S2E12: You Don’t Have To Be A Designer To Make A Good Instagram Flyer

Welcome to the Mom Boss Like a Boss Podcast. A podcast where we talk about mom life, entrepreneurship, and everything in between. I'm your host, Taylor B, a mom of four precious boys and an entrepreneur at heart. If you've been looking for a village of like-minded people, then I think you've found the right place. I look forward to talking with you, and I can't wait to see you inside. Hey y'all, welcome back to the podcast. Today we're gonna be talking about how you don't have to be a designer to make a good Instagram flyer. Because you don't. And it's it's not because of AI. And it's not because of Canva templates. Don't worry, I'll explain. Let's get into it. So before I dive into how you can make good Instagram flyers, I want to tell you about an experience I had recently in the past week or so. Someone sent me what looked like a very AI-generated flyer. I asked them if I could make an honest observation about the flyer. They said I could, but that they were only sharing to everyone whether they got support or sales or whatever. And that the photos of their products are on the posts that they make every day. Almost immediately I could tell that their guard was up. And without asking, my guess was because they were probably expecting me to go into some spiel about how AI is bad, you shouldn't use it, Canva is free, all the things that we've been hearing all over social media. That is not what I said to this person. My honest observation was simply that it was visually a bit overwhelming with images and information, that it read more like an artwork to be explored versus a business flyer or price list to convey information of how to support or purchase. And that was really it. You should hire a designer. Because I know what it's like to have to wear all the hats in your business, and I understand the value of using tools that are free or low cost. I also understand the appeal. As I've said before, I used AI myself for two years before I stopped using it altogether. Their response was a thank you, and said that it was intentionally made that way to catch the eye of their ideal client. Because they went more so by sight and not by words, and that they appreciated my insight. And that they would try to revise the next one to see if it changed anything. I said that makes sense, and when it comes to certain products, there's a huge appeal of seeing something, and the first instinct is how do I get it? They asked, what should they make larger on their flyer? And because the information was not clear on the flyer itself, it seemed to be a price list, but also kind of promotional. So I wasn't sure exactly what the flyer was supposed to be doing. So my first question to them was: is this a promo flyer or is it a price list? I followed up with, I believe one large image of your product would be enough to spark interest while also conveying what you offer. And if it's a flyer that's intended for promotion and for people to contact and purchase, then the contact information as well as hours of operation should be much larger and easier to read. Now it was much easier to read for their clients. I let them know that the words being bigger was definitely helpful and it was a lot easier to read. I did my best to be polite, as of course I was offering my unsolicited opinion, but with which is also why I asked first and foremost, may I make an honest observation? Because if they had said no, I would have left it at that. Because not everyone wants to hear your advice. Not everyone wants to hear you shouldn't use AI. Not everyone wants to hear, oh, you should do this, you should do that. I'm pretty sure you've had at least one instance where you got unsolicited advice about your business from someone who had no idea about how you run your business and you were immediately turned off. So that's why I tried my best to be polite as well as thoughtful with my advice and also to be careful not to push them or make it seem like my ideas were the best way and the only way. Because that was not the goal. I just wanted to make an honest observation based on my insights and what I have noticed on the internet, and also help in any way that I could. They asked if they were offering multiple options or multiple different products. And then that's why I asked, like, hey, okay, well, is this a promo flyer or is it a price list? Because the promo would be getting people in, gaining awareness, and telling people what to expect when they contact you. But if it's a price list, then it tells people what your offers are and how much they are. Two very different jobs, and when you're putting multiple jobs on one particular graphic, it gets kind of crowded and it gets a little difficult to convey the right information. I did my best to send some examples from a big name related to their business type, and also share my thought process and explain my point of view a little bit better through voice notes. At the end of the conversation, they said they weren't sure what to call it. They said it was a little bit of promotional and also a little bit of a price list, so they left the conversation with an idea on how to do the next ones in the future. And also that they had a better way to set it up. I found that really great. I was really glad that I was able to share my thoughts in a respectful way that was helpful to someone. That interaction inspired this episode, as you can tell. So I wanted to share how you, as a business owner, can utilize your graphics in the best way possible for your business. The first thing that I want you to think about is what job is this graphic supposed to do? Everything you post should have some sort of job. And don't panic, because that is not intended to put pressure on you. That is not intended to make you stress out and be like, oh, one more thing that I've got to do with my content. No, no. All of your content, if you're gonna be if you're going to be posting as either a business or a content creator, should have a job. In my opinion, it should be one of these four things. I could be missing something, so don't quote me as I am not a social media manager, I am also not a social media marketer. It's not my current expertise, it's just you know, it just comes with the job of being a solo business owner. So your content should always have a job to educate, to entertain, to connect or nurture, and to promote those four things. That's it, and again, my opinion, I could be missing some things. We're not gonna dive into it too deep because again, I'm not a social media marketer or manager. Now, there's different ways that you can use your content. You can make carousels, you can make specific flyers such as menus, price lists, promotionals, announcements, tips, customer reviews, whatever it is. But each design should have one particular job. Because too much information on one canvas can be overwhelming, and your audience might get so distracted by looking at the whole flyer that they miss the point entirely and become disinterested, or even worse, they're confused and then they move on. And as you've probably heard, confused people don't buy. So, really quick, I'm gonna share a few different graphics that you can create and what they're good for, at least in my opinion. These are all also the things that I came up with. Of course, it's always a great idea to experiment when it comes to content. Try to have fun with it to make it feel like less of a full-time job outside of your full-time job. Carousels. We all know what carousels are. If you don't, it is it's similar to the original static post that Instagram is known for, but it's multiple images in one. Seamless carousels are really cool to look at, especially when designed properly, but we're not getting into that. Carousels are good for breaking down a lot of information into bite-sized slides and encouraging engagement. You can use these for like brand stories, like why your business started, why you do business a certain way, things like that. Breaking down a blog post or a podcast, a short tutorial, introducing a team member, or a meet the founder kind of vibe. You could be revealing a brand refresh, showing off a new product line. There is so many ways that you can utilize carousels. Those are just a few ideas. A menu flyer is really good for a product or service business to quickly show pricing to your customers in order to encourage a sale. If you're a food business and you're having a special, you can promote your price reductions. If they're for a specific product, for example. If you're saying all pasta dishes are 50% off today only until 12 p.m. Just as an example, you could use a menu and list all of your pasta dishes if you don't have an overwhelming amount, for example. If you're a braider or hairstylist, you can put pricing for your most popular styles as an example and put prices next to them. Because anyone who's looking for your service or is intrigued by your work, they're immediately going to go to your profile and they're probably going to try and figure out if you're near them and then try to go to your website and figure out how to book you. I know that's what I do. Also, side note, don't get frustrated if you ask get asked questions that are answered that are don't get frustrated if you get asked questions that are answered in your post or your flyer. It's normal, it's customer service, and it's it's just a part of doing business. If you can't handle it professionally, and when I say professionally, I mean without seeming short, like you have an attitude, like you're irritated, or without clearly showing or saying that you're irritated that they asked a question, then you might want to look into hiring someone for customer service. Now, the next one is promotion flyers. They're good for highlighting your business, an event, or a specific product or service. For example, if you sell lip gloss, just as an example, you could make a promotion flyer that's announcing a sale on that particular product or a new product line drop where it's like, hey, we have this flavor now. Go get it. Like it's it's really good for just you know, as the name implies, promotion. You could also do a quick tips or a did you know flyer. This is good for sharing engagement, engaging content with your audience so they don't always feel sold to, which of course is a turnoff for almost anyone. It can be about your industry, your product, your service, your business, or something that you're passionate about. This can literally be anything. It could be, did you know? Our founder started gardening at the age of five in their childhood home. Who knew that 20 years later they would be making their own spices from their own garden? I don't know. Things like that. It's engaging, it's interesting, and it just might bring the right people in who care more about the why behind your business versus it only being transactional for one of your products. Because nowadays there's with the rise of AI and all the things, there's a huge trust recession. People are craving more human connection, and they are craving knowing the person behind the brand. This era that we're in right now, honestly. If you can really share your story of who you are as a founder, who you hire for your team, your values, what you believe in, how you got to where you are, how you make your product, how you came up with your service, your story, your journey, that kind of content is really going to resonate when done properly. So I highly recommend you lean into being you. Because with all the AI stuff everywhere, I'm I can say from personal experience that I'm tired of seeing all the AI flyers of I'm tired of seeing the AI promotions, the AI tools, and this and that, and oh, we've got AI now, and use AI for this. And if you're not using AI in your business, you're behind, and I'm just like, uh, it's exhausting. Pretty sure you might have felt that too. If you haven't, that's just my opinion. Whatever. Another quick tip for you is depending on your business, you should always tag your city or the nearest big city to you so you can be found locally. So when you're posting your flyers, make sure you're tagging your city. As an example, I over the years I've moved around the Madison, Wisconsin area. I haven't always lived directly in Madison, but I've just always put Madison, Wisconsin. Even if I don't live directly in Madison, just because it's simpler, whatever. If you live near Milwaukee, you can put Milwaukee. Why? Because it's searchable and it's recognizable, so that's just something to think about. I imagine any business would benefit from being found locally, whether you service online or in person, whether you have services or whether you have products. I would imagine you wouldn't have an issue finding local clients, unless if there's a specific reason. But that was just a little tip. Also, I would make sure that there is a call to action somewhere on the flyer, and this includes carousels. Each carousel slide, you've probably seen it. Go find a carousel on Instagram and pay attention to how it's designed. An example would be swipe for more or an arrow, and then the the icons to indicate sharing, saving, commenting, and etc. At the end of your flyer, or I'm sorry, carousel in this example. You could say order your plate now before we close, get in the chair before prom, follow for more, have an email list freebie, whatever it is, make it as easy as possible for your customers to take the next step. Because otherwise, they might say, huh, that was a nice post and keep scrolling. But if you remind them at the end, hey, follow for more, or if you liked this post, if you if this resonated with you, or send this to a friend, you're going to increase the likelihood that they're going to try and stick around. Now, if you're tired of feeling like you have to start from scratch every time you open Canva, or if you've been copying the same design and changing things up, and now you've got copy of copy of copy of copy infinity times. What you could do if you have Canva Pro is go to the brand tab, create your make sure you create your brand kit if you haven't already. This will include, they've gotten really good at this, but this will include you can add your logos, your colors, your fonts, your brand voice, photos, graphics, icons, all kinds of things. But the part that I want to tell you about is the brand templates. There, you can literally create a template, make it one time, and you know how Canva has templates that you can reuse. Now you have a branded template to your business that you can reuse anytime without doing the whole copy of copy times infinity. It makes it much easier, and you only have to do it once if you keep that design. So that's just another little tidbit that I wanted to share about saving time in Canva because I understand how difficult it is if you feel like you're starting from scratch each time, and I am not going to share how many designs I have in Canva that have copy of copy times infinity, but just know that they are there. I'm gonna wrap this episode up here. I really hope this was insightful and gave you some things to think about, gave you some tips that you can take and go use right away. In any way, shape, or form. I hope this was helpful. Feel free to share this episode with someone you know who needs to hear this, leave a review so other people can find this podcast and hopefully it can help them. If you like this episode, feel free to subscribe. And I would love to hear your thoughts so you can DM me on threads, Instagram, comment on any of the posts if you see them. Just let me know what you thought. And if you have any suggestions or questions that you want me to cover on the podcast, let me know. I will happily get on here and ramble. Thank you so much again for tuning in to the podcast. And if you're new here, go ahead and follow, and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Mom Boss Like a Boss podcast. If you have any thoughts on the episode, please feel free to reach out to me on threads or Instagram. You can find me at the Creative Altruist, all one word, no spaces, underscores, or periods. It'll also be right there in the description. Until next time.