A flyer isn't a Facebook post and it isn't a letter. It's read in three seconds — on a counter, through a letterbox, pinned to a village hall notice board — and the person reading it decides in those three seconds whether to take the next step.
Most flyers fail because they try to say everything. The good ones say one thing, clearly, and make the next step obvious. Here's the anatomy plus five worked examples for UK small businesses you can adapt in ten minutes.
The anatomy of a flyer that works
Four parts, in this order, every time:
- Headline. The one thing, big. What is this? What are you offering?
- Subhead. The hook. Why should I care, in one sentence.
- Details. Dates, prices, locations, terms. Short bullets or a tiny paragraph.
- Call to action. Phone number, website, QR code. One clear way to respond.
That's it. No “about us”. No mission statement. No fifteen service bullets. If it won't fit comfortably on an A5 page at a readable size, cut something.
Five flyer examples
1. Grand opening
Pollen is open.
A new hair and colour studio on Cliffe High Street, Lewes.
Free cut with any colour, every Tuesday in May. Booking online or by phone. Walk-ins welcome when chairs are free.
pollen.co.uk · 01273 000 000 · @pollenlewes
2. Limited-time offer
£80 weekend call-outs.
Heating or plumbing emergency in Crawley or Horsham? We're on call Saturday and Sunday.
£80 flat call-out fee — no weekend surcharge. Parts at cost, no mark-up. Every job comes with a written estimate before we start.
Ring 01293 000 000 · Thompson & Son Plumbing
3. Local event
Quiz night, Thursday 14 May.
Six rounds, decent prizes, actual beer. 7:30pm start.
Teams of up to six. £3 a head, in cash, on the door. Kitchen open till 9. Book a table or just turn up — we'll sort you out.
The Anchor, Alfriston · 01323 000 000
4. New service announcement
Live-in care, now available across East Sussex.
Familiar faces. One-to-one support. Care that lets your loved one stay at home.
Free in-person consultation at your home. Fully CQC registered. Starting from £180 per day, all-inclusive. Ask for Hafid — I'll visit you personally.
sussexcare.co.uk · 01273 000 000
5. Referral offer
£20 off. For you and a friend.
Send someone our way and we'll both say thank you.
They book, they mention your name, they get £20 off their first visit. You get £20 off your next. No codes, no small print. Just tell them to say your name.
Pollen, Lewes · 01273 000 000 · pollen.co.uk
The design rules that go with the words
- Headline at least 24pt.Readable from arm's length on a counter.
- One font family, two weights.Bold for the headline, regular for everything else. Don't mix fonts.
- Lots of white space. Cramming the whole A5 with text and colour makes it feel cheap. Empty space makes it feel confident.
- One photo, or none. A photo of the thing, the shop, the dish, the person. Not three of them arranged in a collage.
- Contact details at the bottom, always. Phone, web, Instagram. QR codes are fine if the flyer is being handed out (not mailed).
Print: enough copies, not too many
For a local push, 500 flyers is usually more than enough. Split them across: 200 for letterbox in your immediate area, 100 on the counter, 100 with partner businesses nearby, 100 held back for handouts at events. If you run out, you'll know the offer worked. If you don't, you can recycle the rest. Don't print 5,000 of anything.
The 30-second version
If you hand us a one-line brief (“Flyer for Pollen salon's grand opening, Cliffe High Street Lewes, free cut with colour every Tuesday in May”), WriteEasy drafts the headline, subhead, details and call-to-action in your voice. Paste into Canva, pick a template, send to print. The whole thing takes 15 minutes instead of an afternoon.
Get your next flyer written in 30 seconds.
7 days free. No card up front. Cancel in one click.
Try WriteEasy free →A good flyer is a small piece of paper that brings a customer through the door. That's all it needs to do. Headline, hook, details, call-to-action — clear enough to read in three seconds.