Here are some tips to consider when designing or purchasing a vinyl banner for your business or organization or even personal use. Need additional help? Press Live Chat now or call toll free: 866-267-5814.
What's the use or purpose of the banner?
Believe it or not, many people give little consideration to the final purpose of use of their vinyl banner. And although vinyl banners are a relatively inexpensive form of advertising, who wants to waste money on a banner that gets no results? So the very first question you should ask yourself is, "What's the end-result I want to accomplish by displaying my banner?" Or, "What should start happening when my banner is displayed?"
Examples could be:
1) If you're a retail store, perhaps you want to see the phone start ringing or traffic in the door. We call this "generating leads" or "converting traffic." But the goal is a bump in calls or traffic.
Ultra "easy to read" text is extremely important, and a message that people will understand quickly and easily. Your banner may be displayed where people don't have a lot of time to read tons of text.
2) If you're an organization, maybe you're trying to generate leads to grow your membership. In this case, you should notice an increase in calls or emails, and a bump in membership. Again, clear and easy to read fonts are very important, as well as the type of organization you are. Sometimes people get carried away with promoting just their logo or name, and often people have no idea what type of organization you are just by reading your name!
3) If you're celebrating an event, you obviously want the banner to announce the event or generate excitement or ambiance. For celebration banners, you can have fun with colors, scripty fonts, and pictures, since the viewers will be close and have time to view the entire banner.
4) If you're attending a farmer's market, maybe you want to get people in the crowd to actually come to your tent or table. In this case, colorful pictures of your product may be better enticement than just text.
5) If you're banner's goal is informational or instructional, you can pack the text and pictures on, as the viewers will be spending time observing the entire banner. We've printed huge Over sized banners for factories, schools, and agencies that list rules, regulations, training instructions, etc. For informational banners, you can pretty much break all the rules.
Where's the banner going to be displayed? (Choose the right fonts, message, and colors!)
Most banners are displayed in high traffic areas such as corner crossings or in shopping areas where there may be a lot of people, but these people may have little time to read your banner. If your banner is displayed on a street or corner crossing, you may literally have only a couple seconds to get the message across. Or if your banner is competing with a ton of other marketing messages, you really need to have your banner grab attention and try to drill an easy message home quickly.
With most banner designs, we recommend using a very clear and easy to read font. We almost always use an Arial font (bold) for the main message, and have it make up a huge area of the banner. For example, if your store is having a T-shirt Sale, you may want your main message to be "50% OFF T-Shirt Sale At Norma's." A second line may be your address or domain, but the important part is the main message that people will understand quickly and easily.
The color of your message is also very important. The higher the contrast between font and background, the better. Some great "standards" are black on yellow or black on white, red on yellow, or even dark blue on white. Stay away from light blues on dark blues, reds on browns, or purple on black. Your message will literally disappear from a short distance.
What's the lighting like where the banner is going to be displayed?
If you're displaying your banner in a poorly lit area, you'll want to using extremely bright contrasting colors such as red on yellow. You may even want to use a reflective vinyl on your banner so that car headlights or ambient light can help "light-up" your message. Lets Go Banners offers reflective vinyl options. Call today 866-267-5814 for more information or press "Live Chat" right now!
How far away will the prospective viewers be? (Choose the right size banner!)
A mistake we often see and try to help our clients' avoid is the proper sizing of their banner. Often, a client will try to save money by purchasing a tiny banner to display their marketing message. For example, using a 2 foot tall by different width banners at an intersection may simply not give you enough size to display your message. Or if you have more than two or three lines of text, you should consider at least a 3 foot tall by different widths banner for your message.
Obviously, sometimes you'll need to go BIG or Go Home! We consider any of our 4 foot tall by different width banners to be in the "large banner family." If you have the budget, and really want to capture attention, a 4x 6 or 4x8 or even 4x10 vinyl banner will really stand out. We've even produced 10 x 20 huge oversized banners for events.
Does your banner have a "Call To Action?"
If possible, add a "call to action" to your banner. It may be as simple as "Call Now" or "Hurry In Today." People often need direction to take action. So make sure you make it really simple but definitely add a Call To Action! So give us a call now for more help with your vinyl banners!
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