Leaflet marketing is one of the most affordable and effective forms of marketing, but you have to make an instant and lasting impression. That’s why learning how to design the perfect leaflet is so crucial for your campaign’s success!
Before we reveal our top tips on how to design the perfect leaflet, we must firstly mention the golden universal rule of any marketing…
The Golden Rule Of AIDA
Attention – A leaflet must grab the onlooker’s attention instantly and invoke curiosity in both the design and the content. Bold text, imagery, appropriate colour choice and combinations as well as utilising white space are all important factors in this phase.
Interest – After grabbing the attention of the onlooker, you need to keep it. Ensure that you follow up your striking headline with further intriguing messaging, tailoring it to your target audience.
Desire – Interest in your product or service is one thing, but you need to create a true desire for your offerings. This can be done through including relatable, persuasive copy and high quality, resonating image selection.
Action – Then, the final stage of the golden rule is action. After the prior stages where you’ve been persuading the leaflet viewer, the time has come for a call to action. Whether you want the reader of your leaflet to visit your website, call a number, or visit your social media pages, make this abundantly clear at the end of your messaging.
Having now gone through the AIDA journey, here are some of our top tips on how to design the perfect leaflet..
Identify The Aim Of The Leaflet
First and foremost, you have to decipher what the goal of your leafletting campaign is. Just ask yourself, what results do I want my campaign to achieve? Common aims of leaflets include:
- informing people about a product(s) or service(s)
- explaining to your target audience why you stand out from the crowd i.e. what your unique selling point (USP) is
- informing existing or potential customers about a new product or service
- promoting special offers or events
- encouraging customers to take an action e.g. visit store location or website
Once you’ve established what your goals or multiple goals are, you can then start composing the messaging around those aims. Just think about all the information you want to get across to the reader of your leaflet, and don’t worry about writing too much for now. You can whittle the wordage down once you’ve got all of your ideas down!
Figure Out Who Your Target Audience Is
Identifying who your target audience is will really help reinforce the messaging you create for the leaflet. Because, you’ll then be able to create apt and appealing visual elements and imagery that you know the audience will respond to.
For example, if you were targeting corporate professionals, suitable imagery of office workspaces and clean-cut typography would take centre stage. Whereas, if you were appealing to a younger audience, this type of accompanying text and imagery would not be successful at all!
In order to decipher who your target audience is, you have to go back to the basics. Figure our their age, gender firstly. Then, delve into what’s important to them, their interests and what they are enthusiastic or passionate about.
Refine Your Leaflet Messaging
Now comes the time to go over the initial words you wrote earlier. See if it appropriately aligns and appeals to your target audience. Other important factors to consider include:
- identifying the most important points of your messaging
- removing any unnecessary points from your messaging
- choosing whether formal or informal messaging is appropriate
At this point, you should have your core messaging completed. Now, you can begin to think about how those words will begin to fit into the leaflet design you have in mind. Do your words need to be divided up into different sections? Are certain sentences too long? Do you require more detail in certain areas?
Leaflet Sizing & Formatting
Following on from the last point, you should now have an idea regarding how the content on your leaflet should be segmented. With this in mind, you can now think about what kind of leaflet size and format will suit you best.
Leaflets come in many shapes and sizes. Popular choices include the half fold, z-fold, accordion fold or the very popular gate fold. You can unveil a hidden or surprise message, reveal a large spread of content or let the story of your brand or event unfold (literally) as the reader peruses the sequential sides of the leaflet design.
Any folded leaflet brings with it a very distinctive look compared to your standard A5 prints. Some of the more funky designs are a great way to create unique and interesting leaflet designs, whilst also displaying a lot of information and imagery. What will decide your leaflet format will be the quantity of information you want to get across to the reader, as well as how you want to present it.
You’ll also have to factor in what type of leaflet is most suitable for effectively displaying and communicating your information. For example, a restaurant or takeaway menu can be viewed in no particular order. Therefore, they suit accordion folds particularly well.
However, if you want your leaflet readers to view information in a particular order, or the content is divided into sections, it makes sense to choose a more appropriate format!
You can unveil a hidden or surprise message, reveal a large spread of content or let the story of your brand or event unfold (literally) as the reader peruses the sequential sides of the leaflet design.
Read All About It! (Headlines)
Bold and eye catching headlines are a must! The first part of AIDA after all is “Attention” and an impactful headline is crucial for capturing the attention of the reader.
Headlines are usually written in large, bold, clean and uppercase style fonts. Using a colour that contrasts with the background colour of the leaflet is also a wise choice! All of these factors help ensure that the viewer’s eyes will be immediately drawn to the most important messaging. And, if they are successfully intrigued, they will be compelled to read on in order to gather further information.
To reinforce the main headline, and help retain the attention of your target audience, it’s a handy idea to include subheadings throughout your leaflet design. They helps invoke further curiosity from the reader’s perspective. They’ll also aid them in finding the most relevant information they’re looking for quickly.
Use Imagery Wisely
Images are a fantastic way to create or increase the desire for your product or service. If you have followed the previous steps and know exactly who your target audience is and what they’re passionate about, you should have no problem choosing imagery that will yield a positive reaction.
Remember to use high quality images and not too overuse imagery. Although images are a a fantastic tool to utilise when it comes to leaflet marketing, you don’t want to bombard the viewer of your leaflet with too many. Otherwise you’ll create a case of sensory overload and it will cause the viewer to look away from your leaflet…the opposite of what we want!
Font Selection Is Key
The absolute worst thing to do when it comes to a leaflet design is choose a hard-to-read or overly complex font. Instead, use a easily readable, professional and non-overly-flamboyant for to present a professional and clear message.
Some of the most readable fonts in both uppercase and lowercase formats include Times New Roman, Helvetica and Ariel. However, there are plenty of other beautiful and easy-to-read typefaces to use. These are just some of our go-to fonts!
It’s also worth noting that fonts always appear larger on your computer screen design than in real life. So, do bare that in mind when it comes to the finished product!
Colour Is Powerful
Colour is one the best tools in the leaflet designing arsenal. The right combination will help gain that initial attention from your target audience.
It’s often the case that leaflets are placed in groups whether it be stacked on a shelf or displayed in communal areas. Therefore, you need to ensure that you stand out from the crowd with a striking colour combination which will instantly draw attention from competing leaflets.
Bright and vibrant colours will garner far more attention than dull and boring ones. You want your leaflet to stick out like a sore thumb amongst the crowd no matter where it is placed and what designs it’s being placed by. A good thing to envisage is your leaflet amongst other leaflet designs. In this vision, is your leaflet the one which is drawing people’s gaze the most?
Another tip is to not use bright colours for the sake of it. If a bright colour combination doesn’t align with your brand or imagery, then choose colours that you know will appeal to your target audience, and which reflects your brand in the most optimal and appropriate way.
Use White Ink For Dramatic Effect
White ink has become a very popular colour for leaflets in recent years. The crisp whiteness can turn the simplest of designs into a striking and eye catching feast for the eyes. The colour can really help draw the attention of any onlookers and that’s exactly what you want from a leaflet!
It can be very easy to overcomplicate a leaflet design and include far too many images, colours or text elements. Many feel the need to fill every last bit of white space on a leaflet, but that simply isn’t true!
White space on a leaflet plays a hugely important role in the readability of your leaflet. So, you need to make sure that the balance is right. White space helps draw focus to important points. Therefore, don’t be afraid to leave areas of your leaflet without any content!
And That’s Everything You Need To Know When It Comes To How To Design The Perfect Leaflet
After reading this blog, we hope you have a much better idea about how to design the perfect leaflet! If you follow the steps above in the chronological order, a striking, bold, eye-catching and informative leaflet will be the result and you will fulfil your marketing goals.
Designing a leaflet can often be quite time consuming compared to other printed marketing materials like flyers, banners, posters etc, because leaflets usually consist of multiple pages having various designs and messaging objectives. You also have to consider your target audience, desired overall message and the most appropriate format for that messaging.
We’ve designed countless leaflets of the years in Print Pixels In fact, we’ve been providing an all encompassing range of printing services for decades! So, if you’re looking for leaflet printing in Edinburgh, look no further! Our brilliant in-house design team can aid you with the design or if you already have one created, we can simply serve as your printer. If you need us, we’re here for you. Get in touch today!