Flyer Marketing 101 - Use, Size, Design and Printing

Whether you want to promote an event, product or service, flyers can be effective at garnering attention and delivering your message to your potential customer. Though, all flyers do not perform the same, nor are they created equal. Much of the success of a printed flyer campaign depends on the planning and capabilities of the graphic designer that’s creating the artwork. Below are a tips to consider before creating your next promotional flyer.

What’s the Goal of the Flyer?

Your ultimate goal and intended use for creating the flyer should determine everything from its size, design, and distribution method. Maybe you have a new product that you want customers to know about or promoting the grand opening of your new store or restaurant. Despite the situation you must be clear on the intended goal of the flyer. Once the core goal is solidified, each of the next steps can be more effective.

Distribution of the Flyer

Before deciding the flyer size you must identify where you will distribute the flyers. Each distribution channel has different advantages and benefits. For example, handing a flyer to a customer that’s in your store is much different than mailing a postcard to residents in a specific zip code.

Mailing flyers is also known as direct mail, and has specific requirements set by the post office. The specifications set by the post office can impact the flyer size and layout. Thus it is important to be clear whether you will be handing flyers out, offering them at a trade show, or distributing them via direct mail.

Size of the Flyer

Once you know your distribution method you can make a decision about the size of your flyer. Choosing the right size is important and may be the difference whether your flyer is accepted or trashed.

Two standard flyer are 4x6 inches and 5x7 inches. Smaller flyers sizes are 3x4 or 3x5. When you think of direct mail flyers, they usually start at 6.5x8 and increase in size. When using direct mail consider – the larger the flyer the more attention it may receive. It is hard to ignore an oversized flyer sticking out of your mailbox.

So the size of your flyer should match its intended use and method of distribution. Consistent with our distribution scenarios, consider choosing a flyer size that easily fits in your customers pocket or purse, or a size large enough to stand out from everything else in a potential customers mailbox.

Design of the Flyer

Colors, fonts, and element (logo, website, phone number) placement are a few factors that impact the success of a flyer campaign. If the goal of the flyer is to promote an event, the design may be focused on the date, time and venue. However, if you’re promoting a limited-time offer, more attention will need to be given to the offer and instructions to claim the deal.

To accomplish this, graphic designers consider legibility of fonts, contrast of size and color, and how the layout of the flyer will direct a customers eyes. Inexperienced designers may not have this awareness, whereas more experienced designers know how to make a flyer more effective.

Naturally designers learn more tricks and techniques with experience. Generally speaking, you want a designer with a large portfolio and several years of graphic design experience. Be sure to communicate the purpose of the flyer, what you want the customer to be aware of, and the action they should take.

Once you receive your design, consider if it’s successful at communicating your primary goal. Obviously it should look good visually, but remember the success of your flyer depends on its ability to get your customer to take a specific action. Ask yourself, does this flyer communicate my message clearly? The answer will help determine necessary revisions and make your flyer more effective.

Look at these flyer designs, notice their message and the goal of these flyers:

Printing the Flyer

When you have the files from the designer, it’s time to print the flyer. Most likely there are many printing companies in your area; note price and turnaround time are only two factors you want to consider.

Staples and FedEx Office are local printing chains that are convenient. With these printing services you trade price and level of customization for convenience. Their prices may be more expensive than a local print shop. Send your artwork files, desired paper weight, size, and finishing specs to get an apples to apples quote.

Commercial print shops usually have more favorable pricing and equipment capable of producing higher quality prints with greater detail. Thicker papers, extensive colors, and glossy finishes are examples of customizations that may be available with commercial print shops.

Most professional print shops utilize a process called “gang-run” printing. In this printing process several print jobs are printed simultaneously on large sheets of paper. There may be subtle color or size variations in gang-run printing. With print shops, what you gain in price and customization options, you may trade for convenience and subtle color variances.

Printer Color Mode

One important aspect to consider when choosing a printing company is the color mode or color profile your materials will be created in. In short, CMYK is used in most local gang-run printing companies. This color mode offers more colors compared to RGB printers. However, if your printer uses the CMYK color mode and the designer created the artwork using RGB, you will need to request your flyer files in CMYK color mode. This detail is important and if overlooked can cause your blues to look purple.

Decide whether level of customization, color-match, turnaround time, and price factors are most important. Then choose a flyer printing service that can meet your requirements. Once your new flyers are delivered, the fun begins and it’s time to promote your event or service.

This is a repost, find the original marketing with flyers article here http://www.clashgraphics.com/printing-tips/marketing-with-flyers-use-size-design-and-flyer-printing/

Printing Black - Creating True Rich Black & When to Use It In CMYK Printing

Have you ever ordered marketing materials from a print shop and been disappointed you’re your black looks dull or faded? This is a common frustration and caused most likely when the designer chose 100-K black in the design program and did not include other colors from the CMYK color palette.

You need something better. Something known in the printing industry as “rich black” or “true black”. It’s the way to get the black you really want. Though you shouldn’t use it all the time and here are some important tips about that perfect, rich black.

When to Use Rich Black

Rich black is best used in large chunks. So use it when you have a large black area, such as a leaflet that uses a lot of black or has a black background. It’s also a good idea to use rich black when you’re working with a large font type. That is to say a very large font such as Futura Black at over 40 points.

Finally you should use rich black when you have a lighter background and want a darker color on top to contrast with it. Sometimes a printer will get confused and mix the regular black with the background, or let the background show through. Using a rich black eliminates this problem giving you true black.

When to Avoid Using True Black

Not every situation calls for true black. You should avoid using rich black in pretty much the opposite situations to when you should use it. So don’t use rich black when you are working with small patches of black, or with small type. It’s also important to avoid using rich black when you work with newspapers. Using a rich black on something like a newsprint causes it to bleed and messes with the quality of the paper.

How to Create True Rich Black

Now that you know when you should use rich black you need to know how to make it. You need to use the CMYK method of color mixing to get a true black. There are actually a few ways to get a rich black. Here are two common methods for you. The first is to mix 40% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow and as you’d expect 100% black (40, 40, 40, 100 – CMYK). Now some people like to leave the yellow out but it does help balance everything out. Either way you get a rich and solid black.

The other way to create a true black is to mix 60% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow and, again, 100% (60, 40, 40, 100 - CMYK) black. This creates a more neutral rich black. Though 240% is pretty much the limit with color mixing. So if you want to adapt this then you will need to lower the percentage on some colors if you want to add them with others.

When you get used to the idea of creating and using a richer black you will become able to make your own. There are so many ways to create a rich black that a basic mixture like this might not be right for your project. These are good models to use, but don’t be afraid to make your own mix CMYK combinations and see what you can create.

Full article here - http://www.clashgraphics.com/printing-tips/printing-true-rich-black-and-when-to-use-it/

RGB vs CMYK and Why It's Important to Printing and Design

When someone starts work in graphic design, or just enters that world, they run into something they might not have heard of before; CMYK. CMYK is a color model that is used a lot in the graphic design and printing industry. It’s different from the typical RGB mode that your home printer or computer monitor uses, and it’s important you understand the differences.

RGB vs CMYK

We’ll start by looking at what each printing style means before moving on to more difficult things. RGB is literally an acronym for “Red, Green, Blue” and CMYK is “Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black”, which for some reason is represented as “K”. The visible color spectrum is made up of the three primary colors of red, green and blue. These three colors combined make up pretty much every other color. So why choose CMYK? CMYK gives us more defined colors and gives us some better looking colors. So there are people who prefer to use CMYK over RGB, especially in commercial printing. You open yourself up to more possibilities by introducing the fourth factor.

Which Should You Choose?

Which one you choose is really up to you and the client that you’re working for. What is important to know is that there are some colors in RGB that a CMYK printer will have trouble with. If the printer that you’re working with is a CMYK one, it’s very important that the color mode you design in is also CMYK. The reverse is also true. If you’re working with an RGB printer you need to work with an RGB color profile. Failure to do so will result in poorer quality images and colors that just look wrong and do not match your design proof. Some printers and clients will insist that you work with CMYK, so listen to your client or pick the one that you think is best for your project. There is another aspect to this however; digital vs analog.

CMYK Printing vs RGB Printing

There is a noticeable difference between CMYK and RGB when you are printing things out physically. RBG work looks great on a computer monitor or handheld device, but CMYK looks better when printed. In fact almost every graphic design that will be printed physically will be printed using CMYK. This makes it very important that you work with CMYK, or at the very least convert any artwork that is to be printed into CMYK. The colors look better when printed than they would if they were RGB. So really that sums up which one you need to use when preparing marketing materials to be printed. If you are working entirely with digital art then you should use the RGB color mode. If you’re working with professional printed designs then you should use CMYK.

So there you have it. The basic difference between RGB and CMYK is the amount of colors and variants at your disposal. Which one you use depends on the purpose of your job and final use of the designed graphic. Digital graphics should be in RGB format. If your art is for a printed poster or something of that nature, then always work in CMYK color mode. Lastly, never let color mode converting ruin the way your graphics look by avoiding the converting process altogether and working with the right color mode from the get-go.

Photo Credit: http://www.amywaggs.com