Here’s what you need to know when designing a brochure:

What are the design objectives of your brochure?

Before you begin designing a brochure, it is important to first outline the objectives of your brochure. What are you trying to achieve through your brochure and its design? Once you have defined your objectives, you can design your brochure to fit those objectives.

For instance, if your objective is to grab the attention of readers and make an emotional connection, you would probably need to design a brochure that will make a meaningful impact on the reader.

Choose your layout and fold

Choose the fold of your brochure depending on how you want to organize your information. Typically, the front is used to command your reader’s attention about your product or service. The inner pages contain answers and more details. The last section provides a call-to-action and offers more contact information for your reader. Here are some types of brochure folds:

Get your copy right

Excellent copy is crucial to great brochure design. A copy that is kept simple, short and succinct allows your brochure’s design to shine even more. Include only the most engaging aspect of what your company does and has to offer, and exclude any information that is not relevant. This allows you to persuade your readers better. Remember, less is always more.

Design tips to make your brochure more effective

Here are some helpful design tips for when you get down to actually designing your brochure:

• Quality printing techniques can enhance your design and boost the message you are trying to convey: Examples of techniques for you to consider include die cut (cutting irregular shapes in the paper, which creates unusual effects) and spot UV coating (which can help create a glossy emphasis on certain words or images)

• Fonts: It is important to select the right fonts for your brochure, as fonts must be legible enough for readers to understand what they are reading. Typography, which is the visual art of written words, is an integral component of design. When done correctly, typography can enhance your brochure’s design.

• Type of paper: There are different types of paper to choose from, and you have to consider factors such as paper density and finish. For instance, a glossy finish will make your brochure look more elegant. It is important that the paper your select fits with your company’s brand image and the message that you are trying to convey.

There are numerous design companies that can assist you in designing a brochure. As a one-stop service provider, Verztec Consulting is one of the few global content consulting experts that offers content development and publishing services under one roof. VerztecPublish™, the design division of Verztec Consulting, combines the best in design and multilingual communications. We apply our diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on design solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

Let’s explore some of the fundamentals for more effective eDM creation.

Keeping Subject Lines Short and Sweet

A subject line should help convey your key message upfront. Where possible, let readers know what the message is at a glance and what’s in it for them should they decide to open your eDM.

When a Picture Isn’t Worth a Thousand Words

Getting images in your email disabled by email clients is common. Design your email content such that the message gets across with or without images. If you are including images, accompany every image with relevant ‘ALT text’—this is the text that shows up in place of a disabled image—that way, readers know what the image is about at the very least.

Limit Use of CSS

Well-designed layouts using CSS may look good on internet browsers but they are generally not well-supported across email clients, not to mention the differing email protocols of mobile devices. To play safe, stick to the use of html tables for layout. It may be old-school but it gets the job done.

Optimize for Mobile: Give a Heads-Up with Pre-Headers

If character counts have to be short for eDMs, they have to get even shorter when displaying on mobile devices. Where possible, try conveying your key message within the first 15 characters and include pre-header text to give a preview of what the message contains; if your header captures readers’ attention, your pre-headers can build upon it.

Optimize for Mobile: One-Column Layout

Create content that can be easily scanned by users, mobile users in particular. Adopt a one-column layout which frees users from the need to scroll horizontally. The easier it is to read, the more likely it will be read.

Optimize for Mobile: Finger-Tapping Good

Design your CTAs to be at least 44px by 44px in dimension (when using buttons) to make tapping on them finger-friendly; and make it easy for readers to spot them by leaving ample white space around any of these buttons.

CTA which are Focused

Limit each eDM to one CTA, or if more than one are required, develop a hierarchy, in which readers are cued via visual prominence, as to which CTA is the main one. For example, if an eDM is focused on getting sign-ups for an event, designing the sign-up button or link to be the most prominent makes sense, with less emphasis on a secondary CTA such as “Learn more about Our Company” or “Click Here for Directions to Event”.

Don’t Cramp Everything into a Single eDM

Including more content may result in none being read. Instead of including more text, be sure to include ample white space and a clear visual hierarchy of what is most important in your content. Whether it is through the use of headers, typography or design layouts, maximize impact, and finish it off with an unambiguous CTA.

Get them Loaded Fast

All the effort that goes into a well-designed edm will go to waste, if the file size gets too large. Large file sizes may prevent content from loading as fast as they should, encouraging readers to head for the exit. This is especially true for mobile users who may face more limited bandwidth and distractions.

Large file sizes may also trigger spam filters. To avoid deliverability issues, design your eDM to be approximately 100kb or less in size. Keeping your eDM within the recommended file size also means limiting the size and number of images in your eDM; a high image-to-text ratio such as 80% images and 20% text may raise the red flag on spam filters.

Doing More with Less

As can be seen, doing more with less, particularly in the case of mobile eDMs, is increasingly required for eDMs to be effectively received your target audience. Start working with your team on creating eDMs that do more with less.

How Verztec can Help You

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers website development and localization services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website development solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.

A certified translation is a translation of a document from one language to another by a professional translator with assurances that he or she is knowledgeable in both languages in order to translate the document.

A certified translation is generally accompanied by a signed statement from the translator or translation company which affirms that the translation of the original document is complete and accurate.

A certified translation usually requires some type of certification. If in doubt, it is best to contact the requesting party to confirm the type of certification required.

One of our previous articles briefly touched on the topic of certified translations, so let’s now delve deeper into what else you need to know about certified translations.

Why do translations need to be certified?

Certified translations are one of the most common types of translations. Translations need to be certified for a wide variety of reasons, especially when the reasons are legal in nature and involves the law.

To discourage transgressions of the law, translations need to be certified in order to account for the validity and accuracy of the translation. This certification helps to ensure and provides the assurance that documents are not forged or contain incorrect information.

Certified translations also help speed up administrative and bureaucratic processes, as any documents produced in the reviewer’s native language can be understood at a faster rate.

What is a certified translation used for?

The following are a few examples of what a certified translation might be used for.

Most of the time, certified translations are used for legal paperwork, such as documentation for trials and hearings. For example, any evidence (such as transcripts or e-mails) in another language would need to be translated and certified. Translations also need to be certified when official documents are required to be submitted to government bodies, such as birth, death or marriage certificates.

Application to universities and jobs may also require certified translations of official documents such as diplomas and transcripts.

Immigration is another area where certified translations are needed. If you are applying for residency in a foreign country, it is most likely that all official documents need to be submitted in that country’s official language – therefore the translations of the documents need to be certified.

As you can see, it’s important to ensure that your certified translations are accurate and valid, because the law is almost always involved when certified translations are required. This is a serious matter and not to be taken lightly. Therefore, you have to choose the right translation service to work with, in order to provide you with the assurance that the translations of your documents are valid.

Verztec Consulting is well poised to provide Professional Translation Services that is fine-tuned to your corporate and individual needs. With more than a decade of experience in the localization industry, Verztec hires native, in-country translation teams who possess subject domain expertise pertaining to its clients’ products and industry to help clients across 26 industry sectors.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 to talk to us about your translation needs.

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

Anyone Can Start a Website Today

Starting your own website can be as easy as a few clicks. There are numerous DIY web templates available, some free others via subscription. These templates come with relatively basic features which are best suited for sites with a couple of pages, requiring limited customization and which do not expect to have high volumes of web traffic.

However, for most businesses and organizations, or for anyone who expect web traffic growth, they will want a full-fledged website that is capable of more customized functions.

So let’s focus on what a fully-customizable website requires—a professional web developer.

Developing a Website from Scratch

Having unique ideas or sleek features on your website requires more than mock-ups and pretty layouts. Your web developer will need to know what code is best suited to support a given feature, and whether it works well with other code written for your website.

‘HTML’, ‘CSS’ and More

Being well-versed in HTML and CSS is a pre-requisite for any web developer, but developing a website requires more than these. Web developers who are proficient in database and server-side scripting will be required to develop a fully-functional website; one that receives updates and integrates with web services and databases. What’s more, websites need to display and function optimally on mobile devices, so a web developer will have to be familiar with mobile website frameworks and ensure that features and layouts can be readily adapted to a variety of devices without limiting key functionalities.

It’s Showtime but that’s Not the End

Getting your website live isn’t the end of a project. Websites need to receive ongoing support with special attention paid to security and performance issues. From malware to hackers, viruses to system crashes; websites have to be kept secure while ensuring robust performance. A web developer with expertise in security and system administration, and who will be on hand to monitor your website is therefore a valuable addition to any website development team.

Web Developer as Consultant

The average web developer is able to assemble a website from scratch. However, not any developer is in a position to offer advice from a strategic viewpoint; how best to structure a website based on your current and future KPIs for the website for example. Having a web developer who goes beyond order taking and instead contributes in the capacity of a consultant will therefore be beneficial.

Getting the Right Team for the Job

Depending on the complexity of a website, multiple specialists may be required, each working on one specific aspect of a website. Websites which call on web applications may require developers with proficiencies in web services and application programming interfaces. While websites which require CRM capabilities will require developers with working knowledge of CRM integration and related expertise. If your website is based on a Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress, then a developer with working knowledge of a language like PHP (the language behind WordPress) may be required.

Website development goes beyond the technicalities. From proposal and ideation to development and launch; developing a website requires holistic project management that aligns with your goals, budget and timelines.

How Verztec can Help You

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers website development and localization services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website development solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.

With training, you can improve your employee’s performance and capabilities. A capable and competent worker is indeed crucial to the success of any organization; add training to that equation, and you have a guaranteed way of bolstering your organization’s continued success. After all, an employee who continually improves and becomes more capable is always better than one who remains stagnant.

If you are looking to develop content or a curriculum for a training course, it would be beneficial to learn how to develop effective training properly. Investing in training can be costly, which is why it’s so important to get the steps correct so as to avoid wasting time, money and valuable resources.

To develop a training course, here’s a five-step model you can closely follow:

Step 1: Analyze (Assess training needs)

Training may be needed when organizations have identified something to be lacking in their employees. There could be a gap between the desired performance and the current performance, and the reason for that gap could be an outdated skill or knowledge. However, training may not always be the answer or may only resolve part of the problem, so a proper analysis of the situation is required. You can conduct a “Training Needs Assessment” to determine if a training need exists, and if it does, what kind of training is required to meet that need.

 

Step 2: Design (Outline the objectives)

If training is necessary, you should define the objectives that you wish to achieve from training. Will these objectives help to fill the gap you have identified at Step 1 and turn your employees into more effective workers? Create training outlines and training plans for your course. Outlines provide a strong foundation for content development, as they help you organize your thoughts and content better.

 

Step 3: Develop (Create your training materials)

Now you will get down to the actual content development of your training materials, which are an important part of any training course. Examples of training materials include trainee’s manual, facilitator’s guide, handouts, visual aids, and so on. It’s important that your content are presented in an engaging manner, in order to appeal to different learning styles as well as to retain the learner’s interest.

Step 4: Implement

This is when you will carry out your actual training course. Hire a trainer who will be able to successfully carry out the objectives you wish to achieve through training. A good trainer is not only someone who has the necessary qualifications and experience – they should also have other qualities such as strong communication skills, in order to engage the participants.

 

 

Step 5: Evaluate (Refine and revise your course)

After the training course is over, you should evaluate every component of the course, such as the effectiveness of the course, feedback from the participants, etc. Evaluation checks ascertain whether training has had the desired effect and whether your initial objectives have been achieved. With these evaluations, you can further refine and improve your course for the future.

Unless you have a dedicated learning and development department, it is much more efficient and cost-effective to entrust the development of your training course to a learning solutions provider. The right training & development partner can customize a training solution that best suits your needs, and help your team succeed.

Verztec Consulting is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company. VerztecLearning™, the Learning Solutions arm of Verztec Consulting, is a leader in custom blended learning and online training for soft skills, business skills and IT skills. With a suite of training options ranging from classroom training to e-learning, VerztecLearning™ offers innovative learning solutions that are specially crafted based on its robust learning and development capabilities, as well as in-depth knowledge of various industries. From your project’s initiation to its completion, VerztecLearning™ will work with you at every stage of the process to address your strategic training needs, thanks to a trusted 360-Degree Learning Methodology.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 to talk to us about your learning and development needs.

About the Writer

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.

Let’s have a quick look at several factors which contribute to an appealing and effective website design.

Meaningful User Interface and Well-Crafted User Experience

If graphic design is about how a website looks, user experience design or UX design is concerned with how users feel when they interact with a website and its user interface (UI) elements; from scrolling, navigation, and more. A website’s design will benefit from insights into how a user will interact with proposed designs. These insights may require research and recommendations from dedicated specialists which the average website designer may not be qualified for.

Website Design Needs to Be Responsive

How a website is experienced gets influenced by how it is displayed across various devices; from desktops to mobile devices. A website designer will have to visualize how a given design will appear and be experienced across devices, and optimize the design accordingly. Simply put, attention to responsive design is now a prerequisite for website design.

A Design that Blends with Your Brand

Let’s say we have assembled an appealing and responsive website design. Does it reflect your personal or corporate brand? Do the visuals and colour scheme of the website design reflect your brand or are they just merely appealing? While certain colour schemes of a website design may be effective and user-friendly, these may or may not be aligned with your brand identity. Will the designated website designers take these into consideration and can they strike a balance?

Optimized for SEO

Having a beautifully design website that reflects your brand but which receives little to no traffic will not support your objectives for the site either. Whoever is designing the website has to be guided by SEO considerations. Based on an SEO audit, you may find that certain user interface elements and content need to be adjusted, and these may have implications for the overall design of your website.

Optimized for Conversions

Whether it is CRM, lead nurturing, or sales, your website, like your social media channels, will play an integral part in the process. Your website design has to do its part in facilitating all of the above objectives. But is your website designed for conversions?

The Portfolio

As can be seen, website design requires several expertises which need to be aligned with a website’s overall objectives. Having a team which appreciates the big picture can help you assemble various expertise to achieve very specific objectives.

Does an individual designer or agency have all the required expertise under one roof, with a clear understanding of a website’s overall objectives? Do they have adequate knowledge of current design trends which may impede or facilitate these goals?

Website Design: Beyond Looks

Achieving an appealing and effective website design goes beyond utilizing template designs with adjustments to colour scheme and layout. Instead, it increasingly requires diverse specialists who ‘talk’ to each other and who are aligned on the overall objectives of a website.

All of the above aspects of website design can be effectively accomplished by a team of cross-functional personnel, ranging from graphic designers and copywriters to SEO specialists and marketing personnel. Your graphic designer needs to be aligned with your copywriter, who in turn needs to be aligned with SEO and marketing specialists—these various functions contribute to making a website’s design effective and appealing, and none should be done in isolation.

So who can do website design? The short answer may be that many people can do website design. But who can do it right and make it work?

How Verztec can help you

Verztec is a leading ISO 9001:2008 Global Content Consulting Company that offers language services in over 100 languages, supporting companies across various industry sectors, in addition to having expertise in communication design and web development. Verztec applies its diverse expertise to serving clients’ specific needs by taking a bird’s eye view of clients’ strategic needs and organizing the relevant expertise which work as one unified unit to achieve the objectives of clients.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for a discussion on website design solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.

About the Writer

Jonathan is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Coffee and travel photos may get him hyped up for conversations. Alternatively, simply toss him an idea or two for a storyboard or a write-up on technology, design and marketing.

The idea of translation holds different meanings at different levels for everyone. Translation could be business translations, translations of literary texts, or it could simply be a question of: “What does this word mean in another language?” Regardless of what translation means on each level, the underlying idea remains that translation is a process which connects different languages. In the process of translation, otherwise separate worlds and cultures are bridged together.

One phenomenon that contributes to the proliferation of translation services is globalization. In the face of globalization, the world has become increasingly integrated. Countries and cultures have grown increasingly permeable and accessible. This phenomenon means that translation is becoming a more and more important tool to enhance understanding between cultures.

Today, in the corporate world, it is no longer enough to expand locally. Companies aim for a global reach, targeting at international and regional markets. Translation has become one of the critical components of the overall user experience. To expand into international and regional markets, the transmittal of up-to-date, clear, meaningful, and easily understood messages and in the native language is one of the key elements of success.

Translation is not a single, discrete step, but a process. The optimization of this process requires a well thought out strategy that utilizes trained and experienced people and takes full advantage of automation based on state of the art tools, technology and related processes.

Some types of translation include:

Certified translation – A certified translation is a translation of a document from one language to another by a professional translator with assurances that:

1. He or she is knowledgeable in both languages in order to translate the document.
2. The translation is complete and accurate.

It is one of the most common types of translations.

Notarized translation – A notarized translation document is a translated document that has been stamped by a notary. This simply means that the notary is a “witness” to the document and has verified that the signers of the document are who they claimed to be. Notaries are licensed by the state to perform simple acts in legal affairs, so not just anyone can be a witness.

Sworn – A “sworn” translation refers to a translation taken by a sworn translator, which refers to the person who is officially approved to provide a translation into the language combination in question.

Unless translation is a core business competency in your company or organization, translation services are commonly sub-contracted to external vendors. Choosing translation service providers can be a daunting task as the worldwide market is very fragmented. The choice will eventually be driven by costs, turn-around time, quality, domain expertise and languages supported. A good translation process needs to be tuned, optimized and is continuously being improved upon as business requirements are evolving. It should take full advantage of automation and reuse of previous translations.

Verztec Consulting is one of the few global consulting agencies which shapes its mission around the fulfilment of these criteria to provide the best service to its customers. With more than a decade of experience in the localization industry, Verztec hires native, in-country translation teams who possess subject domain expertise pertaining to its clients’ products and industry to help clients across 26 industry sectors. Verztec Consulting is well poised to provide Professional Translation Services that is fine-tuned to your corporate and individual needs.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for professional translation services that are suited to your very needs.

About the Writer

Jovita is an Editor at Verztec Consulting. Sleeping has been known to take up one third of our lives, and for Jovita, writing and sports take up the remaining two thirds. She is as passionate about crafting out a good story as she is about giving herself a good workout.  Toss her a good outline and she will write you your story – the good, the juicy and the classified.

Have you ever come across websites that offers you the choice to view them in various languages? For example, your native language may be English, but the website you just visited provides options for its information to be displayed in other languages such as French, Portuguese and many more. Why is this so?

Such websites are known as multilingual websites, where information is displayed in more than one language but the content remains the same. As you can see from the images below, Airbnb.com is an example of a multilingual website, with its content available in more than 20 different languages.

Airbnb.com shown in English (top) and Thai (bottom)

Why do these websites see the need to provide multiple language options for their users? We are now living in an increasingly globalized world. Therefore, businesses wishing to gain that competitive advantage should be equipped with the multilingual capability to communicate with their customers in other languages.

By simply offering this multilingual option, they are able to gain instant access to a global audience and ultimately, a large potential market. So do not limit your business to your native market and language, and let the rest of the world know what you have to offer as well! You’ll be amazed to see the numerous opportunities that will come your way, once you open up to the world.

What can you do to translate your own website into multiple languages? There are a few options you can consider:

1. Google Translate
   Google offers an auto translate tool that is completely free to use. Copy and paste your content into the box provided, before integrating the translated content into your website. You can easily select the language you wish to translate the text into.
2. Google iTools
   Similar to how Google Translate works, you can translate an entire website by simply typing in the URL address in the box provided. You can easily select the language you wish to translate the webpage into. This service will automatically translate the written content on your webpage into your intended language. This service will maintain the look and layout of your webpage, so that you can view how the final translated output would look like on your real website.

But as with all automated machine translations, the accuracy and validity of the translations are not always guaranteed. Alternatively, you can seek the help of professionals to provide human translations.

With this option, you can be assured of more professional and refined translations that native speakers can easily understand. While such translation services may be more costly, the returns from being able to reach out to a vast worldwide audience far exceed these costs. The ability to communicate with multiple markets will not only yield financial results, but also in creating greater marketing and awareness of your business.

There are numerous companies that can assist you in building multilingual capabilities for your website. With quality and reliability in mind, Verztec Consulting is one of the global content consulting experts that can provide you with what you need to translate your websites into multiple languages. With more than a decade of experience in the localization industry, Verztec has amassed an extensive global network of highly qualified native translators in more than 100 languages and can translate your content in a way that is in tune with various markets.

Drop us an email at enquiry@verztec.com or call +65-6577 4646 for professional localization advice.

About the Writer

Far is a Senior Editor at Verztec Consulting. Writing and reading are two of her greatest passions in life. When she’s not writing, she either spends her time curling up in bed with a good book and a delicious mug of hot chocolate, or fantasizing about opening up a bookstore café in the future.