Too often, flyers generate low response rates and businesses assume they don’t work. As a result they are abandoned or their message is changed – and that doesn’t work either! Flyers can fail due to poor execution, inconsistent messages and visually confusing designs but when produced effectively they will increase direct response rates and brand awareness.

Make Key Decisions In-House

The marketing budget for flyers can be maximised by understanding the processes involved. Designers and printers talk in terms of ‘stock’, ‘RGB’, ‘CYMK’, ‘spot colour’ and ‘full colour off-set printing’ so savvy companies ensure they understand how investment in each area can alter the look and feel of the flyer – weight and finish (stock), visual appeal (imagery, fonts and colours) and quality (the print process).

Whilst market leaders purchase bespoke fonts and favour high grade stock, glossy finishes and double-sided full-colour imagery, few businesses can afford such extravagance so printers or graphic designers are entrusted with making key decisions to ensure the project comes in on budget. This is dangerous, only businesses truly understand their market, so powerful communication can be lost; a printer may favour glossy stock over colourful imagery; the imagery may have more appeal.

Make key decisions in-house. Full colour offset printing is ideal for generating brilliant colours – and larger bills – cheaper spot colour print may be used for jobs of one or two colours. Multicoloured flyers are best designed using CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) because RGB (red, green, and blue) colours that form the foundation of those seen on a computer screen can’t all be reproduced in the CMYK format used by printers. CMYK is the widely accepted format for a PDF so companies create problems by asking printers to convert their RGB files to CMYK because the RGB design might be reproduced in a different shade, especially with an offset printing press.

It’s all in the detail

Sweeping statements fail to impress consumers; avoid generic strap lines such as ‘We are Market Leaders’. Instead analyse data to produce useful information or promote an aspect of the business that stands out. Thebrandeffect produced flyers for a client with the strap line ‘97% of our customers would recommend us’. Another commissioned a campaign to launch ‘all-inclusive lettings fees’.

Strengthen the power of your statement(s) by identifying your USPs and integrating them in the campaign. Images can be sourced from your own stock, online image libraries or by commissioning a professional photographer. Costs vary, but be wary of sourcing your primary shot from an image library as if used by other firms (as was a recent image by the NHS, a distribution company and a well-known charity) it compromises the corporate identity, brand association and dynamism of all companies concerned.

Images should grab attention and draw consumers into the message expressing something words can’t. Marketing specialists are experts in juxtaposing images with intelligent marketing messages for maximum impact.

Family Values

The most effective flyer campaigns are designed in the same way as advertising campaigns. Each is powerful in its own right and together they form a cohesive group conveying aspects of a uniform message. Thebrandeffect helped an estate agency focus on its tradition ‘helping generations of homeowners’ and designed flyers to appeal to age groups. Meanwhile a national estate agency, ‘successfully selling property for 70 years’ used retro images alongside marketing messages for a family of flyers about the range of services.

It’s easy to get bored with your marketing message but don’t change it for change’s sake. Meaningful messages are more effective than unrealistic claims and to a new customer, are as fresh as the day they were created. To repeat consumers, the message becomes familiar and secure in their minds. The ‘always coca-cola’ campaign had an initial run of 27 commercials because it ‘always’ worked.

Finally, no flyer campaign is complete without an overt ‘call to action’, so ensure your ‘action’ - such as ‘call us today’ - and telephone number are both prominent.

Danielle Simpson creates powerful marketing campaigns for market leaders in the property industry. Visit thebrandeffect.co.uk.