I know what you’re thinking – you hate junk mail. I hate them too but that’s until I see some coupons for 2 can dine? 2 for 1? Then it’s wham-bam, I’m on top of it! Expires in 2 weeks? Oh no, I better get going!
Mcdonalds, A&W, KFC, their flyers always end up in my hands somehow. If your ad shows up at the right time, at the right place, to the right person, you’ve hopefully, by strategy, earned a customer. That’s the beauty of digital advertising; to target an audience with precision and data. Now, if you’re a storefront business in a residential neighborhood, we can do it snail mail style because everybody prefers the convenience of proximity. Let the neighborhood know that you’re here, that you’re close, and give them a fantastic reason to pay a visit.
To start, let’s get an idea of the cost because if the numbers don’t make sense, the rest of this article might not matter.
Canada Post Neighbourhood MailTM Minimum
We are going to use Canada Post’s Neighbourhood MailTM to get your flyers out. The minimum order is one Canada Post route, equivalent to roughly 500 addresses which sounds like a pretty good proposition. On Canada Post’s website, they say the cost is as little as $0.173 for each flyer. You pay: $0.173/flyer x 500 (sample # of houses on a postal route) = $86.50. Prices are exclusive of taxes and are subject to change without notice.
Flyer Design Size
12″x6″ for Standard Size, 12″x11″ for Oversize (500g maximum weight with a max thickness of 1″, which seems pretty thick but that’s what it says)
Flyer Printing Cost
We’ll need to print at least 500 flyers to meet Canada Post’s minimum requirement. A 12″x6″ double-sided color flyer can cost between $1-$1.5 depending on where you go. If you’re printing a few thousand, you can expect to pay $0.25 to $0.50 per flyer. Print orders in the tens of thousands can be as low as $0.10 per flyer. The bigger the print order, the lower the printing price and you can switch from digital color printing to offset for large volumes.
Canada Post also offers design and printing but I will need to find out more about this. Stay tuned.
Flyer Design Cost
Design fees will depend on the complexity and the creative quality and presentation of your design. Custom artwork, photography, copywriting, a creative sales message will add to the cost of your flyer project. Flyer design pricing can be in the low hundreds to a thousand or two depending on what branding assets need to be created. When investing in new assets, you’ll want to be able to use them in your other marketing materials or reuse them to spread out the cost.
Canada Post Precision Tool
Canada Post offers a fairly easy-to-use tool to help identify how many people we can target and for what price. Here’s a quick example if we were a downtown business and we wanted to target our surrounding area. Give it a try to get an idea of your mailing pricing.
Flyer Design Tips
Make An Offer
Offers and deals automatically generate attention. FOMO! Fear of missing out, but you knew that. Who wants to miss a deal that they could’ve been a part of? The offer is the icing on your flyer design. The first part of a one, two punch system. They never had a reason to visit you but now you’ve just given them a monetary saving incentive to give you a try. Give them something free or a discount with a minimum purchase. It’s also a great way to track if your flyers come back too.
Set an Expiry Date
This is part two of the one, two punch system. First, you give them an offer, and then second, you put a time limit on it. We’re a lazy bunch and we excel at putting things off and this is where we apply pressure, an expiry date! Needless to say, don’t set it too long or too short – find what works for you.
Have an Emotional Tone
We’re emotional beings and the difference between a good story and a great story is the ambiance that you set your story in. You probably can’t tell a 2000 word story with a flyer design but a picture paints a thousand words right? Set the mood.
Give it Authenticity and Personality
This is your brand appeal. The opportunity to showcase how you’re different visually from your competitors. Are you loud and bold, fun or serious, an array of colors and patterns, or muted sepia? Every business has some sort of personality whether it is intentional or not. Discover your branding voice and make your brand experience memorable. It’s your shiny bait on the fish hook.
Personalized Photographs
Opt for actual photographs of your product, business location, staff, or you. I mean, they’ll see you anyways. Authencity is the name of the game and if you’ll be you, you’ve already distinguished yourself.
Include a Written Message
Start a conversation with you and your customer. Consumers like information to base their buying decisions so the more you ‘talk’ to them, the better they can decide. Depending on your flyer design and the amount of space available, try to include some sort of written copy to help sell your product or service. People like to read on the topic if they find it interesting. Your message may be short and sweet, simple and to the point, or witty and crafty. Words can be very persuasive and memorable as they can be implanted into the audience’s mind for a much longer time than a photo. Words can also be much more imaginative as well. Say you’re a dental office, it can be as simple as ‘The dentist with the blue sign. Come on by and say hi.’ Better to say something than nothing. You are much more engaged with a movie with dialogue than a movie without.
I wish you all the best with your flyer campaign. If you have any questions, don’t be shy and reach out or leave a comment!
