Menus & Brochures: Make Yours Stand Out

Overview

Restaurants that offer catering, delivery or take-out services often have menus by the register for patrons to take on their way home (or, at least they should!). Retail shops, spas or other speciality stores might have similar menus or brochures to describe their services or offerings. But, how can you make your menus or brochures stand out from the rest?

Details

Much like a business card, your menu or brochure is the “take-away” representation of your brand. A menu or brochure should be:

  • Colorful – most people prefer full-color menus over black and white
  • Concise – keep it simple. What do you most want people to know about you?
  • Enticing – what incentive is there for people to visit you?

Whether you have an existing menu or brochure, or are looking to create one for the first time, there are a few guidelines to keep in mind.

  1. A good cover is key. If the customer only looks at the front of your brochure or menu, what do you want them to take away? If you’re an award-winning pizza joint, maybe you want to highlight that. Or, if you’re a spa that specializes in natural or organic services, you should put this front and center. You can elaborate more about what you do on the inside.
  2. Don’t forget the basics. Include the name of your business, address(es) where you are located, and at least two methods for customers to contact you (phone and email, for example). Additionally, include your logo and tagline, if applicable. You also might want to include your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram handles so customers can find you online. Don’t make it hard for customers to find this important information – keep it all in one place (a good place is on the back cover).
  3. Keep it simple. You might be tempted to include all the information about your restaurant, retail shop or spa on the brochure. Don’t. That’s what your website is for! Work with a local designer to help you layout the information you want to include in a clear and appealing way.
  4. Invest in the heavier stock. In the same way that a limp handshake can feel cheesy and unprofessional, a thin and flimsy brochure can leave customers if you care at all about your marketing efforts. Talk to your printer about what weight paper would be appropriate for your project, and get samples to see how they feel in hand.

Depending on your business and the services (or menu items) you offer, adding professional photography to your brochure might be a good idea. The key word here is professional. You want to make sure your menu items or services look enticing and that the photographs are at a high enough resolution to use in both web and print version of your brochure.

Speaking of web versions of your brochure, you’ll want to make sure you include the information from your printed brochure somewhere on your website. Again, depending on the type of business and what services (or menu items) you offer (and how often they change), it might make sense to update a page on your website weekly or monthly, or just upload a PDF of your brochure to your website for customers to download.

Other places for your menu:

If you’re looking for other ideas to stand out to your customers, check out our tactics on Business Cards, eMail Marketing and Hello Neighbor Letters!