In the age of the internet and social media, it may appear weird to talk about flyers – those bits of paper posted through your door occasionally. But they are still used and can be effective is designed and used in the right way, at the right time!

For personal trainers, for example, they can be a great way to gain prospective clients attention. Not everyone is on the internet or social media, but everyone has a letter box!

What are Flyers?

Flyers are a form of external mass marketing.

What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Flyers?

• Advantages:
  • Can reach wide audiences in a short space of time.
  • Good for advertising offers and short-term programmes, e.g. 30-Day Challenges.
  • Can be cheap to produce in reasonable amounts (e.g. 500 flyers for £10).
• Disadvantages:
  • It is a ‘scatter gun’ approach.
  • Low conversion rates of between 1-3%.
  • Can be difficult to distribute to a wide area (when delivering them yourself).

What ‘Makes’ a Great Flyer?

What separates flyers that are glanced at and thrown away from those that:

• Catch the eye;
• Engage the reader’s interest; and
• Actually gets them to take some type of action?

Below are 9 quick tips.

1. Keep it Simple:
   1. Flyers are glanced at, not read.
   2. You literally have a second to catch the reader’s interest before they make the decision to either read it or throw it away.
   3. Use bright colours with a simple eye-catching design.
   4. Your aim is not to wow them with the brilliance of the graphics, but to draw them to your message, nothing more.
   5. Limit what you say. The message should be delivered in short, clear statements, not long paragraphs of descriptive text.
2. Have a Great Headline:
   1. The headline is the most important element in any flyer.
   2. The Marketing Law of 80/20 states, that, on average 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest.
   3. This means 80% of your time and focus writing an add should focus on the headline.
   4. The effective headline tells the reader, “Hey, stop right now.
3. Have Great Bullet Points About Key Benefits:
   1. Bullet points are critical to your overall marketing and sales campaign.
   2. Get them right, and you give yourself the best opportunity of getting prospects to take action.
4. Use Targeted Images:
   1. Images are an important part of your flyer but do not overdo it.
   2. Relevant images or photos are an essential part of the page design and are great attention grabbers, but they must not overwhelm the message you are trying to get across.
   3. You want to motivate the readers to take action, not just give them something nice to look at.
   4. If your target market were woman over forty, for example, you would not have an image of a teenager girl on your flyer.
   5. Your image must depict your specific niche.
5. Benefits, Not Features:
   1. The ‘People’s’ favourite radio station is WIIFM (what’s in it for me).
   2. They want to know what is in it for them, and you need to write your flyers from the reader’s perspective.
   3. You need to tell them about the benefits you will bring to their lives, not just list the features of the particular product or service.
   4. Benefits can be written as your key bullet points.
6. Have a Killer Offer:
   1. You must have something to offer in your flyer, whether it is:
      1. A discount;
      2. Something free; or
      3. A tripewire offer (i.e. anything under £20).
   2. The Marketing Law of Offering simply states that all marketing material will have a strong, interesting and appealing offer or offers.
   3. If it does not, do not bother wasting your money!
   4. Your killer offer needs to be a main feature of your page design.
   5. You need to motivate your readers to take action, and the best way to do this is make them feel you are giving them something of great value.
   6. The Marketing Law of Value states that the primary role of any marketing is to provide value for the end user.
   7. Those that are well versed in the Marketing Law of Value understand that the prospect is always thinking, “What is in it for me?”
   8. When putting together a marketing campaign or writing marketing copy, you must keep this in mind at all times.
   9. You simply need to create value for your prospective clients.
7. Add Scarcity:
   1. The Marketing Law of Scarcity states that consumers will be more motivated to buy your product or service if it is offered for a limited time.
   2. This law plays a significant role in the persuasion process.
   3. Opportunities to purchase products or services are always more valuable and exciting to the consumer when they are scarce and less available.
   4. Scarcity drives prospects to action, making them act quickly for fear of missing out on a good deal.
   5. This law works beautifully with all flyer campaigns because it makes prospects feel like they will lose their opportunity to act and choose if they do not do so immediately.
   6. The threat of loss creates urgency in the decision making process.
   7. Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.
8. Make the Next Step Easy:
   1. Make the next step as simple as possible for the reader.
   2. For example, Your Next Step is to:
      1. Simply Call This Number XXX XXX XXX; or
      2. Email me Personally on Name@BusinessName.com.
   3. Do not assume that the reader will know what to do next.
   4. Tell them exactly what action you want them to take.
9. The Last Stage:
   1. Finally, the flyer printing is the last stage, so before you give the go ahead make sure the flyer is carefully proof read, and by more than one person.
   2. Once the flyer printing and distribution are done you cannot bring them back.