Eye-catching leaflet design: why less is more

Leaflet dropping is all about catching people’s attention and making an impression. Make the right impression and that leaflet will not only be kept, it will be acted upon. Whether you need your potential customers to act on a short time offer, or you simply want to make them aware of the services you offer, your results are directly linked to the design of the leaflet. It needs to be eye-catching and in keeping with the style of your business so that your customers know what to expect and can’t resist reading the whole leaflet.

Leaflet design is not as straightforward as you might imagine. The temptation is there to fill up all the available space with text, getting as much information to your customer as you can. However, you only get three seconds to make a good enough first impression to grab their attention and not let go.

Fill the page with text and they will scan it until they find anything in bold, explaining the ultimate point of the leaflet. So ultimately you are only holding their attention with a sentence or title, wasting the rest of the leaflet and we all know that this just isn’t enough to make a good first impression. Not to mention, text-only leaflets usually come from political or religious organisations, which slims down your chance of having the full leaflet read as many people will assume they are not interested before reading it.

A well-designed leaflet will find a perfect balance between images and text. You need enough information to explain the purpose of the leaflet and the type of business you have, but it needs to be displayed in an eye-catching manner, in as few words as possible and in an easy to read font. You need to make it easy for the customer and do the work for them. To make it eye-catching include vibrant designs and images that stand out from the usual style seen on similar leaflets and businesses. The impact of the leaflet rests solely on the design, so don’t be afraid to be imaginative.

The whole idea behind leaflet dropping is to gain a response and generate further business. A well-designed leaflet has been shown to double and even triple the response rate in some cases. Make it easy for your customers and give them what they want in terms of design and content and you are much more likely to have a successful response from your leaflet delivery.

By DMA guest blogger Jeff Franklin, Franchise Director, DOR-2-DOR (UK)