A Facelift = Higher Foot Traffic
It doesn’t matter what your business is, or how amazing your online advertising campaigns and social media presence are, you can never neglect foot traffic if you want a decent profit. People physically walking past your business are its lifeblood. If someone 1,000 miles away loves your Instagram and plans to visit you during their holiday next August then that’s great, but it’s the people walking past every day you need to draw in.
Your signage is like an IM, but solid!
OK, this might mean it gets blown over in the wind occasionally, but it’s a physical message that announces your physical presence to, well, physical people. You know, the ones walking past, with needs. And wallets. One of the best things about signage is that other people can’t delete it in the same way as they can delete an online message. So, even if they don’t grab your $5.00 coffee and cake deal the first, second or even tenth time they pass, they might do on the eleventh. They might even bring a chum. If your shiny new sign catches the eye, you’ll be remembered and your wares could be recommended to people looking for what you do.
Off the beaten track? Don’t worry, be sign-y
If your shop, café or gallery isn’t on the main drag of your town then don’t worry, signs are still your best friends. In fact, you need more of them than you do if you’re along a main street so that you can direct people to you. Make sure that each sign follows the same colour scheme, logo and wording as humans respond to colours and shapes first, then letters. Speaking of letters, you can also use numbers to count down the metres remaining until they land at your doors they know they’re on the right track.
About that design…
As humans are such visual animals, they often go by the “look and feel” of a sign before they read it. If your street signage differs from your website font or your brochures then it might confuse (and therefore lose) customers. Take a look at your other marketing materials before you design your signs and if you decide to revamp one component, you need to do the other too.
Keep it simple
It’s vital that you use as few words as possible to get your message across. Wordy signs will be ignored, especially if someone’s passing by in a car or hurrying to work on foot. Pare down your message to the bare bones – what you do and how much it costs will suffice.