Building Brand Awareness With Free Brochure Design Templates

Have you ever gone on vacation and brought home a stack of brochures to commemorate your trip? Perhaps you grabbed a brochure from a doctor’s office to learn more about the latest treatment or medication. One might be surprised to learn these sleek pamphlets aren’t as pricey as they think. In fact, companies can use free brochure design tools to create their marketing materials on the cheap.

Brochures are effective for building brand awareness and attracting new customers. Companies use print or digital brochures to introduce their brand, services, and products to the public.

Marketers can find numerous free brochure designs online, enabling them to customize their pamphlets according to their brand aesthetic. Let’s dive into creating a cost-effective brochure to spotlight your brand further. 

Why Create Brochures?

Brochures might be the easiest way to get the word out about your brand’s mission and offerings. According to The International Association of Visitor Information Providers, 35% of readers share brochures with friends and family. Overall, one printed brochure will circulate among 3.5 readers. 

In a world heavily saturated with digital advertising, brochures are well-liked among marketers and consumers alike. For one thing, they are easy to distribute. You can distribute leaflets to targeted individuals, adding a personal touch to your tangible marketing initiatives. 

Brochures also encourage interaction between customers and businesses, allowing you to go into detail about what makes your brand and its offerings unique.

Some industries benefit from brochures more than others, such as the following:

• Health and wellness: Deliver information about a medicine, treatment plan, or preventative measure
• Automotive: Advertise a specific car model and its specifications
• Retail: Showcase new products and provide coupons, discounts, and sale information
• Real estate: Highlight newly listed homes and recently sold properties in your area
• Higher education: Inform prospective students about a college’s program offerings, campus details, and contact information
• Hospitality: Entice visitors with high-quality imagery of hotels, excursions, restaurants, and festivals
• Travel: Encourage tourists to some of the most remarkable destinations on Earth

A 2018 Bentley University survey showed 85% of people learned about a business or attraction from a brochure, while 61% intended to buy tickets or products they read about. Another 73% said brochures would encourage them to change their travel plans.

Free Brochure Design Templates: A Starting Point

Many websites offer free brochure design templates — but it’s only a starting point. Creating an eye-catching brochure means you must put your creativity to the test. 

Look for graphic design tools with plenty of customization options to integrate your brand’s color scheme, fonts, and overall aesthetics. Consistency between your brand and brochure ensures familiarity with consumers. 

A clean layout also matters — 61% of website visitors will not return if prime user experience is lacking. The same goes for printed marketing materials. You want to impress readers with a clean, readable brochure so they can get all their information quickly.

The type of brochure you’re interested in creating is also an important consideration. There are several types of brochures you can choose from, including the following:

• Introductory: Introduces critical information for readers to learn about your company, products, and services
• Informational: Provides detailed information or instructions about a specific product or service
• Menus: Ideal for users to order takeout and delivery from a restaurant
• Maps: Directs readers throughout campuses, campgrounds, offices, or other locations they may be unfamiliar with 

Of course, the type of pamphlet you choose should coincide with the correct format. For instance, brochures are often folded in accordion style, bi- or tri-folds, single- or double-open gate folds, or something else. 

What About Digital Brochures?

Many companies publish promotional and informational brochures online as live documents, downloads, or gated and ungated content.

While printed materials tend to be more personal, digital brochures allow you to incorporate other media like video, audio, quizzes, and other interactive features.

Brands might turn to digital “pamphlets” to tell their story in an engaging and visually pleasing manner. Savvy creators lean into user experience to improve navigation and presentation, making viewing more memorable and exciting for readers. 

You can also measure and track your success, gaining insight into essential customer behaviors. For instance, your brochure might accumulate views and shares, enabling you to adapt your content as necessary.

5 Free Brochure Design Websites 

If you’re interested in maximizing promotional materials for your brand, you’re in luck. Access to free brochure design templates is merely a click away. Tap into these five graphic design tools to create a brochure that will resonate with your target audience.

1. Canva

Canva has quickly become one of the top graphic design tools for generating promotional materials, ensuring a more straightforward process for designing and distributing brochures than ever before. 

Create an account and search through the different brochure templates. Once you’ve found the right one, customize it by adding some of Canva’s 2 million graphics and order your prints.

2. Microsoft Word

Did you know you can create brochures in a Microsoft Word document? Select “File” and “New” to search for brochure templates ideal for your business goals.

You can also create a brochure template manually by modifying the page orientation from “portrait” to “landscape.” Then, adjust the page size under “Size” and “Page Layout.” Tri-fold brochures are typically 8.5 x 11 inches or 11 x 17 inches.

3. Vista Create

Vista Create has hundreds of premade brochure templates for you to choose from for your print marketing materials. What appeals most to creators is the site’s library of 70 million royalty-free photos, videos and vector graphics. 

Business accounts can also add up to 10 team members to collaborate on brochures and other promotional documents. 

4. Adobe Express

Create a free Adobe Express account to customize your brand’s ideal brochure design. Adobe Express offers hundreds of templates for various industries and a wide range of royalty-free Adobe Stock images.

Those who want to apply their brand identity to all future marketing materials can upgrade to the Adobe Express Premium plan. With a membership, you can automatically add logos, colors, and fonts people will recognize.

5. Google Docs

Google Docs presents a unique ability for you to collaborate with your team to create a free brochure. Like Microsoft Word, Google Docs has premade brochure templates you can customize. 

Invite team members to the document to share their ideas and make necessary changes. Sometimes, multiple heads are better than one when creating engaging promotional materials. 

Tips for Creating an Effective Brochure

Your brochure must be attractive, concise and accurate if you want people to read it. As such, there’s a correct way to create an influential pamphlet. Keep the following tips in mind as you begin layout your free brochure design template:

• Determine your brochure’s purpose — to introduce, inform, or direct.
• Write excellent copy, ensuring it provides all the necessary information.
• Include a call to action to tell readers what they should do next.
• Choose fonts wisely and limit yourself to one or two.
• Select high-quality images.
• Proofread and edit everything, from content to media.
• Know where your brochure’s folds are.
• Decide what type of stock paper to print it on.

A Captivating Brochure Design Will Make the Rounds

If you choose the best brochure design for your brand, it will make the rounds among numerous people. Start viewing your marketing materials as artwork to ensure you end up with a product you’re proud of.