Despite the great benefits of digital marketing, traditional marketing methods are still an effective and successful way to raise awareness of your business. Whether that’s placing a print ad in the local paper or handing out business cards at a networking event, these tried and tested techniques can efficiently boost your business’s profile.
A simple flyer is an inexpensive but powerful way to grab people’s attention and make sure you stand out from the competition. There is an art to creating and distributing effective flyers, and if carefully considered, the following steps will help yours to have real impact.
1) Create an eye-catching headline
Headlines aren’t just for newspapers. To make sure your flyer is attention-grabbing, you’ll need a short, engaging and memorable headline. This is perhaps the most important feature of your flyer, so it’s your chance to really sell your greatest benefit.
You’ve only got a couple of seconds to get the person interested in what you’re trying to say, so make your headline prominent and compelling. Using language such as “easy”, “finally”, “free”, “new” and “guarantee” is a popular technique to quickly engage people.
2) Use high-quality images
Find a strong image that supports the story you’re trying to tell with your flyer. Using one strong image rather than a collection of smaller images has more impact, and will act as the focal point of your flyer.
There are plenty of websites you can use to get stock images for your flyers, including Pixabay and Unsplash for more creative photos. Alternatively, you may want to hire a professional photographer to take pictures of your products, or a designer to help with the creative. This can make a huge difference and be well worth the investment, as an expertly-designed flyer shows your level of professionalism and increases your business’s credibility.
3) Sell your benefits
Your main marketing message should always focus on the benefits you can offer as a business to your target market. Avoid talking about what you do and focus on what you can do for them, like solving their problem or making them happier. Rather than using “we” and “our”, speak directly to your audience with words like “you” and “your”.
Solving a person’s problem can quickly interest them in your product or service. For example, a domestic services business might have a flyer with the headline: “Don’t have time for ironing? Let us do it for you!”. This clearly explains a problem someone may have and then solves it with the service your business provides.
4) Keep it snappy
Keeping it short and simple is essential to creating a good flyer. Using too many words can put people off; they’ll take one look, think it will take too long to read, and throw it straight in the bin.
Try to get your message across as briefly as possible. This might seem difficult but can mean the difference between an easily understood, memorable flyer and one that ends up in the nearest bin. Don’t be afraid to use bullet points or other short, snappy sentences to be clear and concise with your message.
5) Include a strong call-to-action
What exactly do you want people to do next? Don’t leave any room for ambiguity – explicitly tell them what you want them to do next. The whole purpose of your flyer campaign is to inspire action to be taken by the person once they have finished reading it, so make sure it’s the right one.
For example, a café might use the call-to-action “Call in to try our new brunch menu”. If you’re a shop that’s flyering to tell customers about a sale, your call-to-action might be “Grab a great deal at our sale today”. Keep it simple and think about how your call-to-action links with your most important message.
6) Include your contact details
There’s no use doing all this hard work if people have no way to contact you. Always include relevant contact details on your flyer, such as your website and contact phone number, so they can quickly get in touch with you. If you’re asking people to come and visit your shop in person, make sure it’s easy for them to find you by putting your address and a map on the flyer itself.
7) Pick your moment
Handing out a flyer at a time that’s inconvenient for people will likely mean that it’s ignored. Consider when and where your flyer will be most relevant, whether that’s in store, near your store or in your local newspaper as part of an offer, and distribute it at these times or places.
To revisit our café example, an ideal time for them to send out their brunch flyers would be around 11am on a Saturday or Sunday morning – just as people are thinking about getting something to eat. They could also add their flyer to a local paper which arrives on Saturday morning, just as people are making their plans for the weekend.
Print marketing, like flyers, is a great way to get your messages straight into the hands of your audience. Next time you’re putting together ideas for a direct mail campaign, use these eight tips to make sure it ends up in the right place – not in the bin.
We’ve got more articles that can help you to use print marketing methods to attract more customers to your local business. Read these for more ideas:
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