Flyers are budget-friendly and powerful marketing tools for promoting an event, announcing a new product or service, connecting with prospects, and much more. They generate immediate attention while allowing you to include greater detail about your brand and what it offers.

You'll often see flyers being handed out at trade shows, concerts, and other events, posted on walls, or handed out during a company sale to drive attention to a product or service. However, flyers are also extremely effective when included in a direct mail campaign.

While direct mail flyers are very cost-effective, the price will increase due to a few factors, but there are ways to keep the costs down.

Let's look at the different factors influencing the price to print and mail 1000 flyers (and a few other quantities) so you can distribute your marketing dollars in the best way possible to meet your goals and budget.

The Cost of Printing Flyers

Quantity – How Many Direct Mail Flyers Will You Need?

Less flyers means less paper and resources, which translates to lower costs. However, as you increase the quantity of flyers, the lower the price per flyer will be.

For example, 250 5.5" x 8.5" unfolded flyers could cost around $0.40-$0.60 per flyer. Printing 1,000 of those same flyers would cost around $0.13-$0.25 per flyer.

Paper – How Do You Want Your Flyers to Feel?

The paper you choose to print on heavily influences the cost of printing flyers.

Most printers offer a variety of house stocks, which will be cheaper than choosing a specialty paper since your printer orders their house stocks in bulk and always has them on hand. Specialty papers may need to be specially ordered, which results in higher costs.

At Kingston, we offer our preferred stocks, and for flyers the most used papers include 100# and 80# text and cover weight papers and 14pt gloss cover.

Text-weight paper will be thinner and thus cheaper than cover-weight stock. For example, 1,000 8.5” x 11” flyers printed on 100# text weight paper will cost around $0.19-$0.40 per flyer, and 1,000 8.5" x 11" flyers printed on 14pt cover stock will cost about $0.30-$0.55 per flyer.

Turnaround Time – How Soon Do You Need Your Flyers?

Turnaround time is the time it takes to print your flyers. So, if you chose a 3-day turnaround time, your direct mail flyers would be printed and ready to mail within 3 business days.

Longer turnarounds result in special printing discounts because it gives your printer more time to find jobs that can be run alongside your flyers, which saves them paper and time. For example, if you printed 1,000 flyers folded in z-fold style and needed them completed within 6 days, the price would be around $85 cheaper than if you needed them printed in one day.

Ink and Coating for Your Flyers

Printing content on the front and back of your flyers results in more ink used, which translates to slightly higher costs. For example, 1,000 one-sided 5.5" x 8.5" flyers will cost around $30 less than 1,000 double-sided flyers.

Coating influences the cost of printing flyers as well. Opting for no coating will be cheaper. However, adding a coating like a UV gloss coating will add additional protection to your flyers when mailing them. Adding a coating to one side of your flyers will be cheaper than adding it to both sides. Also, UV coatings will be much cheaper than aqueous coatings since aqueous coating takes much longer to dry and requires more resources.

The Size of Your Flyers

Different flyer sizes have varying degrees of influence on the end cost to print flyers. This is because the larger the flyer is, the more paper it requires, which translates to higher prices.

Typically, for flyers, the three sizes include 5.5" x 8.5", 8.5" x 11", and 8.5" x 14". For 5.5" x 8.5" flyers, if you plan to print and mail 1,000 flyers, the cost would be around $80-$100 cheaper than if you were printing and mailing 1,000 8.5" x 11" flyers, and for 8.5" x 14" direct mail flyers, the cost to print and mail is around $90-$100 more than 8.5" x 11" flyers.

While these three sizes are the most common flyer sizes, depending on your flyer's purpose and whether you choose to fold your flyers or not, when it comes to mailing them, there are flyer sizes that go all the way up to 11" x 25.5". Larger sizes will increase not only the printing cost but also the mailing cost.

The size of your flyer should be considered carefully. For example, a smaller flyer, like a 5.5" x 8.5", will work perfectly if you have a short message. However, suppose you have a decent amount of information to share or a message that you want to stand out. In that case, a larger flyer can have a more significant impact. Because of this, if a larger direct mail flyer doesn't work within your budget, then consider choosing a longer turnaround time, a different paper, etc., to disperse your marketing dollars in a way that still allows you to take advantage of a larger flyer.

Flat or Folded Flyers

Flyers are typically single, unfolded printed sheets. However, flyers can be flat as well as folded using a variety of different folding techniques.

Flat flyers will ultimately be cheaper than folded flyers like a half-fold or tri-fold flyer. In addition to the added cost of running your flyers through the folder, depending on the size of your folded flyer and the weight of the paper, you may be required to insert your flyers into an envelope for mailing. This will increase the cost as you will need to purchase envelopes.

Suppose you're looking to mail 1000 flyers that are not folded and want to avoid using an envelope. In that case, you'll need to opt for a thicker paper weight like a 14pt cover stock. If you're set on using a thinner, text-weight paper, an envelope may be required, and you would need to factor in the cost of those envelopes. For 1000 envelopes, the price may be an additional $200, depending on the size and printing specifications.

So, to save on printing and mailing your flyers, you'll need to opt for a smaller, thicker flyer or a folded self-mailer flyer. Folded self-mailer flyers are cheaper because you can still use thinner text-weight papers and mail your flyers without the added cost of envelopes.

Printing 1000 8.5" x 11" half-fold, z-fold, or tri-fold flyers is around $0.20-$0.40 per flyer.

The Cost to Mail Flyers

Now that you understand how much it costs to print flyers, you'll need to calculate the costs to mail flyers.

Direct Mail Flyer Quantity

We discussed above how when it comes to printing flyers, the more flyers you print the higher the cost will be, but the price per flyer will drop as you increase the quantity.

For mailing costs, it's a little different. For example, if you were mailing 100 flyers, you would need to pay full single-piece postage, which is around $0.60-$1.20. The USPS offers bulk mail discounts for larger quantities of at least 200 flyers. They provide mailing discounts for bulk mail because you or your print and direct mail provider presort and address your flyers, resulting in much less work for the post office.

Mailing List Costs

Suppose you're mailing your flyers using a mailing list you already have or one created from your internal database. In that case, you don't need to purchase a mailing list.

However, if you're looking to mail your flyers to a new audience, you'll need to add in the cost of a mailing list. The price of a mailing list varies based on the specific data. For example, creating a mailing list based on location and age is cheaper than building one based on buying activity and interests. Overall, though, a mailing list may cost around $50-$200 for 1,000 consumer addresses and $150-$350 for 1,000 business addresses.

Postage Costs and Discounts for Mailing Flyers

First Class Mail

First Class Mail is the more expensive bulk mail option as it is viewed as the most important and is delivered within only a couple of days. However, discounts are still applied to first-class mail compared to single-piece postage. To qualify for First Class Mail postage discounts, you must mail at least 500 flyers.

When mailing 1000 folded self-mailer flyers using First Class Mail, the postage price is around $0.50 per flyer.

Standard Mail/Marketing Mail

Standard Mail, or Marketing Mail, is a bulk mail option the USPS offers that includes amazing discounts. Marketing Mail is cheaper than First Class Mail, but the delivery time is a few days longer. To qualify for Marketing Mail, you must mail at least 200 flyers.

When mailing 1000 folded self-mailer flyers using Marketing Mail, the postage price per flyer would be around $0.20-$0.30.

Every Door Direct Mail

EDDM, or Every Door Direct Mail offers the lowest postage prices at only around $0.20 per flyer. However, EDDM works by choosing a mailing route or routes within a selected ZIP code. Then, your direct mail flyers would be delivered to every address on that route. Because of this, EDDM isn't ideal if you're looking to target a specific group of individuals, but it's the cheapest option if you're looking to get the word about your brand within a specific community.

How Much Does It Cost to Mail 1000 Flyers?

The cost to mail 1,000 flyers will be determined by each factor listed above, including printing, postage, and mailing list costs. By calculating these factors together, the cost to mail 1,000 flyers could be anywhere from $400-$2,000 and beyond.

To save the most on mailing your flyers, you'll want to find an all-in-one print provider like Kingston Printing who can handle everything from printing and mailing your flyers.

At Kingston, we offer competitive prices for the highest quality products, and we provide complete print and direct mail fulfillment, so you don't need to worry about a thing. We'll even provide a free quote so you can estimate how much 250, 500, or 1,000 flyers will cost you. If you have any questions or are looking for something specific, feel free to contact our mailing experts at 785-690-7222.