Posted On July 17, 2022.

Signage is an important part of your business. Your business’ signage could be anything from wall signs, window signage, sidewalk signs, floor signs, and more. While each of these may serve a different purpose, if done right, good signage provides your customers and potential customers with subtle, but important, communication cues, increases brand awareness, and in the end, it can help you convert a sale.

Whether you’re using signs for functional purpose or branding, it’s important to remember that a customer’s takeaway isn’t just your logo, it’s the whole experience from introduction to close of sale, and everything in between. Presenting your customers with clear, concise, and branded signage is one important part of your business puzzle. To help ensure that your signs are working for you and to bring light to some new ideas, here are our top 5 reasons why signage is important to your business.

Provides Clear Communication

When customers are bombarded with too much information—think signs that contain excessive text and/or graphics—they can experience what’s called cognitive overload. When this happens, your customers’ working memory can’t process the “overload” of information they’re receiving. Since customers do have a limited amount of working memory, when they’re faced with too much information all at once, it can not only give them a negative perception of your brand, but it can also adversely affect their decision-making abilities, which is the last thing you want as a business owner. Providing clear communication through signage is a great way to eliminate that barrier between cognitive overload and increase the chance for purchases by the end-user.

Two common types of communication through signage are directional signage and safety standards signage.

• The goal of directional signage is to guide your customers somewhere, and some common examples might be restrooms, parking, customer service, cashier, information, main office, specific offices in the case of multiple tenant buildings, and so on.

• Safety standard signage is designed to warn of hazards, identify locations of safety equipment (fire extinguishers, first aid, AED), warn of danger and areas where caution needs to be exercised, identify exit routes and/or doors, and in the past few months, provide COVID-related safety measures relating to social distancing guidelines, COVID-related symptoms, and tips on how to “stop the spread.”

Conveys Brand Character + Identity

Consider this: if your business uses a whimsical font like papyrus, and you’re a doctor’s office, from the outside in, your office looks more like a card shop and less like a doctor’s office. The choices you make in branding are important, and keeping consistency throughout your space is even more important.

A 2012 FedEx survey found that 76% of consumers will enter a shop they’ve never visited before based on the strength of the signage, but more importantly, 52% said they would be reluctant to shop if the signs were not well done (cognitive overload can come into play here). What does this say to businesses? Signage is important, but making sure it fits your brand vision is potentially more important. Additionally, your interior signs expand the branded experience, giving you more opportunity to not only convert a sale, but to also present yourself as a leader in your space.

So, how can you ensure that your signage reflects your brand’s character and identity? Working with a designer and following your band guidelines is imperative. Pay special attention to your logo creation (generic is a brand-killer), font size (larger is usually better), colors used (think of the colors used for brands like Coke, apple, Home Depot, etc.), and the contrast between colors used on your signage—more contrast is usually better.

Increases Brand Awareness

As with brand character and identity, you want your signage to quickly and simply tell potential customers what your brand is all about, so your signage needs to give a great first impression to anyone and everyone who sees it. Additionally, having your interior signage, whether it’s for branding or safety, properly branded will further increase the number of times a person sees your logo, keeping your brand at top-of-mine.

Keeping in mind the two tips above, brainstorm the best ways to portray your brand through your signage—including graphics, fonts, and colors—allowing you to stand out from competitors in various places throughout the customer journey. This will allow you to push your customers closer to a sale without being pushy. Remember, with good signage, the tiniest tweaks can make all the difference.

Reach the Right Audience

To be effective, your signage must reach the customers you’re going after in look, in feel, and in messaging. While businesses seek to break through the noise, once a customer is in your place of business, the only “noise” to break through is your own. You have the right customer, at the right time, but do you have the right message? Clear signage can make all the difference (see our tip on clear communication above if you need a refresher).

While many forms of marketing impose upon the customer, consider the on-air commercial that breaks your favorite TV show, signage helps the customer. When done right, it provides the customer with what they need and allows them, with your help, to be in control of their experience. It’s for this reason, that signs can and likely will turn potential customers into customers. It’s not pushy, and you’re reaching the right audience nearly every time, which can’t be said for other forms of marketing.

Cost-Effective Strategy

Signage can be extremely cost-effective when compared to pay-per-impression (PPI) style advertising where you pay for each advertisement that is placed via email, on social media, and through other media outlets like television, radio, print, and so on. Signage, on the other hand, is a one-time, up-front cost that can last almost indefinitely, making it a wise and lucrative investment of your hard-earned business dollars. Partner with all of the above reasons, and you’re got a sure fire strategy that will lead you to better customer experiences and lower cost of acquisition.

Original Post: Top 5 Reasons Why Signage Is Important To Your Business

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