An effective flyer is a major advertising asset. They are wonderfully versatile and can extend to a large audience in short spaces of time. You can hand them out in person, keep them handy on your premises, or include them in your product’s packaging. An eye-catching flyer needs two crucial elements. Firstly, convincing copy that converts, and secondly, visually stunning design.
Step 1: Compelling Copy
Be Concise.
While you have a plethora of knowledge about what makes your company/product great, the simple fact is if you cram it onto a flyer, it won’t be read. Sad I know.
You need to ensure every word on your flyer has a purpose. As you will have much less text than, say, a magazine article or interview, your company/product will be judged on less. So every word must contribute towards selling to your audience. That doesn’t; mean leaving out words that make your sentences make sense, just to stick to a few solid selling points. Anything non-essential can be linked to from a website link or QR code. Stick to the good stuff, leave the details for those whose attention you capture.
Your message should connect with your intended audience immediately. You have minimal word count compared to a magazine article or interview, and you will be judged on your minimal copy. Every word must matter, and all non-essential content should be removed before you call it completed and send it off to the printer.
Have A Stand-Out Headline.
Your headline should draw attention to what you are advertising. Is it your company? A product? Sale? an event? Tell them!
Give some thought to your headline as this could be what makes someone stop and read your flyer. Make it big and bold. It doesn’t necessarily have to be at the top of the page, but make sure its obvious that it is the headline.
Cater to your Audience
Make sure that your words are connecting with the right people, and communicate who you are. Are you a mum looking to connect to other parents with your new parenting classes? Express that. If you are a food truck owner looking to attract ‘foodies’ to a street food festival, appeal to their senses. If you are selling hats targeted at older men, leave out the slang. Think carefully about the words you use, you would be surprised how much they affect your marketing efforts.
Use Benefits not Features
Knowing the features of a product is great, but actually understanding how it can benefit you is better. For example, a feature of a car could be it has a rear camera and monitor. Why do I care? Because the benefit will be that it makes it easier for me when reversing and parking! The benefits of a service or product will appeal greater to your customers than a list of features.
Clever text layout
Flyers are designed to catch your eye, and paragraphs of text will not achieve that. Instead, be clever with your text layout. make sure your heading is clear, try using bullet points, lists, a variety of text sizes, or fonts to keep it visually interesting. Play around with this until you are happy with how it looks. Also, make sure you get a second opinion from someone to make sure everything is legible and easy to follow.
Call them to action
A call to action (CTA) indicates to your audience what their next move should be. Whether it is ‘Buy now’, ‘Join us’, ‘Get tickets’ or whatever else you would like them to do. It should be 2-4 words ideally and guide your customers to the next action if they are interested.
If the next action is online, make sure you have your website link somewhere on your flyer. Likewise, if you need them to do to your store or event make sure the date, time, and address are listed. so you can track Maybe even use a QR code so you can see how many people have looked at your information from your flyer!
Step 2: Eye-catching Design
A picture speaks a thousand words.
Colour Codes
Colour is one of the first things your brain processes. So it’s the easiest way to draw attention to your flyer. If you have brand colours make sure you incorporate them. If you don’t try to use colours that relate to what you are advertising. For example, if you are holding an Easter sale, try to use pastel-ly spring colours. Play around with colours or look at a colour wheel to pick colours that compliment (or clash with) each other.
Font Fusions
Having a mixture of fonts is imperative to add style, but also cleanliness to your flyer design. The key to pairing fonts together is to go for opposites. If you have a nice cursive script font for your headline, make your subtext minimal and modern. Similarly, you can play around with pairing different text sizes, boldness, to create some interest and depth in your flyer. Make sure everything is easy to read.
Use space effectively
Make sure you utilise your flyer space wisely. Consider your layout carefully when putting it together. Ensure all your elements are there and then play around with different layouts. Try not to crowd the text with too many distracting images or illustrations. Less is more. If you have space on your flyer you don’t necessarily have to fill it, sometimes it can make more of a visual statement if you leave it blank.
Using space formulates an impression in terms of design. While filling up space with excitement and design can be impactful, it can also equate to messiness and confusion. However, using white space or plain backgrounds can emphasise the important aspects of your flyer more, add contrast, and frame your message clearly.
Top-down, left-right
Most people read from the top-down and from left to right. So make sure your flyer is easily read this way. You want your customer to be able to flow through the text easily without having to skip around the page working out what you are trying to say.
Balance
Your flyer has to be effective from afar and also at arm’s length. So, take into account fonts, colours, and boldness for your key messages so they catch peoples attention from all distances. Also, select your main images cafeully, they should be recognisable and impactful from a distance, but be valuable enough for up-close viewing too. Check out Waikato Printing Company’s Flyer Templates to design your own flyer, or leave it up to us!
