Optimizing Your Message

Saying it on a banner typically means saying it with less. You will only have a set amount of space for your message and it can be difficult to hone your message effectively. If you are using a large street banner, this process is not as complicated as it is for a street pole banner.

No matter what size banner you select, the message that you are trying to get across should always be optimized. This will assist you in creating a message that is to the point and easy to understand.

Here are some tips to help you begin to optimize your marketing message.

1. Remember who will be reading it. If people are zipping by in their cars, naturally they will not have time to stop and read your message. When designing a banner that will be viewed from the road it is important to remember that the viewer will only have a few seconds to read and digest your message.

If you are using street pole banners, you will have a little more time to make an impact on the viewer, but it will need to be sensational enough to get them to stop to read your message. This means that it is of the utmost importance to optimize what you plan to say with your banner.

2. Edit, and then edit some more. Start with your main message that you want to get across. If this message will fit on the banner, you've already won half the battle, but you can still benefit from editing. If not, it's time to get started with your editing pen.

Take the first draft of your message and see if there are any extra words that can be removed. This will help you tighten down what you are trying to say. Many people use extra words that have no meaning to the overall impact of a sentence.

Once you have gone through this first process, walk away for an hour or so and come back to your text. Edit it once more, cutting out even more words if possible. Many times, you should be able to cut your message down to half of the original message by using this method.

3. Replace phrases with graphics. After you have edited your message, you should find that you have more space on your banner. This will allow you to use this extra space to add eye-catching graphics that will illustrate your point. For example, if your sign is promoting a sale on sweaters, you can replace the word "sweater" with a graphic of a sweater.

You can also do this with many other words that have a picture that are commonly associated with them. This will assist you in attracting people who are more visual in nature and tend to process graphical signs more quickly.