Flyer advertising is a low-cost marketing option that you can use to boost awareness of your business within your local community. This advertising option is ideal for introducing a new business, announcing an upcoming event, or promoting a new product.
The great thing about flyer advertising is it doesn’t require many resources. You can actually distribute the flyers yourself.
How to Advertise With Flyers
When it comes to flyer advertising, you want to ensure you target the right audience with the right message. Some people make the mistake of producing many flyers and distributing them to anyone willing to take them. You must know who you are targeting and the specific message you have for them.
If you want to include flyer advertising into your marketing strategy, this post will help ensure you do it right.
What Is Flyer Advertising?
Flyer advertising is a paper advertising option where an advertiser hands out flyers to individuals in public places or mails them out. A flyer is a one-sheet paper presented by a business to promote a product or service or inform customers about something.
Like most traditional marketing channels, flyer advertising works in a specific geographical area. Most businesses use it to target customers within their town or region of operation. This advertising media also works best for marketing something new to customers. For example, you can use it to promote a new business, product, service, or event in your area.
Flyer advertising is arguably the best technique to announce the grand opening of your shop in your location. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t use flyers to remind customers about your brand or business.
Does Flyer Advertising Still Exist?
Despite being one of the oldest forms of advertising, many businesses still rely on flyers to get the word out about their products or services. Flyer advertising can be traced back to the Renaissance period in Italy, which occurred between the 14th and 17th centuries. Today, there are better advertising channels, such as social media, but flyer advertising is preferable in some situations.
What makes flyer advertising attractive is its cost-effectiveness and personal appeal. When you hand out a flyer to a customer, you get to talk to them or at least make eye contact. Every time they read their leaflet, they remember your conversation or interaction with them. You can’t get such personal appeal from other marketing channels, even social media ads.
Benefits of Flyer Advertising
Here are five reasons why flyer advertising is an effective tool to market your business:
- Affordable Channel
Printing out flyers does not require a significant budget. The more flyers you print, the cheaper the overall production cost. The process of designing and producing flyers is also quick and cost-effective. Depending on your expertise level and the volumes you need, you can finish the production within a day or two. In the case of distribution, you only need to hire a few marketers to distribute the flyers, but you can distribute them yourself or with your employees.
- Quick Turnaround
Flyers have a quick turnaround time since they can get designed, printed, and distributed to customers within a short period. Most people also look at their leaflets immediately after you hand them to them. The impression rate of this advertising option is quick and high.
- Great for Brand Awareness
The ability to distribute flyers in large quantities to many people makes this marketing option ideal for creating brand awareness. You’ll also be handing out the flyers within a specific local market so you can reach many people within that location.
- Great for Short Notice Advertising
Flyers are one of the most effective ways to spread information to an audience quickly. They are great for marketing events, conferences, and business grand openings. You can also use them to advertise an upcoming sale in your entity.
- Flyers Are Tangible
Flyers are something you can feel and touch. Their tangibility makes them easy for your target customers to remember. Flyers can’t get lost in a sea of emails, posts, or texts.
- Measurable
Unlike most traditional marketing channels, flyer advertising is measurable since you can add a QR code, promo code, or tracking number to a leaflet. You can easily track the number of calls, engagements, and purchases generated by the flyers.
- Personal Touch
Flyers are not only tangible. They also have a personal touch since you hand them to customers directly. As you offer a leaflet to a customer, you get a chance to interact with them. Even if the customer does not look at your flyer at that time, they will remember your interaction whenever they pick it up. The customer will easily and immediately get the message you wanted to deliver.
- Versatile
Flyers can be used by any business, whether a coffee shop, barbershop, or personal trainer. Politicians can also use them to communicate policies and invite voters to an upcoming rally.
Cons of Flyer Advertising
Despite the many advantages of flyer advertising, this marketing medium has a few cons. They are:
- Labor-Intensive Distribution Process
Distributing flyers can be labor intensive, especially if you are disseminating them over a large geographical area. You’ll probably need to hire many marketers to spend a whole day handing out flyers to customers.
- Short Lifespan
Flyers have a short lifespan. Most customers don’t keep them once they read and decide whether or not to engage with your business.
As mentioned above, flyers are effective for short-term advertising. You can’t use them to advertise an event or conference that’s six months away. Only a few customers will have their flyers after such a long period.
Tips for Advertising With Flyers
When advertising with flyers, your goal should be to ensure they capture your audience’s attention long enough for them to engage. We’ve provided a few tips to help you achieve this goal.
1. Have a Clear Purpose
Before producing the flyers, have a clear purpose in mind. Doing so will ensure your message and other elements align with your goal.
If your objective is to inform your audience about an upcoming event, then your flyer should indicate information such as venue, date, purpose, and honorable guests at the event. If it is brand awareness, the flyer should provide details highlighting what your business sells, the benefits of your product or service, and other important information.
2. Have a Call-To-Action
A call-to-action guides customers on what action you want them to take now that they have your flyer. It prompts them to call, book an appointment, visit your store, or any other form of engagement.
Include a call-to-action in your flyers to ensure customers know what to do if they want to engage with your business.
3. Know Your Target Audience
Know who you are targeting before creating your flyers. Doing so will enable you to use a tone, style, and message relatable to your target audience. For example, if your customers are car enthusiasts, you’ll want to use terms and visuals they understand.
4. Distribute the Flyers in the Right Places
How you distribute your flyers can influence how your target customers view you. The delivery is as vital as the leaflet itself. It can make or break the impression customers have about your business. Ensure you hand out flyers professionally, responsibly, and in the right places.
The best way to distribute flyers is to hand them in person to your target customers. This method creates a personal touch and enables you to interact with your audience. You also want to ensure you distribute your flyers in public places such as parks, supermarkets, local libraries, and streets. Some people may be offended if you issue them in an estate or gated community.
Non-contact distribution of flyers can also work, but the appeal is not as strong as when you hand them directly to your target customer. Here is a list of non-contact ways to issue flyers:
- Sliding leaflets under people’s home and office doors
- Placing flyers on car windshields
- Putting flyers inside magazines and publications
- Sending flyers through the mail
Different states may have varying regulations on where you can distribute flyers. Most are against placing flyers inside people’s mailboxes and newspaper boxes. You can’t put a flyer in someone’s mailbox without going through the proper postage process. Some states are also against door-to-door distribution. Check your state’s rules and regulations before distribution. See the latest search results for rules and regulations for flyer distribution.
5. Use a Compelling Headline
The headline is one of the first things customers notice after receiving your flyer. It’s the element that captures their attention, which is why it needs to stand out. Ensure your headline is compelling by making it concise and easy to read. The headline should give the reader a glimpse of what the flyer is about and what your business does.
Also, make your headline distinct from the rest of the flyer’s content by using a larger font and different colors. Doing so makes it easily noticeable.
6. Distribute Flyers to Your Target Market
Flyer advertising is only effective if you distribute the leaflets to your target audience or customers. Distribute them wherever your target customers hang out. Try not to make the mistake of creating volumes of flyers and handing them out to anyone in your vicinity. By doing so, you reduce your return on investment.
If someone is not your target customer, they won’t care to read your flyer, let alone keep it. You’ll have wasted a leaflet.
7. Proofread Before Submitting
Remember to proofread the flyer’s content before submitting it for printing. Any misspellings or inaccurate details could render the leaflets worthless. For example, if you give the wrong contact information or event date, you’ll have misled customers.
8. Consider Using Both Sides
It’s cheaper to print on one side of your flyer, but it won’t cost much extra to print on both. Printing on both sides enables you to give your audience more information about your business. However, you want to use the back side to provide information that complements the message on the front.
Let your flyer’s front page be the key message for your readers, and the back be complementary details. Consider mentioning the following things behind:
- Customer testimonials
- Map to your store or event location
- List of products and services
9. Perform a Split Test
Split testing, also called A/B testing, doesn’t only exist in the digital world. It involves creating two slightly different versions of something to see which one performs better.
You can design two flyers where one has a brightly colored headline and the other with a bold but dull-colored headline. You can also produce different versions where the message is the same, but the delivery of the message varies.
The idea behind split testing is to assess which flyers get the most engagement from your audience. The more successful flyer is the one you should embrace in your design style.
10. Use Visual Elements
Visual elements such as colors, images, and icons will make your flyers look more attractive and appealing. However, the key is to lay them out in a way that guides your audience to the critical information. The better your visual layout, the more readers will pay attention to your flyers.
11. Include a QR Code as a CTA
Consider using a QR code as your call-to-action to motivate your audience to learn more about your business and visit your website. QR codes will lead your readers to a designated URL, which can be your website or any other link where they can communicate with you.
Having a QR code will also enable you to track and measure the engagement of your flyers. You can track the location, time, and scan date on a QR code.
How Does a Well-Thought-Out Flyer Ad Look?
A well-designed flyer ad is:
- Targeted: speaks to your target audience and gets distributed where your audience hangs out
- Engaging: eye-catching and appealing enough to arouse the interest of your target audience
- Readable: delivers the message you want your audience to get and informs them where they can learn more
- Convincing: convinces your audience to take an action you want them to take
Conclusion
If you want your flyers to grab your audience’s attention, you can’t just throw information into them and design them anyhow. Think about what message you want to pass to your target audience and deliver it concisely. Don’t forget to make your headline compelling and add visual elements to make your flyers eye-catching.
Examples
Looking at examples is a great way to spark your creativity and give you a starting point for creating a flyer that you find appealing. See the link below for the latest search results for marketing flyer examples.
The latest search results for examples of marketing flyers.
Template
It doesn’t hurt to look at what templates are available that can help you quickly create a marketing flyer. If you don’t find one you like or don’t want to work with the software needed to edit the template then at least you will gain ideas.
See the latest search results for Templates for Marketing Flyers.
Software
You may want to have a look at the software that can help you design your flyers. If you will be creating flyers often then looking at specialty software is something to consider. If you only have a one-off then your printing service may be a better option.
The latest search results about Software for Marketing Flyers.
Printing
If you’re planning on printing thousands of flyers, it could be cheaper and better quality than printing them out on a regular printer, especially if you are using color or you want a certain type of paper. See the link below for the latest search results for commercial printing services to explore.
Commercial services for printing marketing flyers
Videos
To create your flyers we have shared a video and a link to similar ones that can help you create your own flyers if you want.
See the most recent videos related to flyer designs