Glossy or Matte, Mailed or Handed Out: Flyer Printing for Port Orange-South Daytona Businesses

If you need custom flyers and want a real choice of paper and finish, you have four practical places to order: a local print shop, a commercial or direct-mail printer, an online design-and-print service, or a mailing service that prints and delivers for you. The questions that separate them are the same each time. How many paper stocks and finishes do they offer, can you start from a template, what does delivery cost, and what happens if the order arrives with a problem? For a short run you design yourself, services that let you design and print flyer online in one step are a quick way to get a professional result. For heavy cardstock, folds or thousands of copies, a print shop is usually the better buy.

Your options for flyers, compared

• Local print shop. Best for big runs, heavier paper, folded or trimmed formats, and same-week turnaround. You can hold paper samples and pick up the job yourself. The Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce member directory lists printers along with direct-mail and advertising members.

• Commercial or direct-mail printer. The right call when the flyer is going to thousands of mailboxes. Many will handle postal paperwork and delivery to the post office.

• Online design-and-print service. Good for a few dozen to a few hundred flyers you design from a template. Adobe Express is a typical example. It prints 8.5 by 11-inch flyers in portrait or landscape on two stocks, Thin Glossy and Thin Matte, with the matte described as a no-glare finish. Its flyer page lists free shipping and returns, recyclable packaging, and a 300 DPI recommendation for images. Printing and shipping are limited to the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

• Print-and-mail service. You upload a design and a route or list, and the service prints and mails it. Convenient, but you give up hands-on quality checks before the flyers go out.

When an online service isn't the right fit: if you want 100 lb cardstock, a tri-fold, rounded corners or a door hanger die-cut, or you need 3,000 flyers before a weekend event, call a local printer. Thin stock is fine for a counter or a bulletin board, but it won't stand up on its own in a rack.

Which paper type should I choose for flyers?

Pick the finish by where the flyer will live:

• Glossy makes photos look sharp and colors bright. It suits real estate listings, menus with food photos and event flyers. It can glare under bright lights or in direct Florida sun, and it's harder to write on.

• Matte reads well anywhere and takes a pen. It suits price lists, service menus, coupons people fill in, and anything posted near a window.

• Heavier stock survives being handled, mailed or displayed in a rack. If a flyer will sit in a lobby or ride in a mailbag, ask your printer about weight.

Whatever the paper, start with images at 300 DPI or higher. A logo copied from a website at screen resolution will look soft once printed.

Starting from a flyer template

Templates save time, but they also make your flyer look like everyone else's if you don't change much. Keep the layout and change everything else:

• One headline, one offer. "Pool cleaning, $25 off your first visit" beats a list of eight services.

• Swap the stock photo for a real one of your crew, storefront or finished work.

• Put contact details where the eye ends. Phone, web address and a QR code belong at the bottom right in portrait layouts.

• Leave white space. A flyer read from three feet away needs fewer words than you think.

What do shipping, returns and guarantees cover?

"Free shipping and returns" on a product page is a good start, but read what it covers. Ask how a return works for a custom item printed to your design, and whether a misprint gets a reprint or a refund. Order one proof copy if you can, and check color, trim and small text before ordering the full run.

It also helps to know the federal baseline. The FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule says a seller must have a reasonable basis for any shipping time it states, and if it states none, it should expect to ship within 30 days. If it can't ship on time, it must give the buyer the choice to accept the delay or cancel, and a cancelled order gets a refund. The rule applies to you too if you sell products by phone or online.

Worked numbers: a door-to-door flyer campaign

Say you run a pool service in Port Orange and want new customers in two neighborhoods for the start of the busy season. You have two ways to deliver flyers.

Hand delivery and counters. Print 250 flyers: 200 for doors and community boards, and 50 for local counters and the chamber lobby. One person walking a neighborhood can cover a few hundred homes in a morning.

Every Door Direct Mail. USPS EDDM delivers to every address on the carrier routes you pick. The postal standards for EDDM Retail flats require each piece to be longer than 10-1/2 inches, taller than 6-1/8 inches or thicker than 1/4 inch, weigh no more than 3.3 ounces, and go out in mailings of at least 200 pieces, with a cap of 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP Code. An 8.5 by 11-inch flyer clears the length rule, but thin paper can be flimsy in a mailbox, so ask about heavier stock. Two routes of about 450 homes each means ordering 900 flyers, plus 50 spares.

Work backward from the date you want flyers in mailboxes:

• Four weeks out: finalize the offer and design, and choose routes.

• Three weeks out: order a proof, then the full run.

• Ten days out: flyers arrive. Bundle them as the post office requires.

• One week out: drop off at the post office.

Before your first flyer goes out, make sure your paperwork is in order. The City of Port Orange says all businesses, including home-based ones, need a Local Business Tax Receipt, and receipts expire September 30 each year.

Flyers and follow-up around the chamber

The Port Orange South Daytona Chamber of Commerce has served the area since 1974 from its office in the Riverside Pavilion overlooking the Halifax River. Its marketing opportunities page invites members to place marketing materials in the chamber lobby, where residents and tourists come for information, and to advertise in the monthly Tradewinds e-newsletter, which reaches nearly 3,000 subscribers. A clean, matte flyer with a short offer is a good fit for that lobby.

The chamber's networking calendar includes four weekly Leads groups, monthly events such as Business After Hours and Coffee & Connections, and an annual Business Expo. Bring a small stack of flyers to each, and keep a version without a date so it stays useful.

After a job or a referral, a handwritten thank-you goes further than another email. Services that let you design flyers and print greeting cards in the same place make it easy to keep both on brand. For help planning a bigger marketing push, the Florida SBDC at Daytona State College offers no-cost, confidential consulting for small businesses in the Volusia County area.

Frequently asked questions

Is glossy or matte better for flyers?

Glossy suits photo-heavy flyers. Matte is easier to read in bright light and takes a pen, so it's better for coupons and price lists.

What size should a flyer be?

8.5 by 11 inches is the standard for counters, boards and hand delivery. For mail, check USPS size and weight rules first.

Do online flyer services accept returns on custom prints?

Some list free returns. Read the policy for custom items and ask how misprints are handled before you order a large run.

How many flyers should a small business order?

Start with a few hundred for hand delivery and counters. For mailings, count the addresses on your routes and add about 5 percent.