Many people think posters are a marketing tool of the yesteryears. However, people are still reading magazines and newspapers, and still getting out in the streets. When we are not looking at our phones, we are looking at what’s around us.
In fact, we are more attentive when we are not seeing advertisements on our phones or computer screens.
An individual typically spends 20 minutes looking at a print advertisement, compared to less than five minutes for digital advertisements.
A personalized poster can become the most important marketing tool in your marketing campaign. More so because many businesses do not pay enough heed to it. Posters are stand-alone images, texts, or infographics with a direct message.
Digital advertisement is not unimportant, but not all-important either. In fact, print advertisements combined with digital advertisements give you the best result.
How can a personalized poster be the key factor in your marketing campaign?
Personalized posters are both effective and useful in the long run. In the print media sector, posters are the most common marketing tool. With the right poster, your business can also catch the attention of more people.
The rise of social media marketing has undermined the importance of printed posters. A good marketer realizes the value of both. There are pros and cons of both, and striking the right balance negates each other’s demerits.
Posters are multipurpose in the truest sense of the word. Once you design an effective poster, you can use it for your print media ads — newspaper, magazines, billboards, flyers and pamphlets, and even use them in your social media handles.
Now that you are (hopefully) convinced about the efficacy of print advertisements, let’s find out how a personalized poster can become the key factor in your marketing campaign.
Send a tangible message with posters
Posters stay with us for a long time. We can see this in our day-to-day lives. We often read one magazine for weeks, sometimes even months. Every time we open the magazine, we will come across all the ad posters in it.
Now imagine the same scenario with a social media post, say an Instagram ad. The average person sees 4000 to 10,000 ads every single day. Naturally, the human mind cannot process that much information. We forget most of what we see. Once we see a fleeting ad in a random Instagram story, we’ll forget about it unless there’s some personal connection with the ad.
Comparison between these two situations reveals the efficacy of print advertisements. Printed posters stay with us for a long time and have a more lasting impression on our minds. We spend more time looking at them and remember more of what we see. Being tangible items, posters have an edge over other forms of advertisement in some aspects.
Reach your target audience
The ability to reach the target audience with posters is not well utilized by many marketers. Posters are easy to distribute and circulate, and often come at a lower cost than other forms of advertising. Once you identify the demographics of your target audience, all you have to do is identify their locale and distribute your posters around that place.
Let’s understand this with an example.
If you have started a new ice-cream business, a significant percentage of your target population would comprise youngsters. Now you have to find out the most popular spots among youngsters in your region. It can be a park, schools, entertainment spots, or something else. Once you circulate your posters in and around these places, your chances of converting leads into customers go up.
Posters are very effective in reaching your target customer base. If you are not making the most of the medium, you are missing out on a lot.
The success of a poster lies in its design
Creating a poster is art. No amount of marketing expertise can guarantee the success of a poster campaign. However, a genius piece of art guarantees that people will notice your poster, and hopefully have a positive reaction to it.
Take for example the genius concept of Kit Kat. Not only is it funny and relatable, but it also leaves an impression on the mind. You take a moment simply to appreciate the artistic genius behind it. In many ways, posters are akin to poetry or music.
Inspiration can strike anyone at any time. You might suddenly stumble across the poster idea you were looking for. Materializing those ideas need not be difficult.
You can simply design and order personalized posters online from a reputable online store. From quantity to poster size and design, set everything with just a few clicks, and your printed posters will arrive at your location in no time.
When designing a poster, make sure it is of the desired print size. Some designs would be ideal for flyers and leaflets, but not so much for billboards. Once you create an effective poster and circulate it correctly, your poster campaign will take care of itself. The secret behind the success of a poster campaign lies in design.
Invest more to get more
Not everyone has an eye for detail. Not everyone can design a catchy poster. If you do not possess the necessary graphic designing and poster-making skills, you might be better off outsourcing the work.
There are talented artists out there who would gladly do the work for you. Sure, you have to bear the additional cost.
Would you rather spend less money on a sloppy poster campaign and watch it fail? Or would you invest in hiring professionals who can put their expertise and generate substantial leads from your poster campaign? No matter what sector you are in, the second option makes more sense in almost every scenario.
Cheap input means cheap output. Your brand image will suffer tremendously if you do not invest correctly in your poster ad campaigns. Do not look for shortcuts or cheap alternatives. Poster campaigns are by default more cost-effective than other ad campaigns. Do not compromise on quality to save a few bucks here and there. You’d eventually lose much more than you save.
The same rules apply to the physical quality of your posters. Getting your posters printed on cheap paper will do more harm than good. Always invest in quality poster paper that can survive different conditions. If you do not have much idea, do a quick research on how to choose the right paper for your poster.
Posters can help establish a brand image
Your brand image determines the success of your business. With a negative brand image, it’ll be very hard to convert leads into sales irrespective of how much you spend on marketing campaigns.
On the other hand, you can invest in the right way to improve your brand image. With posters, it is easier to do so compared to other mediums.
For example, anyone can post a negative comment on your Instagram and Facebook posts. As we have seen across social media platforms over the years, there can be targeted campaigns to malign brand images. Social media marketing does have its own set of merits, but creating a brand image through posters is more straightforward.
A good poster alone can do a lot for your brand image. The quality of your poster design, the innovation and creativity behind it, its strategic placement-all these factors will greatly influence your brand image. With personalized posters, you have a much better chance to be noticeable and remembered.
Pay attention to your poster campaign to make sure it helps establish a solid brand image. It would be very unfortunate if you end up with a negative brand image for careless mistakes in your posters.
Stand out from the crowd
There is no doubt that we are living in the era of social media. As more and more people start using social media, every second of advertisement costs more.
Social media advertisements are hyper-competitive by design. Every single ad is fighting for a mere two seconds of attention. In this context, going old-school with posters is a marketing strategy in itself.
Posters have a certain charm that works very well in certain sectors. Some brands have carved a place chiefly through their poster campaigns. Amul is a prime example of one such brand. Over the years, Amul has become much more than a dairy co-operative. It’s a brand that stood out from the crowd with its unique poster advertisement campaigns. The picture above is a brilliant example of its ad campaign to promote unity among the masses.
When you start conceptualizing your poster campaign, make sure it is relevant to the target audience. Once you capture their attention and have something great to offer through advertisement, you would stand out from the crowd and carve a niche for your business.
Conclusion
Personalized poster campaigns may not be easy to execute, but they deliver great results over time. Undermining its value is one of the biggest mistakes for you and your business.
Posters have a life of their own. Some posters stay with us forever, some are forgotten. Some make us happy, some pierce our conscience. Posters help us relate to a brand.
If your poster can invoke emotions in the minds of the spectators, consider your campaign successful.
