What Makes a Good Flyer Design: 8 Things to Consider

When we hear the word flyers, we first picture those unnecessary papers given at an event while we hold our drink and a bucket of fries. Well, truth be told, some flyers are horrible. Photocopied black and white adverts with illegible letters and incomprehensible dark images. It’s understandable why some flyers get thrown out without even a glance. 

But I remember so many times when a flyer took hold of my attention. One, for instance, had few words yet the impact was great. I got it from a free museum open house. The images were beautiful and the colors were vivid enough that I pocketed it and went home to find myself visiting their website and watching their videos.

A well-designed flyer is a good tool to fulfill any marketing goals. According to the Data and Marketing Association, 57 percent of people look into a flyer they receive from their mail, and 48 percent actually read the material. Even if it’s not a substantial number, the fact that leaflets and flyers still have readerships makes them a favorable marketing tool on top of other marketing campaigns. 

So let’s all learn how to make a good flyer. But, first, what is a flyer?

A flyer is a piece of paper that advertises a company’s product, services, events, promos, etc. It is one of the oldest forms of paper advertising that gets distributed in busy areas like parks, concerts, museums, and schools. Nowadays, digital flyers get sent over email or other messaging sites. 

The importance of traditional paper flyers has dwindled in recent years due to the boom of the Internet. Yet many businesses still consider flyers as an inexpensive and accessible way of marketing. 

There are several ways you can revive the vitality of print advertisement aka flyers and leaflets. You can mail it directly to your consumers along with the products, or you can give free gifts along with the flyers. 

After existing for so many years, here’s why flyers and other similar forms of paper advertising are still relevant these days. 

1. Get customers’ attention fast

Nowadays, people think of so many things. In a busy event, flyers can catch people’s attention quickly. With a good design and a clear call to action, people can know more about your brand in seconds. 

2. Reach people who are not Internet savvy

Well, despite an 80 percent internet penetration, there’s still a small pool of people who have never used email or other digital tools. If your company targets such a group, you can best reach them through flyers. Without opening any internet applications, people can easily see your brand message through pieces of paper. 

3. People love tangible things

People are tactile beings. In the same way business cards are still important because they are tangible, flyers give off that same feeling. Also, it adds a little bit of something new to the experience. When people get bombarded with digital advertisements every day, tangible advertisements like flyers can be a breath of fresh air.

4. Inexpensive but with an impact

Compared with billboards or digital ads, flyers (whether you create them manually or through an AI flyer generator) are relatively inexpensive to create. It takes only good design, a bunch of quality papers, the right timing, and location. Once you have those relatively cheaper resources, you’re off to a good flyer campaign. 

Good flyers and bad flyers exist. One is thrown out immediately after a second of scanning. The other urges the reader to keep and reread the paper. It leads to a website visit or brand recognition. Here’s a list of professionally designed flyers from DesignCrowd, an online crowdsourcing platform for designers. 

But for a flyer to be considered well-designed, it needs to satisfy the following criteria:

1. Focused idea 

Your flyer must fulfill one purpose. If you want people to buy from your e-commerce store, don’t make additional information persuading them to visit your product exhibits. If you only need people to know about your brand, no need to include dates for your next sales. You can place that in other flyers. 

People are distracted enough. Too much information will only worsen this situation. To garner as much attention as possible, you must provide only the necessary information that will help you fulfill your single purpose.

Say you want your target audience to view your social media accounts. Don’t sway them by saying how great your website is. People can only do so little if they’re occupied with too many things. With flyers, you’re asking them to do something that they may or may not follow. And the best way to make them heed you is to state a single easy command. 

2. With a call to action

Your flyer has to do something. Otherwise, what’s the purpose of putting it out there. Provide a clear call to action in your flyers. 

Even if you only want people to know your brand, you must put out websites to visit and contact numbers to call. 

Make the sentence in imperative forms: buy our products, visit our website, view our pictures online, read our articles.

Take a look at the example below. From a glance, the readers are compelled to act. 

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

3. High-quality pictures

People want to see flyers with high-quality images. Flyers full of white space and blocks of words bore the average readers leading to fewer engagements and conversions. 

High-quality pictures attract attention in an oversaturated world of online and print advertisements. Better pictures lead to more website visits or product purchases. Also, people are more likely to keep flyers with good graphics and design. 

If you have no budget for a professional designer to make flyers, you can get one from the hundreds of available pre-made templates from DesignCrowd.

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

4. Good Color Palette

Color choices can affect the performance of your flyer campaigns. Bold, eye-catching color palettes can quickly grab attention than words and pictures as they don’t need visual interpretation. 

Colors should reflect your brand image. People must be able to tell from a glance what kind of products or services you offer. 

Also, make your information pop out by dividing colors. Separate the main call to action from the contact details using contrasting colors. In that way, you guide the readers where to look. 

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

5. Big Bold Letters

The right kind of font plays a vital role in a well-designed flyer. Why not? Unlike pictures and colors, words will ultimately tell the audience what to do. So it pays to know what typeface or fonts to use. 

Typography is vital in all aspects of a business, much more in visual assets like leaflets, business cards, and flyers. 

For general readability, stick to a sans serif font. But if you want to stand out, make sure to choose a legible decorative and script typeface. 

The main call-to-action should be in big bold letters. If there’s only one thing you want people to retrieve from your flier, it’s your call to action. Hence, all the focus should be there. 

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

6. QR code for scanning

Everyone has a QR code scanner nowadays. Whatever your purpose, a QR code is a valuable tool that can be created using any of these QR code generators. Nowadays, you can create a landing page where viewers can look into a youtube video about your product or browse product favorites from your e-commerce site. 

Other purposes of a QR code:

1. Video or audio Code for sharing videos or music
2. PDF Code for sharing a PDF that can have products on sale or menu on offer details
3. To direct people to your social media accounts
4. To share business contact information
5. To give discount codes and freebies. 

The best thing about a QR code is that there’s no need for people to type in the website or social media account handles, which sometimes lead to the wrong address. A QR code ensures the accuracy of the landing page.

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

7. Business Information

Make sure to provide your contact details. But make it as minimal as possible. A crowded flyer can take the focus away from your main goal. 

Business information is important no matter what. People will try to visit your website or contact you for more information if they’re interested. And you want to gain as many visitors and conversions as possible. 

This is evident in the picture below. The readers know where to go next and who to contact based on their provided information. 

Work with this designer

1. 
   

   In-Line with the Brand

The flyer design must stick to your branding. The logo should be evident, if not the main focus. It needs to be visible, at least. Some people will only purchase products from brands they know and trust. 

Apart from the logo, ensure a consistent brand color. If you use a broad green palette on your websites, your flyers must show similar colors. 

Same with your typeface options. If you use Helvetica for most of your website content, might as well use the same font group in your flyers and other advertising materials. Your flyer should be an extension of your digital presence. 

The example below shows that the website branding image is consistently translated to the flyers. 

The flyer uses the same typography and colors. 

Work with this designer from DesignCrowd

By now, we understand that flyers are designed to hook as many people as possible. And we won’t achieve that with a disorderly and complicated design. Too many unnecessary details distract your readers from getting to the main purpose of the flyer. 

Above all else, understand your brand and your target audience. There are a lot of flyer makers out there by then, you will have created flyers that will be of interest to people, ultimately converting them to trusted buyers or patrons of your services. 

Written by DesignCrowd on Thursday, June 3, 2021

DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.