6 Effective Tips for Flyers

From small businesses to big companies, flyers are a great, effective, and inexpensive business promotion tool. They’ve been around for a long time and remain effective, all you need is to make them good enough to capture attention.

In this article, we’ll be sharing some flyer design tips to make your flyer designs more effective.

Tips for Flyers

1. Prioritize Function

When creating flyers, it’s tempting to want to be all-out with your design elements so much that you get carried away by what exactly the flyer is meant for.

The thing is, although designs play an important role in the effectiveness of your design, most people focus people will notice what’s in the flyer for them before they notice how good the design is, As such, you want to prioritize the functionality of your flyer above the form.

By prioritizing function, you create a unique focal point in your flyer – the thing or set of things you want people to notice immediately they set eyes on your flier. This is a key part of getting an effective flyer design. This set of information has to be clear, concise, and striking enough for your business flyer to be picked up. This may be an attention-grabbing headline or an eye-catching image. Check out some birthday flyer ideas.

Consider questions like the following when thinking about the function of your business flyer

• What purpose does your flyer serve? 
• What information should be included in the flyer?
• What’s your business about?
• What should a good flyer look like?
• What’s the most important thing you want people to notice?
• What will make your business flyer stand out?

The answers help you put your brain in the right direction. Then, you can consider the following elements to make your flyer functional:

Know your target audience

Your flyer should speak directly to your target market in a language they can understand. If you’re speaking to people in the tech industry, you want to use terms, phrases, and descriptions that will grab their attention. This increases the likelihood of your message being read by the right person.

Also, when writing your flyer, use pronouns that speak from their perspective except where it isn’t necessary. For example, use “you” and “your” when speaking about pain points and benefits; and use “we” and “us” when talking about your business or contact information. 

Design a compelling header

Your header is a powerful tool to grab people’s attention. It’s likely the first thing people will notice in your flyer. You want to use words that make your business offer more compelling, an eye-catching color scheme, and fonts that draw attention.

Concise and simple information

You don’t need a wordy flyer to convince your audience. In fact, your audience’s attention span is super short, you have less than 3 seconds to draw their attention. Avoid long paragraphs, cut down the texts to include only the important details, and use words that are easy to read. Important details will include a snappy headline, product information, and benefits in bullet points.

Adding a QR code that will direct your audience to a website or a landing page can be a good addition to your flyer. The best QR code generator will provide you with important analytics that will help you understand your target audience better.

To make your offer more enticing, write your texts in an active voice. Also, use powerful words that scream relief – save, guarantee, free, discount – as well as those that might include a sense of urgency. This is especially important when creating a promotional flyer. Don’t forget to include a clear call to action

A striking image

 When choosing an image, prioritize the quality of the images. This helps you grab attention. You want to treat your flyer like a shopfront or a gateway to your products or services. This is especially important if you’re selling a product. High-quality images accompanied by concise information help your flyer to easily convert sales. You need crystal clear and bold images that grab the attention of your target audience, create a mood, tell a story, and ultimately lead them to buy your product.

If you’re advertising services with your flyer, you need a professional image with an approachable demeanor – relaxed and smiling. This makes your flyer more attractive.

Legible font size and style

Typography is crucial to creating functional flyers. You want to make sure your texts are legible, and easily readable from a fair distance. Also, you want to use fonts that relate to your brand identity. If you haven’t figured out how to use fonts, you may want to learn about typography. You may combine different fonts to give flare to your flyer but you want to be careful not to get your customers confused with the fonts.

Also, use white space between texts and place texts in the hierarchy of importance – make the header bold and dominating alongside other relevant information.

Include contact information 

After passing your message to your audience, tell them how to reach you by making contact details instantly accessible. Be clear on how, where and when to contact you, This will include important business information like website address, location, contact information, and more. If it’s an event flyer, it’s only sane to include the address, date, and time of the event plus other attendance requirements.

Don’t forget to add directions, whether it’s an online or onsite event or sale. This will help make your flyer useful as a future reference. All this information should be bold and easily readable.

2. Use Simple Grid Layout to Maximize Space 

One challenge graphic designers face when designing flyers is how to fix all the elements in a small print space, especially when there are multiple products to showcase. Most flyers are often restricted to a standard 8.5 x 11 inches page size. So you need to find the best way to be creative with your design layout. The best option is always the simplest option. 

If you were designing a formal brochure or an invitation, you have the luxury of arranging details into different columns or pages. But with a flyer, you are constrained by options. The best way to confront this is to use a simple grid layout. This will help you divide your contents into easily accessible sections while avoiding clustering.

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In the example above, there’s a four-part grid, with the top third dedicated to the header and image. There are two irregular-width columns below and a narrow full-width row at the base of the design. This design allows you to include a lot of content while maintaining a balanced proportion. 

In this other business flyer design, there’s a creative shift from regular grid flyer designs. The designer uses a diagonal slash across the top-right section. This creative slash gives room for a slogan and background image without distracting from the main layout. Find the size guide for flyers.

Instead of using grids, you can also use an asymmetrical layout. This kind of layout can help you sectionalize your design on a single page and add emphasis to the most important elements based on a visual hierarchy or visual weight. 

A grid or asymmetrical layout can be a good way to utilize negative space in your flyer to make it more engaging. It can also help you to create a unique fold for your flyer.

With a folded finish, you not only have a standout flyer, but you can also guide your readers to the key information on your flyer fold-by-fold. It could be a tri-fold, half-fold, or spiral fold depending on information and design choice.

3. Be Fun, Not Extra

Incorporating different design elements in your flyer can be fun, creative, and effective but too many elements can be distracting rather than eye-catching. 

The key to effective use of aesthetics in your flyer is to understand your audience. Sometimes, making an understatement with your flyer design might just be the ideal way to appeal to your audience. If you want to create a professional-looking flyer, our tip for your flyers is to rely on the power of a black, white, and grey palette. A good way to be fun while being corporate in your flyer designs is to use mustards, mint greens, teals, and pale greys. You can also match these colors with shapes and infographic-style icons that add more visual appeal to the flyer.

Also, infusing your brand colors into your business flyer design helps you maintain consistency across all platforms – print and digital. Although sticking to brand colors within your flyer design might seem boring, online flyer templates can help you when you upload your brand color palette. They work the magic and you can automatically choose how you want to colors applied   To make it more effective, you can use brightly colored shapes to highlight compelling testimonials, quotes, and other important information about your business. 

Sometimes, you want to be less corporate and more fun and brilliant without being overwhelming. A good way to do this is to creatively use colors. Colors can make all the difference in the energy and mood of your flyer when you advertise an informal or attention-seeking product or service.

Consider the following graphic design tips for flyers to make them more fun, exciting and effective: 

• Play with colors like a boss

The key to being fun with colors is complementary colors rather than contrasting colors.  If you use a large image, use an active color in the image to complement the rest of the design. You can also use a bright color from a color scheme that represents your brand.

Also, consider using colors that reflect the mood and theme of the event or promotion. Is it summer or spring related? You can use a mix of hot pink, sea blues and to showcase a festival or summer BBQ event. Pastel coat colors might be great to reflect a winter-like mood.

• Emboss

A 3D effect is a great way to showcase your creativity and appeal to your audience’s sense of touch. You can emboss the key detail and other important details.  It’s a top-tier eye-catching design technique that makes your flyers attention-grabbing.

• Triangulate between details

It’s tempting to want to be extra when expressing creativity in your flyers. To avoid overwhelming design, stick to the three-element rule. With this rule, you want to design flyers that create a balance between a striking image, an attention-grabbing headline, and a colored element (shape or icon). 

• Reflect optimism in your flyer 

Use quirky colors and icons, even if your brand is corporate. An official mood doesn’t mean too serious. Being too serious with your design elements might fall on the bland and dull side which might not allow your flyer to serve its purpose. Infuse some elements of wittiness, design pun, or childishness. This makes your flyers more memorable and increases the chance that people will pick them up and follow up. Check out the style guide to create a fun flyer.

4. Play the Long-Term Goal

If flyers were humans, they’ll be likened to those that do most of the work but end up being discarded after serving their purpose. This is because flyers are often cheap to produce and rarely considered treasurable items. They do the heavy lifting of outdoor promotions, yet end up in the bin. This is why you want to consider these tips for flyers. 

You want a create a flyer design that’s compelling, attractive, has the potential to convert sales, and can sell for long even after your offer closes. Just like newsletters or online ads that remain stuck with you when you haven’t made a purchase yet, print flyers can serve as a reminder tool to your potential customers.

When you consider all the above elements- stylish typography, striking images, attention-grabbing headers, functional colors- in your flyer design, you can create a perfect flyer, beautiful and functional enough to be kept by your potential customer. It may even be pinned on a noticeboard in their office or home for future reference because of its attractiveness of functionality.

5. Print in High-Quality

Once you’re done with the entire design process, you’re left with one more important design element which is printing. The final print plays a crucial role in the attractiveness of your flyers. 

When printing, consider the following factors:

Proofread

Before you get your flyer to the hands of a printing service, make sure you proofread all the details. Mistakes can be off-putting and can send your potential customers in the wrong direction. Ensure correct usage of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Also, check that all information concerning your business is correct and all elements are in tandem with your brand identity, 

Choose the right paper stock

Your flyers will be going to different hands, and you want them to last long in the hands of your audience. So, you need high-quality and durable paper. Check with your printing service for the different paper stocks available.

Apply paper coatings.

In addition to paper quality, the print coatings can also make your flyers more durable. Matte and gloss finish doesn’t only help create a good first impression, but it can also add another layer of protection to your flyer. 

6. Maximize the effectiveness of your flyer 

Once you’re done with your flyer printing, you want to make sure it brings the highest possible result. To maximize the potential of your flyer, distribute in high-traffic areas where your target market is located or frequently visits. This may include places where an event is taking place, a place where people stand idle or wait in line.

You may also repurpose your flyer to maximize its effectiveness. To do this, you can create a digital copy of your flyer for social media or email newsletters, or web banners.

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Conclusion

When creating your flyers, use the above tips to make your design more effective. Overall, a good flyer design is eye-catching, targeted, functional, convincing, fun, informative, and long-lasting.

Let’s reiterate the tips as a checklist for you:

Checklist to Make Effective Business Flyer

• Prioritize function
• Focal point
• Know your audience,
• A compelling header
• A striking image,
• Legible fonts size and style,
• Negative space
• Contact information and direction
• Grid or asymmetrical layout
• Aesthetics: colorful but not distracting, fit for the brand and consistent, optimistic design
• Fit for long term
• Error-free
• High-quality printing
• Repurpose your flyer

Falling Short on flyer Design ideas?

When designing flyers, check flyer templates for ideas on how to create your business flyer. However, your best shot at creating flyers that last long and sell is to hire the services of a professional designer or design agency that knows what they’re doing. A professional design agency knows all the different elements to include in a functional flyer and can help you cut printing costs or give you advice on choosing the right printing service. Either way, you stand a better chance of designing and printing an effective, long-lasting flyer. Check out the guide for successful flyer design.