Brochures – in the current home care marketing environment, it seems every agency with aspirations to grow larger than two caregivers has one. This being the case, people use your home health brochure to draw conclusions about the quality of your organization. So how does an agency move from a brochure that leaves a negative impression, to a brochure that looks professional, and then to a brochure that stands-out in the crowd?

The Basics: A few basics will put your brochure on par with that of any national franchise.

  • Good photography, grammar, and design.
  • Quality printing involves small things people don't even realize they are noticing: scored folding that doesn't break the ink; ink instead of toner; a uniform gloss finish instead of glossy toner over gloss paper, clarity and richness of color.

A Step Above: There are a few easy tricks to make your brochure give the impression that your business is a step above the rest. Some of these brochure ideas increase printing costs but not your Home Health Brochure Design costs. You can explore printing and shipping options and costs with the quoting tool here: Brochure Printing.

  • Thicker card stock: Most quality brochures are printed on 100lb gloss book paper. 100lb gloss cover paper is about as thick as a good business card. The weight and strength of this paper makes the same brochure design feel more impressive.
  • Larger paper size: You are not limited to 8.5" x 11". You probably want a brochure that will fit in standard envelopes and brochure racks. But you can start with a flat size of 11" x 17" and fold it down to an eight-panel brochure that fits envelopes and brochure racks. We recommend the 9" x 16" flat size with double-parallel-reverse fold for easily creating a great impression. It stands taller and a little wider in brochure racks. It creates ample space and layout for powerful images, spacious design, and passages that are persuasive and informative.With this tool, you can explore different sizes, then paper, and then folding options. After you select folding options, you can see diagrams and animations to the right (Brochure Options Tool).
  • Custom photography: In our Facebook Target Marketing work, we are finding that custom photography increases response by 77% compared to stock photography. Consumers have developed an eye for images that are "real" versus images that are simply illustrative. While the stock photography industry is trending toward the reality look, hiring a professional photographer to do one photo shoot at your office and one in a model home will go a long way toward making all your future marketing material exceptional.

The Most Effective: The most effective brochures are specific to their placement. All agencies have, want, and need a general agency brochure. However, if a hospital discharge planner directs a patient to a wall of home health brochures and says "pick your agency," will one general description brochure ever stand out over the rest? Imagine instead you are a patient going home and worrying about wound care, and one of those brochures is titled "Certified Wound Care Specialists." Imagine that a doctor is trying to politely dismiss the home health community liaison without even hearing the elevator speech. She asks for a brochure and promises to read it, and your liaison hands over a rack card that boldly declares, "The Most Convenient Home Health Referrals in Houston." The rack card goes on to explain exactly how more convenient referrals are accomplished. Wouldn't that doctor be much more likely to pause for the elevator speech after that?