How to write a flyer call to action

A flyer call to action gets a response when it asks for one thing, tells the reader exactly how to do it, gives them a reason to act now that is true, and sits where their eye finishes. Start it with a verb, put one channel beside it, and make each response traceable to the flyer. Everything else on the flyer exists to earn that line.

The table under this article lists calls to action by goal, with the wording, the channel and the detail that makes each one work, drawn from finished example flyers.

One action, stated as a verb

The call to action is an instruction. Book, Enter, Inspect, Join, Call. The verb tells the reader what to do; the rest of the line tells them what they get for doing it.

The gym flyer is three flyers for a fictional coached lifting gym, and each carries a different single action for a different moment. The membership flyer says join in August with the first month half price. The open day flyer says try everything, pay nothing, on Saturday 30 August. Neither asks the reader to do both, because a person deciding whether to visit is not ready to join, and a person ready to join does not need an open day.

Avoid lines that ask for nothing in particular. “Contact us today” and “find out more” leave the reader to invent the action, and most will not bother.

Name the channel

Put the way to act directly beside the action: one phone number, one short web address, or one QR code with a short address under it. Not all three at once.

Match the channel to the moment. The plumbing flyer is read when something is leaking, so its checklist design says Leak? Call now, and puts the phone number where a stressed person will find it. A workshop is booked calmly, so the workshop flyer puts a QR code beside the register bar on one design and in the footer of another, and prints a short web address on the third.

If you use a QR code, point it at the page that completes the action, not your home page. Denso Wave, which developed the QR code, specifies a clear margin of four modules on every side of the symbol, so leave space around it rather than tucking it against a border. Print the short address underneath for anyone who will not scan.

Give a reason to act now that is true

A deadline turns interest into a response, because it gives the reader a date to act by. The strongest deadlines are specific and real: the fun run flyer says entries close Friday 30 October and adds, plainly, that there are no entries on the day.

Urgency has to be true. Under the Australian Consumer Law, businesses must not make false or misleading claims, and the ACCC’s guidance covers statements about price and availability. The regulator has also publicly put retailers on notice about misleading claims ahead of Black Friday sales. A “limited time” offer that never ends, or a “last few spots” line that is always printed, is a claim you would have to defend.

A printed date is also more persuasive than a vague phrase. “Book before 30 September” can go in a diary; “hurry, ends soon” cannot.

Pair the ask with the price and the terms

A call to action that promises a discount needs the number it is a discount on. “First month half price” means something only when the reader can see what a month costs. The gym flyer prints both rates, 34 dollars a week for full access and 24 dollars off peak, together with no lock-in contract and pause any time, so a reader can decide before walking in.

Put the conditions next to the action, in the same size of type as the body, not in a footnote. The cleaning service flyer states its offer terms in one sentence directly under the headline: book any weekly or fortnightly clean before 30 September and the first one is half. Who qualifies, what they get and when it ends are all in eighteen words, which is why the ask beneath it, book a free quote, needs no explanation.

Put it where the eye ends

Place the call to action at the end of the reading path, next to the offer it relates to, and make it the second most visible thing on the page after the headline.

Nielsen Norman Group’s research found most people scan rather than read, which means the call to action has to be findable without reading the body. The open house flyer handles this by printing the inspection time twice on the same sheet, in the introduction and again in the footer, because a buyer who misses it misses the inspection. Repeating the one essential detail is not clutter; repeating six details is.

Make responses countable

A call to action you cannot count is a guess. Give each flyer its own route in:

• A web address used nowhere else, even a simple path such as /openday.
• A QR code pointing to a page that only the flyer links to.
• A code word or offer that only the flyer carries, such as show this flyer at the counter.
• A question asked on every phone call: where did you see the flyer?

For a letterbox drop across several suburbs, vary the address or code by area. After a few weeks you will know which streets respond, which is worth more than any design change.

Keep the tracking simple enough that staff actually use it. A tally sheet by the phone with one column per flyer beats a system nobody updates.

Common mistakes

• Asking for several things. Call, visit, follow and download are four actions and zero responses.
• The action in small type. If the footer address is the same size as the call to action, the call to action is lost.
• A QR code with no address beside it. Some readers will never scan.
• A deadline that is not real. It is misleading, and regular customers learn to ignore it.
• No price next to an offer. “Half price” of an unknown number invites a phone call instead of a booking.

Build it

A QR code can go on a flyer only if its design has a QR slot. You can type the link or text for the code to carry, or upload your own QR image, but there is no QR tile in the Add items panel, so a design without a slot cannot gain one. Check that before you plan a QR based call to action; the QR code on a flyer page explains how to find a design that has one.

The Add items panel does hold two tiles that suit a call to action: a Badge and a Chip, both pill shapes in the theme’s colours, which work for a deadline or a price. The guide to adding charts and diagrams to a flyer walks through that panel. The flyer exports at twice its canvas size, so an A4 page leaves at 2480 by 3508 pixels, which keeps a printed QR code sharp; what DPI a flyer needs explains why that matters. For the rest of the flyer’s wording, see what to put on a flyer.