Increase Foot Traffic with Well-Designed Signs

Although they’ve been used for generations, signs are still excellent drivers of foot traffic to brick and mortar businesses. Signs should be a vital part of your offline marketing strategy to drive new customers and sales to your business.

Signs and Human Psychology

Humans learn about the world around them through all of our five senses, but our visual sense is the strongest of all of them and is how we learn about the world around us the most. According to the National Education Association, “Western civilization has become more dependent than ever on visual culture, visual artifacts, and visual communication as a mode of discourse and a means of developing a social and cultural identity.”

Color, design, and depth make up the visual information we perceive, and these are all important characteristics of signs for your small business. Strong vibrant colors attract our attention the most, which is why outlets and liquidation sales use vibrant colors to grab our attention quickly. More subdued colors communicate the sense of calm and class, and would align with a more luxurious brand.

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Font choice is another important element when designing a custom sign. Like color, different font styles communicate different emotions that are connected with a business. Big bold letters scream for attention and are used for pressing the consumer to act and pay attention quickly. Classic fonts can communicate expertise and trust in the company. Elegant fonts such as Helvetica can resonate with customers that appreciate companies that get design. While deciding on all of the elements of a custom sign it can be helpful to hire a designer to get an expert opinion.

How Signs Drive Foot Traffic

Depending on the messaging on the signs, you can drive different types of foot traffic into your business. Signs drive foot traffic by encouraging the customer to take up your business on the offer or promise laid out in the sign. Ensure that you are always building trust with customers by truthfully and clearly communicating what the customer can expect by entering your business when choosing the content of your sign.

The classic Awareness Interest Desire Action (AIDA) model can be applied to signage specifically:

• Awareness: The sign catches the potential customer’s eye by its color and design scheme
• Interest: The customer becomes interested based on the benefits communicated by the signage
• Desire: Based on the well-designed content of the signs, the customer desires the products or services of the business
• Action: The customer takes action encouraged by the sign and initiates the relationship with the business

To recap, there are three important attributes of a well-designed sign for your business. It’s important that the sign:

1.Catches the user’s eye.

2.Communicates services of the business.

3.Alerts users to sales and limited time offers.

Actionable Steps:

1. Clearly define what the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of your business is.
2. Identify the core design of your business, don’t let colors and fonts clash.
3. Hire a graphic designer to customize the sign to match your business identity.
4. Communicate truthful messages to public and emphasize benefits.
5. Use urgency such as sales and limited time offers to drive foot traffic.

Signs outside of businesses have been used for a long time, and will continue to be utilized successfully. Although many consumers are buying goods online in the digital era, there remains substantial purchasing at brick and mortar business, and carefully chosen signs will effectively communicate your message to potential customers and drive incremental foot traffic.

What kinds of signs have you designed for advertising your business?