It will also be hard to chase people and get them to meet deadlines and engage on time.
Gaining an overview can be difficult.
It can also be a hassle, especially for project managers, to acquire the right overview of the product brochure design. Many aspects need to be considered, as well as the opinions of many people. In short, you have to have an insight into everything that is going on, which is not always an easy task.
There might be gaps in the feedback you get.
If all members involved don’t give effective feedback and that too on time, it can be hard to execute the product brochure design procedure properly! The inconsistent collaboration will lead to a lot more problems and will hence clog up the procedure. However, since people have busy schedules, it would be unrealistic to expect a response from everyone at the same time. Hence, the gaps in feedback are more or less unavoidable.
Language issues can also arise.
Since different people from different teams are involved, language may be an issue. Even if it isn’t, the way of communication might still be different from team to team. For example, how the product management team interacts with one another may not be the same as the marketing teams. In that sense, there can be a communication barrier between the two.
Again, when it comes to the product brochure design process, there needs to be a lot of collaboration. When the teams are not on the same page regarding relaying their needs back on forth, it can be a huge problem to work on the project effectively.
The downtime is delayed.
The senior management involved in the product brochure design process is likely to be outside the office. Because of this, the downtime for your product brochure is delayed, and it may take you a while before you get to have complete feedback on your brochure design. The senior colleagues you have may even be in different locations, making it a geographical struggle to have a real-time conversation with them.
How to Optimize the Design Process
Now that we have all of that covered let’s look at how you can optimize the design process. In fact, the only way to do so is to follow the steps laid down below! Please consider these steps because they will help you streamline your procedure and make things a LOT easier for you!
Brainstorm everything together.
At this point, I have possibly reiterated the importance of collaboration a total of twenty times. If you want your product brochure to be optimal and effective, you have to use every brain available. When all the teams come together to form a bigger team, it is more beneficial because you are gathering more creativity at the end of the day!
So, to execute the best, most optimized design process, you have to sit down with everyone involved and generate some ideas. Get into discussions. Into debates. Get to the bottom of what you really want your brochure to stand for. It will be easier for you to know what you are working towards at the end of this.
Get to know the product and design the product brochure based on that.
The purpose of your product brochure is to depict your product. You will naturally want to glamorize it as much as you can, but you also have to ensure that you stay true to the nature of the product!
To optimize this part of the process, it is important to implement mechanisms that make it easier for the design and product management team to interact. When they send feedback and suggestions back and forth, it will be easier for you as a team t create a brochure that is appealing and accurate to the core.
Keep the target audience in mind.
This is an indispensable aspect of optimizing the product design brochure process. Essentially, you want to create a brochure that calls out to the audience. You need to keep in mind the elements that are likely to appeal to your desired demographics. Such insights will be easily available at the marketing department, so the marketing department is an integral part of the entire process.
The key point here is that your product brochure needs to be the bridge between your audience and the goals of your business, and you need to have regular communication with the marketing department to make that happen.
Focus on making sketches.
The key to ensuring that the result of the design process is what you really want, don’t hesitate to make multiple drafts and sketches of the product brochure. These will essentially be tests that help you figure out important aspects such as the composition, layouts, edits, refinement, and other elements that really align with the final goals of your project.
Don’t compromise on speed.
Patience is a virtue – so I definitely will not suggest you rush through the process of creating a product brochure. However, for the best results and smooth, seamless design procedure, you must aim to be as speedy as possible. This can be one if you automate a bunch of elements. Make efficient workflows repeatable.
This means that you should figure out what works the best for your team and each particular project and then standardize those methods for the future. You can also create templates for multiple product brochures that may be usable for upcoming projects.
Implementing Optimization Techniques
Let’s ask the most important question now: how can you implement the aforementioned optimization techniques in one go?
With GoVisually!
Collaboration and communication between all members of the project team are important to create the perfect product brochure. Luckily, these aspects are exactly what GoVisually exists to streamline. It allows you to review and approve projects in real-time!
Want prompt feedback? Want to minimize the effort that goes into getting everyone to engage with the project?
Well, you can do all of that and more through GoVisually. It will help you optimize the design process like never before.
Not only that, but the fact that GoVisually prioritizes visual feedback will help you gain a comprehensive overview of the project. In short, making improvements and creating the perfect product brochure will never be easier than with GoVisually.
