Marketing Your Home-Based Business: Brochures

The fifth way you can market your home-based business is with brochures, which can an inexpensive yet attractive way to promote your business.


Brochures have more flexibility than other direct-mail pieces because you can hand out brochures at conferences, meetings, at a vendor booth, in person, at affiliate businesses, etc. Designed correctly, you can even mail brochures to your direct-mail addresses, too.

Most brochures are designed in as tri-folds, so plan your copy accordingly. Resist the urge to put too much copy on the brochure. A clean, crisp design with minimal words will capture the eye more than a cluttered, densely worded brochure. Work with a copywriter to develop the wording can be beneficial if that’s not your forte.

Again, have it professionally designed—it’s worth the extra money. One way to save on the design costs is to write copy that is timeless, so you can use the brochure design for several years.

For example, a brochure promoting our community pool’s open house tells readers about the annual the open house held Memorial Day weekend with the times listed but no specific dates plugged in, since the open house is held the same time every year. We also avoided dating the brochures by not listing specific membership prices, rather directing the recipients to our website. We’ve used that brochure for five seasons, reprinting as needed from PDF files provided by the designer.

Also, draw up a list of distribution places. Include businesses that could provide cross-promotion, such as flowers and bakeries.

Brochures can be a classy way to present your service or products to new and current clients. Give them a try and you might be pleasantly surprised by the return-on-investment.

Until next time,

Sarah