What Is the Purpose of a Flyer?

The right marketing strategy for your business should incorporate a variety of mediums, including not only digital advertising but also physical forms of advertising such as flyers. The reason why your business should have multiple marketing channels is that each medium has a different target audience and purpose. That applies to flyers as well.

You might be wondering, “What is the purpose of flyers besides creating junk mail?” The purpose of flyers is to create a more immediate form of marketing and reach potential paying customers directly. Flyer advertising has a purpose in your overall business strategy that is very different from more long-term channels such as social media marketing.

Here is everything you need to know about a flyer’s definition, meaning, and purpose.

What Is a Flyer?

Before we get into the purpose of this advertising method and how it can fit in with your larger business strategy, it helps to define the word flyer. The flyer’s definition is that it is officially a small, printed bill or piece of paper that is advertising something.

Flyers are printed pieces of advertising that are smaller than posters or billboards. They come in a few different sizes, but they are all small enough for people to carry in their hands. If you’ve ever had a restaurant menu slipped under your door or received a political mailer, then you know what a flyer is.

However, the word flyer means much bigger than just the dictionary definition. Printed flyers are ways for businesses to make direct connections with their communities. They are a physical reminder of your business that customers cannot ignore as easily as they ignore digital ads. However, we’ll look into this more when we explain the purpose of flyers or pamphlet.

What is the Purpose of a Flyer?

The main purpose of leaflets or a flyer is to raise awareness about your business. When we answered the question, “What is a flyer?” we said that it is a small piece of paper. However, flyers attract way more attention than their small size seems to merit. Whether you hand them out or slip them under people’s doors, they are enough of a departure from the norm that people will sit up and take notice.

You can use flyers to generate general awareness about your business. Flyers define your business in the minds of the public. If you just opened your store or are trying to drum up attention for a new location, a flyering campaign is a great way to attract attention. Flyers allow you to target people most likely to pay for your business—people who live near you—in a more precise way than other forms of advertising.

You can also use flyers for specific marketing campaigns such as special sales or discounted offers. What are flyers but a fleeting piece of paper that is perfect for a temporary marketing strategy? Because flyers are so quick and easy to design and can be distributed locally, you can have multiple flyer campaigns throughout the year to advertise different sales and offers.

If you’re wondering what is the purpose of flyers besides making money, you should know that this advertising strategy also has a place in the social impact sphere. Flyers are popular tactics for political campaigns because they are an easy way to get the word out about a particular candidate or cause. The act of handing out flyers itself is also a way to build connections because you can stop and talk to people.

There are many answers to the age-old question, “What are flyers used for?” The most concise answer is that they are useful for increasing awareness of your business. What you do with that awareness specifically is up to you.

Ways to Advertise Your Business with Flyers

Now that you know exactly what is flyer advertising and what its goals are, you can begin to figure out how to incorporate flyers into your general marketing strategy. There are a few ways to advertise your business using this method.

Here are just a few ways to advertise your business, but of course, there are many more. All of these methods require a clear plan for creating and distributing your flyers. Before you put any flyers in the hands of potential customers, you should do your research. Identify target demographics and the best ways to reach them. Figure out what content is most likely to resonate with your audience. You should also research legal restrictions on handing out or hanging up flyers so you don’t get in trouble.

Before you head out with a stack of your flyers, you should also prepare a quick elevator pitch about your business. Even if you’re using a lower-contact method for distributing flyers such as hanging them up, someone might see what you’re doing and ask you about your business. You should be prepared for a conversation because that person could become a paying customer.

At Events

Check out events in your community or industry and see if you can distribute flyers. Not only are there plenty of people at events, but usually those people are also already interested in your field or area of business. For example, a trade show flyer is a great way to connect with people interested in your niche. Reach out to local fairs or block parties to ask if you can show up.

If you can’t find any events that fit in with your goals, make your own! Even the act of standing on a sidewalk handing out flyers makes it seem like a special event because people are not used to this anymore.

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Hang Them Up

If you don’t want to or can’t stand outside handing out flyers all day, let your one-page flyer do the work for you. Do your research on local billboards in grocery stores, coffee shops, or parks, and then hang your flyer up there. Try to target billboards that you know people within your target demographic will see. For example, if you have a toy store, put up flyers near playgrounds or kid-friendly cafés where you know parents will go.

Some marketing strategists recommend hanging up flyers on telephone poles and walls, but in some areas, this is illegal, and local authorities will tear down your flyers before anyone sees them.

Go Door-to-Door

Another advertising idea is to go to the people instead of waiting for them to come to you. You can mail out your flyers or hang them on people’s doors. This is a way to reach people without disturbing them because sometimes people are in a rush and don’t want to take a flyer or engage in conversation.

If you are going door-to-door yourself instead of sticking flyers in the mail, check legal restrictions because some areas have limits on soliciting even by businesses.

Flyering Ideas for Your Business

Even if you know that it’s important, sometimes it’s all you can do to get yourself through each workday, let alone come up with creative marketing ideas for each of your channels. Luckily, we can help with some creative flyering ideas that will drum up attention for your business.

Show Off Your Work

Do you have a new product in stock that you know people will love? Create a beautifully designed product flyer! The product flyer even works if your business offers services, not goods—if you’re adding a brand-new service to your business, create a flyer that advertises it! Be sure to create a sense of urgency around your product by saying that it could go out of stock soon. Use plenty of images to entice people.

Introduce Yourself

If you’re new to the area, whether you just opened your business, relocated, or opened a new location, then a flyer is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to the community! Invite people to your grand opening and explain how your business will help them. It doesn’t hurt to offer a grand opening discount.

Offer a Discount

People might pay attention to your flyer, but they will really pay attention if your flyer also offers them 10% off on their next visit. A great way to drum up more sales is to give people a coupon or discount code with your flyers. You can also use flyers to advertise in-store sales. People love the opportunity to save money, and they love feeling as if they have special invites to an opportunity to do so.

Host an Event

The purpose of flyers goes far beyond for-profit businesses. If you represent a community group hosting an event, flyers are a great way to advertise that event! A flyer, poster size or smaller, attracts attention. You can target the people who live near you and are most likely to attend your event. Flyers are also small enough that people can take some home to share with neighbors, friends, and family.

You can use flyers to advertise all sorts of events, including fundraisers. If you are raising money for a good cause, you want as many people to know about your fundraiser as possible. Whether you’re hosting a bake sale fundraiser or a raffle, some eye-catching flyers won’t take too much out of your budget and will garner plenty of attention.

Key Flyer Elements for Marketing

To realize the purpose of flyers, you need to put effort into creating an effective marketing campaign. Every element of your flyers should be tailored toward grabbing a reader’s attention and increasing their awareness of your business.

Here are some common elements that every marketing flyer should have.

Strong Graphics and Visual Identity

When you think about what is a flyer, the medium’s strong visual identity leaps forward. Flyers rely on catching the eye with graphics and powerful images. The visual design of your flyer may be the most important aspect of your marketing campaign. You only have a few seconds to attract someone’s attention before they throw your flyer away, and your design is the main way you do that.

Every flyer needs to have a strong central image. Whether that’s a photo of your business, a stock photo of the types of services you offer, or an illustration of your products, make sure that the image is high-quality and clearly links to your business.

Besides your central image, you need strong design in your other elements. Your color choice should be in line with your business’s overall brand identity and attract attention without clashing. Information on your flyer should be arranged in a logical, easy-to-read format.

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Text

Even though graphics are the first thing that people will see on your flyer, the text is just as important.

Coming up with the right flyer text is an exercise in doing more with less. You don’t have as much space on a flyer as you do on a webpage to stuff all the information you want to about your business—nor should you try to cram as much as you can onto the flyer. People probably won’t sit there and read paragraphs and paragraphs of text.

Instead, your flyer should have punchy, catchy headlines to catch people’s attention and just enough information to share what is necessary, such as contact information. Be sure to include a strong call to action.

Paper Quality

Once you design and write your flyers, pay attention to the paper for flyers that you use. Your paper should be thick enough to withstand wear and tear since it could be lying outside or on people’s doorsteps for several hours. Glossy, double-sided paper is the best way to present your business.

Choosing quality paper shows potential customers that you have strong attention to detail and that you care enough about your business’s success to invest in it.

Schlussfolgerung

Even in today’s digitally-focused world, flyers have a very important purpose. They generate awareness of your business among the people most likely to turn into paying customers. Flyers are also quick-acting marketing tools, perfect for temporary campaigns such as sales or grand openings.

However, for flyers to fulfill their purpose, you still need to put thought into their design, copywriting, and distribution plans to target the right demographics.

 

Shelly Parker

Shelly Parker

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