How to Choose a Banner For Your Business

If you want to promote your business, a high-quality canvas banner is one of the best options. However, before you slap a banner on the front of your building (or elsewhere), you need to make sure that you have the best-looking design. 

So, let’s dive in and see how to choose a banner for your business that will really shine. 

Step One: Determine the Purpose of Your Banner

One of the primary benefits of using a banner is that it can be quite versatile. Banners work well for a wide array of situations, such as: 

• Sales – Your banner can be generic, with words like “Sale Now,” or it can be specific (i.e., “Get 50% Off Until X Date”). As long as you don’t make the banner too unique or timely, you can potentially reuse it for your next sales event. 
• Grand Openings – A grand opening doesn’t have to occur when you have a new storefront. You can also do a grand opening after a remodel or significant change to your business. You can also buy a sign that says “Grand Re-Opening” to avoid potential confusion. 
• Brand Signage – If you don’t have a building sign yet, you can use a banner to notify people of your location. Brand signage can also work well for pop-up events when setting up remotely. 
• Marketing Promotion – You can use banners to promote specific products or services. Since you can add photos and other graphics, it’s easy to deploy banners wherever necessary. 

Step Two: Choose a Design

Designing a banner can be somewhat tricky, especially if you’re not a graphic designer. Fortunately, you can outsource custom banner printing with a local design firm to ensure that your signage looks as appealing and eye-catching as possible. Here are some pointers on how to make the most out of your banner real estate: 

• Consider the Dimensions – Banners can be massive or relatively small. As a rule, these signs are horizontal, so you want to plan your design accordingly. If you’re planning on using photos or graphics, make sure that they have sufficient resolution so that they don’t look blurry when printed at size. 
• Use Readable Fonts – As your banner gets bigger, you need to use more simple fonts. Sans serif options are ideal because they won’t look as cluttered or messy. Script fonts can be hard to read at a distance, particularly if they have a lot of flourishes.
• Have a Specific Focus – What information do you want to convey with your banner? What if someone only looks at it for a brief second? Will they be able to remember any details? Overall, your banner should have one primary objective. If there’s too much going on, it will be much harder to connect with the audience.  

Step Three: Find a Local, Full-Service Printing Company

Although banners are pretty standard signage, not all businesses are good at making them. Ideally, you want to work with a local printing company that offers multiple sizes, styles, and materials. For example, you can get a canvas banner with metal grommets for hanging or choose a fabric banner with no grommets. 

The other advantage of working with a local company is developing a long-term relationship. If you need one banner now, chances are that you’ll need more in the future. Plus, you can look at other types of signs, such as vehicle wraps, handwritten signs, building signs, and more. 

Step Four: Get a Proof of Your Banner

One issue with printing is that the final product doesn’t look the same as it does on the computer. Remember that computer screens are backlit, so colors look brighter, and whites are much more noticeable. Also, if you’re getting a massive banner for your building, it’s hard to tell how readable it will be from a distance. 

One way to alleviate these issues is to get a proof of your banner. In this case, the sign maker will print a section of the piece so that you can see how it looks in person. A proof allows you to make any adjustments or changes before committing to a full-sized version. This step isn’t always possible when ordering banners online. 

Step Five: Hang Your Banner

Another advantage of banners is that it’s pretty easy to put them in different spots. However, if you get a banner without grommets, you need to get a little creative about how you display it. For example, you can use sticky pads, nails, and other adhesives to put the banner on a flat surface. 

If you’re hanging your banner outside, you need to consider the elements. Be sure to talk with your sign maker about how well the materials can hold up to rain, sunlight, and snow. Realistically, you don’t want to hang an outdoor banner for too long, or it will start to fade and wear out. Instead, it’s often best to rotate banners after a few months.