Super Cheap Signs blog

How to create a great outside sign

Jon — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:02:16 +0000

Before you design your sign, be sure to consider the intended display area for your signs. Many graphic artists make the mistake of creating designs that look fabulous on their screen but not so fabulous for a large display sign. Whereas text conveys the message in an electric file, graphic design conveys the message in a large printed product such as banners and cortex Bandit signs. This is why it is so important to have minimal written content.

With all the competition available in today’s world, it’s important to best utilize the sign colors and space to produce the best possible advantage. The right text will give the most import information needed, such as contact information. But it is the colors, the layout and the design which will grab new customers.

To maximize the impact of your signs, be sure to take into consideration where you want to place your signs. The placement of your signs plays a big role in how many new customers you gain.

Here are some quick tips prior to placing your Super Cheap Signs order

View a couple of the areas or the location you will be placing your signs. Guess work can create a lot of wasted space. Outdoor signs are designed for pedestrians and motorists, the signs are expected to be more visible from farther distances than indoor signs. If most the new customers you want to attract will see them at night, you don’t want a black background with yellow letters.

Vinyl banners are primarily used for its visual impact more than its word content. The visual display should be able say its message in seconds with a picture and minimal text. Use contrasting colors so the words and or pictures stand out. The colors you use in your banner should not match the color of the building or placement to which you will be using to hang the banner from.

Consider who will be reading the sign and who you want to read the sign. If you own a coffee shop and the community is dog friendly, your banner can show a dog sitting at a table while its owner drinks coffee.

An education in transferring artwork from an electric file to corrugated plastics and vinyl banners.

Jon — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:19:44 +0000

I’ve always believed that I can make anything if I set my mind to it. However, if you have no idea how something is made, you may think that making it should be a ‘piece of cake.’ But making a cake is not so simple and neither is printing yard signs and banners.

The commercial printing of yard signs and banners is actually rather fascinating. At a previous company I created a variety of different marketing materials. I helped with the size and shape of marketing materials and also proofed them for any possible errors. Nevertheless, I have never seen the actual process of a blank canvass go to a finished printed product.

Graphic designers are capable of creating beautiful commercial artwork. But transferring the artwork from an electronic file to corrugated plastic or a vinyl banner has more challenges than I realized. The worlds of creation and commercial printing can be as different as Venus and Pluto.

The first thing I did in my new position as Customer Service Representative was learn how signs are created from start to finish. I learned today that the method in which artwork is saved and sent to us makes a big difference. To help you save money, Super Cheap Signs requires all artwork saved as eps, ai and cdr. These are file types. If you would like to know more, SCS has a Help page called File Types. Even with the correct file type there is still more to it than just how you save a file. The design also has to be vectorized (also known as outlined).

Wise Geek defines vector graphics as “ The method using geometrical formulas is known as vector or vectorized graphics.” The reason vectorized graphics are good thing is because the image can be enlarged or reduced easily without losing any artwork quality.

If a file isn’t vectorized (outlined), our designers have to recreate the file or request from the customer that the artwork be resent as a vectorized file. Resending the file as vectorized is always the easiest choice. On the other hand, some artwork has been commercially purchased or saved from older programs that do not have the ability to be updated. When this happens, our designers will try to recreate the artwork in our studios.

If you want a better explanation of what a vectorized graphic looks like, check out the WebGrrl article “Convert any image to a vector image.”

New Kids On The Block

Jon — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:38:17 +0000

Being the new kid in the office is always a bit awkward. Fortunately for me the group at Super Cheap Signs is a great bunch of Joes…and now a Jane with me as the new and only female addition. That alone should make some interesting story telling. Thankfully, I’m not the only new family member. Super Cheap Sign’s newest Sales Representative is Danny Harvill.

Danny is here to assist customers in determining which of our products will best fit their various needs. Super Cheap Signs realizes that every customer is different and so are their advertising needs. We want to make sure that each and every customer gets what they need and only what they need in a timely manner…and that they get it super cheap!

One thing I am particularly happy about is the relaxed atmosphere in the office and the thoughtful way in which people treat one another. Everyone is very friendly and open, so I haven’t had any problems asking questions and getting to know all of the Super Cheap Sign products and services. In fact, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning how signs are made.

As much as I would love to go on and on about how signs are made and how cool the process really is — I believe I’ll leave that for the near future. I feel very lucky to be part of the Super Cheap Signs family and look forward to talking to all the current and future Super Cheap Sign customers.

Quote of the day

Jon — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:18:11 +0000

I have a new buddy who owns another sign shop. Not just any sign shop, but a directly competing sign shop! We were talking today and he said a great thing about customer service, “I don’t focus on trying to get new business, I focus on trying to get repeat business!” because he determines success by the level of customer service he provides, and the number of repeat orders is the measuring stick.

Placing Bandit Signs - Against the Law?

Jon — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 02:50:45 +0000

Attached is an impassioned email from a loyal customer in the DC area. It’s about some of the laws that have been passed regarding the placement of so-called ‘Bandit Signs’, or Yard Signs, and their response. This customer game me permission to post the email, on the condition I leave out the author’s name. It’s a bit long, but for those of you interested in the topic its still a very good read.

You’ll also see there is a letter attached from a Real Estate Investor to the ACLU…

Happy Reading!

-Jon

Dear Jon:

I have been advised by my attorneys to simply change the phone number on the sign to an unpublished number. We rotate the phone numbers and we don’t list our company name in my home state, VA. I made it difficult for them to fine us ($100 a sign in VA, $500 a sign in MD). I changed our business over to an LLC from a sole proprietorship. Now, the registered agent for the company resides in 100 miles from the jurisdiction where we put the signs.

We never put the signs out during the day. We start putting them out after 5:00 p.m. This makes it impossible for the Virginia, Maryland, and DC department’s of transportation to fine us since they don’t work after 5. They are the ones who have the jurisdiction to fine us (they can only fine us if they see someone named in our company’s LLC put a sign in the ground). We also purchased this device that puts the signs high up on poles. Those signs stay up for a week or more. We also use two sided tape to tape them to the metal sign poles in the medians.

Our lawyer told us to politely point out to a cop-should they harass us-that putting signs out is not a criminal violation. We are told to say to all cops, “Do you have jurisdiction over this matter? Is this a criminal violation? My lawyer told us it wasn’t. Have a good day officer.”

My arrangement sounds sleazy at first glance, but I have had several lawyers look at our local sign ordinances. They have told me that they are a blatant violation of our commercial free speech. I figure it would cost me around a half a million dollars to fight the local ordinances. It’s a lot simpler to play dirty like the Realtors and politicians. Also, if I did fight the sign ordinances in our area, there’s a good chance they might actually write a proper sign ordinance (no signs for anyone anywhere in this jurisdiction). Protecting free speech is my second priority. Making a living is my first.

The lazy government worker who picks up one of our signs can’t fine us because the phone number on the sign is simply not listed when they do a reverse search. It would cost them much more than what they would make fines to get a court order to find out who we are. They just don’t bother. The local powers that be do, however, call us up every so often to tell us that, “They are going to do a sting on us.” Well, they did. I thanked them for letting me know as well. They tried to do it by having a well marked county vehicle follow me around one day. To make a long story short, I stopped my car after a few miles of him tailing me, waved a sign at them and smiled. Then I walked into a Mac Donald’s, sat down at a table by the window and stared at them parked in the middle of the road staring at me. (Legally, they couldn’t do anything because they didn’t see me put the sign in the ground). Anyway, I exchanged my car for a rental for the next few weeks, started putting the signs out at night and I haven’t seen them or heard from them since.

The bottom line. Many jurisdictions around the country are being sued by bigger businesses with bigger budgets and they are winning. A sign ordinance with an exception for one group or another violates several supreme court decisions as outlined in the attached documents. There’s a lot more bullshit we have encountered over the ordinances, but I think we have a handle on it now.

Suing the government is extremely expensive. Check out your local chapter of the ACLU. The Thomas Jefferson Center also agreed to do all of the legal research for us for free in conjunction with our lawyer should we ever decide to go to court. Our lawyers have told us that a lawsuit against the government requires endless billable hours of research. There are hundreds of law clinics that could aid in that research for free.

There’s a lot more to all of this than I mentioned in this email. Google Reid Cox and read his Constitutional Primer On Sign Ordinances. I also attached a letter-PDF-that I gave to the Director of the Virginia chapter of the ACLU.

Letter from Real Estate Investor to ACLU

Electrical Upgrade

Jon — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:06:05 +0000

By the way, we’ll be closed for a few hours on Thursday morning. Austin Energy is upgrading our electrical, and we’ll be without power until Noon CST on Thursday February 28.

When we first moved into our really cool new 7500 square foot building, we felt like big shots. Then I turned the fan on in the bathroom (fart fan) and POOF! Blew a circuit. Uh Oh. Turned out I have more power in my shed at home that in this new building. Gary said, “can’t turn on a flashlight without tripping a circuit”!

Not all was lost however, the City of Austin quoted two or three weeks to upgrade our electrical service. Wasn’t thrilled but said ‘Make it Happen’ and started the ball rolling. That was in October 2007.

Like all great cities, there were inexplicable delays that were “nobody’s fault in particular”. One delay after another, then Thanksgiving then Christmas then I don’t know before it seemed that tomorrow (hopefully) all will be complete.

Anyways: Thursday’s upgrade should go smoothly and we’ll have better working conditions and better technology and equipment. Not to mention I can turn on the fart fan again! We are most thankful.

Flickr is Cool!

Jon — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:30:05 +0000

My cousin Doug and his wife have a blog they use to chronicle their personal lives. Their blog links to flickr.com to show pics they took and I thought that was cool. After loading up a few personal pics, I tried something else; I started putting a select group of proofed sign images on my flickr page.

It really works great and is easy to use and organize pics. And it’s really easy for customers to check out designs we’ve done before. I was talking to a customer who wanted a ‘hand written’ look for his sign. So I sent him this link: click here to see picture. He saw the picture, and made the order without hesitation!

Tips For Increasing Sales

Jon — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:26:56 +0000

1. Offer Tangible Deals
Believe it or not, time-honored retail wisdom states that people respond better to an offer for a dollar amount off of a purchase rather than a percentage off. The reason is that people can easily deduct x amount of dollars off of a price, whereas figuring out the percentage off actually requires a bit of brain power. This applies even if the percentage off would yield a bigger savings. My experience running the Super Cheap Signs website supports this premise.

2. Don’t Be All Things To All People
There are two types of shoppers in this world: Those who are always looking for the deal and those who are more than willing to pay full price. The customer who is willing to pay full price does so for one or many reasons, such as quality, exclusivity, ease of ordering and convenience and such. When you decide which customer you are marketing to, your marketing dollars will be more focused and therefore more effective.

Full-price customers will not respond to intense promotional efforts and “deal finder” customers will not purchase at full price. If you spend your dollars wisely on the right customer, you will likely find that your customer calls, visits, and conversion rates increase as a result.

3. Customer Service Reps Build Loyalty
In this day and age of customer-centric marketing, customer service is one of the most important aspects of retailing. Yet how many times have you tried to contact customer service about a purchase and received a response late if never, or received a totally impersonal response that makes you feel like you are corresponding with an anonymous android?
My site SuperCheapSigns.com may not be the biggest company, but we do pride ourselves on our personal service and we find it is greatly appreciated by our customers. We often hear from satisfied customers who say they would rather shop with us than with any of our competitors. The same goes for initially dissatisfied customers whom we were able to swing back over to our side because we went out of our way to listen to them and offer fair responses. And usually both groups are quick to purchase again.

All we really do is answer phone calls and emails with a positive attitude in a conversational tone. We actually share our names and personal email addresses, and address customers by their names. It’s amazing how much impact those tiny little niceties make.

4. Target and Speak to Specific Customer Segments
One-size-fits-all marketing is a good place to start from to drive sales, but once you’ve mastered that you need to get more specific. Some of the customer segments we focus on at our e-commerce site SuperCheapSigns.com are Real Estate Investors, Small Business Owners, and Political Campaigns. Because we are an online retailer we reach out to them through email, and we achieve much better open rates, clickthroughs and sales with any targeted group.

5. Highlight Your Exclusives
Often retailers and marketers are so deep down into their business that they do not realize what exclusives they have to offer. SuperCheapSigns.com, where I am the owner and take charge of most of the marketing effort, has had a customer loyalty program. You may have an exclusive VIP club or other membership program.

6. Sell Your “EST”?
Somebody told me to figure out what your “EST” is and focus all your efforts on doing the very best you can in that space. “EST” means “cheapEST”, “hottEST”, “quickEST”, “easiEST” and so on — and no, “best” does not count as that is not focused in any meaningful way. The point is that you should excel at one thing over your competitors. Get your entire company on board with this concept, from buyers to top-level management and all points in between. While this is not a quick fix for driving sales, it will have big impact on the success of your business over the long term.

(inspired by Steve Barr of Intermixonline.com)

Posting Signs in Austin

Jon — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:08:52 +0000

Putting out signs is hard, and getting them out on a Friday and then picking up Sunday is key. The City of Austin doesn’t seem nearly as annoyed with those who put signs out just on the weekend. Long time SUPER loyal customer Dan Buffington passed along the contact info of someone that will do exactly that for a good price:

Chris Rodarte

Manager/ Owner

Austin Direct Advertising

512-992-3022

Dan says Chris will put out and pick up 100 signs for $125. Thanks, Dan!

These Guys Are Good

Jon — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:35:47 +0000

Customer service is key.

One of the Customer Service Reps (CSR) was out on a vacation day today so I sat in to help. First thing I noticed: The phone never stops ringing! It’s not a bad thing, really! New orders, proofing updates, order changes, order status, can’t figure out how to send a file, and “I ordered UPS 2nd Day Air and it’s been 3 days so where are my signs?!?” with the response, “Sorry Sir, we have to make the signs first before we ship them 2nd Day Air”! Mostly I’m in awe of how cool and calm our CSRs are throughout the day. Not even a lunch break today from any of them (except me of course).

Everyone knows how essential customer service is to any business and so it always surprises me when I use or go to a business and don’t get the best service possible. It’s quite disappointing, actually. Customer service really does make a difference in the experience you have, whether it’s at a restaurant or a hardware store. Personally, I will continue to support a business establishment if I feel that the customer service provided to me has been honest and the person I’m interacting with is doing the best job they can to make sure that I’m being taken care of. That is when you truly know this is the business you will continue to support, and recommend to your family and friends.With the holiday season creeping up on our backs, I wanted to express my gratitude toward the great employees that make your Super Cheap Signs experience a memorable one.
“Have a bad experience and you’ll tell 10 people. Have a good experience and maybe you tell one”. In light of this often heard customer service slogan, here is a slew of quotes from folks who have had GOOD experiences with us. This is from an internal email our Customer Service Director, Colin, wrote to spread the good word. Many thanks to Adrian, Mike, & Emily for making it happen…

Happy Friday,

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular event where I email customer compliments that we have received.

This inaugural email includes compliments going back to May so if you have seen them already I apologize. If you haven’t seen them…here you go! Great job on getting these compliments from customers; it’s not always an easy thing to do.

“Great service! I will be ordering again here shortly!!!”

“Thank you! I received my signs and they look great! You guys are the best.”

“I wanted to thank you for getting me my sign order in time. There were some issues with timing and I certainly appreciate the extra effort that your customer service folks put forth to get my order delivered. Thank you very much - I will not be afraid to use Super Cheap Signs again in the future.”

“Your customer service was excellent - thank you! I think we revised the sign 4 times and you all remained very patient and friendly.”

“I did receive my signs and they were great.”

“Your work is good and I appreciate your help on my project. The site and customer service are exceptional. I’m a customer for life. My sales team has been notified about my design and should be ordering from you also. It’s been a pleasure dealing with your company.”

“I just wanted to thank you for all of your efforts on our sign order. The signs turned out great.”

“Thanks, Adrian. Really appreciate the service!”

“It was my first time ordering and it was literally “pain free” and very easy. Great job! The signs arrived when they were supposed to and we are very happy with your service. ‘Til next time. Thanks, Sirli”

“I am highly impressed and I will let you know if I can think of anything, but you have been really easy to deal with. Thanks, Rich”

“Amazing quality at such a low low price, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Again-great job.

Thanks. Colin

Our CSRs at Super Cheap Signs are truly what makes any ‘ol customer into a loyal one, one that will continue to seek out our business to keep getting the excellent service they’ve come to expect.