Using adver­tis­ing fly­ers to pro­mote your busi­ness is a cost-effective way to get your mes­sage to the masses. Fly­ers are basi­cally full page ads that you dis­trib­ute straight to your poten­tial cus­tomers. Flyer print­ing is a good option for new busi­nesses get­ting off the ground with a small adver­tis­ing bud­get, and it’s a good option for estab­lished busi­nesses that want to directly com­mu­ni­cate with poten­tial cus­tomers. Full color fly­ers are espe­cially effec­tive because they catch people’s eyes and can draw peo­ple in to your message.

You can make black-and-white or full color fly­ers your­self or use a flyer print­ing com­pany, depend­ing on your bud­get and how much time you have to design them.

Keep the fol­low­ing points in mind when cre­at­ing your adver­tis­ing flyer:

1. Your goal is to get people’s atten­tion. Don’t just use white paper with black let­ter­ing if you can afford it. Some copy shops charge just a few cents more to use col­ored paper and oth­ers don’t charge at all for col­ored paper. This small change can get your flyer noticed where it oth­er­wise wouldn’t. It is best to use white paper, how­ever, if you’re pro­duc­ing a full color flyer or if you’re going to include a photo on your flyer.

2. The pur­pose of a flyer is to sell. Remem­ber that your mes­sage needs to have a pur­pose and that’s not just to announce your name to the pub­lic. You need to make sure you com­mu­ni­cate the ben­e­fits of your prod­uct or ser­vice to the pub­lic, not just facts about your com­pany. Peo­ple want to know what you or your prod­uct can do for them. What’s your ben­e­fit? Why should they choose you over your competition?

3. Include a dis­count or incen­tive. Peo­ple like to save money and if you include a dis­count that’s only avail­able for a lim­ited time, you cre­ate urgency. Urgency gets peo­ple out of their houses and into your store.

4. Include a call to action. A call to action is what you want the reader to do after they’ve read your flyer. You can tell them to visit your Web site for more infor­ma­tion or to “Call now.” Com­bin­ing a call to action with a dis­count works well. For instance, “Call us before Memo­r­ial Day to receive 10% off your purchase!”

5. Add tes­ti­mo­ni­als. Use com­ments from past sat­is­fied cus­tomers. Be sure to use com­ments that are spe­cific to the prod­uct, not just “I love this prod­uct!” Include a full name, loca­tion and a photo if the cus­tomer allows. A lot of ads include false tes­ti­mo­ni­als from “Joe S” or other com­mon names that any­one could make up. Tes­ti­mo­ni­als don’t work if they look or sound fake.

6. Hang them or dis­trib­ute them in areas where your tar­get audi­ence is likely to be. For instance, if you offer a weight loss prod­uct, hang your flyer on the com­mu­nity board at the local gym. A seam­stress or tai­lor could hang a flyer at a dry clean­ing busi­ness that doesn’t have its own seam­stress or tai­lor. Make sure where you hang your fly­ers makes log­i­cal sense. A dry cleaner that has an in-house tai­lor is not going to wel­come your flyer.

For com­ments and inquiries about the arti­cle visit:

Full Color Fly­ers, Adver­tis­ing Fly­ers, Flyer Print­ing