When it comes to getting your message across, the banner is prime real estate. Whether used to promote an idea in the digital advertising space or share a message in a physical space, the banner is one of the most impactful ways to generate attention for your team, your brand, your message, or your business.
When you have a message to share, a banner is going to offer the best way to make sure that your words and images get noticed by as many people as possible.
So, how can you maximize the impact of this form of promotional advertisement? Let’s explore some of the top pro tips for getting the most bang for your buck out of your banner design.
Show Instead Of Tell
Sure, saying that a picture is worth a thousand words seems rather cliche, but it holds just as true today as it ever has. A single eye-popping image can say more than several paragraphs worth of text. When your goal is to convey a strong message and connect with your audience in a small amount of space, a striking image is the way to go.
If you are advertising a product, consider showcasing a detailed illustration or high-resolution photo that highlights the top details that make your product special. If you are promoting a service, you may want to share an action shot of your service. Whether you opt for photos or illustrations, the key goal is to portray your brand or idea in the best possible light.
Straightforward Messaging
Your banner message will need to make a statement at a glance. If you are creating a physical banner, your message will also need to be visible at a distance and should be understood as someone is moving past it. Choose a simple straightforward message that gets your core idea across in as few words as possible. You can always add important details to the banner if absolutely necessary, but these should be kept to a minimum to avoid distracting from the main statement.
Think about the size, color, and font style of your typography as well as the words you choose to maximize readability, clarity, and impact. Ornate or artistic fonts may look great on a flier or in a social media post, but they may be difficult to interpret at a distance or when flashing briefly across the top of a web page. Keep in mind how your banner will most likely be displayed, and choose typography that offers maximum visibility.
Keep It Simple
Whether you opt for a strong typographical element against a solid background or use illustrations or photography to convey your message, the overall concept should be simple and uncomplicated. Again, the idea here is to get your idea across in a relatively small amount of space and ensure that the message can be understood quickly and possibly from a distance or while in motion. Simplicity is the key to accomplishing this task. You want your viewer’s eyes to find the message immediately rather than attempting to interpret several pieces of competing information.
Pick one or two stand-out features, most commonly clear imagery and strong typography, to make your point and leave the rest of the details for a click-thru page or a flier.
Brand-Focused
If your banner is promoting your business, make certain that your branding is clearly identifiable. Your brand logo, colors, or other features should be featured prominently, so viewers are able to make an instant connection between the banner ad and your business.
Commanding Colors
Again, keeping with the idea that your banner may be viewed at a distance while in motion, or if used in a digital space, may be visible on only a small section of the screen, it is important to choose colors that jump out at the viewer. This is not the time for subtle pastels or neutrals. Use high-contrast colors that clearly focus the eye on the action or help the typography stand out from the background to ensure that your message gets through no matter how brief of a glimpse the viewer gets of your banner.
Getting Professional Banner Designs
When you need to make a big statement in a small space and your business success depends on the results, enlisting the help of a professional graphic designer is often the best choice. Of course, this can pose a bit of a challenge for start-ups, entrepreneurs, non-profits, small businesses, and others with limited financial resources. While larger organizations can afford to employ professional in-house designers to create their advertising materials, those with smaller budgets don’t have this luxury.
Freelance marketplaces offer another viable alternative to finding affordable professional graphic design talent. There are plenty of awesome artists on various freelance marketplaces who are more than capable of creating stunning and impactful banners for your brand or business. The primary problem that people encounter when using freelance marketplaces is the hit-and-miss aspect of the work.
The top marketplaces draw massive numbers of designers from all over the world. While some graphic designers are top-notch professionals delivering high-quality work on a consistent basis, others are just getting started in their field or have less-than-impressive work ethics. Because there is no rock-solid method for vetting freelancers on large marketplaces, there is no way to know for certain exactly what level of quality and service you will be getting.
What’s more, in the event that you do manage to get a good banner design that you are happy with, when you are ready to create your next banner or additional marketing or promotional materials, you are back at square one, choosing an unknown freelancer again. This revolving door approach to producing your brand’s marketing materials can lead to inconsistent results that reflect poorly on your brand or business.
Fortunately, there is a third option that offers both quality and consistency at an affordable price. An all-in-one creative design subscription service like Flocksy can provide you with all the graphic design assets you need to promote your brand, including banner designs.
A flat-rate Flocksy subscription gets you access to a team of vetted designers, copywriters, and other creatives who will work on all of your design needs for one monthly fee. There are no hidden costs, no long-term contracts, and no surprises. You get high-quality creative designs performed by dedicated professionals who are committed to your satisfaction.
Most basic banner designs can be completed and ready for use in as little as 24 hours, and your designer will work with you to revise the design as much as needed to ensure that it matches your vision exactly.
Because most promotions don’t end with one simple banner design, you are likely to need additional promotional materials like social media posts, advertisements, fliers, posters, and more. Working with an established team of designers helps maintain a sense of continuity across all of your brand’s marketing designs.
The team at Flocksy will work together to create a consistent theme tying your brand together through copywriting, graphic design, illustration, and other design services. Plus, an all-in-one dashboard lets you manage all of your design requests in one convenient location, and a dedicated project manager is always available to help keep the whole process running smoothly.
Creating A Banner Design With Flocksy
Flocksy’s user-friendly platform makes it quick and easy to start your banner design request and to continue requesting any other design assets you may need. New users will need to select one of the affordable flat-rate packages and register for an account. Then simply log in and start filling up your queue with design requests.
To get started on a banner design, locate the “Create New Project” option and then navigate to the “Graphic Design” category. Locate the “Banner Design” project option and open a project brief to begin the request.
Flocksy’s detailed project briefs are designed to guide you through the process of providing all of the key details that your artist will need to produce results you love. You will want to provide details about the purpose of your banner design, whether you will be creating a digital or physical banner, the message you need the banner to convey, and any design or style requirements that you may have. There will also be a prompt to upload any brand guidelines, logos, and colors that you may have so your designer can include these crucial branding elements in your final design.
Once you have provided all the information, simply click submit, and your artist will get started on your design. You can expect your first results within 24 to 48 hours.
After you have had a chance to review your design, you can chat with your designer to discuss any edits or revisions needed, and your artist will make the necessary changes to get it right. When you are happy with the results, you can finalize the project, and the team will get right to work on your next design asset. The final design is yours to keep, and you’ll always get all the files required to use your banner design however and wherever you choose.
It’s really that simple!
Flocksy’s unlimited creative services make it easy to get all the design assets you need to promote your brand, including banner designs. You get a cohesive marketing and promotional campaign with graphics, illustrations, copywriting, and more for one flat-rate price. There is no limit to the number or variety of projects you can request. Your team will continue to work on projects as you post them. There is no reason to put off your brand launch. Let’s start building your marketing campaign today!