Poster Design And Printing Mistakes Your Business Needs To Avoid

Whether you’re trying to up your on-site signage or want to run a more traditional marketing campaign, poster printing is still a necessity for many businesses. After all, 35% of customers find out about a local business just from seeing its sign while passing. So if you’re focusing only on digital marketing efforts, you’re probably ignoring a key demographic. But while posters can be extremely effective, they need to be designed and printed in the right way to make a great impression. To that end, there are some major mistakes you’ll need to avoid when you hire a designer or choose your printing services company. We’ll discuss a few of these missteps below.

• Using an image that doesn’t further your message
  Yes, you should absolutely use a captivating image on your posters. But that image needs to support your brand and overall message. The photo or illustration you use should be more than just attractive; it needs to communicate something important. At the very least, it needs to be in line with your overall marketing theme so that customers associate that image with your business. Therefore, you can’t use just any old stock image or a generic picture. Even if they’re aesthetically pleasing, it won’t help your business. Delve into more specifics and work with a designer who will customize something special for you.
• Including too much information
  A poster is not a pamphlet. It should not contain huge blocks of text or multiple messages. It needs to be eye-catching and straight to the point. If you overwhelm passersby with information, they’re going to keep on walking without a second glance. Keep in mind that your poster’s meaning should be understood just through your image(s) and with very few words needed. Use a careful editing eye and cut out anything that isn’t completely necessary. When in doubt, ask your designer or printing company for their opinion.
• Having illegible text
  Whether it’s due to low-resolution files or poor font choices, you can’t afford to have blurry or otherwise unreadable text. Even if your poster has very few words, those words need to pack a punch. Make sure your designer understands your needs and test out the design for yourself. If you can’t read the poster from a few feet back, your potential customers won’t be able to, either. Double check with your printing services company to make sure the files you send them are high enough resolution that the quality will not be compromised if posters are resized or during printing.
• Printing too few posters
  If your budget is a concern, it’s understandable that you don’t want all those extra posters around. That won’t help your business grow. But it’s also a mistake to print too few posters to make an impact. Any kind of marketing campaign relies on visibility, so you need to make sure those posters are seen. Don’t cheap out on quantity. Ideally, you should place a few copies of the same poster in one specific location. If you put up only one poster per location, your potential impact goes way down. When you have a ton of extras, that’s when you’ll need to get creative about placement. While you might think you can just print more later if you need them, it’ll be more cost-effective to print them all at once. So make sure your estimate is accurate and that you have plans in place on where to hang them up.

Before you send your poster files to your printing services company, make sure your designs don’t contain any of these mistakes. Otherwise, your marketing investment won’t be likely to pay off.