6 Retractable Banner Fails: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Retractable banners are a popular signage choice for businesses because they're versatile, portable, and easy to use. Despite their advantages, mistakes can still happen during the design process. And while they're often affordable, having to reprint erroneous retractable banners can end up costing you more. Here are six common banner mistakes and tips on how you can avoid them to ensure that your banners turn out perfectly:

1. Cramming Everything Into the Banner Design
   
   

   Due to its upright position when installed, retractable banners are narrower than other banners. This means that you need to create a design that immediately captures your audience’s attention with its limited horizontal space. However, most businesses tend to overcrowd their design — including every bit of information about their products, services, or other minor details on a single banner — which results in an overwhelming and cluttered design.

   How to Fix It: Emphasize the most important message and your call to action. Keep the design clean and uncluttered by using white space and making the text readable. If you need to convey extensive information, say a list of services, you can print each service in separate retractable banners. This way, your readers won’t be overwhelmed and can focus on reading your signage.



2. Wrong Placement of Important Information
   
   

   Putting important information at the bottom of your banner or in areas that cannot be easily spotted can confuse readers and make your banner ineffective and forgettable. Remember, it only takes a few seconds to grab your audience's attention, and nobody wants to waste their time trying to find information they need such as prices or your contact details.

   How to Fix It: Place key information such as your company name, logo, and contact details at eye level to ensure maximum visibility. Avoid placing important information too close to the edges or bottom of the banner, where it may be obscured by surrounding objects or overlooked by viewers.

3. Using Landscape-Format Images or Low-Quality Photos
   
   

   Use of landscape-style images or low-resolution photos may also result in a distorted appearance, whether it’s stretched, blurry, pixelated, or blocky, which can negatively affect your brand’s image.

   How to Fix It: Retractable banners are designed for vertical images, so make sure your photos are cropped accordingly and are of high resolution. Use images and photos that complement your message and enhance your banner’s visual appeal. Make sure that they are at least 300 dpi and saved as CMYK color mode so that they’re printed crisp, clear, and properly sized for optimal display.

4. Skipping Proofreading
   
   

   Typo errors, misspellings, and grammatical mistakes can hurt your brand’s credibility. While some tend to overlook these errors thinking that they are minor, lapses in your copy can convey the wrong message and make your brand look unprofessional.

   How to Fix It: Pay close attention to details — proofread all texts and double-check for any spelling or grammatical errors before sending your design for printing. Consider seeking help from a professional or a friend to review your banner; a fresh pair of eyes can help you ensure your design is error-free.

5. Forgetting to Include Your Contact Information
   
   

   Your retractable banner will be less effective if you leave out essential contact information such as your phone number, email address, or website. When people don’t know where to find you, it makes it difficult for them to engage in your business and might lose you potential customers.

   How to Fix It: After laying out your headline, images, call to action, and product information, add your contact information such as your company's phone number, email address, website, and social media accounts. Place your contact details where they can be easily seen or scanned without obstructing your main message.

6. Inconsistent Brand Elements
   
   

   Using different fonts, color schemes, or imagery that don’t align with your brand can confuse readers and make your message less impactful. Your audience might find identifying and remembering your brand difficult, which can harm your overall branding efforts.

   How to Fix It: Align your retractable banner design with your brand’s existing look by sticking to colors, fonts, and imagery that match your brand identity. Be consistent with your logo placement and theme throughout the design and avoid mixing conflicting design styles as doing so can dilute your brand's impact and confuse readers.

Conclusion

Retractable banners are great for conveying impactful messages, but common mistakes can make them less effective. By learning from these errors and mitigating them, you can maximize your banners’ impact as well as your marketing efforts. Need more design tips and ideas about custom banners? Our experts at Signs.com are here to help.

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