Things to avoid when designing leaflets

Whether you want to hand out leaflets to inform people of an upcoming event or post leaflets on billboards, you’ll find plenty of advice on what to do when designing it. However, major mistakes can kill your conversion rate, whether it causes the leaflet to be lost in the crowd or rendered unreadable. Here are the top things to avoid when designing leaflets.

Poor Readability

It doesn’t matter how great your hook phrase is if people can’t see it. This is why the best leaflets have large, easily to read text. Then your leaflets will be readable to people standing on the other side of the room or those nearby who don’t want to put on their reading glasses.

Pay attention to spelling and grammar. If you’re selling a used bike or services, you’ll appear gullible if you’re making spelling mistakes. If you’re trying to promote a financial seminar or service, spelling and grammar mistakes undermine your credibility.

Types of Folds

How your leaflet is folded can have a big impact on the overall look and feel of it. It’s also really important when thinking about how a potential customer reads it. You will need to know which bits of information go on which side of each fold to make sure the information flows and makes sense. It can have a big effect on where your logo, pictures and map are placed. Here is a handy guide from Real Print on all the different types of leaflet folds you can get.

TMI

TMI stands for too much information. Leaflets should be short, simple and to the point at every point. For example, you’ll lose people’s interest with a long headline. You’ll lose readers if you write long paragraphs instead of literal bullet points. You’ll lose potential buyers if you have too many bullet points or too much information. Answer essential questions like your value proposition, what you offer and how to get it.

Bad Images

You want to have at least one, good quality image on your leaflet. It needs to be obviously related to the content and attract the attention of your potential audience. However, a low quality image will undermine your entire value proposition. This means you don’t want to use an image that is low resolution or blow up the picture so large that details are lost. Don’t use an unrelated image, since that is akin to deceptive advertising to your readers. Use a good picture of your product or yourself on the flyer when it is relevant. If you work in an industry where product appearance is essential to the sale, invest in professional photography to get high quality, attractive images of the items.

Don’t use an outdated photo, either. If you use a ten-year-old photo of yourself, clients may not recognize you when they meet you or wonder what else you’re exaggerating to get their business. Showing ten-year-old tech products on your flyer will just turn off tech-savvy customers.

Poor Color Choice

Have you noticed how most estate agent signs are bright colours? If the signs were brown or green, blending into rocks and trees, they’d never be seen. And the estate agents who put up these signs would soon be out of business. You need to keep the same concept in mind when designing your leaflets. It has to pop out from the other flyers on the wall, and it has to be clearly visible no matter where it is located. At the same time, you don’t want to use too much color.

Failing to Proofread

Don’t forget to proofread your leaflets. If you switch the first two digits in your phone number, you’ll never get calls from interested prospects, and they’ll never call you again. Errors in your domain name or address also prevent people from contacting you. Repeating bullet points or using the wrong word will undermine your credibility.

Marketme

Marketme is a leading small business to small business news, marketing advice and product review website. Supporting business across the UK with sponsored article submissions and promotions to a community of over 50,000 on Twitter.