You’ve seen flyers everywhere, especially when there’s a new business opening, a sale, or a big holiday coming up. Flyers continue to be a highly effective and cost-efficient advertising method to people in the real world as they go about their day. They’re bright, tangible, and people can simply grab one as they keep going. But what makes a flyer effective? What makes them get someone’s attention?

Here are some ways to keep your flyers from ending up in the bin.

• Use colorful, eye-catching graphics. It’s not enough to just use a bold font and throw in some information onto your flyers. People get attracted to bright, colorful concepts, and adding clever, well-designed graphics in charming colors will get them looking. Not to mention that simple flyers don’t usually make people retain the information on them well. But with a great graphic and nice colors, they’ll remember what it’s all about.
• Get straight to the good stuff. Flyers have a limited amount of surface space and even less time to capture a reader’s attention span. So whatever you’re going to put on the flyer to inform your potential customer, it needs to be short, sweet and loaded with benefits for them. By getting to the good points right away, you immediately inform them of why it’s worth their time.
• Make contact details clear and direct. None of that “ask your local dealer” stuff on there—make sure your contact details (such as a website, phone number, email, even a small sketch of a map with landmarks for directions) are precise on your flyer. People would rather not have to Google if you can give them that information right away.
• Distribute creatively. Just handing people flyers at high-traffic areas isn’t enough; that’s the shortest route to throwing money away. Find a fun way to get it to them, especially when they look bored while waiting. Try to head for a waiting area at a shopping mall or a bus stop and hand them a flyer to read as they wait.

Flyers are one of the most direct ways to get your name, brand, and information out to the nearest potential customer. Don’t forget to make the most of them!

Great printing makes a great flyer. Head to PrintTime.com to find great printing options.