How to create a highly effective Advertising Flyer

Flyers are a great way to grab attention.

They are an inexpensive and effective way to advertise your business to a large selection of people.

But with so many companies using advertising flyers, how can you make your flyer design stand out and be noticed?

How can you produce a no frills flyer that will have people begging to buy from you?

First of all, like in any form of marketing – or business for that matter – you have to establish your audience. You cannot market to everybody all at once.

Know your audience and tailor your flyer to this group.

Before we go into the copywriting side, let’s take a quick look at the basic format of a killer flyer.

One focal image is better than lots of smaller images and logos. If you are producing a flyer to show-off a new toothbrush – use one large picture of a toothbrush. This shows people immediately what the flyer is all about before they have even read anything. There is no need to confuse them with lots of different images – it will simply put people off, and they won’t bother reading.

Black text on a bright (preferably white) background. Stick with it. It’s simple and easy to read. Don’t confuse people with fancy colour combinations – this will not increase your sales – quality copy will – but they have to be able to read it first.

Always leave lots of white space. Text-heavy flyers are suicide. They don't work. If you have long, complex sentences - break them up into bullet points. Less is more. A flyer has to be easy on the eye.

And finally, as far as general content goes – always offer something for Free. Never produce a flyer that doesn’t offer discounts.

Now for the copy

I read somewhere that the Greek philosopher Aristotle came up with this basic concept that still applies today:

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

Attention
When designing a flyer, you should be spending at least 50% of your time on your headline. The headline grabs attention. This is the most important aspect of the flyer

Providing you have a great product and a great offer, that will sell itself. Putting yourself in the position to pitch your product to someone is what the headline is all about.

Your headline should have two components. It should create curiosity. Entice the reader to want to read more.

Perhaps most importantly, it should have people thinking that reading this flyer will be of benefit to them.

For example: “New Toothbrush from AquaClean fights tooth decay in adults”. Clearly a benefit is there for adults and people wary of tooth decay. This will encourage all concerned to read on.

Interest
Let the relevant people know that it is relevant to them. Address a common problem and state how you and your product will solve the problem.

For example: “Are you tired of having to clean your football boots?” Solve it: “This product cleans them for you”. This creates an interest for all the people who at any time have to clean their football boots. The more specific a demographic group you can reach – the better.

If the flyer speaks directly to them – so will the product.

Desire
This is where you state the benefits. You have told them what the problem you will solve is – now its time to say why they should take a strong interest in you and your product. Testimonials can do this well.

The features – benefits approach is the best method. This applies to any form of copywriting. The ‘Interest’ section states the main feature and attracts the right audience – ‘Desire’ tells them why they need to buy and what they will get out of buying. I.e. they’ll save time and money, and be happier in doing so.

Action
Call to action. Such a simplistic element but you cannot forget or overlook this.

Call Today!
Send us an email!
Visit us at…!

Tell them exactly what they need to do in order to get your wonderful product. Always provide a phone number, email address, web address and physical address where possible. Different people like to contact you in different ways. Give them every opportunity they could need to contact you.

Providing a physical address helps with credibility and is particularly useful if you are a local company attracting local customers – it shows you are nearby and have a common bond with them.

So there you have it, an excellent, simple, effective flyer in no time. For more information, and exercises to help with the content of your flyers, just drop me an email: info@bentyson.me

www.writing-for-england.co.uk