By: You need a brochure. Maybe it's for a product launch, a property listing, an event, or just a general company overview that you can hand to prospects. You've seen digital brochures that flip like real pages, have clickable links, and look way better than a PDF attachment. You want one of those.
Good news: the whole process takes about two hours if you have your content ready. Less if you're working from a template. And you don't need to know any code or have a design degree.
This guide covers every step from blank page to published brochure.
Step 1: Gather Your Content Before You Design
This is the step most people skip, and skipping it always costs time later.
Sit down and collect everything you need before you open any design tool:
Text. Write all your copy in a plain document first. Headlines, descriptions, calls to action, contact information. Editing text in a design tool is slow and awkward. Edit in a word processor where you can focus on what you're saying without worrying about what it looks like.
Images. Gather every photo, logo, icon, and graphic you might need. Put them in one folder. If you need stock photos, find them now. Unsplash and Pexels are free. Make sure your images are at least 1500 pixels wide. Anything smaller will look blurry in the brochure.
Brand assets. Your logo in high resolution. Your brand colors as hex codes (like #2B5797). Your preferred fonts. If you don't have defined brand guidelines, pick one or two colors and one or two fonts and stick with them throughout.
Your goal for this brochure. Seriously. Write one sentence describing what you want someone to do after reading it. "Book a tour." "Request a quote." "Visit our store." Every design decision you make should support that one action.
With all this collected, the design phase goes much faster because you're assembling, not creating from scratch.
Step 2: Choose Your Design Tool
You have plenty of options, and the right one depends on what you already know.
Canva. Free tier is enough for most brochures. Thousands of brochure templates. Drag-and-drop editing. Exports to PDF. If you've never designed anything before, start here. The templates handle layout decisions so you can focus on content.
Adobe InDesign. The professional standard. Far more control over typography, layout grids, and print-quality output. But it has a learning curve and costs $22/month. If you already know InDesign, use it. If you don't, Canva will get you 80% of the quality in 20% of the time.
PowerPoint or Google Slides. Not designed for brochures, but workable in a pinch. Set your slide size to the page dimensions you want, design each slide as a page, and export to PDF. The results are rougher than Canva or InDesign, but if you need something in 30 minutes, it works.
Figma. Great for teams that want to collaborate on design in real time. Similar learning curve to InDesign but more accessible. Exports to PDF. Good choice if multiple people need to contribute to the design.
Pick one and commit. You can always redesign later in a different tool. The first version doesn't have to be perfect. It has to exist.
Step 3: Design Your Pages
Open your design tool, pick a template or start from a blank page, and build your brochure. Here's a page-by-page structure that works for most purposes.
Cover Page
One strong image. Your company or product name. A subtitle that tells the reader what this brochure is about. Your logo. That's all the cover needs.
Don't put a paragraph on the cover. Don't put your contact info on the cover. The cover has one job: make the reader want to turn the page.
Introduction / Overview (Page 2)
A short paragraph introducing what this brochure covers and who it's for. Two or three sentences max. If you can include a bold stat or compelling claim, do it here. "Serving 400+ clients across 12 states" or "Rated #1 by Travel Weekly for three consecutive years."
Core Content (Pages 3-8)
This is the meat of your brochure. For a product brochure, these pages showcase features with photos and short descriptions. For a service brochure, they explain what you offer and why it matters. For a property brochure, they show the rooms, amenities, and location.
A few rules for these pages:
- One idea per page. Don't cram two different products or services onto one page. Give each its own space.
- Lead with the image. The photo should take at least 50% of the page area. Text supports the image, not the other way around.
- Short paragraphs. Three to four sentences max per paragraph. Brochure readers scan. Let them.
- Include a CTA on at least two of these pages. Don't wait until the end to ask the reader to take action. "Learn more at..." or "Book your tour today" placed mid-brochure catches people who won't make it to the last page.
Social Proof (Page 9)
Testimonials, client logos, awards, certifications, press mentions. Whatever evidence you have that other people trust you. One or two strong testimonials with names and titles attached are worth more than ten anonymous quotes.
Call to Action / Contact (Final Page)
Big, clear call to action. What should the reader do now? Phone number. Email. Website. Physical address if relevant. A button that says "Get Started" or "Contact Us" or "Book Now."
Don't clutter this page with anything else. It exists to convert interest into action.
Step 4: Export as PDF
When your design is done, export it as a PDF. Every major design tool supports this.
A few export settings to check:
- Quality: Choose "high quality" or "print quality." You want crisp images in the final flipbook. Flipbooker will optimize the file size, so don't worry about making it small at this stage.
- Pages: Make sure your multi-page brochure exports as a single PDF with all pages, not as separate files.
- Bleed and crop marks: Turn these off. They're for print. They'll show up as ugly lines in a digital flipbook.
Save the PDF somewhere you can find it. You'll upload it in the next step.
Step 5: Convert to a Flipbook
Upload your PDF to Flipbooker's editor. The conversion takes about 15 seconds, depending on file size. Your brochure is now a flipbook with page-turn navigation that works on any device.
But don't publish yet. The raw conversion looks fine, but you can make it significantly better with a few minutes of customization.
Add Clickable Links
Open the editor and look at every page. Anywhere you have a URL, email address, phone number, or call to action, add a clickable link.
The CTA button you designed on the last page? Make it actually click through to your booking form or contact page. The email address on the contact page? Make it a mailto: link so clicking it opens the reader's email client. The phone number? Make it a tel: link so mobile readers can tap to call.
This takes five minutes and turns a passive document into an active one.
Add Video (If You Have It)
If you have a product demo, a property walkthrough, a team introduction, or any short video that supports your brochure content, embed it. Paste the YouTube or Vimeo URL, resize the player on the page, done.
Don't have video? Skip this for now. Bad video is worse than no video.
Set Your Branding
Upload your logo. Set your brand colors for the flipbook viewer background and controls. Make sure the reading experience matches your brand. The branding features page covers what you can customize.
Configure Lead Capture (Optional)
If this brochure is a marketing tool and you want to collect emails, turn on the lead capture form. Readers enter their email to access the brochure, and you get a lead. You can also gate only the later pages and let readers preview the first few for free.
Step 6: Preview and Test
Before you share this with anyone, test it yourself. On multiple devices.
Desktop check. Open the preview link in your browser. Flip through every page. Click every link. Watch every video. Read the text. Does anything look wrong? Are the links going to the right places?
Mobile check. Open the same link on your phone. This is the more important test because most of your readers will be on mobile. Check that text is readable without zooming, images load quickly, tap targets are big enough for a thumb, and videos play inline.
Share with one person. Send the preview link to a colleague or friend and ask them two questions: "Is anything confusing?" and "What would you do after reading this?" Their answers will tell you whether your brochure is communicating its message clearly.
Fix anything that's broken. Then publish.
Step 7: Publish and Share
Hit publish. Your brochure gets a shareable link that works forever. Bookmark it. Copy it. You'll use it everywhere.
Where to share it:
Email. Send the link (not a PDF attachment) to your contacts, your mailing list, or specific prospects. The email should be short: what the brochure is about, why they should look, and the link.
Your website. Embed the brochure on a relevant page. Product page, about page, landing page, wherever it fits. Visitors can browse it without leaving your site.
Social media. Share the link with a teaser image pulled from the brochure. The cover page or the most visually striking interior page usually works best.
QR codes. Print a QR code linking to the brochure and put it on business cards, booth banners, packaging, signage, or printed materials. People scan, the brochure opens on their phone.
Sales team. Give each salesperson the link to share with prospects. If you're using tracked links, each rep can see which prospects opened the brochure and what they looked at.
Step 8: Watch the Numbers
After a week of sharing, check your analytics. You're looking for:
- Which pages get the most views. That's what your audience cares about. Lean into it.
- Which pages get skipped. That's what they don't care about. Rethink those pages for version two.
- Where do readers drop off? If most people leave after page 3, your middle section needs work.
- What's the mobile vs. desktop split? If 70% of your readers are on phones and your brochure was designed for desktop, you know what to fix.
Use these numbers to improve the next version. A brochure that's updated based on real reader behavior will outperform one that's based on assumptions, every time.
What If I Already Have a Brochure?
Then you're ahead. Take your existing PDF, upload it, add links and a CTA, and publish. The conversion itself takes minutes. You can always redesign from scratch later, but getting your existing content into a digital, trackable, shareable format is a win by itself.
The point isn't to create the perfect brochure on your first attempt. The point is to publish something, learn from the data, and make the next version better. Start with what you have. Improve from there.
FAQs
What's the best size for a digital brochure?
Standard US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches) or A4 works well because most design templates default to those sizes. For a more magazine-like feel, use landscape orientation. The flipbook format adapts to screen sizes automatically, so exact dimensions matter less than you'd think.
Can I create a digital brochure from PowerPoint?
Yes. Save your PowerPoint as a PDF, then upload the PDF to Flipbooker. The slides become pages. It works surprisingly well for brochure-style presentations, especially in landscape orientation.
How long does it take to create a digital brochure?
If you already have your content and images, about 1-2 hours for design and 10 minutes for converting and publishing as a flipbook. If you're starting from scratch, plan a day for content writing and image sourcing, plus design time.
Do I need to know graphic design?
No. Canva and similar tools have brochure templates that look professional out of the box. Swap in your photos and text, adjust colors to your brand, and you're done. Design skill helps, but templates have made it optional.
Can I update my brochure after publishing?
Yes. Upload a new version and the same link automatically serves the updated brochure. Anyone with the old link sees the new version. No need to redistribute.