The immodest flyer

Think of the last time you were handed a flyer. Perhaps, you were handed one while strolling out on the street, in the shopping mall or in some event or other that you had attended. Your reaction? Throwing it in the next available trash bin. Or maybe, you went home with it and discarded it after a few days. Perchance, the flyer was a keeper and you have it somewhere in your office drawer.

It is my bet that were a study to be commissioned on matters flyers here in Kenya (and which, naturally, would exclude the obnoxious leaflets announcing this or that mganga, witchdoctor, from Tanzania or Pemba and who has a cure for all maladies, including summoning lost relatives – kuita mtu aliyepotea), the statistics would be interesting.

But I digress.Naturally, as a business, you would want your flyer to be a keeper. What I refer to as the immodest flyer. Why? The immodest flyer is not shy in showing off. And it does so vibrantly, flirtingly, concisely and with forceful impact. So, how is one to pull off such a flyer?

Audience
Who is your audience? Identifying your audience before embarking on the design of your flyer wins you half of the marketing battle. For instance, a flyer for a children’s event will be vastly different from that announcing a lecture by a visiting luminary to be held at the local campus.

Content
When it comes to content, the less the better. Why? Because, by its very definition, a flyer is a document to be read on the fly. This means that the content therein can be taken it in at a glance before the reader moves on to other things. That said, the content needs to address the 6Ws: What, Where, When, Why, Who, and How.

To put this into context, let’s imagine that our flyer is for a car bazaar. In this case, the What would be Sunday Car Bazaar, the name of the event. Where would be the venue, say at the City Centre. When is the date the event is slated, say 12/12/2017. Why is the call to action; in our case, highly discounted cars. Who is the target audience for the event while How is concerned with how to go about it, say, by giving directions to the venue or the contact person in case of further queries from an interested car buyer. To reiterate, when it comes to content, less equals more in terms of effective marketing.

Design
Once you have identified your audience and copyrighted your content, you are ready to embark on design. And your flyer, just like any other publication, should observe the maxim that cheap is expensive. Hence the need to outsource the design and printing aspect of your flyer to a professional. That said, a few things to bear in mind when it comes to the design of your flyer is that the content therein should be legible. As such, the minimum font size employed should be point 10. Further, the flyer should be an extension of your brand, hence being instantly recognisable. Towards this, ensure that the designer understands your brand inside-out, more so, regarding your corporate font, colours, logo; basically, the totality of your brand identity.