How To Promote Your Company For a Low Cost With Vinyl Banners

Nearly every business prints vinyl banners, but many companies never employ vinyl banners where they have the greatest marketing value. The following reveals what’s wrong with your current banner marketing practices, and details how to earn the greatest “new business” response from your vinyl banner marketing campaigns – all for about $5 per day.

What’s wrong with your banner marketing?

In my city, most of the vinyl banners I see are either inside stores or at festival booths. You need banners in these locations to draw attention to special deals and attract new customers, respectively, but neither has the most possible value. After all, in-store banners are only seen by customers who are already at your store; and festival attendees, in most cases, aren’t there to buy products that aren’t deep-fried.

Two other popular banner marketing venues are athletic events and concerts. Both can help increase brand awareness, and both are great places for banner marketing. However, banners at neither location get the attention they deserve because there is something more interesting to watch: the game or the concert.

The problem with most banner marketing campaigns is that they don’t incorporate strategic placement to get the most targeted views, and thus generate the highest return on investment.

The best spots for banner marketing

The three best spots for vinyl banner marketing, in this order, are:

1. high-traffic intersections
2. busy shopping districts
3. places your target customer base is known to frequent

Banners placed in high-traffic intersections will get the most possible views, and they’ll also achieve an ample degree of repetition due to the fact that many people drive the same route every day. Busy intersections are perfect for promoting your company to the entire populace, but they’re not as well-targeted.

Busy shopping districts are perfect for vinyl banner marketing because customers are already in the buying mood. You don’t have to have a physical location in the shopping district to strategically distribute vinyl banners where the most customers will see them. Make your banner even more powerful with interactive features such as sign-ups, video demonstrations, and instant purchases via QR codes and other smartphone technologies.

If you know your customers well (and you should), then you know what types of places they frequently visit. Outdoor bistros, bar and grills, and coffee shops are all perfect locations for attracting your target audience with banner marketing. Find out where your customers go, and market to them there. You won’t get as many views as the other strategies described here, but you’ll get more qualified views and a better response rate.

Keep in mind that premium vinyl banners can withstand the outdoor elements, and they can be reused year-after-year for seasonal promotions to help minimize your investment.

The 100-day banner marketing campaign

The following seven-step strategy will help you maximize your return on investment from vinyl banner marketing throughout a 100-day period, at an investment of $5 per day (ideally, you’ll be able to find free banner placement; if not, negotiate a low-investment deal with property owners to display your banner for 100 days).

1. Develop a time-limited offer that’s attractive to your target customer base
2. Design and print five attention-getting 3-foot by 5-foot vinyl banners (approx. $100 each)
3. Place two of the banners in the two busiest intersections in your city
4. Place one of the banners in the busiest shopping district in your city
5. Place the remaining two banners in full view of locations your target customer base is known to frequent
6. Let your campaign ride for 100 days, and record all responses and sales made from each banner (unique URLs, campaign codes, and phone numbers can all help you track response rates from each individual banner as well as the entire campaign)
7. At the end of the 100 days, compile your information to determine which locations yielded the best response and the most sales

Now, apply what you’ve learned to future vinyl banner marketing campaigns. You’ll be able to launch larger banner marketing campaigns with predictable results based on your initial campaign. Remember, when it comes to vinyl banner marketing, the rule of thumb is location, location, location.