You might have used banners to promote or advertise your business several times. Or if you’ve never used one to help increase customer count and revenue, banner printing might seem like a bit of a scary scenario. Either way, there are some really good guidelines to follow for printing a custom banner. And this article is dedicated to the following:
- To learn the best uses for printed banners
- To determine what should be included on your banner
- To explain how to hang a custom banner
We’ll go into detail on the above topics and more so that you can achieve the ultimate goal—putting more money in that business account of yours. Let’s get to it, because the quicker we write this and the sooner you read it, the faster your revenue will swell.
Best Uses for Printed Banners:
Can a silly little rectangle made of vinyl fabric really improve your business? Without question. They deliver a live message to current clients and potential customers. They do it in a tangible manner that lasts. And a standard vinyl banner is not your only option. Let’s briefly introduce you to the different types of banners, and how they can be effective in several different arenas.
Standard Vinyl Banner- A standard vinyl banner is generally the go-to for business advertising. A custom vinyl banner is easy and quick to get printed, and it works exceptionally well indoors and outdoors. Vinyl material is thick and reliable. If displayed inside, one of these can last up to 10 years long. Outside, it is somewhat vulnerable to wind gusts, but even with that, one can still last up to three years.
Mesh Banner- A mesh banner is best for outdoor displays, as it’s designed to be more durable in extreme elements. The reason it’s the top choice for outside use is that its entire surface area has perforated holes throughout. It’s like a screen door that wind can pass through. This is its bonus over a standard vinyl banner. The drawback is that text and images don’t show as crisp because of those perforations.
Retractable Banner- If you’re a business owner who exhibits at a lot of expos, we strongly recommend this as the perfect banner for you. It is lightweight, all-inclusive, and is quick and easy to assemble. A retractable banner will give you many years of use.
Step & Repeat Banner- If you’re that same businessperson who often buys a booth at trade shows, this is another ideal banner. It’s a fantastic way to promote your brand, while at the same time being great for photo ops. The photos taken can gain you so much traction, as people will often post them on their social media pages.
Double Sided Banner- A double-sided banner gives you the opportunity to spread your message on both sides. People can see it from whichever direction they’re headed. With it, you can gain two times the revenue of a single-sided banner. It’s also exceptionally strong because it’s more than a quarter thicker than standard vinyl.
Canvas Banner- We’re mentioning this type of banner because we do produce them. But we want to be clear in that we don’t advise this type of banner for a low-level form of advertising. These are pristine banners that are meant to impress, not simply to get a quick sale. Canvas banners typically reside in locations like elite corporate offices and museums.
All of these banners deliver their own unique traits that will work great for you in their own specific way. Each one of them will provide an impactful result.
Printed Banners Can Improve Your Business:
If you’re a business owner looking to generate more traffic and added income, you’re not alone. One great way to get a leg up on the competition is finding a new way to earn more dough. Maybe you’ve tried mailer advertising to spruce up a customer base. Perhaps you’ve thought about other advertising campaigns. Now, you’re in a rut thinking about what it is you can do to have more people walk through your doors.
Banners are extremely effective tools you can use to drum up some business. They are tangible and physical sales machines that you can put in so many different spots in or around your shop.
They are so inexpensive that it’s almost difficult to grasp. Ours begin at under $35. That’s it. No joke. All you have to do is get one of the aforementioned banners and display it for current clients and future lifelong customers to see. Let them know what your product is or what sale you’re currently holding. It’s right there in front of their eyes. Almost unavoidable. And they’ll be drawn to it. And you’ll crank up your revenue.
Most traditional advertising techniques pale in comparison. Take for example television and radio. Ads on these mediums will last between 15 and 30 seconds before they’re over and gone, never to be seen or heard again. They are extremely costly, especially depending on when they run. During primetime slots, the price gets jacked up. If you choose to run your ad out of primetime, not many are watching or listening, so what’s the point?
And think about how there has become a myriad of streaming services where commercials don’t even run. With these services, people are tuning into cable TV less and less. This is not just a trend, and will become even more so the case moving forward. Buying airtime for cable advertising is almost completely obsolete.
How about the ever-popular social media sites? That ad of yours can quickly be lost and gone out of potential clients’ feed in a blink. You’ve now paid wasted money to promote something they won’t see. Just like with TV and radio, and unlike a banner, these ads are not tangible. They are not constantly and consistently in front of people to absorb.
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! How about those good old-fashioned newspapers? Sure, they’re physical pieces that have ads in them. But the newspaper industry is dying in this country every single day. And if what you’re trying to sell isn’t totally geared for an audience over 55 years old, it’s wasted money spent on an ad. Generations younger than baby boomers flat-out don’t read the paper.
There’s good reason to consider trying banners as an advertising method. Your goals with advertising are to increase customer count, gain immediate sales, and obtain continued revenue moving forward. Now let’s make sure when you utilize them, you get it right.
How to Hang Your Banner-
Banner hanging is a strategy that should be thoroughly thought out. You need to attract the most eyeballs, period. More eyeballs equals more potential income. Place it in the highest traffic area as best you can. Putting it outside your business will enable you to draw customers in. Then they buy, and then maybe you get the opportunity to upsell them and earn more than just the original purchase. And even taking it a step further, you may have gained a customer who continues to come in and continually put money in your bank account. What if you displayed it outside and only got 5 new customers a day who only spent $20? Sure doesn’t sound like a whole heck of a lot. But doing the math, it comes out to over $25,000 in extra revenue for the year— that’s if you’re only open Monday through Friday.
Two other quick points about getting the most out of your banner. They are text amounts and color schemes. Be astute and follow a couple guidelines when it comes to these. It will help you immeasurably.
Banner Printing Information:
Having the correct information on your banner is of paramount importance. It may seem silly, but what if you had the wrong spelling of your company name or one wrong digit on your phone number? It means potential customers couldn’t find you and it’s plenty of opportunity lost. So, when planning out the design for your custom banner, make sure each detail is accounted for. It can be a bit of a daunting task if you’ve never crossed this bridge before, so be smart when you plan it out. Two other things to think about regarding your new banner:
- Your message
- Fonts
Your message is perhaps the most important facet when it comes to delivering information on your advertising banner. If it’s vague or doesn’t deliver properly, it will be a much longer road for you to make money. If people are driving by and your banner shows up like the one below, they’ll have no idea what it is that you sell. It will entice very few to be interested in your store.
Moving on to fonts now. Fonts are important, without a doubt. Why? Because the eye is used to seeing certain types of them, such as Arial, Helvetica, and Times New Roman. They’re all good and distinguishing ones that we see daily in emails and in texts. Using one of these familiar fonts will instantly connect your signage with viewers’ minds. How irritated would you be if we wrote this article using all these fonts? Keep font usage to 1 or 2 for maximum effect.
Keep font usage to 1 or 2 for maximum effect.
How to Hang a Printed Banner:
It’s hanging banner time! It’s not really difficult to do. But there are things you should know about the tools and equipment used. Indoor banner? No problem. Outdoor banner? We’ve got you covered as well. Our banners come with grommets free of charge.
A grommet is essentially a metal ring punched into a banner. It allows for hanging a banner with things like rope, twine, or bungee cords.
If you want to display banners that normally hang outside in an inside area, look for a hanging structure like a drop-down ceiling. If that presents itself, you can use hooks through the grommets.
Then there’s the conundrum of hanging your banner on a concrete wall without drilling holes. There are a couple options. There are products on the market like Command Strips that can be used to stick your vinyl banner to the wall. Velcro is a possibility as well. You can glue your fabric banner to the concrete wall. We want to steer you away from this however, as it’s highly likely you will damage the banner material.
How to Design Your Custom Printed Banner:
You might want us to help you with your banner design, and we’ll gladly hop on board. If you’re not a graphic designer, we have a tremendously talented team of them, and we’ll deliver a quality product you will be thrilled with. Maybe you like working in Photoshop and want to design it yourself. If you do know Photoshop, but don’t know how it will translate into print versus a screen, there are some basics you should know. First, the measurement should be in inches. Then, the color format should be in CMYK. If you do RGB, colors will oftentimes drastically shift. You won’t get the brightest colors on the spectrum with RGB. When dealing with resolution for print, as your banner will be, the resolution of an image is very important to quality of the final printed product.
When dealing with large format products like banners, the size of the files needed to produce a high-quality image can become very large. The main reason why the resolution needed to produce a quality image drops so drastically as the size increases is directly related to the general viewing distance of the finished product. For example, a small image about the size of a piece of paper is typically viewed from arm’s length or less, and would require 300 dpi for optimal results. Yard signs are things typically seen from much farther away, sometimes more than 10 feet, so 150 dpi would work fine. A large item like a graduation banner is usually seen from 20 feet or more away, and therefore 72 dpi is perfect. Since the viewing distance is greater as the products get larger, the relative size of the printed dots is actually very similar.
It is fine to save your image in jpeg format. We recommend you choose the highest quality setting available. Some image compression is acceptable, but if you compress the file too much, the image quality will suffer.
If you don’t want to use either of these options, you can go to our website and work your magic with our handy design tool. Even if you’re not a computer guru, the design tool is very user-friendly, very easy to use.
Key Features to Include on Your Custom Banner-
Earlier, we strongly suggested to keep your banner simpler as opposed to being too busy or complex. In addition to your chosen text and imagery, there are some key features you can sneak in there without overdoing information on your banner. You can put your contact information on there, be it your company phone number and/or website. It’s especially important if your banner isn’t directly located at your store. Viewers need to be able to call you or find you. Maximizing exposure for your product or services is key to maximizing your revenue.
Also, if you’ve won any awards or badges, those can not only snazz up the design a touch, but they lend themselves to your credibility. They make customers aware that you have earned some serious recognition. They show that you are an industry expert, and it will definitely have an impact. It’ll be your business that people choose, and not your competitors. You will have won.
In Closing:
Hopefully now, you are fully prepared to buy that personalized banner, whether it’s a smaller 6 X 2 version or a very large banner. Hopefully you understand the power they can bring, whether you choose a custom vinyl banner or a couple vertical banners like the retractable one mentioned earlier. And hopefully you have the tools necessary so that your banner comes out just the way you want it to. We can help you with every step of your journey. We have been printing banners for over 10 years. Don’t hesitate to call us for any needs that you have. We are here to ensure your success.
