How to Attract New Customers with Outdoor Signs

2/28/2018

It seems like every business has exterior signage of some type or another. But, not everyone uses them to their best advantage! If you’re interested in how to attract new customers with outdoor signs, check out these four tips:

1. Increase your visibility. This advice may seem like a no-brainer, but a short drive around town will probably reveal a great number of retailers who get it wrong! When installing or updating your outdoor signs, be sure to look at your location from the same angle a potential customer would. A business within a strip mall might need a small commercial sign with channel letters, while one that’s alongside a major interstate highway would need to go big with a towering pylon sign. Of course, sometimes increasing the visibility of your building sign or storefront sign is as simple as pruning back overgrown trees or shrubs.

2. Light it up. Effective outside signage is almost always made better with illumination. Lighting your storefront sign, restaurant sign or other commercial signage helps consumers see it not only at night, but also during daybreak, at twilight and on overcast days. Then there’s the psychological aspect of lighted signs. If the light is on, consumers are assured your business is indeed open for business! Do you have exterior signage that could benefit from illumination? Consult with your signage provider. Many can retrofit your current outdoor signage to make it light up.

3. Improve its readability. Knowing sight distance — or the length at which drivers or others will regularly view your outdoor signage —  is important. Why? It will determine the height of the lettering in your commercial sign. As a rule of thumb, one inch of letter height is equal to 10 feet of good visibility. Take care to get this right. The Signage Foundation reports that over 80% of people become frustrated when a business sign is too small to read.

4. Design it well. This is another tip that might seem like a given, but many businesses miss the mark! Make sure your monument signs or other commercial signs are distinctive enough to stand out among others. After all, you have but a few seconds to capture customer attention with your exterior signs. Use simple, easy-to-read typefaces and make sure their color contrasts with that of the sign’s background hue. While your brand guidelines might dictate the colors you select, competitive signage may also play a role. If a neighboring company’s sign is green, you’ll do well to choose another, more distinctive color!

   To bring in new business with outdoor signs, contact Image360 Pittsburgh West.

   Your local resource for graphics that enhance, signage that works and displays that inform, we help retailers, restaurants and others benefit from a full array of outdoor signs. Our selection includes affordable Monument Signs as well as Storefront and Building Channel Letters. Rely on us for measurement, custom designs and installations. To get started, contact us today.