Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Shop Signs!

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

Halo Illuminated Signage: Don’t Ignore the Benefits!

Almost all businesses have signs nowadays – they’re simply essential to show customers where your store is, and have many functions that allow them to be one of the most powerful marketing tools in the arsenal of any business owner. But with signage so ubiquitous, how do you differentiate your company from the others?

Illuminated signage provides a solution to this end, along with many other benefits. Besides making your company premises stand out in a packed and increasingly competitive bricks-and-mortar retail environment, illuminated signage can serve to revamp your business exterior with a particularly 21st century, super-contemporary look. This is sure to turn heads and maybe even attract customers who had previously dismissed your firm altogether.

The Power of Illuminated Signage

Advances in fabrication and illumination technologies have given business owners access to a huge variety of illumination techniques and options which can be used to create beautiful, show-stopping illuminated signs, tailored perfectly to the needs of your business. Variety extends over the types of materials used in the sign and the types of illumination to make your signs stand out.

Built-up signs are composed of several layers to create a stunning 3D effect, making your sign stand out in the literal as well as the figurative sense of the word. Built-up signs can be manufactured from brushed or polished metals, including stainless steel or aluminium, or plastics such as acrylic. This range of materials ensures that built-up lettering is well within the reach of almost all business owners.

Halo Illumination – What and How?

Using built-up lettering also expands the types of lighting effects that can be applied, due to the fact that locating the lights in one of the many different locations on, or in, the letter will produce a different effect. Illumination techniques generally revolve around LED-backlit letters or a light box. When internal illumination is combined with built-up lettering or logo shapes fabricated from solid metal or acrylic, the faces of the letter remain opaque with the light diffused against the background surface creating the effect of a glowing halo.

What Can Halo Illuminated Signage do for You?

First and foremost, by giving your signs a glowing outline, you make them far more visible! Illuminated signage ensures that your business is clear and stands out 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, no matter the weather. This is especially useful in the winter months when the nights start to draw in early and your shop would be totally unnoticeable to impulse customers and those who explicitly wish to visit.

There isn’t really a comparable advertising medium that works around the clock to promote your business. Illuminated signage brings your business and brand to life via the power of light.

Greater Clarity for More Effective Communication

When a passer-by sees your sign, you only have a split-second window in which to communicate your message before their glance moves on to something else. This means that clarity is paramount and, fortunately, illuminating your sign with a halo makes it much easier to read and understand. Using illuminated signage for any time-limited promotions or special offers will guarantee that your message has a far greater impact than it otherwise would.

Consumer Perceptions

All signs have the power of transforming passers-by into potential customers simply by virtue of being seen. However, signage communicates more than just the message written on it – indeed, in some senses, ‘the medium is the message’. The medium of halo illuminated signage, with its eye-catching lighting effects and use of sleek metals such as aluminium, carries a distinctly contemporary and cutting edge feel.

Therefore, with the use of halo illumination, the transformative power of signage is extended further, working to engender the impression in the minds of viewers that your business itself is fresh and modern.

Improve Your Image

Upgrading your signage with a halo illumination effect shows everyone who encounters it that you take your marketing and business image very seriously. This can work wonders for boosting your credibility and reputation, even among people who have never interacted with your business before. By showing that your signage, marketing and image are considered important, it will seem likely that you’ll take other areas of your business, such as customer service and quality of products, just as seriously – if not more so.

Furthermore, a firm that can take the time and capital to invest in a new and visually impressive illuminated shop sign must necessarily be doing well in business. The subconscious implication to the customer is that you must be doing something right, making you the right person for them to choose to do business with.

Boost Your Energy Efficiency

Halo illuminated signs use LED technology to deliver massive efficiency improvements, reducing your impact on the environment and minimising your expenditure at the same time. Previous illumination systems worked either with external light – shining a spotlight at something so it can be seen – or internal light, such as backlit lightboxes containing fluorescent tubes.

Spotlights are highly energy inefficient, emitting large amounts of wasted energy as heat and driving up your bills. Lightboxes using tube lighting often fail to light the surface evenly, spoiling the quality and effect of the sign. Neither of these techniques produce particularly effective halo effects, either.

LEDs, by contrast, last for thousands and thousands of hours, functioning as a ‘plug in and forget’ solution to signage illumination. They also use roughly 5 to 10 percent of the energy used by halogens and fluorescent bulbs, representing a massive saving for the environment and your bottom line over time.

Let’s Work Together

At the Sussex Sign Company, we have the skills and expertise to create a halo illuminated sign to your precise specifications. We also have an in-house design team to help advise on the specifics to ensure that your sign helps your business to reach its maximum potential, call us today on 01273 417057

A Powerful Tool: Differentiate Your Brand and Drive New Clients with LED Light Pockets

All retail premises on high streets face certain pressures these days, with growing numbers of consumers opting for online commerce against the general backdrop of commercial uncertainty over what the future holds. Despite historically high house prices, estate agents feel both of these pressures particularly keenly at the moment, and unless the Brexit affair is settled speedily, there is a chance that this could continue for some time to come.

Fortunately, there are plenty of tools to draw consumers and clients back to brick-and-mortar stores. Delivering unparalleled customer service with which internet-based companies can’t hope to compete is one of the most effective ways to do this. In this blog, however, we’ll be looking at the power of signage to attract new custom, in particular the fairly new technology of LED light pockets for estate agent window displays.These display solutions are increasingly popular, but adoption is still far from saturation point – so now is the time to strike. Read on to find out everything you need to know about this innovative and eye-catching display technology, whether it is worth the investment or not, and what it could offer your business.

LED Light Pockets: What are They and How do They Work?

The use by estate agents of clear acrylic pockets suspended from cables is long established, so much so that it would be surprising to see an agent’s window without them. By embedding LEDs into the pockets, an attractive and striking effect is created, visually highlighting your window. Each panel is generally not more than several millimetres thick and they often come in a range of styles, including bevelled and framed edges.

With these designs, the LED light is bounced off the inner edges of the pocket, creating the impression that the frame of the pocket is glowing. Each pocket is attached to imperceptibly thin metal cables, suspended between the ceiling and floor. At a glance, the glowing pockets look as if they’re floating, which is a particularly striking thing for any passerby to see! The power for the LEDs is transmitted by wires tucked away inside the suspension cables, furthering this visual effect.

These pockets can often be made to order in any size as well, giving estate agents the opportunity to use posters and graphics to draw attention to promotions or special deals, as well as simply highlighting the present properties up for sale. The lack of clutter, combined with a highly visible and legible form of display, allows you to convey maximum information with minimal effort on your part or that of the viewer.

What Can These Light Pockets do for Your Estate Agency?

Your business may close at 5pm, but with the aid of glowing light pockets in your windows, your properties will be advertised and clearly visible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing people to see what you have on offer any time of day. This is particularly effective during the winter months, when the evening draws in by 4 or 5pm, but people will be present in busy streets until much later.

In this regard, LED illuminated window pockets constitute a powerful tool that utilises the promotional capacity of a space that you already own and have the right to use, as opposed to hiring a billboard or space in the pull-out property supplement of a newspaper. That said, there are many other stores on the high street, and all of them will be trying to do the same thing that you are – maximising their use of space for promotion. Fortunately, LED-illuminated pockets can help to differentiate you further still.

Brand Differentiation

By making your window display glow, your premises are guaranteed to stand out from the white noise of the high street, working to grab attention and hold it. This means that people are likely to remember your store, and thus your brand will be in the front of their mind when they eventually need your services, or if someone else mentions looking to buy or sell a house. In this way, brand differentiation pays its dividends over a long period of time, and therefore this form of signage should be viewed as an investment.

Furthermore, the contemporary and modern style of these light pockets creates the perception that your business is forward-facing, modern and efficient. This also makes people more likely to buy from you, and can even give you an edge over those older brands who can claim expertise by way of having existed for decades.

Keeping Up Appearances

Such an investment in window displays also suggests to consumers a care of appearances. Any business that is able to devote time and money to external appearance is more likely to be doing well in terms of custom, and therefore must be doing something right. This care over appearances also implies that you take care over other areas of work, such as attentiveness to customer service and experience, getting the job done and producing positive results.

Lastly, the beautiful effect created by glowing frames in your window allows your premises to actually enhance the look and feel of the local area, which is something that not many businesses can genuinely claim to do. All of these thoughts are subconscious and occur when viewing your window display, but they influence decisions very strongly.

The technologies behind signage solutions change and develop every year. At The Sussex Sign Company, we have accrued several decades’ experience in the business, and we’d be thrilled to put that expertise and knowledge to work for the aid of your company. To find out about the great things that we can achieve if we work together, get in touch today, Call us on 01273 417057

Is the quality of your estate agent signage letting you down?

They’re a ubiquitous sight on streets, roads and lanes across the United Kingdom – brightly coloured boards outside properties advertising their sale, usually with the name of the estate agent responsible, together with a telephone number by which to contact them if you’re interested. Estate agents have long used these signs to drive interest in certain properties, particularly those requiring a little additional exposure.

For Sale signs also serve a purpose as a beacon for instinctive or opportunistic buyers who see a house that they like and phone to arrange a viewing on impulse alone. And then there’s the window adverts on the premises of the estate agents itself. Who hasn’t stopped to have a quick look at the local property prices once or twice?

However, in recent years questions have been raised about the continued usefulness of both of these forms of signage in light of the digital age in which we now live. With the online market the first port of call for many would-be buyers and sellers, are For Sale signs still relevant?

Combine this with the sales promotion potential offered by other commonly used formats such as the property supplements in local newspapers, and it might be easy to conclude that estate agent signage will shortly be a thing of the past. In this article we’ll examine this question, finding that not only is this form of signage still very useful, but that its sales and promotional power can be redoubled by ensuring that the quality of the signage is top-notch.

For Sale signs

In addition to drawing attention to the fact that the property is up for sale, For Sale signs also garner publicity via word of mouth. The sign is subconsciously noticed by someone walking past. Then, days or even weeks later, someone close to them – anyone from a loved one or friend to a neighbour or colleague – mentions that they’re looking to buy a property in a certain area. The person who noticed the sign might say something along the lines of “Oh, have you seen that property just off the high street, with the For Sale sign?”

The presence of a sign alone may even get people talking. Who hasn’t heard someone say something along the lines of “Have you seen that they’ve put that house down the road up for sale?” This increases the reach of your promotion significantly. However, this tactic is far more likely to have success in villages and smaller towns, where lots of people know each other and come into regular contact, and gossip travels much faster.

Window signage

There is also a second permanent signage fixture used by estate agents. This takes the form of signage suspended in the window of the agent’s premises, displaying some of the property up for sale locally. These signs often take the form of A4-sized clear plastic pockets suspended from wires that are attached to the floor and ceiling. Recent innovations in window signage have led to the creation of slightly thicker acrylic pockets with LEDs embedded inside. The light bounces off the sides of the frame, making it appear as if the edges are glowing. This is a fantastic way to draw attention to the properties on offer, and even raise their profile a little.

The fact that light is involved also means that your signs will be viewable 24 hours a day, reminding people of your presence even if they simply drive past. Naturally, high quality window signage will make people reflect on your brand with more positive reactions, increasing the likelihood of referral to others via word of mouth should the issue of needing to buy or sell a property come up in conversation.

When people walk past the agent’s premises, many like to stop and have a look at the local prices and see if any interesting properties are up for sale in the vicinity, purely out of curiosity. If the signage is poorly maintained or hard to read, their attention will not be held for long and they will walk on. Even if they didn’t intend to buy a property, they will remember your brand as representing a particularly successful-looking estate agency, thus providing an excellent opportunity to use your estate agent signage to build brand familiarity and recognition.

Estate agent signage: more than just selling homes

In considering estate agent signs from the perspective of marketing, we need to take a more holistic and long-term perspective. This means looking beyond the immediate goal of seeking to sell a specific property. As touched upon above, estate agent signs also help agents to boost their brand familiarity and recognition.

As people encounter your brand more frequently, they will associate it with ideas such as ‘local community’, ‘trust’, ‘reliability’, and so on. Coming to be viewed as a part of the local community is perhaps one of the useful things that can happen to any small or medium business in terms of public relations.

Impressions of trust, reliability and effectiveness can be engendered by sticking a bright red ‘SOLD’ sticker over both the For Sale sign and the window advertisement, or you could even utilise multi-coloured LEDs to differentiate between sold and un-sold properties. These techniques use signage to promote you and your brand as being highly effective at selling properties, and can be used even if the property in question was actually sold over the internet or via a newspaper ad.

The last word

Estate agent signage is far from a has-been – it still offers huge marketing potential to agents and plays important roles beyond simply selling individual properties. At The Sussex Sign Company, we have what it takes to craft a tailor-made signage solution that perfectly responds to the needs of your estate agency. Don’t hesitate to get in touch today to find out what we can do for you. Call us today on 01273 417057

How to give your business a boost using shop window promotional signage

You can never have too much custom. Whether you’re an established and booming business with a loyal customer base, or a new franchise in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, it pays to avoid becoming complacent. The strategy of using your shop windows for promotional signage displays offers a range of benefits to all retail-oriented businesses with bricks-and-mortar premises.

Shop window signage – types and options

We’ll discuss the numerous benefits of a marketing campaign involving shop window signage further down, but firstly we’ll take a look at what this form of signage actually entails. Promotional window signage comes in several forms, but usually involves a vinyl film which is held in place on the window with adhesive.

Face-mounted signage is applied onto the interior of the window facing out. The face of the sign is protected by the glass, which is a benefit of this form of window signage. However, the downside is that it may limit the view into and out of the shop itself, depending on positioning. Window signage can also be affixed onto the exterior of the window, but due to the exposure to the elements, thicker and heavier films should be used.

One modern innovation in window signage is perforated film which is see-through on the non-graphic side. The film is affixed to the window of your premises, creating an eye-catching magnet for new customers, while those inside the shop can see through the film onto the street as it allows light to pass through. This provides the best of both worlds and can be used in highly innovative ways to create striking adverts and promotions.

Graphics are printed onto the surface of the film, making it possible to use a huge array of colours, high resolution photos and typefaces of your choosing. This means that the sky really is the limit in terms of the designs you can create. What’s more, the computerised aspect of the design process succeeds where hand-painted signs fail by ensuring consistency in the appearance of your signs. This is vital if you seek to increase your brand recognition and plan to use a series of signs, changing one after the other.

And this leads to another highly useful feature of window signage: its ease of installation and removal. Many shop-owners have had negative experiences with vinyl applications in windows before, but yet another modern innovation has come to their rescue. Special vinyl film is now available with air channels on the adhesive surface to allow full air egress, making frustrating bubbles and wrinkles a thing of the past. Window films can be installed in minutes with excellent, smooth results and best of all, no special tools are required.

The vinyl signs can also be removed whenever you choose, simply by peeling them away from the window substrate. Modern adhesives should leave behind very little residue as well, making these signs absolutely perfect for seasonal, short- and medium-term promotions.

Purposes and benefits of promotional signage

The options for shop window signage have expanded enormously in recent years and incorporate several new technologies to provide the best user experience possible, ensuring a high return on investment for the business that uses them. What other benefits do they hold for businesses?

Shop window graphics provide a highly cost-effective means of driving new business. After all, you already own or rent the space, so window signage is essentially a free marketing tool. Why pay for space to advertise all over town when you already have space – and on exactly the same location as your shop?

Shop window signage is a particularly effective form of advertising due to its presence at eye level. This creates far more impressions on pedestrians walking past your shop than a sign several meters from the ground.

Other than customers who leave home intending to buy from you, and impulse buyers, many of your customers will have noticed your shop at an earlier date, glanced through the window and thought “that place looks nice, I should pop in there sometime.” Attractive and informative promotional signage in your window gives the potential customer a reason to come back.

Shop window promotional signage also affords you the opportunity to enhance your brand’s familiarity with your target market. Over time, by making your store noticeable, it will come to be seen as a stalwart of the community; something that is very important for engendering customer brand loyalty and repeat custom.

Bright and attractive window signage will draw the attention of those passing by your shop, but very few of them will actually come in. However, by making an impression even upon those who do not enter your store, you ensure that your business will be at the front of their minds when they do require your product or service. This also applies to recommendations.

For example, if someone passes by a bakery twice a week during their normal routine, they will definitely have noticed the window signage and will be aware of the bakery’s presence. They may have no need for its products at the moment. But one of their friends asks them if they know anywhere good to buy fresh, high quality bread, your business will be the first one that comes to mind thanks to the passive yet memorable effect of well-designed promotional window signage.

As explained above, shop window signage gives you the ability to refresh or remove your sign whenever you choose. Keeping your shopfront looking fresh provides several other benefits, including preventing your shopfront from ever fading into the background, which is important in the increasingly competitive high street.

The modern retail environment is a tricky one for anyone to navigate, but at The Sussex Sign Company we can offer a wealth of advice as to how to ensure that you get the most out of your signage. Come and talk to us today, call us on 01273 417057.

Halo illuminated letters in high street signage:

The high street has always been a competitive environment with a limited number of potential customers, established brand loyalty and a willingness to pay more at local and ‘authentic’ businesses. According to a report commissioned by the Economist, the high street retail environment has become considerably more cut-throat in recent years.

Uncertain futures?

Retail sales are declining due to changing consumer habits, including a greater tendency to shop online. The outlook might be a little gloomy, with an added hint of uncertainty since Brexit, but there are still billions of pounds of commerce up for grabs. The tightening of consumer retail spending leads to an ever-more competitive environment, as an increasing number of businesses vie for a decreasing amount of consumer money.

Retail firms are working on drawing in customers and getting them to come back again and again with a variety of techniques, including cutting prices, diversifying their offerings and spending vast sums on public relations and marketing campaigns. There is a far easier option, however, that offers huge marketing potential, harnessing the power of brands and won’t cost you an arm and a leg: high street signage.

Retail signage is often overlooked, with many business owners assuming that provided that their trading name is nice and clear above the door, then customers will come in. This may be true enough, but such an approach fails to utilise the true potential offered by signage. In particular, halo illuminated signage can turn your shopfront from ‘just another shop’ that fades into the background, into an attractive, sleek and modern locale that subtly improves its surrounding environment.

What is halo illuminated signage?

There are several different forms of illuminated lettering used in signage, including side, full letter and face illumination, all of which are self-explanatory. Halo illuminated signage is a type of built-up lettering with LEDs positioned internally to create a glowing ‘halo’ effect behind the letter. The light is diffused onto the fitting surface upon which each letter is installed.

This is far more subtle and contemporary in appearance than large ‘lightboxes’ in use in so much high street signage which is, essentially, a box containing LEDs or fluorescent tubes that shine through a translucent sign on the front. Indeed, changes in planning regulations over the past decade have indicated a shift away from large illuminated surfaces towards more subtle and aesthetically pleasing forms of signage lighting.

Halo illumination can be used in built-up lettering fabricated from any material, from stainless steel and aluminium to acrylic and modelboard, depending on the precise effect and impression you seek to create. The illuminated surface behind the letter requires a little more thought. For the perfect halo effect, it’s wise to avoid dark coloured surfaces such as black, purple or dark brown as these colours absorb more light than they reflect. This can cause ‘spotting’, when the LEDs’ light doesn’t diffuse evenly, spoiling the halo effect.

Likewise, glossy surfaces should also be avoided. This is due to their high reflectivity which may even allow the viewer to see the LED modules themselves in the reflection when viewing side-on. For the sleek and beautiful halo effect that’ll make your premises the talk of the high street, matte surfaces with medium or light colours are the best bet.

The use of LEDs instead of tube lighting or powerful spotlights also provides several benefits in itself. LEDs usually last for several thousand hours, with ratings varying between models, but essentially providing a ‘fit and forget’ signage solution. LEDs are also very low producers of carbon, using between 5 to 10 per cent of the energy of halogen or fluorescent lighting.

Why illuminated signage?

As covered above, increased competition is the watchword of the day as a brick-and-mortar retailer. High street signage, if poorly designed or not looked after, quickly fades into the white noise of our image-saturated shopping environments. To really turn people’s heads, something a little different is required. Going all-out with brash, loud signage is likely to turn people off, but halo illumination provides an eye-catching yet subtle and understated solution.

Illuminated signage also has the benefit of making your store visible 24 hours a day, advertising your presence to any and all of the hundreds or thousands of daily passers-by. You aren’t likely to get much footfall at 4am on a weekday, but this feature is very valuable in winter, when the sun is already setting by late afternoon. Depending on your line of business, incorporating warm, welcoming colours into your sign could take advantage of winter by appearing particularly inviting to pedestrians.

Furthermore, humans are creatures of habit and people are far more likely to buy from brands or stores that they know. By having a highly recognisable and memorable sign on display 24 hours a day, and especially after dark, you increase your brand familiarity amongst your target market.

Put simply: imagine you own a bakery. Of those people who have seen your memorable and bright high street signage, when they come to need a custom cake designed or fancy some special bread, your bakery will be the first that pops into their minds. The same applies if they are asked by someone else to recommend a good bakery. Your glowing signage creates a good impression even if they’ve never set foot on your premises.

High street retail signage and the contemporary retail environment can feel like minefields. You want to attract customers, but not put them off by coming on too strong. At The Sussex Sign Company, we have the knowledge and practical experience that only comes from decades of working in the industry. And we’d love to put our finely honed expertise to use for the good of your business. Contact us today to see what we can do for you, on 01273 417057

There’s far more to corporate signage than you think

Signage makes up a surprisingly large chunk of our visual and physical environments. We take in hundreds to thousands of signs every day, depending on what we’re doing. Encountering so many signs in such a short period of time means that we rarely spend more than a second looking at a particular sign. This has serious implications for businesses and corporations, who, as players in an increasingly competitive marketplace, need to take full advantage of that split-second window to leave a memorable, lasting and positive impression.

Warning and safety signage naturally needs to stand out and attract the eye in order to draw attention quickly, hence the fluorescent oranges and greens and bold capital letters present on most safety signage. Business and corporate signage, however, has a slightly more developed and complex role to play. Indeed, brash fluorescent colours and block fonts are likely to give potential clients the wrong impression! Much business signage, if well-designed and smart, often remains at the subconscious level of perception among consumers, not appearing out of place or intrusive.

This leads us to the crux of the problem: corporate and business signage needs to communicate its message quickly and effectively, but brash and loud signage can overshadow the intended message of the sign. This is an issue that can be solved by thinking about signage design, corporate image and identity, and how the two concepts relate. We’ll start by examining the actual messages that corporate and business signage is intended to communicate, and from there we can consider how we can use design to communicate these messages.

Why use business signage?

The benefits of business signage are manifold. It uses space that you already own, instead of paying to hire a billboard, and it lasts far longer. Its exhibition on your shopfront or company headquarters alerts people to your company’s presence, turning every single passerby into a potential customer – a truly powerful marketing tool.

Over time, this develops into brand familiarity. Your sign, with your company’s logo and slogan on it, start to be seen as a dependable part of the community, purely due to the longevity of the presence of your business sign. It is the first and last thing that your customers see as they enter and leave your premises, and your return customers begin to associate your external image, embodied by your signage, with the experience that they had at your business. This lays bare the sheer importance of smart business signage and gives rise to the idea of ‘corporate image’.

What does ‘corporate image’ actually mean?

Your corporate image consists of consumer perceptions of your corporation. These perceptions accumulate and grow over time, and are affected by the perceived quality of tangible aspects of your business, such as your customer service and your products (if applicable), alongside more intangible elements, such as your corporate values and identity. Smart corporate signage can directly influence consumer perceptions of both tangible and intangible elements of your business.

Signage and tangible business aspects

How can signage influence perceptions of tangible aspects of your business? Surely the consumer will simply judge your product or service on its own merits? If only business was so simple! We know from anecdotal reports and psychological research that a huge amount of factors can affect how your products are perceived by consumers, covering all five senses. It is for this reason that department stores pipe in music to enhance the shopping experience, or that Subway ensures that their stores always smell strongly of freshly baked bread, for example.

Now imagine a department store or baguette shop where the in-store wayfinding signage or menu board is scruffy, hard to read and poorly maintained. The consumer will gain a negative impression instantly, as these aspects of your signage suggest either a lack of care and attention, or a lack of funds for repairs, which raises other questions – “if the business is not making money, then people aren’t shopping here, so perhaps they know something I don’t?”

These negative impressions remain in the back of the mind of the consumer, lowering their expectations of the quality of your product or service. Because signage is the first thing that the customer sees, and thus it forms the basis of their first impression, it can be very hard to challenge an initial negative impression, even if your product is perfectly good.

Signage and the intangible aspects of your brand

Intangible aspects of your business are slightly harder to pin down, but definitely no less important. They cover things such as consumer perceptions of your company’s values and identity. Company values are specific and defined for each company to guide that company towards its business goals. They typically include things like ‘empathy’, ‘honesty and integrity’, ‘passion’, ‘professionalism’ and so on.

Signage can influence customer perceptions of these values in two ways. Values such as honesty, empathy and integrity can be communicated through design elements contained within the sign. Think of this in a purely artistic fashion – for example, wide-spaced, thin, lower case and sans-serif letting suggests stability and openness, whereas bold, thick sturdy letters imply a firm sense of integrity.

The second way that signage can affect perceptions of your values is similar to that seen with tangible assets, via the quality and smartness of the sign itself. Values such as passion, professionalism and so on are communicated by ensuring that all signage is well-maintained. A poorly fixed and faded sign suggests anything but professionalism and passion.

As you can see, there is a lot more to signage than meets the eye. Signage does more than simply signpost things – it embodies your brand identity. At The Sussex Sign Company, we have decades of expertise and have shown that we can be trusted to protect and embellish your brand. Please get in touch today to find out how we can work together, call us on 01273 417057.

Why should you use a professional sign company for your business signage?

Your external signage represents your business, either working to impress and draw passers-by into your store, or make them turn away without ever giving your business so much as another glance. Poorly maintained or low quality signage can even leave these potential customers with actively negative opinions of your firm, despite never having set foot inside.

Few business owners would dispute the necessity of having some form of external signage. But, now that you’ve got a signage solution in place, the job is as good as done, right? All you have to do now is to wait for the customers to come flooding in? If only it were that simple.

More to signage than meets the eye

That your signage is essentially an ambassador for your company is indisputable, but the quality of the sign is almost more important than the sign itself. As a demonstration of this, imagine an exchange where one person suggests to another that they visit your business. The latter person responds that it looks a bit run-down, but there’s another very similar company just up the road, so they might as well go there instead.

Your business may well have the best service in town, but if customers are put off before they get through the door, you may as well not bother. Even if your business is locally acclaimed with a solid base of repeat customers, signage retains its power to draw in or turn away, and it would be unwise to slip into complacency. What can be done to ensure that your business signage stays on-message, leaving the very best impression possible with the thousands of potential customers who walk past your premises every day?

The solution

The answer is, fortunately, as cost-effective as it is simple: for the professional signage necessary to communicate the professionalism of your business, use only a professional sign company. We’ve explored the reasoning behind this in the sections below and have taken a good look at each one to find out exactly what high quality signage from a professional sign company can do for you.

Increase your brand recognition

Signage can be as simple as stating your trading name and perhaps a slogan, but by incorporating your brand into your sign, the latter is transformed into a much more powerful tool. Research shows that consumers are far more likely to buy from brands that they recognise. You can create repeat customers by making your store particularly distinctive so that it becomes known as, say, ‘that perfume shop’, instead being thought of as just another shop selling cosmetics.

Thinking more broadly of the importance of brand recognition, imagine that you run a pet shop. The majority of the thousands of people passing your shop daily probably have no reason to buy something from you. However, should any of these people decide at some point to get a pet, or should a friend ask them for a good store, yours will be the first that comes to mind. Provided that your signage is professional and has created a good impression.

In-house design and advice

Many professional sign companies offer in-house graphic design services. Effective design is vital to attract customers and avoid confusing them or putting them off. External signs should be simple, bold and legible at a distance. Consistency across all of your promotional channels is important, so incorporating your branding is a good idea. Being memorable is equally important, but avoid squeezing excessive amounts of information onto the sign or you risk confusing the reader.

Regulatory compliance

When giving your shopfront a facelift it’s easy to get carried away, but don’t forget that signage is subject to a number of regulations. Signs don’t usually require planning permission, but the situation depends on the extent of the work being undertaken and whether or not your building is listed. Health and safety regulations lay down the responsibilities of the installer and the owner of the sign, with most of the liability for maintenance falling on the owner. Professionally trained installation technicians can be relied upon to deliver high quality, safe work from the outset.

Long-term maintenance

As mentioned above, the responsibility for sign maintenance lies with the owner of the sign. This is not optional; the law obligates the owner to keep the sign, its fittings and fixtures in good working condition in order to minimise the risk of harm. Liability for any injuries sustained by falling signs due to lack of maintenance also lies with the owner.

This means that preventive routine maintenance to pre-empt problems before they occur is practically a necessity. Reactive maintenance – dealing with a problem that has already happened – simply isn’t sufficient.

For this reason, professional sign companies usually offer maintenance plans, believing that sign design and installation is only the first step in a job that won’t be completed until the sign has reached the end of its life. Many companies can even tailor the maintenance plan to your specific needs.

Boost your bottom line

Not only can professional signage increase customer footfall, but research from America suggests that a well-designed and maintained sign can even reduce the required expenditure on other forms of marketing. This makes signage a particularly economical marketing solution.

At The Sussex Sign Company, we have over two decades’ experience under our belts, giving us the know-how to produce a truly professional signage solution specially designed for your circumstances. We are committed to working with you throughout the years of your sign’s life to ensure that your investment reaches its full potential. Please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Vinyl signwriting: past, present… and future?

Modern vinyl signwriting is a marvel to behold; very high resolution graphics designed on a computer and rapidly printed directly onto sheets of vinyl, before being cut by another machine far more accurately than most technicians would be able to manage by hand. The technologies and chemistry used in the production of vinyl film have also advanced significantly to meet the evolving demands of businesses and consumers.

Nowadays, vinyl signage is in operation improving road safety and providing businesses with a modern, bright and highly versatile means of identifying and promoting themselves. This hasn’t always been the case, however, and like many inventions that go on to become ubiquitous, vinyl signage had rather humble beginnings.

Early days

It was back in the late 1930s that vinyl was first tested as a signage material. After several tests, the first road signs with a layer of high-visibility reflective vinyl sheeting appeared in 1939, beginning a new era in signwriting. The potential for reflective vinyl coating films used on road signs to protect the surface underneath led to the invention of non-reflective films. It was this type of vinyl film that was first used for vehicle identification and advertising.

Another significant leap forward in vinyl technology was the invention of cast vinyl production techniques in the 1940s. Pre-existing techniques were based upon extrusion, using ‘calendars’, or rollers, to stretch and squash the vinyl to the desired thickness. Because the shape of the vinyl film is constantly changing throughout this mode of production, the finished product tends to be weaker and prone to shrinkage.

In the casting technique, a mixture of resins and plastics are poured onto a liner and passed through heaters and coolers. The vinyl isn’t stretched or squashed, producing an inherently strong and thin film resistant to shrinkage. Calendar and cast vinyl techniques are both still used today, with cast vinyl remaining the best choice for high quality film graphics boasting uniform colour. That said, calendaring and other extrusion techniques have naturally improved over the years, and in many instances and applications perform just as well as cast film.

Competition in the signwriting industry

By the early 1950s, non-reflective vinyl lettering had been invented. Adhesives were not as developed as they are today, and the application of the lettering to a substrate relied upon either heat-activated or solvent-based adhesives. The manufacturing technique used for the non-reflective lettering was the coating technique, producing around 20 feet of film a minute. The process was unreliable in the early days, however, and very often 50 per cent or more of the vinyl produced was unusable.

Despite this, early vinyl lettering materials had many properties that gave them an advantage over the traditional hand-painted signwriting industry. These included far greater durability and the possibility to be die-cut, allowing for mass production of regular and uniform signage. One of the first uses for early vinyl lettering was to decorate American military planes with the logo of the Air Force.

Technological leaps and bounds

The pace of invention and innovation picked up even more as the 50s unfolded. 1956 saw introduction of many more colour choices, together with the release of vinyl film with pressure sensitive adhesive. These developments broadened the possible applications of vinyl, enabling the creation of visually appealing emblems, logotypes and signs using vinyl. But progress didn’t stop there. Just two years later in 1958, a high-visibility fluorescent film arrived on the market, seeing quick adoption in schools’ and hospitals’ signage.

That same year, an easy-peel silicone release liner was also developed. These are still used today to protect the adhesive backing of the vinyl film. 1958 also saw the arrival of even more colour options, including metallic-effect films with choices such as gold and silver. One of the first high profile uses for these was in the creation of the metallic stripes on American Eastern Airlines planes.

The 1960s saw the development of textured and embossed films, including a wood-grain effect that saw huge use in the cars of the era. The major innovation of the period was the invention of repositionable adhesive in 1965. This adhesive made vinyl appropriate for an even broader range of applications, hugely expanding the market.

Hi-tech vinyl

By the 1980s, translucent films had appeared on the market. This was significant due to the large number of technical challenges it was necessary to overcome. Wide-format vinyl films just 2mm thick could display a huge advert with uniform colour density and uniform backlighting. Technology continued to work miracles into the 1990s with the advent of micro air channels to allow air trapped under the film an escape route. This made bubble-free installation an achievable reality, eradicating the need for needles to pop troublesome air bubbles.

A bright future ahead

Developments have more recently focused upon the environment, with the creation of lead-free inks and metal-free piezo UV inks offering increased durability and flexibility. Work is underway to remove all lead pigments from graphic films, crucially and preferably without sacrificing the high level of performance that consumers and designers alike have come to expect from vinyl signwriting.

Other imminent advances include enhanced films that conform to more challenging surfaces including compound curves and deep draws. Easy application and residue-free removal are also top of the list. The evolutions of the past 70 years have been driven by the needs and expectations of the vinyl signwriting industry, and this is expected to be the case looking into the future.

In this changing and exciting industrial environment, the team at The Sussex Sign Company have the expertise and knowledge honed over two decades in the industry necessary to guide you through the science of vinyl signwriting towards a solution perfectly tailored for your business’ needs. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll do our utmost to assist you.

Shop Window Signs

Shop window signs – facts and figures that you shouldn’t ignore

The high street has always been competitive, but with the rise of the internet and e-commerce, it’s more important than ever to have a shopfront that draws attention, piques interest and stands out from the crowd. Your shopfront embodies your business and is the first physical thing that potential customers interact with. It’s therefore important for numerous reasons that any shopfront and window signs communicate precisely the image that your business seeks to project. In this post, we try to answer any questions you might have around shop window signage.

What are signs for?

It might sound like a silly question, but the answer goes deeper than you might think. At face value, the purpose of signage is to communicate to the public that your business exists. The type, form and appearance of the sign, if done properly and with consideration, might inform the consumer about the nature of the business.

Another way in which to understand the importance of a sign is consider it as a silent salesperson, “selling” your business to potential customers by drawing attention to it and helping to differentiate it from the blur of other shops on the high street. If successful, therefore, shop window signs can be an effective and easy way to increase foot traffic, giving a purpose to signage beyond simply marking your existence. Indeed, signage serves as the initial link between your business and its customers (to be).

Viewed from yet another slightly different angle, signage could be seen as the real-world equivalent of web design. Businesses routinely splash out thousands on web design, but physical signage is often treated only as an afterthought. Both are as important as each other, however, and the amount of attention, time and capital you decide to allocate to each one should depend upon the primary market focus of your business.

Why are signs so significant to a business?

Any business that fails to make window signage a central component of its overall marketing strategy can only put itself at a disadvantage. Depending on the location, your signage could be visible to hundreds or thousands of people every day, delivering the same coverage as a billboard at a fraction of the price. And unlike other means of advertising, such as television or radio, window signs are visible 24/7.

The importance of brand recognition

Signs can contain your business’ logo, helping to build brand recognition and familiarity. This is important, with research suggesting that 85 per cent of the customers of a small, independent shop live or work within 3 miles of it, on average. There’s also evidence to suggest that consumers are risk-averse, preferring to buy from companies they’ve already heard of, so striking window signage can help sow seeds that may bloom into sales further down the line.

This makes sense – once customers know where and what your business is, thanks to your shop window signs, it will be at the front of their mind when they think of where they could go to acquire what it is that your business provides. And this is key – this familiarity, in time, develops into a sense of ‘local community’. Aided by involvement in local affairs, such as sponsoring a local sports team, your business will come to be seen as a truly community entity, which, given the current movement to support local business, helps to give you the edge over corporate and chain competitors. And all of this starts with a recognisable sign!What other benefits do shop window signs have to offer?

High quality signs can give the impression of professionalism, working on the idea that if the signage is of superior quality, then the products or services provided by the business will be too. First impressions are particularly important – they’re formed in an instant, and second chances are hard to come by!

Another benefit derived from high visibility window signs is that they ensure you’ll be found. Many customers, especially younger ones, may initially find your shop online by searching for the service or product that you provide. Others may be travelling from other areas, or trying to find your shop having been advised by friends. Market research has shown that between 20 to 45 per cent of purchases are made on impulse, so window signs encouraging this sort of shopping (think ‘sale’) may be particularly successful.

Some statistics also suggest that up to 15 per cent of the population relocate every year, and although their destinations are highly location-dependent, this is likely to mean a steady flow of potential customers to be attracted by your signs. Naturally, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for all of these prospective customers to find you, and window signs help you to very effectively achieve this.

The economic question

As with any investment, business owners will want to ensure that they will receive a good return on their outlay. The installation of shop window signs has been shown to directly increase sales – so too has simply changing the sign, suggesting that it’s a good idea to freshen up your frontage every now and then. Signage is generally a very cost-effective option for advertising and promotion. Measured by cost-per-thousand-impressions, signage is far cheaper than radio, television or newspapers.

Conclusions

It goes without saying that to unleash the full effect, your shop window signage should be just one part of a larger sign-based marketing campaign. There are many other types of signs which could deliver a plethora of benefits to your business. Here at The Sussex Sign Company, we have the expertise and experience to help you find the most appropriate signage solution to achieve your desired strategic goals.

For help or more information please call us on 01273 417057 or email us here.