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

Often, you’ll 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 flyers are very cost-effective, when mailing them, 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 that influence 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 to Print Flyers

Quantity – How Many 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 $0.45-$0.60 per flyer. The cost to print 1,000 of those same flyers would be around $0.15-$0.25 per flyer.

Paper – How Do You Want Your Flyers to Feel?

The paper you choose to print on has a heavy influence on 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 Conquest, we offer our “Conquest Preferred” stocks which are the default option when configuring your order on our product pages. For flyers, our most used papers include 100# and 80# text and cover weight papers, as well as 14pt gloss cover.

Text weight papers will be thinner and thus cheaper than a cover-weight stock. For example, 1,000 8.5” x 11” flyers printed on 100# text weight paper will cost around $0.30-$0.40 per flyer and 1,000 8.5” x 11” flyers printed on 14pt cover stock will cost around $0.45-$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 flyers would be printed and ready to ship or 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 were printing 1,000 flyers and needed them completed within 6 days, the price would be around $55 cheaper than if you needed them printed in one day.

Ink and Coating for Your Flyers

Printing content on the front and back side 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 costs.

Typically for flyers, the 2 sizes include 5.5” x 8.5” and 8.5” x 11”. For 5.5” x 8.5” flyers, if you are planning to print and mail 1,000 flyers, the cost would be around $95-$100 cheaper than if you were printing and mailing 1,000 8.5” x 11” flyers.

While these two 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 your flyers, there are flyer sizes that go all the way up to 11” x 25.5”. Larger sizes not only will increase the printing cost, but they can also increase the mailing cost.

The size of your flyer should be considered carefully. For example, if you have a short message, a smaller flyer like a 5.5” x 8.5” will work perfectly. However, if you have a decent amount of information to share or have a message that you really want to stand out, then a larger flyer can have a larger impact. Because of this, if a larger 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 deliver an effective message.

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, however, depending on the size of your 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.

If you’re looking to mail 1000 flyers that are not folded, and want to avoid using an envelope, then you’ll need to opt for a 5.5” x 8.5” or 6” x 11” flyer that uses a thicker paper weight like a 10pt or 14pt cover stock. This will result in printing costs being around $0.25-$0.35 per flyer. If you’re set on a standard 8.5” x 11” flyer, using a thinner, text weight paper, the cost would be around $0.35 per flyer plus 1000 envelopes at around $0.65 per envelope.

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 you can mail your flyers without the added cost of envelopes.

Printing 1000 8.5” x 11” half-fold, z-fold, or tri-fold flyers are around $0.30-$0.40 per flyer

The Cost to Mail Flyers

Now that you have a good understanding of how much it costs to print flyers, you’ll need to calculate the costs to mail flyers.

Mailing 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. For larger quantities of at least 200 flyers, the USPS offers bulk mail discounts. They offer mailing discounts for bulk mail because you or your print and direct mail provider presort your flyers resulting in a lot less work for the post office.

Mailing List Costs

If you’re mailing your flyers using a mailing list you already have or one created from your internal database, you don’t need to purchase a mailing list.

However, if you are 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 but typically it costs 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, there are still discounts applied to First Class Mail compared to single-piece postage. To qualify for First Class Mail postage discounts, you need to 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, also referred to as Marketing Mail, is a bulk mail option offered by the USPS 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 $0.29.

Every Door Direct Mail

EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail offers the lowest postage prices at only around $0.20 per flyer. However, the way EDDM works is, you choose a mailing route or routes within a chosen ZIP code and then your flyers would be delivered to every address on that given 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 the printing costs, postage costs, 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 who can handle everything from printing and mailing your flyers, like Conquest Graphics.

At Conquest, we offer competitive prices for the highest quality products, and we offer complete print and direct mail fulfillment, so you don’t need to worry about a thing. We even have a flyer pricing calculator so you can get an estimate on 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 804-591-3352.

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