Why Outdoor Signage Is As Important As Facebook

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You know you need to have a social media presence, but for a high street business, high-quality signage is still a savvy marketing strategy. Nothing builds brand awareness like outdoor signs that are well-designed, well-executed and displayed correctly.

Visual communication

While your Facebook page can build your digital profile, nothing brands you in your community like a sign above your premises. That’s what your potential customers walk or drive past on a daily basis, and it creates brand awareness and provides vital visual communication. It’s that communication that can be critical for the success of your business.

Signs let potential customers know where you are and that you exist – 76% of respondents to a recent FedEx study said they visited a store they never knew existed because of its sign, and 75% were happy to recommend a business based on its sign. Those numbers are too persuasive to ignore.

Your sign is not dependent on SEO to make an impact, and it can stand out in all weathers, creating thousands of impressions that Facebook just can’t match.

Is bigger signage better?

Size matters when you’re designing a sign – the sign itself, the objects that contextualise it and the size of the font. An oversized sign can detract from the message, whereas a small, well-placed sign can create a bigger and better impact than a larger one.

Some types of sign are already restricted in our cityscapes, including estate agents signboards. In fact, the overall size of the sign is not as important as the message that your sign conveys, thanks to the complicated and complex way we sequence and process a sign when driving or walking past.

What makes offline branding the right fit for your business is the unique value proposition that this kind of differentiation delivers for your business. Be bold but restrained and you’ll make maximum impact.

First impressions count

Your signage delivers the fundamentals of your branding in the blink of an eye. Therefore, creating that killer first impression through your signs means approaching them in the manner of an elevator pitch. If your pitch works, your customer will step inside, but that can only happen if your signs are consistent, clear and concise, with enough interest to draw your customers in.

Be seen

With Google rumoured to be building an ad-blocker directly into the next version of Chrome, the chances of getting your online ads seen are diminishing. With 26% of your audience already using ad-blockers, is your message getting through?

Using signs, you can communicate directly with your potential customers, thanks to their visibility and clear call to action. If static signs don’t work with your business, consider using vinyl car wraps to create thousands of impressions for just a few pence.

Ask the experts

When you’re looking to create high impact signage in West Sussex, it can be tough to get the messaging and design right. But when great signs can have as big an impact as your Facebook presence, why not ask the experts? At The Sussex Sign Company, we can help you maximise your ROI for signs with a greater reach than online marketing alone. Contact us today via phone or email and we’ll be happy to help.

Get The Most Out Of Directional Signage For Your East Sussex Event

Whether you’re organising a charity fun run or a festival, directional signs are a critical part of the audience experience. Here’s how to get the best out of directional signage.

Keep it simple

They say that less is more, and it’s the smart approach when creating wayfinding signs for your event. Keep the design clean and simple for the biggest impact.

Use colour for visible signage

If the message needs to be simple, you can add interest with colour and fonts. Black text on yellow is highly legible, but you can experiment with your corporate colours. Stick to san serif fonts to create modern and readable signs.

Put signs where your audience see them

Don’t restrict signs to certain places. Scatter them visibly throughout the event, so that people always know where the closest toilet or refreshments tent can be found. Make sure you walk the course or the event space before the event to ensure that signs are exactly where they’re needed.

Point the way

Finally, make sure that your signs are unambiguous – arrows shouldn’t be confusing and may need to be supported with other explanatory signs. If you need help to get the most out of your event signage, contact The Sussex Sign Company via phone or email today.

The Psychology Of Signage And Making It Work For You

If you’re struggling to break through the visual noise and get your business noticed, you may need to resort to psychological warfare. At least, you might need to look at the psychology of signage in order to break through and connect with your audience. Signs can increase sales, drive customer loyalty and improve the customer experience if you take time to understand the way they work.

The differentiation of the unfamiliar

In a visually dense marketing landscape, we start to apply filters that allow us to perceive messages selectively. Where signs can have an edge in differentiating your business in London is their relative unfamiliarity – we’re not bored with seeing them, so we allow our brains to take notice. In fact, 75% of people claim to remember a sign they’ve seen in the last month.

Signage has direct relevance

Relevant signs allow you to target the right customer, in the right place, at the right time in a way that other marketing channels do not. An ad for fresh sandwiches on the radio doesn’t have the relevance, context and impact of an advert outside a sandwich shop.

Adapt to your consumer with personalisation Your signage can be adapted for your consumer, with different signs carrying different messages depending on factors like footfall. Personalised signs are more responsive than other traditional advertising channels and are more responsive to consumer needs.

Let the consumer take control

Traditional forms of advertising impose themselves on the consumer. But signs that allow the consumer to take control of the way they interact make your advertising feel as if it’s less of an imposition. Allow your audience to interact with your signs in a natural and intuitive way and you’ll remove the negative connotations associated with pushy marketing. Your audience will make purchasing and other decisions based on the merits of your content, not because they feel forced into doing so.

Creating a better customer experience

Relevance, personalisation and control are all critical to a better customer experience. Instead of simply adding to the noise with irrelevant messages that consumers can’t be bothered to respond to, high quality signs are a genuinely creative marketing channel that delivers the right message at the right time and in a way that is fresh and relevant. Your signs can educate, entertain and inform, and persuade the consumer to take certain purchasing decisions rather than hectoring them. By earning your audience’s attention rather than demanding it, good signs deliver a great customer experience.

Ask the experts

If you feel that you’re losing the war for your audience’s attention, then take a fresh look at your signage. Using signs can deliver unexpected benefits when you understand the psychology behind them, but harnessing that power demands responsive, professional design for best results. At The Sussex Sign Company, we know how to maximise your ROI by offering a complete end to end service that delivers great signs with the minimum of fuss. If you’re interested in creating signs that break through the advertising noise, contact us via phone or email today for more details.

The Sussex Sign Company scores top marks.

When it comes to ensuring the highest levels of health and safety for its staff and customers, The Sussex Sign Company has scored top marks.

Based in Portslade, East Sussex, The Sussex Sign Company has a long record of providing some of the most innovate and creative signage in the South East and London and has now been awarded CHAS accreditation for the second year running, which is considered to be the highest accolade in terms of health and safety credentials.

MD, Norman Mayhew, is delighted to report that the business is one of a very few who have achieved the status – on top of Safe Contractor certification – putting The Sussex Sign Company at the top of its game in terms of health and safety.

CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) is rapidly becoming a construction industry award which improves standards across the whole industry.

Founded in 1995, The Sussex Sign Company has grown into one of the most successful sign manufacturing companies in the industry, with a reputation and diverse portfolio to match.

Norman said health and safety is taken very seriously and the business constantly works towards improving their processes and systems wherever they can.

‘We are delighted to gain the CHAS Accredited Contractor Award for another year. It demonstrates our commitment to Health and Safety legislation and because CHAS also focuses on reducing duplication, it helps our suppliers and buyers work with us seamlessly,’ he added.

The Sussex Sign Company also hold SafeContractor accreditation, which further provides assurance that the business has achieved the highest levels of health and safety compliance.

The Rules Of Good Signage

Good signage earns attention, and it doesn’t bully your audience. But how do you know what a good sign looks like?

Know your objectives

It’s always tempting to put brand awareness top of your list of objectives, but how do you intend to measure what that looks like? Instead, bind your objectives to clear metrics that allow you to measure success – or failure.

Identifying your target audience allows you to create signs that are relevant to your customers. It’s that relevance that drives action, whether that’s reaching out or making a purchasing decision. Be clear on your customer profiles, from their fears and desires to their emotional profile and spending habits, and let objectives and profiles inform placement, design, message and timing.

Know your location

The placement of your signs will differ depending on customer profiles and type of content. So an interactive sign aimed at women aged 40-55 will require a different placement to a point of sale promotion aimed at 18-25 year old males. Don’t equate footfall with relevance, and always take accessibility into account when locating your signs.

Understand design

The design of your signs should always complement the message. While the Stroop test shows that some level of disruption can force the brain to pay attention – when the word blue appears written in green, for example – be wary of splitting your audience’s attention as that can delay comprehension of the message. When the time to make an impression and impart information is already limited, it doesn’t make sense to slow comprehension any further.

Send a clear message

Your signs should prioritise a simple message delivered as effectively as possible. A simple message demands your focus and a response, and that counts when the human attention span is just 8 seconds – lower even than a goldfish. The point is that signs and signposting are very much a medium that is glanced at and they need to stand out from the visual noise of our modern marketing environment. Don’t make an impression without making a real impact.

Get the timing right

Timing is dependent on both the location of your signs and the medium you use to convey the message. A static sign is entirely appropriate for a roadside drive-by location, but won’t earn attention in a static location. Get the balance and timing wrong and you’ll frustrate your customers by failing to get your message across.

Good signage puts the customer first

Advertising often gets a bad rap, but it’s not the marketing channel itself that’s at fault, but irrelevant and intrusive content that turns consumers off. Consumers are responsive to well designed and relevant content – in a survey 77% of respondents said they wanted the ability to ad filter rather than flat out ad block – but you need to ensure that you’re giving your audience that optimal advertising experience. Make your content engaging, relevant and meaningful. Make enhancing the customer experience central to every piece of signage you create. With entertaining and interesting signage from The Sussex Sign Company, you’ll impress and engage customers in West Sussex and beyond. Call or email us today for more information.

Why Your Sign Company Can Be Central To Delivering A Brand Experience

Whether your retail premises have recently undergone a refit, or you’re designing a walking route around a stately home, the challenges that face you are fundamentally the same: how can I use beautifully designed signage to enhance the brand experience for customers and visitors?

The problem that faces you is whether you can use bold and innovative signs to head off frustration, and whether you can develop a wayfinding strategy that hits all the touchpoints of your customer’s experience to positively improve brand recognition and experience.

Apply online navigation to offline spaces

Your customer should never be confused about the space they’re in. Signs need to be consistent with your branding and attractive and clear enough to bring in first time customers who can quickly interact with the brand thanks to the cues from your signage. Just as customers browsing your website will click away if the navigation isn’t simple, precise and consistent across the site, so your offline customers will go elsewhere if you don’t apply the same navigation principles.

The decision making process

Wayfinding is about keying into the critical decisions that consumers make and giving useful information at every decision point. The fact is a well-designed entrance will attract people when the overhead sign may be ignored, but the success of your overall strategy is directly dependent on how well all the elements of the wayfinding environment come together in the designs you create with your sign maker.

Wayfinding and the branding experience

If wayfinding is part of a wider visual environment, then it must be part of the broader conversation around branding. After all, it’s the purpose of good quality signage to control the movement of consumers within the retail environment. From the first touchpoint with your brand, you need to establish clarity and tone of voice, whether that’s a map on a flyer or spoken instructions on a phone message.

Interact with the space

Retail spaces are no longer designed to be static. Instead, ranges, layouts and promotions often change, which makes effective signage absolutely vital in helping customers navigate the store successfully, and creating a positive impression of their interaction with your brand. Treating the signage as integral to the success of the overall design will help avoid pitfalls that lead to frustration and disconnection with your brand.

Using a sign company to make signs work

You’ll need both directional signs (those with a visual clue like an arrow) and location signs (those that tell you where you are). Ask your sign maker to produce a group of signs that use corporate colours to enhance your signage, and pay attention to contrast, fonts and font size and accessibility. Remember that your customers will assume a frictionless brand experience that is the same offline and online, and if you don’t deliver, you’ll create a poor brand experience and impression that can be hard to recover from. Search out a decent sign maker who can help you deliver.

If you’re looking for an experienced and professional sign company in London, or the south-east, then here at the The Sussex Sign Company, we strive to earn the best ROI for our customers. Contact us via phone or email for more details.

Why Halo Illuminated Signs Are So Popular On The British High Street

Wherever you look on the average British high street, you’ll see illuminated signs with a subtle and sophisticated halo lighting effect. This beautiful way of highlighting and differentiating a sign uses built up letters and LED lighting to create the effect.

What is the halo effect?

Using lightweight and hollow letters, the internal LED lights are projected backwards onto the wall, creating a halo of light behind the letters. This is an extremely effective and eye-catching effect that can also match your company’s brand colours to produce beautiful – and energy efficient – signage.

Creating 3D effects

The use of channel letters creates a 3D effect, which is enhanced by the use of the LED halo lighting. Your sign company should mount the letters themselves on spacers, allowing the halo effect to amplify, while the use of either contrast colour or high impact white will further enhance the sense that the letters are floating in mid-air, creating an incredible 3D boost.

If you want to heighten the illusion of the letters floating in mid-air even further, try alternating lighting effects to highlight some letters more than others – the range of effects you can create is infinite and can even lend the appearance of movement.

If you want to create another level of illumination, then ask your sign company to panel mount the entire sign and then halo light the panel itself. Not only is this an excellent way to differentiate your sign from a similarly coloured background, but it creates a real wow factor with the extra level of illumination.

Eye-catching communication

In the visual noise of the typical high street, creating a sign that communicates with your potential customers and develops brand awareness is paramount. Nothing does that more effectively than a halo illuminated sign, which is why they’re so popular with big high street brands like M&S and Caffe Nero. The reason you can automatically identify their branding is thanks to well executed halo illumination using bright white to make the brand name pop.

Why use LEDs?

LED lighting is the ideal way to illuminate channel letters. Energy efficient and capable of a comprehensive range of lighting effects, LEDs last for 20 years or more and don’t require a large and potentially dangerous transformer, giving your business the flexibility to get the best possible return from your investment in halo lit signage.

Halo illuminated signs: not just for outdoors

The combination of your corporate colours and font, when used in a branded illuminated sign, are a powerful mnemonic for your business. So why only use such a powerful tool for the outside of your building. Across the British high street, you’ll see the repetition of halo illuminated signs throughout some stores, to reinforce brand awareness. It’s a trick you can use in your own premises.

If you’re looking for a sign company in West Sussex to execute beautiful halo illuminated signs for your business, then contact us at The Sussex Sign Company via phone or email. We’re experts in using LED technology to create stunning signs that ensure the best possible return on investment for our clients.

Why We Need Public Sector Signage

As the backbone of our society, the public sector has to work hard to give us information about our surroundings. That’s what makes public sector signage so important in our modern world – we rely on these signs to help us navigate the built environment or for vital information.

What is public sector signage?

When you enter a town or village, do you notice the ‘welcome to…’ sign? When you pass a building site, do you notice the warning signs? And when you have to visit the hospital, can you find where you’re going? These are all examples of public sector signs that are designed to make life safer, easier and more welcoming for all of us.

Why does it matter?

The more important the message, the more important it is that public sector signage is clear, distinct and has a unified look and feel for consistency and value. Professional looking public signs inspire confidence that everything is working efficiently and effectively, and that we can find the same navigational aids whenever we’re in a public place or building. Consider road signs – if they varied from county to county, they could prove dangerous and unsafe by delivering a confusing message.

Visual consistency and professionalism delivers a clear message that the public take notice of, because it carries the weight of authority. This is vital for road safety, health and for delivering important information that we instinctively take notice of.

Why design is important

When it comes to public sector signs, each panel is there to communicate precise information, informing and guiding the public whether outside or inside. Because of the clear and consistent visual vocabulary required, there are standards and regulations for the design of these important signs.

Signs should be displayed against a contrasting background, and should have a non-reflective surface so they’re easy to read. They should be correctly positioned for maximum visibility and accessibility and should use universally recognised symbols and sentence case, not uppercase lettering.

Using clear and consistent design principles is also important for the private sector when building top of mind awareness.

Innovative uses for public sector signs

Signage can also be used to celebrate achievement, raise awareness and build a positive image. For example, a donors’ wall in a hospital builds recognition, while a mission statement spelled out in bold graphics can really grab the public’s attention. Schools often use achievement walls to celebrate their pupils’ level of attainment. Innovation in public signage can even be used as part of an image building or rebranding exercise across all marketing channels, including social media.

The expert view

At the Sussex Sign Company, we understand that creating and producing high quality public signage can be critical to the way we interact with our environment. From the choice of materials to design and installation, we work to the highest standards to deliver public sector signage that meets all your requirements. If you’re in East Sussex and you’re looking for professional signage, please contact us via phone or email for further details on how we can work with you to create the signage you need.

Why Estate Agent Signs Still Matter In The Digital Market

The world of the traditional high street estate agent is under threat from the rise of digital and DIY options. RightMove has long been a first port of call for property hunters, but now estate agents themselves are moving online, offering some significant benefits over their bricks and mortar counterparts. So how can your business fight back against the online giants? It’s time for the traditional estate agent to up their game, and that means investing in better signage.

Enhance your business profile

Competition between bricks and mortar estate agents in London remains fierce, despite the rise of the online aggregators and DIY home selling solutions. So how can you make your business stand out from the competition? Strong and well designed signage acts as the gateway to your business, conveying brand trustworthiness, dependability and identity in the blink of an eye.

Offline branding through the use of great signs can help to define your unique value propositions, setting you apart from the other high street agents. Be bold with your design and use the best of modern technology to create a sign installation that really differentiates your business. For example, an LED illuminated sign can give a strong and professional look to your premises.

Investing in estate agent signs

Investing in new signage is one of the smartest things you can do in the battle for business. A well designed sign will act as a 24 hour advertisement for your business, building brand awareness every minute of every day, year round. When potential customers need your services, they’ll remember the impression that your brand made. Research by FedEx revealed that 76% of people have entered commercial premises based on the sign alone.
Estate agent signs get potential customers on board

Despite the amount of property porn that we can see online, nothing is as good as seeing a property for yourself and that’s where estate agent signs or boards can give you the edge. They promote interest, provide clear visibility for a property that’s for sale, and are a clear call to action to potential customers who are thinking of buying, and selling.

Your estate agent boards should be designed to achieve a range of outcomes – to attract the attention of passers-by and neighbours alike, since you never know who has a relative who is looking to move into the neighbourhood. These referrals can be tremendously powerful in influencing a buyer’s vendor decision making process. A proliferation of your boards not only builds brand awareness, it drives the impression that your company is the smart choice when you’re buying and selling property.

Employ the professionals

When you’re looking to invest in estate agent signs and boards in London, we’re your first port of call. We offer an integrated design and print service that takes advantage of a comprehensive range of cutting-edge, modern materials and technology to produce stunning signs with a high return on investment for our clients. Contact us via phone or email today to get more information.

The Most Intriguing Signage Trends For 2018

If you’re thinking about the ways that you can use high quality and well-designed signage this year, then there’s a world of astonishing possibilities. Though some of them may not quite be available to a sign writing company near you in the immediate future, they’re a sign of the way that technology is changing what the signage industry is capable of.

Wrap it up

You’ll already be familiar with high impact vehicle wraps and what a powerful marketing tool they can be for building customer trust and raising brand awareness. But have you considered harnessing that power and wrapping your building?

Building wraps have been used to wrap construction site hoardings in the past, but they can now deliver a marketing boost for a seasonal promotion, especially, of course, at Christmas, when you can wrap your building up like a gigantic present!

Add texture

Developments in texture printing are being influenced by 3D print technology and have some important applications for accessible signage. For example, you could choose to incorporate Braille directly into your signage as an innovative way to conform with disability legislation.

Texture printing will also have applications at the high end, giving a designer touch to your signage. Imagine a feature wall that looks and feels like leather, or a football protruding out of your wall that feels identical to the real thing – these are just some of the possibilities of texture printing.

Celebrate history

Schools, corporate offices, hospitals – these are just some of the places where you might find a history wall – a celebration of your achievements and the evolution of your brand or organisation. History walls are set to become a big thing in 2018 as nostalgia continues to be a trend.

Your history wall can be fully customised and personalised, perhaps consisting of a vinyl wall decal in your corporate colours as a background with wood, foam or acrylic signs that explain your organisation’s journey in text and graphics. The power of the history wall lies in the way that it can use different types of signs to create an impact. The more compelling the signage, the more interesting your brand’s story.

Create a first impression

On your lobby walls or behind the reception desk, a beautifully executed sign incorporating your logo and tagline can create a powerful first impression. Try channel letters with an LED halo lighting effect for an instant wow factor, or use texture printing techniques to create something utterly unique.

The underlying message is that 2018 might be the year that you need to rebrand, and what better way to announce your new logo and tagline than with a suite of high quality, interior signs?

Invest in quality

Even if you don’t intend to wrap your premises like a present, celebrate your history, rebrand with new shop signage or celebrate a significant anniversary with a history wall, 2018 might be the year that you reconsider the impression that your shop signs give of your company.

If your market research says it’s time for a change, The Sussex Sign Company can help. We offer a fully integrated service from design to installation and beyond, so phone us today or drop us an email for more information.