Booklet printing is one of the best ways to showcase a particular company, product or service. With more pages than a brochure, but just as handy for on-the-spot sales pitches, booklets are packed with the information and sales pitch needed to turn prospects into customers. Some companies, however, make mistakes that can kill any booklet marketing campaign, so make sure you avoid these top 5 blunders when developing your next booklet.

It's a booklet, not a book

Just because you have eight, 12 or 40 pages to play with doesn't mean you should compose the next great American novel. Be careful that you're not using too much text when writing your booklet. Instead, use large headlines and subheads, simple text, strong images and plenty of white space just like you would when designing a catalog or brochure. The whole purpose of adding more pages is so you can offer additional information while maintaining a clean design. Plus, if your customers want to read a book, they'll go to the library. Don't just make one point — make many points quickly.

Is this thing missing a page?

Before you ship your wonderfully designed booklet off to the printer, make sure you scrutinize your layout and review the sequence of your pages to make sure everything is in the right order and that no pages are missing. Missing pages can ruin your booklet, especially if those missing pages featured your great offer, call to action or other key selling points

Where's the proof?

A great booklet run needs a lot of things to go right to be successful, beginning with you. Make sure you use a good booklet template to ensure that your design will align on the paper as planned, and always get a hard copy proof when ordering large booklet quantities. Companies such as PsPrint offer free hard copy proofs when printing booklets, so you'll know exactly what your booklet will look like before it even hits the press. You certainly don't want to miss deadlines or pay for a second print job because of a typo.

The more, the merrier

Booklets, like anything else printed on an offset press, dramatically drop in price-per-piece as printed quantities increase. Think of it in terms of your return on investment: If you're paying less per each booklet, then each booklet that helps you land a sale earns more profit. This doesn't mean that you should go overboard and order 20,000 booklets if you only need 2,000; but it does mean you should be aware of your pricing options.

Black and white is bland

Full-color printing is always your best option when it comes to booklets. Customers are so used to seeing color printing that even instruction manuals seem bland when printed in black and white. While printing black and white pages in an instruction manual is cost-efficient, marketing materials such as product and service booklets will almost always have greater impact if printed in full color. Color opens up design opportunities that are impossible in black and white and can be a major contribution toward establishing credibility and confidence when pitching a product or service.

It might seem like common sense to not make these top 5 booklet blunders, but people do every day. Scrutinize your work and ask others to offer objective feedback before going to press, and you'll have a compelling booklet that's ready to take on the competition.