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Your Church, May/June 2000
OFFICE
EQUIPMENT
More Brochure for Your
Buck
How to
design a marketing tool that promotes your church
Jeanette Gardner Littleton
"There's
no faster and more effective way to communicate information than through a brochure,"
says Linda Irwin of Hope Presbyterian Church in Cordova, Tennessee.
Hope Presbyterian found
brochures especially helpful during the dramatic expansion of the 3,500-member
church. "We have tables set up to highlight each ministry, and people stand
at each table to give information about the ministry," Irwin says. "But
we also have brochures there, and we find people are more likely to pick up
a brochure than to ask questions of the people at the tables."
You may not be growing
as fast as Hope Presbyterian, but brochures can still be helpful to your church.
They can serve as a vital communication link to your regular attenders and as
a helpful guide to visitors or potential members.
Brochures come in a variety
of sizes and formats. You can do something as simple as an 8-by-11-inch trifold
brochure with black ink on plain paper, or get as elaborate as a folder with
various-sized color sheets of paper creatively fit together. It's just a matter
of determining what the church wants to do, what it can afford to do, and what
it has the ability to do.
What
to Say
Writing a brochure
doesn't have to be complicated. Just keep these points in mind:
• Stay focused.
Are you offering information to members or encouraging visitors to make your
church their spiritual home? Clarify the message you want to present and know
your intended audience. Then stay on track; refuse to follow rabbit-trail issues
or you'll confuse the reader and dilute your message.
In a general brochure that
you'll give to visitors, you should include a brief history of your church along
with its vision statement. Give denominational or statement-of-faith information,
biographies of the church staff, and any other information you deem important.
Don't forget the church's contact numbers (phone, fax) plus e-mail, Web, and
mailing addresses.
You can design a brochure
that features just about any aspect of your church's ministry, from Sunday school
and adult choir to children's programs and single adults' Bible study. Kansas
City Baptist Temple in Kansas City, Missouri, has a strong missions program,
so it prints brochures giving people the details of its annual missions conference.
It also produces brochures that introduce people to the missionaries that the
church supports.
In addition to its regular
ministry brochures, Hope Presbyterian Church prints a special brochure that
it offers to people during Easter and Christmas. The brochure has a seasonal
wrap, or cover, that includes a beautiful full-color photo. The wrap can be
re moved to reveal a second cover of this handy reference guide to church programs.
• Keep the copy simple.
Be colorful but direct in writing a brochure. Eliminate pompous or unnecessary
words. Use strong, active verbs. Most of the sentences you write should be fairly
short to keep the reader moving through the piece.
• Be enthusiastic.
A toned-down promotional feel is okay for a brochure. People want to know why
they should invest their time and effort in a program. The trick is to skip
the hype while sincerely conveying that your church and its programs are exciting
and fulfilling. In clude testimonies from people who enjoy the program.
• Be accurate. Include
all necessary information, such as who leads the program and who it is intended
for, what the program includes, when the group meets (time and date), where
it meets (room number or ad dress), and for what purpose. If the program is
free, say so. If there's a cost, state that.
Answer any questions that
participants might have. For example, if the brochure promotes a divorce-recovery
group, will the church provide child care, or is there a program running simultaneously
for children? For program-specific brochures, don't forget a contact phone number
and/or e-mail address with a specific name and photo, if possible. The more
questions that you answer for your readers, the more likely it is that they
will respond.
How to
Design It
The better your
brochure looks, the more likely it will be picked up and passed along. So concentrate
on making it neat, clean, and attractive.
To help you with this,
look for a person in church who has graphic arts experience. Otherwise, contact
a professional service, such as Outreach Marketing, which helps churches create
cost-effective brochures and other marketing tools. Outreach Marketing will
plug the church's photos and text into a generic format, which saves costs.
The company has different types of material (brochures, cards, doorhangers)
to attract visitors, inform attenders, and equip members.
If you are designing your
own brochure, remember:
• Keep the design simple.
You want the design to enhance your message, not de tract from it. So leave
plenty of white space, because a crowded page can put off the reader. Don't
use too many fonts or overly elaborate fonts. Stick to the ones that are easy
to read. Serif fonts are good for text, while sans serif fonts are good for
headlines. Try to choose appropriate type for the brochure's message and audience.
When most people look at
a page, their eye naturally goes to a point about three-fifths up the left column
of the page and makes a clockwise circle. Have the flow of your elements (headlines,
text, illustrations) complement this natural movement.
If you're doing multiple
brochures for different aspects of your church's ministry, use the same designer
for all of the bro chures, suggests Donna Bruce from Kansas City Baptist Temple.
• Use engaging images.
Clip art and photography are very popular for illustrating church brochures.
Cartoonist Ron Wheeler's Fat-Free Clip Art CD offers 4,000 images for a Mac
or PC. Gospel Light Publications and Baker Books also offer good clip art. You
can check the Web, graphics stores, and bookstores for additional resources.
If you use photos, make
sure they're of high quality. Use photos of people, preferably those who are
doing something, rather than photos of buildings or rooms. Be sure to get permission
from copyright holders before reproducing photos or artwork.
The Right
Nuts and Bolts
If your church
wants to create dozens of brochures, you might want to consider investing in
some equipment to do them in-house. Here's what you'll need:
• Software. You
can create a brochure with a basic word-processing program. However, for more
intense desktop publishing and a slicker look, Quark Express is a popular option.
It costs around $700.
• Paper. You can
find good, standard, or colored stock paper for brochures for less than $20
per 8 or 10 reams (each ream has 500 sheets). Check out office-supply stores
or discount warehouses in your area.
You can also find preprinted
brochure paper by mail order from companies such as Paper Direct. Though retail
stores may offer less expensive paper, Paper Direct offers better quality paper
that's prescored for easy folding.
• Scanner or digital
camera. If you intend to use photos, you'll probably want a scanner or digital
camera. Recently, scanner prices have dropped to a very affordable level. High-quality
digital cameras remain expensive, however. Do your homework, and remember that
what looks great on a computer screen doesn't always look good in print.
• Ink. You can buy
ink from a digital duplicator manufacturer or you can buy directly from an ink
company. Van Son Holland Ink Corporation offers 18 standard colors and a custom-mixing
service through which custom colors can be ordered in small volume. Van Son
Holland offers a five-business day turnaround time on the ink, says Tim Whitman,
director of public relations. The company's inks dry quickly, provide dense,
vibrant color, and are long-lasting. Tube sizes and prices vary.
Digital duplicator.
If you're doing a short run (1 to 20 copies) of black-and-white brochures, your
office copier should be adequate. But for long runs, you'll go through toner
and drums too quickly and put too much stress on the machine.
If you want to add color
and print long runs, a digital duplicator may be a worthy investment. A duplicator
can be connected to your computer system for quick, easy printing, and the better
models can duplicate 120 copies per minute at 600 dots-per-inch resolution.
Just as important, they can add spot color—localized single colors that can
be used at your discretion—to spice up your brochure.
Since duplicators run on
an ink-based system rather than toner, there is no heat produced in the machine.
That means the church will have to spend less on repair and maintenance for
a duplicator than for a copier, says John Reiling of Ricoh, a digital duplicator
manufacturer that also owns Savin and Gestetner. When you use a duplicator,
you put less wear on your copier, again saving money, says Kevin Thompson of
Riso, the company that invented digital duplicator technology. Digital duplicators
also tend to have a longer life span (7 to 10 years) than a copier. "It's
a very durable pro duct. That's why the church market likes it," Reiling
says. "It's a good investment."
Costs per copy for a duplicator
are a fraction of a penny, whereas a typical outside printer may charge 2 cents
a copy or more. Thompson says an average church will experience savings on an
investment in a duplicator after a year's worth of printing. Plus, you don't
have to worry about someone else's deadline when you do it yourself, says Nancy
Yip of Duplo, another duplicator manufacturer.
Duplo's DP63P duplicator
comes with 600 dpi resolution, a 3,000-sheet capacity (standard), and a built-in
computer interface for $19,995. The DP21L offers 300 x 600 dpi for $5,995. Riso's
3700 series includes three top models from 300 dpi to 600 dpi at an average
price of $12,000. The VT6000 ($18,000) from Ricoh offers 600 dpi resolution
and can accommodate 11-by-17-inch paper. Ricoh's JP5000 ($12,000) has 400 dpi
resolution and can accommodate 11-by-17-inch paper as well. Ricoh also offers
the JP1030 for $6,000.
The bottom line on duplicators
is that you should shop carefully. Determine what your church needs are, then
compare prices, standard features, extras, paper sizes, and resolution.
If you decide to use an
outside printer for your brochure, check around and see what types and sizes
of paper are available. Ask about quantity discounts and finishing services.
Then compare prices.
Whether you decide to do
simple foldouts in black-and-white or go with something more elaborate, consider
using brochures for your church. Brochures get picked up and travel to where
you can't go for only pennies a copy. They can be a great tool for your church.
Jeanette Gardner Littleton
is an editor with Moody Magazine. She lives in Hanover Park, Illinois.
helpful resources
• Baker Books 800-877-2665
• Duplo 800-255-1933
www.duplousa.com
• Gospel Light 800-446-7735
• Outreach Marketing
800-991-6011
www.outreachmarketing.com
• Paper Direct 800-272-7377
• Riso 800-876-7476
www.riso.com
• Ricoh 800-637-4264
www.ricoh-usa.com
• Ron Wheeler's Clip
Art 816-941-9221
www.cartoonworks.com
• Van Son Holland Ink
Corporation 800-258-8783
www.vansonink.com
Copyright © 2000 by the
author or Christianity Today International/Your Church Magazine. Click here for reprint information on Your Church.
May/June 2000, Vol. 46, No. 3, Page 64
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