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.