27 Mar How To Effectively Design A Flyer

In order to effectively promote your business or event, flyers are vital marketing items. However, flyers don’t always help your cause. They can sometimes be harmful if not designed properly. An amateurish design can reflect a poor impression upon your business or event. With over 12 years in the design and marketing business, I have put together a list of tips, ideas, and suggestions about how to properly design a flyer for maximal response.

1. Color – Just like with clothing, automobiles, and accessories, it’s all about color. Be bold, bright, and use current color trends to grab the attention of viewers. It’s the same cost these days to print in full color as it is to print in one color, so make sure and take advantage of a full color design. Just make sure and don’t use contrasting colors which will make your flyer difficult to read.
2. Fonts – A common amateur mistake is using too many fonts. I recommend sticking with no more than 2 font types. It is very distracting to use more than 2 typestyles. Use bolder, easier to read fonts and shy away from script which is harder to read.
3. Logo – Be sure to include your logo on anything printed. This is one of the main principles of branding. Any business, organization, non-profit, politician, or annual event should have a logo. This is imperative to establish your brand. If you don’t have a logo, give me a call and we can offer a very affordable logo design package for you.
4. Images – Imagery is a vital part of great design. Your eye will direct to images before it will to text. I strongly discourage the use of straight clip-art on your flyers. A well taken photo often works much better and will look much more professional. However, rarely, can you find free, royalty-free photographs to use in your design, so plan on spending just a little to beef up your flyer. We have access to over 14,000,000 professional photos for design for a charge of only $10 per photograph. That’s a small price to pay to take your design from dull to explosive!
5. Headline – Make sure you have a headline that pops. The bottom line is that people are busy and they will not read your flyer if the main headline doesn’t capture their attention. Make sure it is descriptive and intriguing.
6. Power Words – Make sure and use power words in your headlines and descriptions, such as FREE, Brand New, Guarantee, Easy, Amazing, Mind-Blowing, State of the Art, etc.
7. Audience – Make sure you appeal to your intended audience. If you are promoting to college-aged students, your design should reflect that. If you are targeting senior citizens, design to appeal to that generation.
8. Contact Info – Make sure your contact info is prominent. People will have questions. Include a website, phone number, and an email address for more information. Be sure to include all three, because while many prefer email, others prefer calling. Another very effective approach is to include a cell number and say, “For More Information, Text To: 555-555-5555.” Texting is huge, so take advantage of this popular form of communication.
9. Design – Design doesn’t just have to do with pictures and text. There is much more than that. You must have a flyer designed to direct the eye toward the most important elements such as the event date or deadline or the Call to Action. This is where a professional designer can help you. If you are putting on a big event with lots of sponsorships, make sure you budget a little money for design of your printed material. Your event will be more successful, as long as you retain a great designer.
10. Concise – Do not be guilty of information overload. This is a common mistake which leads to people just ignoring your flyer. Be concise and to the point. Leave a little to the imagination so they are intrigued.
11. Appeal – Make sure your content is appealing and not like an advertisement. If you read your newspaper this morning , can you name an ad that you saw in the paper? Chances are you probably can’t. That’s because your brain skipped right over that bit of information because you weren’t receptive to advertising at that time and were reading for news and not ads. The same goes for your flyers. If you have your flyer posted at a restaurant, for example, people are eating, drinking, and having a good time with their friends and family. They don’t want to see advertising and they will ignore it. However, if your flyer has appeal, they will read it.
12. Jargon – The medical community and attorneys are notorious for using their industry jargon that those outside the profession can’t even begin to understand. As soon as readers start seeing this unfamiliar jargon, they shut down and stop reading. Write your content for a 10th grade audience. This will ensure that your content will be read by the masses.
13. Incentives – Great points to highlight on your flyers would be incentives you offer. What is in it for them? Be sure and tell about free prizes, giveaways, a coupon, free admission, a popular music band, drink specials, fun, etc. Let the reader know why they should attend.
14. Testimonials – People love testimonials. They build trust. You should include testimonials when possible with attendees reactions to your event or experience with your service or product.
15. Proofing – Use proper spelling and grammar. Period. Have others not involved with the design and content writing proofread the flyer. Your brain knows how the content is supposed to be read and it will often read it the correct way, when in fact there is a blatant misspelling. And by all means, make sure you use there, their, and they’re correctly as well as your and you’re.
16. Alignment – Be strategic about the alignment of your text. Keep a good balance between text and photos. It is much easier on the eye to keep a neat alignment of your paragraphs and photo edges.
17. Print – Print only with high quality printing. There are many color printers whose print lacks the vivid color that your flyer should have. This is due to inferior printing equipment. Top quality printers can cost millions of dollars which eliminates a lot of “mom and pop” shops. Ask for print samples prior to production if you suspect a possible inferior product. Stick with 100 lb paper stock or better with an aqueous coating to really make a great impression. If you are mass marketing your flyers to 10,000 or more people, then you can save a little money and use an 80lb paper stock, but don’t go any less or you will look cheap.

Now, any good designer knows that you can’t always meet every one of these objectives for every flyer design, however, these are some of the most important points to consider. The take home message is to not have your flyer looking like it was designed by an amateur (a.k.a. “yourself”). Having a professional look to your flyers will reflect organization and will attract more people. If you want a professional design for your next flyer, be sure to contact Perfect Imprints and we will make you look good.