To help you create a powerhouse flyer on just a single sheet of paper, I’ve boiled down my 2 decades of “getting prospects interested” experience into a few hundred words. Use the following suggestions to create your own “Wow! When can we talk!” reaction-producing sales sheet.
A strong sales flyer has 3 components.
SECTION 1 – “WIIFM?”
The first section contains your answers to the reader’s unspoken question, “Why Should I Read This?” Remember, you’re not even on their radar yet. Your immediate priority is to capture their attention.
Do this by first understanding what your prospect cares about and the challenges they face. What is it that you can offer in the way of a solution that makes their life better? How are you going to “wow” them and get them to want to tell their friends how brilliant they were to buy from you?
You need to answer the “WIIFM” proposition – “What’s In It For Me?” Nowhere in this section should you be talking about yourself, your company, your equipment, your toolkit, your processes . . . none of that stuff. The prospect isn’t ready for that yet. It’s not about you and what you do.
It’s about them and what your solution helps them accomplish. Increased productivity, no downtime, better margins, less turnover, faster reports, whatever. Lead here with the results your prospect can achieve by adopting your solution. Later it will be appropriate to share with them how you will make that happen.
This first section includes the headline as well as the “what we enable you to achieve with our solution” material. It’s all the mouth-watering, taste-tempting ideas and results-laden copy you can think of. Pour it on! BUT, keep it professional and achievable. Don’t “sell,” just share what results they can expect by adopting your product or service.
By the way, this first section can be more than one-third of the page. It’s the key to flyer success. So make it as long as you need to make your point that you have something they can use.
SECTION 2 – VALIDATION
Once you’ve got the reader salivating for your solution, you need to show them you can deliver as promised. When possible, lead with success stories and recaps of real results you’ve achieved for clients. People want to see that they are not your “guinea pig.” They want to know that you’ve made it rain for others before they will hire you. Prospects are reluctant to be “first.” They want a proven provider.
Success stories don’t need to be long, just to the point. You can also consider side bars with testimonials here as well,
The “rule of three” applies, too. Three stories, three testimonials, whatever.
If you don’t really have results to point to, or are bound by confidentiality and have no good way to generically describe what you did, then you can move into sharing your process and your equipment or facilities. But try to tie in these items with how they support your “deliverables” stated in Section 1. For some industries and audiences where you need certain credentials or certifications to get in the door, this is the place to put them.
Awards can help, too. It reinforces for prospects that others have vetted your skills and ability to deliver.
Keep this section to no more than a third of your page. You still want the emphasis of the sheet to be on the prospect and what they’ll gain, not on you and your services. Once they’re intrigued, you’ll be able to expand on all that you can do in later conversations.
SECTION 3 – CTA
The CTA (Call to Action) is where you ask for whatever it is you wish the reader to do – go to your website, call you, upload a free paper, take a survey . . . whatever you want.
Also, reinforce one last time your WIIFM proposition or value-add, always focusing on what you help the prospect achieve.
This is the shortest section of the page. Usually one-sixth of the sheet or less. BUT, make sure that your choice of accent color and font size make it easy to find and read.
FINAL THOUGHTS
By all means, use imagery and inset “selling points” as appropriate. People notice visuals much more readily than they do text. And don’t feel compelled to fill every square inch of the page with information. If there’s no “white space,” the eye does not know where to look. Your flyer becomes a solid block of “Aaaccckkk, there’s no way to begin, where do I look, I don’t know what to read!!!!” and the person will simply chuck your flyer into the garbage. But, the design elements of an effective sales sheet are the subject for another day.
Happy flyer-ing!