Business flyers are a simple, yet great way to promote your company. Printing flyers through online services makes it easier than ever to order flyers. They are inexpensive, easy to design and even easier to distribute. The key is to focus on your audience and target your promotional skills towards them to get the best outcome from your flyers.

Randomly distributing flyers to every passer-by might be a good idea for a garage sale, but isn't necessarily the best method for targeting a specific clientele. For example, if you pass out flyers about your baby boutique at a heavy metal concert, they will probably be just be tossed without a second glance. When using flyers to promote your business, keep the following things in mind:

1. Identify your audience before designing and printing flyers.

2. Consider using flyer distribution services.

3. Use electronic flyers to reach an even wider audience.

Action Steps to Getting Great Business Flyers
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use flyer design that works with your distribution method

Think of printed flyers as the first opportunity to arouse curiosity about your business; And how you distribute your flyers will determine the best way to accomplish that. Color flyers with bold graphics work well in public spaces, while more subtly colored layouts with highly detailed text and/or photographs work best for mailed flyers.

I recommend: You can upload your flyer design at Vista Print, use their template or have them design it for you. After deign is complete, Vista Print prints your flyers on the paper of your choice and delivers it directly to your business. Printing Center USA lets you easily choose the size, quantity, media type and design for your color flyer printing.

Target your audience with printed business flyers

It is important to use flyers at the right places. Distribute your flyers at industry-related trader fairs, or negotiate a flyer swap with local businesses that service similar demographics. You can also find flyer distribution services to handle it for you.

I recommend: Effectively distributing your printed flyers is key. If you find the task overwhelming consider hiring professionals to best reach your target audience. Street Team Promotion.com can handle all of your flyer distribution needs and can even help with other areas of your marketing campaign. Or, ask A-List Promotions to take your flyers to the street, door-to-door or store-to-store.

Send your business flyers electronically to save money and reach more people

Electronic flyers are as effective as traditional flyers, yet more economical and environmentally friendly. With eflyers, you don't have to bother with flier printing and you can send an infinite number of flyers with the click of a button.

I recommend: Wave Tec Solutions offers several eflyer packages. Check out its templates for ideas. Axis Flyers allows you to customize your current flyer design or will design a new one for you.

Tips & Tactics for Ordering Business Flyers

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make print flyers double as coupons. This way, you will know how effective the flyers were in actually bringing in customers.

Nearly every business prints brochures or flyers. The reason is simple: It works. But printing effective business flyers and slick brochures — the kind that actually sell products — requires more than designing via a word processing template, and more than sending an everyday document to your laser printer. Effective marketing collateral demands the experienced touch of a professional printer. Working with one, however, is not always easy and requires serious decision-making, including:

1. The style and layout of your materials
2. Whether to print in black ink or in multiple colors
3. What type of paper you want to print on
4. The quantity of materials you want to print
5. How you plan to distribute your printed product

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Start your flyer design by studying your audience

Design your brochures and flyers with your target customer in mind. Have a downloadable brochure on your Web site so that customers can print it out.

I recommend: Business printing services leader Hewlett-Packard has a guide to help you plan, design and make a flyer on your own. Find more business printers at Business.com.

Get a flyer design that gets some action

Once you have your conception down, work with a designer or design your brochure yourself to include some component that will spur clients to buy now, like a tear-off coupon, announcement of a special event or the availability of an in-store discount.

I recommend: There are plenty of flyer design services available on the Web and across the country. SmartDraw has flyer design software and offers a free download trial. All Graphic Design offers links to Web pages with various business flyer templates. Logoworks sells design services by professionals on a quick turnaround, all done online.

Make a flyer with paper that sends a message

Paper is measured in weight; the higher the weight, the thicker the paper. Most printers use either 80 lb. or 100 lb. stock. Try printing business flyers on the heavier stock; it may give potential clients a stronger first impression of your business, and doesn’t cost much more.

I recommend: Choosing the right paper is key. Get tips on picking paper to suit your company’s image and personality with “How to Choose the Right Paper” at Creativepro.com.

Decide on finish and fold

Decisions don’t stop at paper weight. You must also determine whether you want to make a flyer that’s flat or glossy; whether to print with a varnish to protect smudging; and whether your flyer design calls for black and white, partial color or full color. Also consider how you want your brochure to be folded and/or bound. The more gloss and color, and the more complex the assembly, the more expensive the printing.

I recommend: Get tips on finish and fold at About.com’s desktop publishing guide. Or consult directly with brochure printers.

Set print run and distribution

Key information for your printer is how many copies of your brochures you want to print, and how you plan to distribute them — whether, for instance, you’re having one large shipment sent to your office for in-house distribution, or whether you’d like your printer to mail brochures directly to your customers. Consider buying in bulk because typically, the more brochures or flyers in an order, the lower the price per item.

I recommend: Print run and mailing is where printing gets expensive; make a flyer run cost effectively with “Money Saving Tips for Your Next Brochure,” courtesy of brochure display company Certified Folder Display Service.

Collect quotes from printers

Armed with your brochure and/or flyer printing needs, you’ll be able to solicit accurate quotes from a variety of potential printers.

I recommend: Very specific projects may require the services of a specialty printer. But for most job, you can just solicit quotes directly from several general printing services providers. ProcureAPro will provide several quotes at once. Search for printers in your town at PrintAccess.com or try the national service VistaPrint that will work from your design or allow you to customize their templates.

Optimize your files for printing

Not all files are created equal. Before submitting files to your printer, make sure your images are high-resolution — 300 dpi is the standard — and in the right color family — usually CMYK. Additionally, make sure you provide all necessary fonts for printing, and that your files are backed up at your office.

I recommend: Before submitting your files, review PSPrint’s File Preparation Tips. When they’re ready, upload them to your printer’s ftp site via an ftp program, such as SmartFTP for Windows or Fetch for Mac.

Let the presses roll

Make sure you see printed proofs prior to your final print run and, if you’re able to, that you can be on site to check for errors when your brochure begins printing.

I recommend: Visit PhotoshopCafe for a comprehensive tutorial on “Preparing Your Files for Printing on a Commercial Printing Press.” It covers printing terminology, best practices and processes for both you and your printer, with a focus on understanding how your files go from the computer screen to the printing press.

Or … do it yourself

If your budget is especially tight and your print run is particularly small, it may be worth printing your business flyers or brochures on your own color printer, or having a local copy store print them for you. The quality will suffer slightly, but at least your bottom line won’t.

I recommend: Send your finished document from your PC directly to your local FedEx Kinko’s location, where it will be completed within 24 hours.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Consider digital printing, which has lower pre-press and setup costs than most plate-printing methods.
• •  If you are looking to make a flyer that works but remains cost-effective, printing in color may be unnecessary, as most consumers won’t spend a lot of time reading them.
• •  Keep printing top of mind as you’re designing your brochures; for instance, allow room for print bleed, which is where your page is cut. Failing to adjust for bleed may result in missing images or text in your final product.
• •  Choose your print size — 8.5 inches by 11 inches, for instance, or 11 inches by 17 inches — before you design. When printers have to stretch or shrink your brochure, quality is hurt.

In today's web-savvy world, business flyers are highly overlooked and under-utilized. Flyers have the advantage of attracting customers who normally do not access the Internet. Flyers are easy to create and maybe just the jolt your business needs.

One reason why flyers make great promotional tools is because they are a low-cost investment. There are many competitive resources vying to create and publish your flyer for you at very reasonable prices. While printing flyers can cost as little as $0.02 per flyer, you can also have more than 2000 flyers printed for around $50. When determining the pricing and costs of flyers, keep the following in mind:

1. Decide on the number of people you want to target.

2. Decide on your budget for printing flyers.

3. Determine the media for your flyers.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Decide on your budget for printing flyers

Decide on the your budget for flyer printing by discerning the number of potential customers that you wish to target and balancing that with the size of your business. Based on this criteria, you can easily set-aside a sum for printing flyers. Just about $30 to $40 is enough to print flyers in quantities up to 2000.

I recommend: Got Print makes it easy to stick to a budget by allowing you to customize your order and see the incurring costs. By calculating the cost incurred when options are changed, you can decide which plan is right for you. D & R Four Color Print has a calculator which you can use to plan your budget for flier printing.

Determine the pricing and costs of business flyers depending on media

There are many options available to customize your flyers. Paper weight, size, gloss and color are all considerations that will affect the final cost. Depending on your budget, you can decide whether to keep your media choices simple or high-end.

I recommend: Staples is a good place to buy flyer paper. It is available in both matte and glossy finish, and is a good option when you are printing flyers yourself. You can easily decide on the size of the paper you wish to use at Coloritprinting.com.

Choose the right flyer printing services to fit your budget

With a high budget, you can enlist the services of professional printing firms. They can guide you on the type of fliers to create, which media to use and may even do your flyer design for you. Or, you can simply create your own and order flyers from printing services for fast delivery. Even though a tight budget can constrain your options, by searching the varied services offered by different publishing services, you can find a plan that fits your needs.

I recommend: Stock Layouts has an immense variety of flyer designs to choose from .Simply choose your template, customize the content, look and media and send it for publishing. Vista Print has easy to use tools for custom flyer printing. It even designs the flyers for you. Smile Templates has great template designs to choose from, as well.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Determine the number of potential customers you want to target with your business flyers. Is your goal a garage sale? A few hundred flyers would probably suffice. Is your goal to promote you new designer boutique far and wide? Then you should look into a few thousand flyers or more.

For getting the word out about a product or company, flyers are a traditional standard. The simple act of promoting a business through paper goes back a long way to the days of "handbills" that served as the main advertising medium in a pre-digital age. These days, in our world of Internet, digital billboards and omnipresent TV, flyers still hold their own. Learning some of the basic terms for flyer design will help creators make their paper count when promoting their businesses, whatever they may happen to be.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Stock (paper)

A key consideration for flyers is the kind of paper they will be printed on. Paper stock is basically the weight of the paper; this is one of the first considerations for printing.

I recommend: Learn about paper stock, weight and more at the The Print Guide.

Gloss

The gloss of paper is also a choice when considering a flyer printing project. Gloss is a term for the sheen of a paper's surface.

I recommend: Find details on more types of gloss for printing for flyers, photos and more at GrayTex.

Print run, press run

Another thing to think about when designing flyers and prepping for distribution is the print run. Planning the print run will involve figuring out how many flyers a business will need over a certain period of time.

I recommend: Get a formal definition of the print run at Business Dictionary online. See How Stuff Works for more information on the press, or print, run.

Type changes

Yet another aspect of flyer design is the font or type face. Type changes occur when more than one font is involved in the design. A type change also includes shifting between bold, italics or underlining.

I recommend: Find out how to manage type changes and learn other neat terms definitions from Haviland Printing and Graphics.

Clip art

One resource for any kind of flyer is clip art. Clip art is free graphic images found on the computer that can be pasted into a flyer design.

I recommend: Get a clip art definition from Webopedia. View more information at TechTerms.com.

Center of attention

When designing flyers, it's best to have a center of attention, or focal point. Business managers can create this center using text placement as well as extras, such as borders and boxes.

I recommend: Read more on establishing a center of attention and more on creating a "smart flyer" at Ideabook.