Every business has a sign over the top of the door that announces who they are to the world. The most basic reason for that sign is to allow a customer to locate them and know who they are. While that is all that may be needed for super-sized box store chains like Walmart or Target, most businesses do not enjoy that level of brand awareness that allows for a name to tell the whole story. For the rest of the retail and service industry world, the sign is needed to promote themselves, their products, and provide information to encourage the customers to come in.
Sign Basics
The most critical element of the sign is obviously the name of the business and if not apparent by the name, the type of business or service. As an example, if the business name is a family name like Callahan’s, then there is no indication of what the business is so the addition of a description is essential – Examples might be Callahan’s Plumbing or Callahan’s Fine Jewelry. This allows for both the customer looking specifically for your business to know they located it and to get some awareness and advertising value for other passerby’s to learn that you are there and what you offer.
If the Sign is locate anywhere besides above the entrance to your business then adding on the actual physical location address and an alternative method to contact you is essential. This is for standard off premise advertising signs or for magnetic car panel or window signs. While these few elements will meet the most basic essentials, they are not going to get the maximum benefit possible.
Driving Business and Sales
Making more customers walk through the door is really the point of investing money in custom signs. To accomplish this, basic rules of sales and advertising must be applied. Pictures and graphics make a bigger impact and last longer in the memory than just words so a simple and clear graphic that reinforces the words is always a good idea. The sign that says Callahan’s Plumbing will be greatly enhanced by a graphic of pipe fixtures and a pipe wrench.
This is where custom sign providers like Signarama become a must. These type of providers can make graphics that showcase your exact featured products or services. Using the same example, if Callahan’s focus is on residential plumbing then kitchens or bathrooms in the graphic make sense while industrial might feature a boilers or factory type graphic. This simple graphic will impart more information than a small paragraph of words crowded into a small typeset.
After the visual esthetics and use of graphics to simply inform comes the most important part of any advertising or sales media – a call to action. This often skipped element is the whole reason to use signs. The simplest call today or come in, we’re open is a minimum. It is the psychological plant in a prospective customers mind to do something with the information. When a call to action is combined with an incentive that gives a reason to heed that call right now – Call Today for the Spring Discount – you will have a sign that will actually drive business and yield sales.