Businesses have been using poster printing as an effective form of marketing and advertising for many years. Whether you are promoting a product, business service, or a corporate event, poster printing can communicate your message and instruction clearly and effectively. Poster printing provides an affordable and cost-effective form of visual communication, even in this age of digital marketing – here are some tips on how to create an effective printed poster for your business:

Overall Objective

The first thing to establish for your poster is the objective – what do you want your poster to achieve? Identify the main goal of your poster – perhaps you want to raise your company profile and reinforce your brand, or maybe you want your poster to create new business and drive sales or, alternatively, it may be to promote a specific event in which your business is involved?  Once you have established the message you are trying to convey with your poster design, you need to identify your target audience – who is it you are trying to reach with your message? Consider the demographic of your target audience and adapt your poster design to specifically interest those people.

Headline

The headline of your poster is your first consideration – the main aim of your poster is to grab the attention of your identified target audience so your poster must convey a clear, concise message to them about your business, product, service or event. Your poster must be readable both close-up and from a distance! Your headline should be the dominant feature of your poster and the first aspect of a hierarchy of elements in your poster design – however, just because it is called the headline doesn’t necessarily mean that it must appear at the top of the poster – it can be anywhere on the design, but it MUST be the element that stands out! You must ensure the headline has clarity – be easy to understand, and it should have creativity – to make the poster and its message memorable.

Hierarchy

Every effective poster will have an established hierarchy – the headline is the main element of your poster message, but there is other ‘layers’ of hierarchy to consider. The second hierarchical element is the details – this element is the important information you need your customer to know – the specific product or service your business is promoting and where it can be found or accessed, or perhaps the date, time, location and participants of a particular event. Use a font about half the size of your headline display, which is easily read, and is familiar to most people. If required, you can include a third element of your poster design hierarchy which would be the fine print – perhaps a little more detail on the event, product, or service the poster is advertising – information that is useful but not essential for the reader.

Images

Very often the first thing that people will notice on a poster is a visual image – imagery is very important in effective poster design as a dominant image or graphic will have that initial impact and grab the attention. Often, one big, bold dramatic image is the thing that sets your poster apart from others and garners the customer interest – but ensure the image is relevant to your message and ALWAYS ensure that any images used are of high quality – a poor-quality, or ‘grainy’ image will reflect badly on your company and have a negative effect on those who see it!

Colour and Contrast

Your printed poster needs to catch the attention of people – so colours are important! Think about what it is your poster is trying to convey and choose colours that are appropriate. A poster for a summer festival event will require a different colour palette than, for example, a business service your company may be promoting! You don’t want your poster to be too garish, so it is recommended you use between 3- 5 different colours at most! Likewise, consider the impact of contrast in your poster – effective use of contrast in your poster design can be very powerful.  Creating different layers on your poster with colour contrast – light against dark, bright against a muted background – along with different-sized images or text with contrasting font styles – can create interest for the eye and will make people look harder at the poster.

Branding

Most businesses will want an element of brand reinforcement or to highlight brand presence in their poster display – incorporate any brand logo your business uses into the poster design and match any colours and fonts that your business uses in other forms of corporate marketing and advertising – something that people will recognise as being associated with your company.

Call to Action

Once your poster has attracted people’s attention, you want them to act on what you are promoting so it should always include a ‘call to action’, that is, what action you want people to take next. It may be to visit a website, call or email your business, so include clear contact information or codes to scan, or perhaps you are encouraging people to buy tickets, so ensure all relevant instructions are clearly stated and easily read.

Simple

Each element of your printed poster should complement the others – and communicate your message with cohesion – remember, your poster does not have to be ‘over dramatic’ to grab people’s attention – so keep it simple! For some promotions, a simple, straightforward display will be the most effective!

Poster printing has long been a popular option for businesses to market their products and services to potential and existing customers. Whereas once it had proven to be a somewhat expensive printing option, because of the costs of initial set-up and design, making it restrictive to smaller businesses, updated digital poster printing methods have reduced those overheads dramatically and made poster printing a viable and affordable option for any business to access. Here are some benefits of poster printing for you to consider:

Posters

Printed posters can be used to promote businesses, services, and events from many locations. A well-designed poster can convey information to many people over an extended period and prominently and strategically placed, a poster in an area of high footfall can attract attention and create an initial impression to potential customers for your business, product, or event. Place your posters at eye-level height wherever feasible – you want to attract the attention of the casual passer-by, so the more prominent your posters are to the average eye-line the more likely your message will register with them. Poster printing is cheap and therefore easy to replace or update when relevant or necessary. They are ideal for long-term advertising as a constant brand reinforcement tool and form impressive hanging displays at specific events or venues.

Affordable

Poster printing is one of the most affordable forms of advertising – even the larger sized posters are affordable to print, especially with the progress in digital printing which allows for short-run printing to be ordered at short notice.

Marketing

In all businesses, marketing and advertising are essential – and in a fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace it is easy to find that the marketing materials and campaign you launched six months ago, perhaps at great expense, is already outdated and your customers or clients already have different requirements! An outdated marketing campaign is ineffective – but the ease and affordability of a popular poster printing campaign allows you to react quickly and effectively to the different market demands. A good established print company can design, print, and deliver fresh posters to your business within days of ordering.

Brand Awareness

One of the main aims of your company marketing is to get your corporate name and image known – everyone understands the value of constant brand reinforcement in the marketplace. It is important to get your company logo, colours, and message in front of your customers as often as possible – but just using the same images and marketing materials all the time can become bland and therefore ineffective. Digital poster printing offers the opportunity to regularly update your images and message at an affordable cost! Varying the colour schemes, using different design images, whilst retaining your core brand image on posters can keep your brand image fresh and interesting. Poster printing allows you to deliver the important consistent brand identity in varying, fresh formats and images on a regular basis, keeping your customers informed and engaged, and building a trust between your business and its customers.

Efficiency and Quality

With the modern printing methods your professional print company can produce smaller print runs at affordable costs, whilst providing the same high-quality imagery and finish that you would expect from the traditionally more expensive bigger volume print runs. Poster printing delivers quality advertising in a convenient and affordable manner with an impressive and professional finish. Another of the advantages of digital poster printing is the access to different methods and finishes of print – for example, a poster printing run that utilises foil printing can produce a ‘stand-out’ appearance by providing a uniquely vibrant image that adds a high-end quality finish to your posters.

Working with a professional print company, and utilising their in-house knowledge, expertise, and experience to help you with every aspect of your digital poster printing from design and materials to the most impressive finish, can reap rich rewards for a minimal outlay – few marketing mediums can match the value for money of poster advertising.