As marketers, we are often fascinated and driven to the most intelligent or innovative solutions, ignoring obvious solutions that have been proven effective for hundreds of years. Signage is one of those strategies.

The above sign is one of my favorites and was in front of my favorite pizzeria in central Indiana. It’s a great, family-owned small Business that’s incredibly proud of its menu. They continue to open up new restaurants throughout the country. Rather than hide behind one of the few (often suspicious) Yelp reviews, James and his team decided to have fun and drive some traffic. Oh… and it worked! Brozinni’s sold more spaghetti and meatballs than ever before!

Benefits of Signage

Signs work effectively as a marketing tool for several reasons.

• Visibility and Brand Recognition: Signs offer continuous visibility, 24/7. They help in building brand recognition by consistently exposing passersby to your brand. This constant visibility helps cement your business’s presence in the minds of potential customers.
• Targeted Advertising: Signage targets local customers who are near your business. This can be particularly effective because people seeing the sign are those most likely to visit your business due to convenience or proximity.
• Cost-Effectiveness: Unlike other advertising forms, signs are a cost-effective marketing strategy. Once installed, they require no additional costs and allow you to continue advertising your business without ongoing fees.
• Communicating with Customers: Signs communicate important information about your business, like your location, promotions, or business hours, helping customers engage more easily with your business.

Signage Statistics

The statistics don’t lie on the effectiveness of signs:

• Nearly 76% of consumers (8 in 10) said they had entered a store or business they had never visited before based simply on its signs.
• Nearly 75% indicated that they had told others about a business simply based on its signage.
• About 68% of consumers believe that a business’ signage reflects the quality of its products or services.
• About 67% of the consumers surveyed said they had purchased a product or service because a sign caught their eye.
• Nearly 60% of consumers said that the absence of signs deters them from entering a store or business.
• Roughly 60% of businesses reported that changing the design or enhancing the visibility of their signage had a positive impact on sales, number of transactions and profits, with an average increase of about 10%.
• Over 50% of survey respondents indicated that poor signage (e.g., poor quality, misspelled words) deters them from entering a place of business.

Sources: FedEx and

When Signage Makes Sense

Investing in Signage is particularly beneficial in the following scenarios:

• New Business or Location: If you are opening or moving to a new location, signs are essential for announcing your presence and attracting initial customers.
• Special Promotions or Events: For advertising sales, special events, or promotions, signs can effectively attract attention and inform potential customers about these limited-time offers.
• Brand Refresh or Rebranding: If you’re rebranding or refreshing your brand’s image, new signage can help communicate these changes effectively to your customers.
• Increasing Foot Traffic: If your business relies heavily on foot traffic, strategic signage can help guide potential customers to your location.

Signs aren’t just for B2C retail locations, a well-designed and placed sign at a B2B conference can drive visitors to your booth!

Types of Signs

There are countless types of signs that your business can invest in:

• Monument Signs: These are permanent structures that provide a significant presence, often used for corporate buildings or shopping centers.
• Yard Signs: Smaller and often temporary, yard signs are useful for local advertising and can be effective for real estate, political campaigns, or local businesses.
• Wall Graphics: These transform walls into brand displays and are used for both interior and exterior branding.
• A-Frames: Ideal for sidewalks or areas with high foot traffic, these signs are great for restaurants, cafes, or retail stores promoting daily specials or events.
• Digital Signage: These are modern and versatile, allowing for dynamic content updates. They’re used in retail, hospitality, and corporate environments.
• Banner and Flag Signs: Often used for temporary promotions or events, banners and flags are a flexible and portable signage option.
• Vehicle Wraps: These turn vehicles into moving billboards, providing wide exposure especially in urban areas.
• Window Graphics: These are used for storefronts to display promotions, business hours, or brand elements.

Investing in the right type of signage, based on your business needs and marketing strategy, can significantly contribute to your brand’s visibility and customer engagement.

How To Design An Effective Sign

Designing effective signage that drives conversions involves several strategic design elements and marketing principles. Studies found that the key factors that negatively affect the effectiveness of signs are:

• Letters too small (83.3%)
• The placement of the sign makes it hard to see (71.4%)
• The sign is not sufficiently lit at night (63.6%)
• The color of the letters does not stand out from the background (60.3%)
• The letters use a fancy font that’s difficult to read (47.8%)
• The letters are spaced too closely together (35.6%)
• The sign looks very similar to other signs nearby (34.4%)

Here’s a checklist for designing your sign:

1. Visibility and Readability: Prioritize readability from a distance using contrasting colors for text and background. Large, simple fonts enhance legibility.
2. Color Palette: Select a dominant color that represents your brand, complemented by a few contrasting colors to add depth without overwhelming.
3. Font Selection: Choose clear fonts that align with your brand’s personality, ensuring readability from various distances.
4. Content Balance: Balance text and graphics, considering viewing distance and audience, with contrasting colors to boost readability, especially in low light.
5. Brand Consistency: Reflect your brand consistently in your signage using unified colors, fonts, and logos; the material quality also speaks to your brand.
6. Placement for Maximum Visibility: Install signs in high-traffic, unobstructed areas at heights that align with traffic and pedestrian flows for optimal visibility.
7. Clear Messaging: Ensure signage has a simple, inviting message with essential information like business name, services, and contact details.
8. Message Hierarchy and Calls to Action: Structure sign content with a headline, explanatory text, and a clear call to action (CTA), following typical reading patterns for effectiveness.
9. Conversion Tracking: Use trackable elements like phone numbers, SMS campaigns, or QR codes to measure the sign’s impact on customer engagement.

The best test for a sign is printing it out, placing it, and then observing it from where the traffic is coming from. Can you easily read the message, understand the CTA, and act on it? It’ll likely work then!

Virtual Tour Signs with an SMS Call To Action

Here’s a mockup of one of the yard signs AgentSauce agents use. When a prospective buyer texts the number, the agent is also texted and alerted that there is a potential buyer outside the location. It’s a great way to immediately connect with the visitor… agents can drive over if they have time or give them a call to answer any questions after the virtual tour is called.

Each of these points combines essential design principles and marketing strategies to create signage that captures attention, communicates your brand message, and encourages customer action with some kind of offer of value.

Need to purchase a sign? Signs on the Cheap has next-day delivery, a great variety of signs, and bulk pricing that you can’t beat. They offer yard signs, contractor signs, political signs, sign riders, parking signs, street signs, sign holders, and more.

Shop Signs on the Cheap for Your Next Sign!

©2024 DK New Media, LLC, All rights reserved.

Originally Published on Martech Zone: Signage: How To Design Effective Signs That Drive More Traffic To Your Business