Importance of signs in your business!

A lot of people I know - it drives them crazy when they're watching, to see the people with their signs and waving, but there's something that's very inclusive about it.

~Katie Couric


When you think of advertising, you must remember that signage matters. It is part of the advertising of your business, and it makes a big difference. Signage is another arrow in your quiver that will draw customers into your business.
We were helping a fitness facility/spa increase business on its spa side. The business offered all kinds of physical fitness and beauty treatments such as facials, nails, hair and massage. More than 200 people came in each day for physical training, but the spa was barely breaking even.

Despite the fact that customers had to walk right by the spa in order to get to the fitness facility, not a single one seemed to notice. The signs for the spa services were originally hung parallel with the walkway, and we encouraged the entrepreneur to hang them perpendicular to the walkway instead. This way, potential customers would not have to turn their heads to see the offerings. Now, within a month of adjusting the signage, the spa is making a nice profit, and the owner is pleased with both the increased profits and the improved morale among spa employees.

In this case, just changing the angle of the signs should improve profits by more than $100,000 each year. Physically, this was an easy fix, but it was a difficult change to make because the owners just did not see the problem. They never looked at how the signage appeared to their customers.
An artist was lamenting to me that while his art sales were doing great, his art classes were not. His studio was located in the middle of a round-about in a major city, so there was no shortage of traffic. A tremendous number of cars passed his studio every day, but as you might have guessed, he had absolutely no signage advertising his art classes on his building. Once he put signs out, enrollment in his classes shot straight up.
Now obviously, if your business is not in a location that is visible to your customers, investing in signage makes no sense. However, if you have invested in a great location, you must take advantage of this opportunity to promote your business, subject to the legal limits of the governmental jurisdiction.
Even if you do not have a location that is conducive to outside advertising, signage must be used on the inside to effectively promote your products or services. Just having product on display is not good enough. You need signs to explain in greater detail what the products do or where they are located.
Signage is one of the cheapest forms of advertising, yet it is one of the most effective. The best way to test the effectiveness of your signage is to ask people – not friends or relatives – for feedback on what they think in terms of your signage. Just listen to what they say. Their comments can be so valuable.

Now go out and ensure that you have the best signage that you can both inside and outside your business.

You can do this.