Whether you own your own business, the boss of your company wants you to develop some new signage or you work in marketing, it’s imperative that you understand the importance of signage – it really can be a vital component of any marketing strategy and even generate major cash flow.
Signs inform people of the name of your business, what you are selling and how your potential customers can get what you are selling. If you work for an organisation such as a retail store, signage also lets customers know the times of store operation, alerts them to any current deals you are running, and other important information that the shop’s customer base should be made aware of.
Whether you realise it now or not, signs, particularly in a retail setting, are a fantastic avenue of communication. The person designing the sign – probably you! – has a great deal of control over the message being sent and how it is going to be received by the customers you are trying to target and get their attention.
What kind of exterior signs are there?
One of the great things about retail signage is that the possibilities are endless! Businesses of all sizes can benefit from signage and exterior advertising. Some examples of options include:
- Building wraps
- Hoardings
- Window graphics
- Tension graphics
- Digital signs
- Parasols
- Marquee
- Printed floor graphics
- Crowd barrier covers
Think about the type of signage that would suit your business needs best to get yourself in the best position to create an attention-grabbing and compelling sign that will help increase your sales.
Here are 5 tips to make your exterior signs incredible!
Go big or go home?
There are a few important factors to consider when you are measuring up the size of your sign to make sure it grabs attention in the right way. It’s more than simply aesthetics! For example, if your shop sells toys and your aim is to sell a new toy to a child, you need to ensure it’s fairly large with lots of big letters and graphics showing the toy in question. You need the toy to appear larger than life on the sign.
Designing a sign that is small or even unnoticeable will not stick in the minds of the children who frequent the toy department to wonder. If you can make it seem like the latest and greatest toy being advertised, they will want it.
However, most shops sell items to adults so it may not be necessary or practical to follow these rules. Adult minds can usually figure out how to find what they are looking for much simpler, so any signage does not need to be huge. One of the main things for an adult audience is to make sure the sign is large enough to be read easily from a distance.
Graphics speak a thousand words
Signage is more than words. They can say a lot about a store and the products being sold by the type of graphics used on the signs displayed in the shop. Graphics are an incredibly important addition so signage, but they must capture meaning and not add distraction. As an example, if you’re signing to a car maintenance section of a shop, a sign with the picture of a spanner and a tyre on it might help a customer quickly determine that it is near. Random images on a sign might cause more confusion and make the customer think it’s a different section, rather than indicating to a customer where to buy motor oil.
You should also use graphics on a sign in the right context to imply useful information to a customer. An example of this is the same automotive and a hand pointing off to the left is a great sign, indicating to a customer where the car maintenance section of your shop happens to be.
Look at me now!
A sure-fire way of grabbing a customer’s attention is the word “FREE”. somewhere on the sign – close to your shop, if possible. When people see the word “FREE!”, they are automatically curious. What exactly is free? If you make the other words featured on the sign smaller, readers will be forced to give in to their curiosity and go to find out what’s on offer. Nobody wants to miss out on a great deal – especially if it involves getting something for nothing.
A similar trigger word to hook attention in print is the word “NOW!” It leads the customer to think, “what is going on now?” Signs like these have been used in shops for as long as advertising has been around to reel customers in. A little bit of mystery leads people’s curiosity to get the better of them. And sales are generated more easily if the customer’s interest has been piqued.
Keep it simple
Your marketing strategy is not built around artsy signs with hard to read letters. They may look nice or be artistic – but are they obvious? Do they appeal to who you want to appeal to? Leave complex pieces to galleries – you need to say what you mean and say it clearly so as not to avoid confusion.
Go electric
A lot can look tacky but light up signs tend to be more eye-catching. If you include bright letters and glow in the dark outlines, they are hard to ignore! You could even include some kind of graphic animation – people who spend a lot of time watching television (which is most people) will catch peoples eyes.
And finally
As with any type of advertising, a great way of testing it’s placing for your business is to gauge the reactions of your customers. Watch to see whether anyone pays attention to it when they walk past, whether they read it, how long they look at it, and if they come to your shop – inconspicuously of course! If you notice that people are not noticing the sign, you need it to be more eye-catching or if they notice it and walk off uninterested, the copy on the sign likely needs work.
