You probably know that nearly all of today’s advertising is digitally-oriented. But did you know that flyers, one of the oldest-known analog forms of graphic design marketing, is still quite effective?

Many people still read printed flyers, making a well-crafted flyer an effective form of advertising.

Looking to maximize your efforts? Here are five flyer design tips to help you create a well-designed flyer.

1. Create a Focal Point

When designing a flyer, your focal point needs to be the priority. After all, it’s the focal point that’s going to draw your audience’s attention.

It’s worth noting that a focal point can be virtually anything on the flyer itself. It could be a header, an image, or even a bolded phrase or paragraph.

The point is, in order to create an effective flyer, something on it needs to stand out. This is often done by playing with scale or color.

2. Utilize Color

If you’re designing a flyer, it’s easy to get carried away by including all sorts of fun colors. There’s a lot of potentials, after all, but that doesn’t mean you need to throw in the kitchen sink.

It’s best to keep your flyer as simple and to the point as possible. Should you include more than two or three colors, you run the risk of assaulting your reader’s senses.

Even if they try to read it, their brain will only be able to focus on how visually busy the flyer is. As a result, they’ll probably give up on reading the flyer altogether.

A general rule of thumb is to use simple, contrasting colors. Less is often more.

3. Maximize Readability

At its essence, a well-designed flyer really only needs to accomplish one task: relaying information to the reader. Therefore, readability is absolutely critical.

Fortunately, creating a simple, readable flyer isn’t as difficult as you may think.

As you design your flyer, think about spacing, font size, and kerning. How you say something on your flyer is every bit as important — if not more — than what your flyer says.

4. You Can Create a Great Flyer for Free

Most businesses dedicate thousands of dollars per quarter to their advertising budget. But flyers can potentially offset the costs of your marketing efforts, as they don’t cost much yet have the potential to yield strong results.

Best of all, you can cut costs by incorporating these flyer design tips and making your flyer yourself.

There are plenty of great, free poster maker downloads for you to choose from.

5. Include Contact Information

So far we’ve talked about how to hook the audience’s attention. But what happens after they’re finished reading?

You’re likely advertising something, be it a business or event, so make sure you include contact information somewhere on the flyer. After all, there’s no point in advertising if your customers have no way to reach you.

These Flyer Design Tips Guarantee a Great Ad

Should you incorporate these five flyer design tips, you’ll have a cost-effective, readable, and creative flyer ready to be handed out or posted wherever you choose!

Don’t forget to check out our design trends section to see what’s generating the most buzz in the graphic design world.