How to create the perfect message on your promotional leaflets

Businesses use many forms of marketing tools in an advertising or promotional campaign – one of the most popular – and effective – ways to reach your potential customer base is to print leaflets. All forms of marketing vehicles carry financial overheads, so before you start spending money on promotional leaflets ensure that you have identified how to correctly and effectively craft your message that your printed leaflets are to convey.

Here are some basic tips to achieve that perfect message:

Know your audience

Before you spend any money on a marketing campaign of any kind, it is essential that you accurately identify your potential audience. Is there a specific age range you are targeting? What gender does your product or service appeal to? Are you targeting new customers or building on an already established customer base? What elements or features of your product or service will appeal to your target customer?  

Format of leaflet

There are many different formats of printed leaflet available – choose a style and fold that you like and that you think will best deliver your message. Decide how your message can be divided into sections, then pick a leaflet fold that will deliver that message in the most effective way – it may be a letter fold, gate fold, a simple single fold or the more ornate concertina fold.

Keep content simple

The very nature of leaflet printing as a marketing vehicle restricts the amount of space available to get your message across – ensure that you clearly identify what it is you NEED to say, then use the available space for that concise information. A printed leaflet is not a forum for casual reading – people will not spend much time perusing a leaflet – they will look at it briefly then discard it if it does not immediately grab their attention, so ensure any text your leaflet displays is relevant and interesting. Avoid ANY unnecessary text! 

Call to action

Your leaflet is not simply to inform people of your product or service but to get them to react to it. Your leaflet design should identify exactly what your potential customers are to do next – perhaps buy something or to visit your website – whatever you want them to do, your message should contain that specific call to action.

Design

They say a picture paints a thousand words – valuable information when you are working with limited space to convey your message! The correct use of images and colour will greatly influence the message it conveys – the most effective leaflet design will interweave images into the message itself and help tell the story and highlight the more salient points of your leaflet message.

Test before print

The primary purpose of a marketing leaflet is to catch the attention of potential customers – so your leaflet design needs to look attractive! To ensure your leaflet is how you want it to look, ensure that you ‘trial’ it before going to the time and expense of leaflet printing – utilise some of the available design software, like Photoshop, to check exactly how your printed leaflet will look and that it will present your final message in the manner you want.

Check how the images, colours and words work together and that they sit comfortably together and present a professional, corporate appearance. If any element of your leaflet needs adjusting in any way, this is the time to do it – make any necessary amendments until the finished leaflet looks exactly as you intended.