You’ve spent months of planning, designing and building to spruce up the interior of your high street shop. It’s now opening day, and despite the marketing campaign you don’t attract anywhere near as many customers as you hoped and expected. It hurts even more because you’re sure you did everything right, no?
The answer could be staring you in the face. It’s often overlooked, but thankfully very straightforward to put right – the issue is signage. With market research suggesting that in the UK, even in the contemporary age of social media and the internet, up to 50 percent of new customers make an on-the-spot decision to enter your shop on the basis of your signage outside.
But it’s not just new businesses that risk putting themselves at peril by underestimating the importance of signage. Regardless of the age or nature of the business, there are a whole host of reasons why signage shouldn’t simply be an afterthought, but rather must be a well-integrated facet of any marketing plan. We’re going to take a look at a few of these now.
Shop Signs and New Custom
The answer, according to a wealth of market research, suggests that signage is highly important due to its effect on attracting new customers. Seeking new custom is a task that no business is exempt from and must do in order to survive, whether the company has a hundred years of trading behind it or only opened last month.
Indeed, one study showed that just under 30 percent of those passing your premises won’t even be aware that your business exists if you don’t have visible and clear signage on your shop frontage. This means that your business misses out on opportunistic and impulse buyers, resulting in an immediate loss of both footfall and profit.
This has the knock-on effect of depriving your business of the repeat custom that can arise from wowing these impulse buyers with excellent customer service. As well as the repeat custom of new visitors, your business will also miss out on the chance for these customers to be impressed and drive even more custom by doing your promotional work for you via word of mouth.
Further marketing studies have found that, depending on the focus and location of your business, the proportion of impulse buyers varies from 25 to 45 percent. Given all of the above benefits to be derived from attracting new and opportunistic custom alone, imagine the power of a sign that reminds this demographic that they’ve been meaning to buy such-and-such for a while, and that your store happens to sell it?
Driving Local Custom
Most bricks-and-mortar shops are generally dependant on local custom for the majority of their business, making signage highly important for shops in this position. It won’t come as a surprise to shop owners to learn that, on average, 85 percent of a shop’s customers live within five miles of the store. What’s more, people living within this radius, including non-customers, will be exposed to your signs around 50 to 60 times a week if your store is located on a busy thoroughfare.
This represents a vast pool of potential customers, but only if these people know where your store is located and what it has to offer them. People who have been recommended to visit your shop will also need to be able to find your premises, and preferably as easily as possible. The statistics and studies quoted above clearly show that signage is the most effective way to communicate these important pieces of information to your target market.
It’s also worth remembering that this pool of potential new customers renews and changes annually, as around 20 percent of the population move house ever year. In light of the growing popularity of e-commerce and internet shopping, along with the capacity of shop signage to maximise the pulling and selling power of your store, shop signs are clearly something that can no longer be ignored or left as an afterthought.
Shop Signs: A Business Investment?
As we’ve seen, signs are vital for driving new custom for all businesses, whether they’re new start-ups or established old hands. In this sense, shop signage is most accurately viewed as an investment like any other – it involves an initial expenditure which should, if employed correctly, deliver a substantial return.
Signage is also well placed to produce a particularly substantial return on investment. Shop frontage signs are in operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, spreading your message to anyone and everyone who ventures past your premises. Compared to hiring a newspaper advert for a week, or a TV slot or billboard for a month, it is clear that, as a form of advertisement and promotion, signage is without a doubt the most effective means of reaching your target audience of potential customers.
On the other hand it’s worth noting that poor or absent signage due to lack of investment doesn’t just mean that no money is spent on signage – it means that the business is actively losing money as a result of failing to attract potential customers daily. This lost revenue adds up over time, alongside lost engagement and connections with these potentially life-long customers.
Final Thoughts
Any business decision involving expenditure should be carefully planned and thought through, especially something with the power and effect of signage. Fortunately, we at The Sussex Sign Company are well-placed to help guide you and your business through any hard decisions. With over two decades’ experience in the sector, we have the expertise to help draw up a tailor-made solution to the uniquely specific needs and requirements of your firm. Get in touch today to find out what we can do together, call us on 01273 417057