A big moment is coming soon for you. There’s a huge event looming on the horizon. Maybe your company is about to have its first-ever 50% off sale. Maybe you’re about to open a brand new business. Maybe you’re in charge of an important church event. You want to promote or celebrate. You want to send a message. One of the most fantastic ways to accomplish your goal is to get a vinyl banner.
Pros and Cons of Vinyl Banners:
At Riverbend Signworks, we believe in being fully forthright with you. We respect each and every customer. Part of our mission statement reads, “By helping our customers solve their sign, graphics, and message needs.” With that, we’ll discuss the one con and just a few pros that come with buying a custom vinyl banner.
The Con- Outdoor elements like repeated sun exposure and wind can take a bit of a toll on vinyl. In harsh winds, this type of banner has the propensity to act like a sail. If not securely fastened, it can get away from you. If your plan is to place it in a high-wind area, we recommend you add wind slits, which will refute the gusts. There. That’s it. That’s the con.
The Pros- Our vinyl banners have a life expectancy of 2-3 years outside if you take proper care of them. Inside, they can last 5 years or longer. Our standard banner material is tear and fade resistant, and is fire retardant, as well. We offer them in either a matte or gloss finishing option. They are an extremely cost-effective way to advertise.
We sell six different types of banners, which we’ll get to shortly. Depending on what your needs for messaging are, as well as where you want to display it, they all deliver in their own unique way. Each can work to impact your advertising.
Types of Vinyl Banners:
As mentioned, we have five different types of them. Let’s get you introduced to them. They are:
- Standard vinyl
- Mesh
- Retractable
- Step & Repeat
- Double sided
- Canvas
Our standard vinyl one is the most popular and often used for businesses. The material is thick and durable, and images are extremely bold. If you think about it, you’ll probably realize they’re everywhere. They are inexpensive and effective ways to promote your business.
Mesh is prime for outdoor use. Unlike our standard one, these banners have perforated holes throughout the entire surface area. What it means is that it can handle wind much better.
It takes on the characteristic of a screen door, allowing wind to simply pass through it. With its outdoor capability, you can hang them outside of your place of business, and thus garner more traffic into your place.
Our Retractable ones are ideal If you’re someone who exhibits at a lot of expos and trade shows. We’d strongly suggest this as your go-to. They’re extremely light, they’re all-inclusive, they’re very easy to assemble, and will last a decade or longer.
A Step & Repeat is also perfect for you if you’re that same businessperson who often gets a booth at conventions and such. It works great in allowing you to promote your brand, while at the same time being prime for photo ops.
Double-Sided ones present you the ability to deliver your message on both sides, which can then earn you two times the revenue as a single-sided one. It’s highly durable because it’s nearly 30% thicker than standard vinyl.
Canvas banners are high-end, top shelf. So, if you’re goal is to go with basic advertising and promotion, we’d tell you to steer clear of these. These banners are meant to impress, not just to sell. Canvas products like ours reside in places like museums and high-level corporate offices.
How to Properly Clean-
If your banner is a larger one, let’s say it spans 32 square feet, it might have you feeling it will be a tough chore to clean. Not to worry, there’s not much at all to it. It can be cleaned with warm water on a wet cloth or rag. Please refrain from using any harsh chemicals to clean your banner, as you may ruin your print. And honestly, if it’s displayed outdoors, you can pray for occasional rain, which will clean it nearly as well.
As far as the frequency of cleaning, there isn’t really a standard industry suggestion. We just recommend you do it regularly for optimal appearance. How often will also depend on if you’ll be hanging it inside or outside.
Advertising Business & Special Events with Vinyl Banners:
We’ve been hitting on the fact that vinyl banners are so useful to advertise your company. That especially holds true when it comes to keeping some dough in your business account. But now, let’s dig deeper.
How great are the cost advantages vs some of the other advertising platforms out there? Traditional techniques cannot compare to this form of promotion when it comes to price, availability to be seen, and cost-per-impression. Print ads and direct mailing do have their place in raising brand awareness or promoting a sale. But only people who subscribe to a particular paper, mailing list, or magazine will be reached. And honestly, when’s the last time you didn’t immediately chuck what seemed like junk mail into the trash. Nobody likes being spammed, maybe more so when it’s physically stuck in the mailbox.
Mailing list advertising can feel pronounced. Your banner, however, is just hanging out in a public place. You’re not jamming your message down people’s throats. It’s much more subtle and unobtrusive. Also, nobody’s throwing it in the garbage. It lives in a highly visible location that all those who pass by will see. This includes customers familiar with your business, as well as those who are not.
Let’s hit on why banners are far more effective than billboards. That advertising avenue sits in one spot, never moving. The people that see it will generally be the exact same group of commuters each day. It means a billboard rarely attracts new potential leads. And while each city is different, you can pay up to, if not more, than $2,000 per month to advertise your business on one of them.
How about social media and putting your message out there on this medium? Your promotional message can be gone from people’s feeds quickly, never to be viewed. It’s wasted time on your part if you don’t fork out plenty of cash to pay for your ad. Think about if you’re a relatively unknown company, or just about to launch your grand opening—is anyone really following your page on Facebook or Instagram? Social media ads, like mailers, also feel like spam to a large amount of those who see them.
Maybe you’re thinking about going bigger, like pitching your product on television or radio. This can be quite pricy, especially depending on the dates and time slots where your ad will run. Some more thought on this for you. There has become a myriad of streaming services out there in which commercials don’t even run. Because of these services, society is tuning into cable TV less and less.
With that, purchasing airtime for cable advertising has become somewhat obsolete. Social media, radio, and TV are not physical platforms to promote your business. It lessens their effectiveness, because if they aren’t viewed when your ad runs, you will have gained zero new customers.
Maybe now, you’re saying to yourself, “What about newspapers?” True, they are tangible. But we would answer your question with this response, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” However, the reality is periodicals are dying throughout this country every single day. Add to that, unless your product is specifically geared for an audience over 55 years old, it’s wasted money spent for an ad. Younger generations flat-out don’t read the paper.
The reason we brought up these comparisons is to illuminate how rewarding the cost per impression fabric banners can deliver for you. We have many of our customers who change out their banners monthly, or even weekly. The value and the low-price tag make this a viable option for several of our clients. We’d like to suggest to you that it’s smart to train promotion-conscious customers to look for, and seek out, your newest product or sale. This kind of entrepreneurial spirit thought process allows for you to keep your name in the forefront of their minds.
Special Events-
Custom banners are perfect for special events. They add some juice to any that call for them. After you read the following paragraph, close your eyes, and imagine the scenario.
Your child’s name has been called. They walked to the stage. Their diploma has been handed them. The entire school class threw their caps in the air, having graduated at the end of the ceremony. Is that the end of the celebration? Not a chance. Your recent grad arrives home for a party, and what do they see? An elegant graduation “card” hanging in the yard, flowing gently in a soft breeze. Is that not simply a classic slice of Americana?
Let’s say you’re planning your wedding. You are working through your budget, throwing your hands in the air in frustration. The reception hall has taken a huge chunk of your money. You’ve now downsized on the cake. You went with a local DJ instead of a live band so you can cut costs. You want something else for fun and to create lasting memories.
You can create any kind of design for it, and it can serve as the background for picture-taking that will deliver memories for years to come.
If you’re having a special event like clothing donations, bake sales, or an Easter egg hunt at your church, a custom banner is a perfect way to signal the event. It’s not only a staunch reminder to your congregation to do all they can. If seen by people driving by, you might just add more churchgoers to your parish. You might earn their faith and trust in you because you are asking for people to give clothes from the heart to those who have less. It’s a request that could resonate in a huge capacity.
Among the many uses vinyl signage is superior to other messaging methods are:
- Birthday parties
- Baby showers
- Retirement parties
- Welcome home events for military personnel
- Corporate shindigs
- Charity Events
- Trade shows and expos
Vinyl Fabric Banner Cost Advantage Over Other Banners-
We’ve mentioned how cost effective a vinyl banner is. Just how low is the expenditure compared to some other types of them? Where we discussed pricy ad methods of other mediums, we’ll use two examples of other banners as an apples-to-apples comparison. The pair of others are a flag banner (also known as a feather flag) and a pennant banner.
The starting price for a vinyl signage banner here at Riverbend Signworks is significantly cheaper than a flag banner which is much more difficult to create and to print on, so given that the labor time is higher, they can run up to around $165.00 or more.
We showed you how your message on vinyl banner material won’t cost you anywhere near as much as other promotional techniques. Now, we’ve demonstrated that different banners can take a toll on your wallet in comparison.
Customizing and Ordering a Vinyl Banner-
When you’re beginning the process of coming up with designing your banner, you know you want your message to resonate and your graphics to look sharp. You understand that drawing it on a piece of paper and bringing it to a print shop is not the ideal path. You decide it’s best to use a template to create what want. How do you find one? Call our expert designers at Riverbend Signworks. They will sit down with you personally and design something from scratch if you’re not quite sure what you want the design to be. We can keep changing it until it is exactly what you want!
Types of Custom Vinyl Banners-
We went over all the kinds of banners we sell, so let’s hit on another aspect in this section. First, banner size options. If you’ve never bought a banner to display for a business promotion or to celebrate a birthday, it might feel like a bit of a daunting task to figure what’s going to work best. You want to ensure all goes the way it should, with the most powerful impact it can have. There is no true one-size-fits-all blueprint, but here are some things to contemplate while preparing your custom banner purchase. Our banner makeups are as follows:
Weight-
- Standard vinyl banner-13oz, 15oz. and 18oz.
- Double-Sided banner-18oz
- Mesh banner
- Retractable banner-18oz
Size-
We can produce almost any size you would like! Some typical sizes are:
- 2 x 4
- 2 x 6
- 4 x 8
Your banner size will depend on what it is you’ll be using it for. There is a standard theory in our industry as a mathematical ratio for banner letter size. It provides you with an idea as to how big you’ll need your banner to be. There’s an additional formula that lets you know how long drivers will be able to read your banner, given the speed at which they’re travelling. But you’ll have to consider if you’re buying a banner for outdoor or indoor use for your business, or if you’re holding a birthday party in a small apartment.
About the retractable ones, we produce ours in a few different sizes. They are:
- 24” W x 80” H
- 31.5″ W x 80″ H
- 33.5″ W x 80″ H
- 36″ W x 80″ H
Another thing to let marinate in your mind when processing your purchase is how and where you’ll be displaying your banner. We do provide a couple important pieces for your display. If it’s going to be a standard or mesh banner, odds are you’ll want or need to hang them. If that’s the case, we provide grommets, free of charge with your order. Grommet? That’s a weird word. In the simplest of explanations, a grommet is a metal ring punched into a banner.
What it allows for is hanging a banner with items like rope, twine, or even bungee cords. Indoors, we have the option of what are known as pole pockets that come with our Step & Repeat products. A pole pocket is perfect in that it arranges these banners in a tall and straight fashion; absolutely what you want for taking pictures or creating brand awareness.
Wrapping Up:
A banner is unbelievable cost-effective, whether you are looking to promote a sale or throw a bon voyage party for a co-worker. They’re light, easy to transport, and their lifetime span is the stuff legends are made of.
Well, there you have it. Hopefully as of now, you have acquired all the knowledge you’ll need to put vinyl banners into business or fun when the opportunities present themselves. Feel free to reach out to us at (563) 424-5841 or at www.riverbendsignworks.com for any needs you have. We can help. After all, we’ve been in the signage business for 9 years.
