The ABC's of Signage

Attract new customers. Research shows that 80% of your customers either live or work within a 5 mile radius of your company, but according to the U.S. Census Bureau 18.6% move annually. This means that every year you are loosing customers that you must replace with new ones. If you are only interested in sustaining your business then just keep your customer base, but if you want to grow then you have to grow your customer base. The easiest and most economical way to do that is with signage.

Brand the Business. When your business becomes the first place people think about to go get a product, you have reached “top-of-mind awareness” which is built and reinforced through repitition. As I mentioned before 80% of your customers live with 5 miles of your business. Going from and to work, school, shopping, ect and average person passes by you 50-60 times per month. That is a lot of views per person, your sign should command their attention making it easy for them to see and find. Customers make a judgement about your business before they even walk in, thier first judgement comes from your signage. Make sure you have something that is attractive to your customers and also relays the message of what your business produces.

Create Impulse Sales. Everyone has walked into a store before and purchased something that they did not intend to get, know as impulse buying, this happens because of the signage for a product. Money is not the problem for many shoppers, its the time. People do not want to waste time comparing prices or doing research on what they need, most customers go to the first place they know has their item and makes a purchase. The only way for that customer to know that a company has what they need is by the signage that company uses to advertise their product. Best Buy discovered that 17% of their customers were people who did not intend to stop there but did so because they saw the sign.

Another example of a sign creating more business is a auto detail company in California. Belmount Auto Spa, was a profitable business but expected more. They had an old beat up sign that was hard to read from a distance. The lack of color made the lettering contrast with the background and the sign did not make it clear that the Belmount Auto Spa was a car wash. Without recognizing what is was many drivers never stopped. The owner decided to invest $15,000 into a pole-sign that was well designed. The first-read pictoral graphic immediatly identified Belmount Auto Spa as a car wash. The colors were vibrant and lively and there was a reader board to highlight specials such as details. Within the first year the new sign created a 15% increase in overall business which made an additional $135,000 to the businesses income, nearly 9 times the cost of the sign.