Marketing With Flyers - Use, Size, Design and Flyer Printing

Whether promoting an event, product or service, flyers can be effective at capturing attention and delivering your message to your ideal customer. However, all flyers are not created equal. Much of the success of the flyer rides on proper planning and the ability of the graphic designer. Here are a few tips to consider before creating your next event or company flyer.

Intended Use of the Flyer

Your ultimate goal for creating the flyer should determine everything from its size, design, and method of distribution. You may have a new product that you want customers to be aware of, or you are looking to bring awareness to the grand opening of your new restaurant. Regardless, you must be clear on the goal and use of the flyer before taking the next step. Once the intended use is clarified, each of the next steps can be in alignment and more effective.

Flyer Distribution

Another consideration before deciding the flyer size is how and where you will distribute the flyers. For example, handing a flyer to a customer that’s in your store to promote a future event is much different than mailing a postcard to all residents of a particular zip code.

Mailing flyers, otherwise called direct mail, has specific requirements set by the post office that impacts the flyer size and its layout.

So be clear whether you will be handing flyers to your existing customers, offering them in a professional environment or at a trade show, or distributing them via direct mail.

Flyer Size

Once you are clear about distribution you can make a decision about the size of your flyer. Choosing the right size is important and can be the difference whether your flyer is received or trashed.

Two standard flyer sizes seen most often are 4x6 and 5x7. The smaller flyers you may be familiar with are 3x4 or 3x5. When you think of flyers delivered to your mailbox, those start at 6.5x8 and increase in size. Most businesses leveraging direct mail subscribe to the premise – the larger the flyer the more attention it receives. It is hard to completely ignore an over sized flyer sticking out of your mailbox. Whether you read it or not, you cannot overlook the flyer.

So the size of your flyer should align with its use and method of distribution. To oversimplify this idea, either choose a size that makes it easy for your customer to put in their pocket or purse, or large enough to stand out from everything else in the mailbox.

Design of the Flyer

Colors, fonts, and placement of elements (logo, website, phone number) are a few factors to impact the effectiveness of the flyer. If the overall theme of the flyer is to promote an event, the design may be focused on the date, time and venue. However, if you’re promoting a discount or seasonal special, more attention will need to be drawn to the offer and instructions for the customer to claim the deal.

Graphic designers consider subtleties in things from legibility of fonts, contrast of size and color, and layout of the flyer to direct a customers eyes to the most important elements. Inexperienced designers may not have this awareness, whereas more experienced graphic designers know what works and how to make a flyer more effective.

Naturally over the years designers learn more tricks and techniques. Generally speaking, you want a designer with a large portfolio and several years of design experience. Communicate the main goal of the flyer, what you want the customer to know, and the action they should take next.

Once you receive your design, consider whether it is successful at communicating your #1 goal. Of course it should look good, but remember the success of your flyer depends on its ability to get your customer to take a specific action. So ask yourself, does this flyer design convey my message clearly? The answer will help guide revision requests, improve the effectiveness of the flyer, and make your campaign more successful.

Look at these flyer designs, observe the message and goal of their flyer...

Printing the Flyer

Now that you have the files from the graphic designer, it is time to have the flyer printed. Most likely there are several printing companies in your area, but price and turnaround time are just two factors you want to consider.

Office Depot and FedEx Office are local printing chains that are usually conveniently located. With these printing services often you trade price and level of customization for convenience. Their prices may be more expensive than a local print shop, so send your artwork files and requested paper weight, size, and paper finishing specs so you can compare apples to apples.

Professional print shops usually have better pricing and top-of-the-line equipment that can produce higher quality prints with greater levels of detail. Thicker paper, a glossy finish, and spot uv are some of such customizations available with professional print shops that may not be available at the office chain stores.

One caveat with professional print shops is they usually utilize a process called “gang-run” printing. In this workflow several flyers or print jobs are printed simultaneously on one large sheet of paper. There may be subtle color or size variations in gang-run printing. Usually the print company will tell you upfront what level of deviation you can expect. What you gain in price and level of customization, you trade in color-matching and convenience if the print shop is not as close as a FedEx Office location.

One last aspect when considering a printing company is the color mode your materials will be created in. In short, CMYK is the color mode used by printers in most gang-run print shops. The CMYK color mode offers more colors compared to an RGB color profile. However, if your printer uses CMYK and your designer created your artwork using RGB, you will need to request your flyer files in the correct CMYK color mode. This tip is really important and can cause your blues to be purple if overlooked.

Decide which customization, color-match, turnaround time, and price factors are most important. Then choose the flyer printing service that can meet your requirements. Our flyer printing and design experts would be glad to help prepare your next event or service flyer. Browse our site or call us today at 678-235-3464.