How to Create the Perfect Poster for Your Business

Posters are a highly effective marketing method that can help your business reach new customers and improve brand awareness. Since they don’t require an envelope, your message is front and centre. It’s a fantastic opportunity to communicate with your customers—if you do it right.

Highly effective posters have a few key things in common. We will cover all of them in this article. Keep reading to learn how to create the perfect business poster.

Define Your Audience and Objective

The first step in creating any perfect direct mail piece is to define a few parameters: your target audience, objective, and metrics for success.

You need to be crystal clear on each of these things. Without a thorough understanding of who you’re trying to reach, you cannot craft a finely tuned message that’s most likely to resonate with recipients. 

It’s crucial that everything about your poster (from the aesthetics to the tone of voice) is designed with your ideal customer in mind. Therefore, you must know who your ideal customer is! What do they like? What are their values? What kind of messaging persuades them?

Successful direct mail campaigns are highly targeted. All this means is that your poster ends up in the hands of your target audience. However, if you don’t know who your target audience is, you can’t run a highly targeted mail campaign.

When defining your target audience, consider demographics, interests, and preferences.

In addition, determine the objective of your poster. What is the main goal? Do you hope to drive sales, increase brand awareness, or let recipients know about an upcoming event or product launch? Without a well-defined objective, it’s almost impossible to gauge whether your poster succeeded.

Speaking of success, get specific when defining what success means for your poster campaign. How many new customers do you want to attract? How many sales? And what tools will you use to acquire these numbers? Will you use a QR code or a coupon the customer brings to your location?

Refer to Your Brand Design Standards

Before you start designing the perfect poster, refresh yourself on your brand design standards. You’ll want to continue to reference these throughout the design process. After all, it’s very important that the poster design aligns with your overall branding.

Your brand’s personality is condensed into specific fonts, colours, and logos. These aesthetic choices should encapsulate certain key elements of your brand. For example, is your brand light-hearted and casual? Or is it matter-of-fact and serious?

Moreover, these branding decisions should be consistent throughout all your company’s marketing materials—including posters! It’s crucial for building brand recognition.

So, even if you’re tempted to try something new for your next poster campaign, the design shouldn’t stray from your brand style. 

Craft a Compelling Headline

The headline is the first thing that your audience sees. Consequently, it needs to make an impact. It should be attention-grabbing, easy to read, and convey the essence of your message concisely. 

Remember, the main goal of the headline is to make the recipient want to keep reading. So, what strategies can you implement to make that happen? It’s a good idea to use a compelling, active-voice statement of no more than seven words. 

You should also highlight the main benefit of whatever it is that you’re advertising, for example, an upcoming sale with impressive savings. Don’t be afraid to get creative with the copy!

Additionally, clarity is paramount to producing effective headlines. It must be easy to understand at a glance.

Opt for High-Quality, High-Impact Visuals

Audiences notice the headline and imagery first. Therefore, both need to be carefully considered. At the very least, the imagery needs to be high-quality. Low-quality images make your business appear unprofessional, untrustworthy, and sloppy. These are not traits that you want to be associated with your brand!

Consequently, make certain that you exclusively use high-resolution images to ensure clarity and sharpness at any size.

The images should also be relevant to your message so as not to confuse the reader. Relevant images support your message, further communicating the intention of your poster.

Professional, vivid, and sharp imagery will have a bigger impact on audiences. They’re more eye-catching and reinforce the idea that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.

Lay Out Information Strategically

How information is organized on your poster is immensely important. The various elements—including the headline, main body copy, images, and CTA (call-to-action)—should be arranged logically to ensure easy readability. 

Your audiences have seen a lot of posters, flyers, and ads, so they expect specific information to be presented in a specific way. For example, headlines are the largest element, and call-to-actions are usually near the bottom.

Consider hierarchy. The most important elements are the biggest and, often, near the top of the poster. Arranging elements in order of importance can help the most critical information stand out.

Negative space is a crucial design principle. As you formulate the layout for your poster, take care not to overcrowd it. Crowded posters are an eye sore and difficult to read. There should be ample negative space around the elements to create a clean and organized appearance.

Remember to Keep It Simple

Highly effective posters keep it simple, both in their copy and in their design. Posters with too many design elements look chaotic. It’s overwhelming for readers and can even make your business appear unprofessional. Design the folds so your important headlines and imagery are facing out.

The design should be clean, simple, and easy to process. When you limit your design to a few key elements, each one has a greater impact. Generally, don’t use more than two or three typefaces at two or three different sizes. Adding some colour and contrast will make your poster more eye-catching; however, too much contrast will physically hurt your readers’ eyes.

Include a Clear Call-to-Action

Your call-to-action (CTA) is an essential part of your poster design. Many advertising experts would even say that it’s the most important part of your poster and fundamental to the success of your direct mail campaign.

The whole point of your poster is to get people to do something, hence your call-to-action. The CTA tells readers what they’re supposed to do next. This could be visiting your store, attending your event, subscribing to your newsletter, or purchasing a product.

If you don’t tell recipients what steps to take, they’re far less likely to do so. The CTA should be one of your poster’s main focal points. Don’t hide it in a corner, or choose a tiny font that’s difficult to see.

Contact Troi Mailing Services for Printing Services in Toronto

Troi Mailing Services offers commercial print services for businesses in Toronto. With over three decades of commercial printing experience, we help ensure your promotional initiatives meet their goals. 

Furthermore, as a one-stop shop for direct mail fulfillment, you will benefit from our expertise every step of the way. From design to analysis, our direct mail experts are ready to assist you.

To learn more about our printing services in Toronto, call Troi Mailing Services at 1-866-486-0423 or contact us online.