Your external signage is your bread-and-butter when it comes to drawing focus and attention towards your storefront. No matter how extensive your marketing campaign may be otherwise, if you lack any indication as to where your store is, you probably won’t have much luck drawing in customers. Further, your signage is the only way customers on the street will notice your storefront at all. So making sure people pay attention to your banners and signs is a crucial step towards your business’s marketing.
Unfortunately, storefront banners don’t afford you all that much space. You will only have so much canvas on which to stake out your call-to-action, so getting it right the first time is paramount. After all, you will only have a few fleeting seconds in which to do it.
So how does one make sure that your banner gets the attention that it deserves from would-be customers? How do you make sure your message sinks in? Luckily, it’s not a difficult science to master.
Be Big, Be Bold
Bigger is better in most circumstances. A larger banner means that it’s less likely to slip under people’s radar, and it gives you a little extra room to maneuver. While there is a limit to how big you can make a banner before it becomes impractical, whether it’s to do with cost or where to put the thing, in general you should try to go for as big a banner as possible.
Make sure that the banner is also bold. Avoid muted background colours such as grey and beige as much as possible. Understand contrast and how colours play against each other and find ways to make the images and lettering on your banners stand out. The more you make them jump out from the banner, the more successfully it will draw the eye and generate interest from bystanders about what it’s selling.
Be Relevant
Don’t put anything on your banner that doesn’t need to be there. Remember: you’re paying, in part, just to have the space to print your message — you can’t afford to waste any of it. Make sure that everything on your banner needs to be there, and cut away anything that doesn’t. It may require some thinking to distinguish one from the other.
There’s also the fact that too much stuff on a banner can make it seem crowded and confusing. Keeping the clutter to a minimum will maximise the impact of your banner and improve the chances of successful on-street conversion.
Be Memorable
Find something that makes your banner stand out from the others. This can be anything from a cartoonish mascot, to an intelligent tagline, to a fun joke or pun. The more individual and memorable your banner is, the less likely it is to become lost amongst a sea of competing signs and banners. Plus, the more people think of and recall your banner, the more likely they are to see what it’s advertising.
Be Prominent
Make sure your sign is somewhere where people will see it. This means placing it in a position where people’s eyes will most naturally be drawn. For example, on the side of a road, or just eye-level by a shop window. Walk along a stretch of sidewalk alongside your business, or wherever else you intend to set up a banner, and see where your eyes tend to gravitate. If you can, place a banner in one of those areas. Make sure your banner stands on its own as much as possible. Try to avoid having it clustered amongst other objects that may draw attention away from it.
Be Adaptive
Don’t set yourself down on a single banner design. Always do what works, and keep an eye out on things that may help your banner’s effectiveness. If you notice that a certain banner style seems to have more success than another style, adapt accordingly. If an event is ongoing that you think you can tie your banner into, such as a sports game or a national holiday, tie in that into your banner’s theme.
Survival favours not the strongest, but the most adaptive. If you can keep your banner design flexible and easily adjusted, then you will get more people to pay attention to it for longer. Design and printing services like those found at qualitysigndesigner.com allow you to revise, upload, and preview your designs online at any time.
Christian Mills is a freelance writer and business student who provides insight and articles on a variety of topics affecting the small business owner and operator.
