In a world that's increasingly gone digital, physical signage may seem like just another hanger-on in marketing and advertising budgets. When faced with tough decisions about how to allocate dollars, business owners may be tempted to put all their eggs in one basket for the sake of simplicity, meaning some branding functions may be nixed.
Banner displays, however, are still ubiquitous across a wide variety of industries, and companies of all sizes can benefit greatly from innovative banners that convey branded messages and entice new customers.
Even better, by having the necessary printing and cutting equipment on hand, businesses can produce successful banners whenever they want and deploy them wherever they want.
By making banners a focal point of promotions and customer acquisition strategies, companies can generate interest in their brands - and it all starts with being creative.
Create a strong (and large) first impression
Experiencing a brand for the first time can be a revelation. But on small smartphone screens and standard laptop models, logos, messaging and brand identity can only come across so well.
Physical banners can be made as large as necessary and take up both indoor and outdoor real estate of all kinds. This means businesses can advertise on the sides of buildings, on green space installations, on storefronts and sidewalks, on interior walls and even from the sky, trailing airplanes.
This reality allows businesses to have an outsized impact on all those who view their banners, and it only takes one defining moment to help solidify a potential customer's intent or loyalty to a brand. In short, go big or go home.
Bring design consistency to your brand
One of the many challenges new and existing businesses face is trying to adapt to the world around them while maintaining a level of consistency. This is especially true in the world of marketing.
"It only takes one defining moment to help solidify a potential customer's intent or loyalty to a brand."
Because companies often outsource various marketing efforts like graphic design, website development and content production (or struggle to do so in-house), it can be difficult to keep creative briefs updated and accurate. Additionally, over time, company aesthetics and customer tastes can change, partially impacting marketing direction.
This leads to changing color schemes, adjusting fonts, incongruity between digital and physical presences, different company personalities on social media platforms and other fine points on brand inconsistency.
Banners take up a lot of space and can help lead the charge toward unifying all of these wayward UX and CX elements. Building out a cohesive brand identity should start with larger assets, as they will likely get the most visibility and preemptively shape the opinions of customers who have yet to experience other touchpoints of a brand.
Provide a versatile and targeted campaign theme
Banners enable companies to make targeted commitments to specific audiences. Many of today's biggest brands geo-target their banners and display them with local references or anecdotal messaging that only people in a given region would pick up on. This creates a level of trust and intimacy that isn't achievable by simple, blanket statements that are supposed to apply to everyone.
Likewise, targeting by demographic, buyer type or a specific product application can help foster dedicated campaign themes, allowing business owners to track which campaigns perform best.
The great thing about banners is that they are relatively inexpensive and can be taken down and redeployed elsewhere with ease. Further, with the right printing equipment, businesses can create several different versions of the same banner at the touch of a button, instead of relying solely on a single message. This versatility is increasingly crucial in the marketing sphere, which is currently going through a dominant phase of refreshing and reusing existing marketing assets.
Unlock hidden benefits of graphic design
For companies that are still finding their footing or that may be looking to roll out a more comprehensive advertising campaign, graphic design that elevates and enlightens is the first step.
Humans are innately visual creatures, and studies show that people are able to follow directions that contain illustrations 323 percent better than directions that contain no images.
Creating banners that optimize and build upon these behaviors is important, but businesses don't have to stop at banners. There are a host of graphical assets that accomplish similar effects, and with the right printing equipment on standby, companies can quickly churn out visuals that wow prospects.
AirMark is the premier provider of cutting and printing technology, empowering businesses with the tools they need to outpace competitors and reimagine what they once thought was impossible.