By Halle Summers
When you have a brick-and-mortar business, a strong marketing strategy is crucial. Smaller businesses need to find ways to compete against retail giants, and they need to take steps to ensure that local people actually know that they exist. With consumers buying more and more of the things they want and need online, it can be difficult for local businesses to make themselves known and attract customers.
If you own a brick-and-mortar business, you need to have great signage. Signs can be used to draw people into your business, encourage them to make purchases, and generate awareness of your brand. When used incorrectly, though, they can do more harm than good. Signs should be a central part of your marketing strategy, but you need to know how to use them properly to ensure their effectiveness.
Signage may seem simple, but it can make or break your brick-and-mortar business. Here are a few reasons why your signage can have such a big impact on your business.
1. Signs are like a silent salesperson.
When you have signs inside and outside of your business, they act as a silent salesperson. Your exterior signs draw attention to your business and help build awareness of your brand. The right exterior signs also set your establishment apart from the other ones nearby. The signs inside your place of business help customers find different sections, locate merchandise, and determine how much they cost. If you use signs for advertising sales and promotions, they can also encourage customers to make impulse purchases.
Your signage serves as a link between your business and your current and prospective customers. If you have great signs, they will go a long way toward helping you gain customers and make sales. If your signage isn’t so great, though, it could push people away.
2. Quality and condition matter.
If you want your signage to have a positive impact on your business, it needs to be of high quality and kept in good condition. Writing out the name of your business on a piece of poster board just won’t do! You need professionally made signs that create a positive impression of your company.
Keep in mind, though, that signs don’t need to be expensive to be effective. Whether your budget only has room for a simple sign with vinyl lettering or you can afford to put the name of your business up in lights, you need to make sure that the sign your purchase is well-made, properly hung, and regularly maintained. Missing letters and burnt out bulbs need to be replaced, signs should be kept clean, etc.
When it comes to ensuring that your signs remain in good condition, hanging them properly is a big help. Using appropriate fasteners keeps both indoor and outdoor signs from falling and ensures that they stay where they belong. Depending on the type and size of sign(s) you are displaying, adhesives may be useful, too.
If you use crudely made signs or fail to keep your signs in good condition, it could create the impression that you are sloppy and lack professionalism. That’s definitely not the message you want a sign to send! Stick with high-quality signage and make sure it’s properly maintained to ensure that it makes the right sort of impression on your current and prospective customers.
3. Design is important, too.
Whether you realize it or not, humans are naturally attracted to good design. Even if they don’t know a single thing about the elements of design, they are drawn to signage and displays that feature these elements. Humans love great visuals, even science agrees. This is, of course, incredibly important when it comes to things like online product listings. According to 67% of internet shoppers, clear images are more important than product information and even customer ratings.
That doesn’t mean, though, that you can slack off on visuals when you run a brick-and-mortar business. In your business, your signage serves as your visuals, so it’s extremely important to design signs that will catch your customers’ eyes for all of the right reasons. Good design is both an art and a science. For most people, it isn’t something that can be mastered overnight. From the colors and fonts you choose to the layout of the sign and how negative space is used, every single detail must be taken into consideration in order to create a successful design.
If you do not have design knowledge or experience, consider having your signage professionally designed. A graphic designer will help you come up with signs that showcase your business in the right way. They can also help you craft compelling signs that will engage customers and encourage them to make purchases when you are running a special. Designing signs that grab peoples’ attention for the right reasons is no easy job. If hiring a professional designer isn’t in your budget, then, at the very least, you need to check out some tips for signage design to help ensure that your signs look great.
Wrapping Up
When you own a brick-and-mortar business, good signage is vital. Whether you run a restaurant, a retail store, a salon, or just about any other type of business, your signage needs to be carefully designed to ensure that it conveys the right message, draws people into your location, and encourages them to make a purchase. You also need to be careful when hanging, displaying, and maintaining your signage. Even a well-designed sign will send the wrong message if it’s hung incorrectly or if you fail to take care of it.
They may not seem like it, but signs are powerful tools that can make or break your business. Keep the things above in mind when you are working on signage for your company to ensure that it helps you rather than hurts you.
