Brochure and flyer marketing on a budget

Brochures and flyers are cheap marketing options that can fit any small business budget. They make it easy to reach customers and are among the most affordable marketing tools you can print. 

Our guide to budget brochure and flyer marketing includes:

• How much should you spend on brochure and flyer marketing?
• Where to get cheap flyer and brochure design
• How to print cheap brochures and affordable flyers
• Cheap flyer and brochure distribution strategy
• Brochure and flyer marketing campaign total investment

Keep reading to learn how to maximize ROI with brochure and flyer marketing on a budget. 

1. How much should you spend on brochure and flyer marketing?

Small marketing budgets can still yield big returns. So, what is the average budget for marketing? Marketing budgets vary significantly by industry and time in business.

The SBA recommends that small businesses allocate 7 to 8% of their gross revenue for marketing and advertising. Some marketing experts advise that start-up and small businesses should allocate between 2 and 3% of revenue for marketing, and up to 20% if in a competitive industry. For more established businesses, the recommendation increases to 20%. 

Now, you need to divvy up your marketing budget. Decide how much you’ll spend on advertising, how much you’ll spend on digital marketing and how much you’ll spend on print marketing. Then, you can map out individual campaign budgets.

How much you ultimately budget for brochure and flyer marketing will depend on several factors:

• Your total marketing budget
• What percentage of your marketing activities will be centered around brochure and flyer marketing
• How much you need to invest to launch an effective brochure and flyer marketing campaign

Only you can answer the first two questions; here, we’ll help you answer the third question, so you’ll know how much you need to invest to achieve success with flyer and brochure marketing. 

Where to get cheap flyer and brochure design

How much it costs to print a flyer or brochure depends on several factors, including your flyer and brochure design — before you can print cheap flyers and brochures, you need a professional design. 

Start by writing the copy for your flyer or brochure. If you’re designing a flyer, you only need a single page. If you’re designing a brochure, you should decide how many panels your brochure will have, then write copy for each panel. If you’re printing multi-page brochures, you’ll need copy for each page.

Your flyer or brochure might include:

• An attention-getting headline
• Event or sales dates and times
• Your special offer
• Unique features and benefits
• Product comparisons
• Service list
• A call to action
• Location and contact information
• Website and social media URLs

If you don’t feel comfortable writing the copy yourself, you can hire a professional copywriter. Expect to spend anywhere from $200 to $1,000 or more for professional flyer and brochure copywriting services.

Once you nail down your brochure or flyer text, you can hire a designer to convey the information with attention-getting, easy-to-understand visuals that work with the copy to motivate response.

Flyer and brochure design options include:

• PsPrint’s graphic design services
• Design your own brochures and flyers, if you’re a graphic designer; or a friend or family member, if you know a pro designer
• Pro design agencies
• Paid and free brochure templates and flyer templates
• Websites like Fiverr, Upwork and 99 Designs

When it comes to design, you typically get what you pay for; and some designs will cost more than others. For example, a flyer that features a custom illustration will cost more to design than a flyer that features a product image, especially if you’re supplying the photography.

You can also decrease the cost of your flyer and brochures by downloading free and premium flyer and brochure templates. You can find templates on sites such as Elegant Flyer and Free PSD Flyers. If you just need a layout template — which includes helpful guidelines such as bleeds, cut lines and safe areas but no graphic elements — PsPrint offers free brochure layout templates online.

Finally, you can make your own brochures online with PsPrint’s free brochure templates and online brochure maker, which makes it easy to upload your own logo, photos and add your own text for custom brochure design and low cost brochures.

Depending on who is doing the design and how much custom work is needed, you can expect to spend anywhere from $300 to $1,500 on flyer and brochure design (or, create your own brochures for cheaper). 

2. How to print cheap brochures and affordable flyers

Brochures and flyers printed on thin, flimsy paper stocks via inferior printing methods make your company look cheap and can quickly turn customers away. On the other hand, flyers and brochures printed on premium paper stocks via modern printing methods can lend the impression your company offers high-quality products and services.

That perception of trust and credibility is as critical to ROI as affordability, which is why you should strike a balance between cost and quality. You also need to consider what type of brochures and flyers you’re printing, as the nuances of each can contribute to your success. Die-cut flyer printing, for example, might have more visual impact than standard business flyer printing; club card flyer printing is perfect for night clubs, while premium flyer printing is best-suited for high-end business and services.

It’s important to keep your eye on the prize: more customers. Cheap brochures and flyers are a waste of money, but premium brochures and flyers can be money makers. Thus, the average cost of brochures isn’t as important as how much it will cost to print brochures that yield exceptional results. Start by choosing a company that prints with vivid inks on state-of-the-art printing presses. PsPrint, for example, uses eco-friendly soy-based inks that are more vibrant than petroleum-based inks, and prints using modern offset and digital press technology.

You should choose a thick, smooth paper stock that helps your brochures and flyer design pop off the page — and that feels good in customers’ hands. In fact, studies have shown the tactile sensation of heavier, thicker paper stocks can influence customer response.

Best brochure and flyer paper stocks:

• 100 lb. gloss cover
• 80 lb. recycled matte cover
• 100 lb. gloss text
• 70 lb. matte text
• 13-point matte cover
• 13-point 100% recycled matte cover
• 80 lb. 100% recycled uncoated text
• Brilliant white 80 lb. linen text
• Natural white 80 lb. linen text
• 16-point C2S gloss cover
• 15-point velvet cover
• 14-point C2S gloss cover
• 15-point velvet with soft touch coating

The bottom line is you don’t want to skimp on printing quality, but you can take measures to minimize your investment and increase your ROI when when you print flyers and brochures on a budget.

Print higher volumes

The more you print, the greater your overall cost; however, your price per piece can be significantly reduced at higher quantities. Think about your brochure and flyer marketing campaigns in terms of how much it costs to reach each prospect, the lifetime value of a customer and your ROI. It can make more sense to print higher quantities, even if you spread their usage out over multiple campaigns.

You also need to think about usage. Brochures, for example, can be sent as direct-mailers, set out as countertop displays and used as sales helpers during presentations. Consider how many of each type of brochure you’ll use throughout the year and print them all at once to minimize your investment.

3. Short run printing

If you don’t need a large volume of brochures or flyers, you can opt for short run printing on digital presses. Unlike offset presses, digital presses do not require plates to be made, which can add significant cost to offset printing. Thus, you can print smaller runs at discount prices with short run printing. For higher volumes, offset printing offers price breaks as the cost-per-piece lowers enough to offset plating costs.

4. Choose a discount printing company

Choose the right brochure and flyer printing company, and you don’t need to skimp on quality to get discount printing prices. In addition, consider the role of customer support: the better the support, the better your experience.

PsPrint, for example, offers premium brochure and flyer printing at discount prices, exceptional customer support (including a 100% satisfaction guarantee), plus in-house design and mailing services (which allow you to take advantage of a bulk postage).

Let’s compare some brochure and flyer online printing prices using PsPrint’s instant quote feature.

Assuming brochures are 8.5” x 11” full-color both sides tri-fold on 100 lb. gloss text paper stock:

• A quantity of 250 would cost $179.96, or $0.72 per piece 
• A quantity of 1,000 would cost $237.36, or $0.24 per piece
• A quantity of 5,000 would cost $492.48, or $0.09 per piece 

Business advertising flyers (8.5” x 11” full-color both sides no fold on 100 lb. gloss text paper stock:

• A quantity of 250 would cost $130.41, or $0.52 per piece 
• A quantity of 1,000 would cost $172, or $0.17 per piece
• A quantity of 5,000 would cost $356.87, or $0.07 per piece 

As you can see, higher quantities can reduce your price per piece significantly; in the case of our brochure example, from 72 cents to nine cents, and in the case of our flyer example, from 52 cents to seven cents.

5. Cheap flyer and brochure distribution strategy

You have multiple options for brochure and flyer distribution, and each has its own associated costs. Options include:

• Direct-mail
• Packaging inserts
• Point-of-sale display
• Leave behinds and sales helpers
• Community bulletin boards

Thus, distribution can be as cheap as “free” for posting flyers on community bulletin boards, to the cost of partnering with companies that will insert your flyers and brochures into their packaging, to the cost of postage and mailing services for a direct-mail brochure marketing campaign.

The best part is you can control your costs with a strategic distribution strategy. Only mail brochures to a well-targeted mailing list of people who match your best customer demographics. Print cheap club flyers to hand to people who are enjoying a night out on the town, and are therefore likely to visit your night club. Post business flyers where business people are likely to see them, and place event flyers in front of an audience that’s likely to attend.

With a smart distribution strategy, you can do more with less and maximize ROI for your brochure and flyer marketing campaigns.

6. Brochure and flyer marketing campaign total investment and ROI

Let’s compare two different options for flyer and brochure marketing total investment and ROI.

Event flyer marketing

Let’s say you need to promote a local event, so you decide to print 1,000 flyers and distribute them to community bulletin boards, groceries, restaurants, bars, night clubs and other popular locations in your area. We’ll assume you’re going to hire someone to post your flyers. Your cost breakdown might look like this:

• Flyer design and copywriting: $500
• Flyer printing: $172
• Flyer distribution: $500

In this scenario, your total cost would be $1,172 to distribute 1,000 flyers in high-profile locations — a terrific way to promote any event. Do the design and distribution yourself, and you could reduce that investment to $172.

If your event attracts 500 people, and they spend $20 each, you’ll gross $10,000. After flyer marketing, you’re left with $8,828 to pay for the event and realize a profit.

Brochure direct-mail marketing

Now, let’s say you want to send 5,000 brochures to a well-targeted mailing list. Your cost breakdown might look like this:

• Brochure design and copywriting: $500
• Brochure printing: 356.87
• Mailing service: $2,650.58
• Mailing list (5,000 households): $100

In this scenario, your total investment would be $3,607.45. Now, let’s say your average sale is $50 and you have a 2% response rate. That means your brochure marketing campaign would land 100 new customers for a gross of $5,000. Subtract your brochure campaign investment, and you’ll clear $1,392.55.

Now, let’s say the lifetime value of your average customer is $1,500. That single brochure campaign could open the door to a total of $150,000 in sales!

Of course, this doesn’t represent the cheapest brochure marketing you can do: leave-behinds and point-of-sale displays are cheaper than direct-mail marketing; and, if you can do the design and distribution yourself, you could put 5,000 brochures in the hands of potential customers for less than $400.

No matter which distribution strategy you choose, it’s important to consider your ultimate ROI. Mailing 500 brochures might not net enough sales volume to cover campaign costs, while mailing 5,000 — at a significantly-reduced price-per-piece — can yield a substantial profit now, and a lifetime of earnings later.

Any business, small to large, can take advantage of brochure and flyer marketing to foster sales growth. Use these tips to take advantage of flyer and brochure marketing on a budget so you can grow your business to new heights. Print affordable brochures and discount flyers today!