To wrap up brochure week, let’s talk about the south end of a northbound pamphlet.

Again, let’s start by hearing from the pros on back-cover design.

Matt Thompson, Story & Co.
“Contact! This is the nitty gritty. A simple map showing regional location, simple driving directions, phone, email and web.
Drive them to the web, because, of course, the brochure is simply one well thought out piece in your well thought out marketing strategy. It’s not your stand-alone solitary marketing initiative. Right? Just like the well thought out user-friendly website and kick ass signature experience photographs you budgeted for.”

Michael Panich, Bolder Design Studio
“The back cover of the brochure is typically used as a mail piece, so the brochure may be mailed without an envelope. However, knowing that a large portion of brochures will be picked up at various points we de-emphasize the mailing aspect as much as possible while following USPS standards. We try to keep a visual continuation of the resort brand and provide at least one call to action on the readers part.”

Lesson #1, the mailing address area should be de-emphasized if it’s included at all.

Lesson #2, contact information, maps and directions are a solid piece of information people expect to see there.

Lesson #3, a call to action should be present.

The Contenders
Here are the back covers of the 10 we looked at in the front-cover post.

On point #1, mail address areas, only two of the brochures are ready to be mailed. Both dedicate a significant portion of the cover to this cause. The rest aren’t able to be mailed. This, in some ways, is a good sign as each came from a rack at a hotel, visitor center, or airport rather than by mail.

On point #2, contact information/maps and directions, five of the brochures have actual maps and all but three have contact information. Each seem to have both a phone number and web address. Plus, there’s even one QR code that I’m sure you’ll enjoy mocking with no data to back up your jest :)

On point #3, a call to action, this seems to be missing for the most part. Aside from a “contact us” or “connect with us” which or more of standard headers than CTAs, I don’t see much in the way of directing focused, valuable next steps.

The Winners
It’s hard to call a winner with a space that’s reserved more for utility than asthetics, but I find myself again drawn to the Diamond Peak. A map that blends into a beautiful picture of the lake, driving directions, and all the contact info you’d need.

Final Notes
I hope this week has been helpful. Brochures are still an important piece of a resort’s marketing arsenal.

Hopefully, with the examples and concepts shared you’ll enter your next planning meeting with a few more insights and ideas.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.