Marketing with Signs 101 is a three-part series on how to effectively use signs to generate more business. This article is part one of the series.

The new business or branch office
When you are starting a new business or opening a new branch of an existing business, nothing will “butts in the seats” like signs. Rule of thumb: If at least half of your business will come from people who live or work within a 10-mile radius of your location, a sign strategy is essential to early success.

Signs do two important things: They give people information about your business and they direct people to your business location. Understanding these two main benefits, let’s get started.

Before the Grand Opening
With a new business or location, I suggest starting as early as possible. As soon as you sign the lease on your new space (or buy it), you should order your “coming soon” banner to place outside the new address (preferably on the busiest street that borders your establishment and a corner is even better). This custom banner should use your company logo and colors (if you have them) so people will begin to associate them with your business. This will help them locate your business easily, once you put up some type of permanent signage.

Yard signs can also be used to generate interest before your business opens. A few well-placed “opening soon at…” sign on busy intersections will repeat your message over and over (in advertising, repetition is the key to success and nothing gets repeat views like yard signs at a busy intersection). 

When creating your signs, try to think like your potential customer. What will they need to know to make it to your address after you open? Make sure your business name, address and opening date are on there.

The Build Up
Once you know the date your establishment will open, swap out your “coming soon” banner with one that says “opening on…”. During this time, check on your yard signs and make sure to replace any that have been removed or damaged.

The Big Day
On opening day, you can replace your banner with one that says “Now Open” and put up new yard signs in the same locations as the old ones that also announce that you’re open for business.

Using signs to build up anticipation of your business opening is a proven method for getting new customers to your establishment.  After that, your excellent products and service will hopefully help you keep them for a long time.

Fonts, type faces and sizes – I mean this is pretty boring stuff. Nobody really wants to hear about it or think about it, even me, and my livelihood depends on it. Letters are the single most important part of a sign or banner – they are the building blocks of your message.

It may be a boring topic, but I can tell you this: nothing can screw up a sign faster than typeface experiments. With that said, here are my helpful type-tips:

• Boring fonts usually work best – if you’re considering a type-face with a name like “Lounge Bait” or “Mighty Tomato”, please just stop what you’re doing and count to ten. Old stand-bys are called that for a reason, they are clean and readable – use them.
• Avoid too many words – it’s tempting to put a lot of information on your sign.  Don’t do it!  Simple is best.  You are not making a menu for people to sit and ponder.  You have one chance (about three seconds) to target your desired audience and then you’re done.
• Use the right size type – try to figure out how far away people will be from your sign when they read it and select your letter size accordingly. Check out the helpful chart below, it will help you build a readable sign.

I work in a sign shop, so naturally, when I’m driving to and from work I notice yard signs (and vinyl banners, vehicle magnets, decals, etc.). In fact, my shop manager Gary and I usually have at least one sign-mocking session a week where we talk about the most unreadable, nasty-colored, incoherent signs we’ve seen recently. Maybe that’s not your idea of a good time, I don’t know.

However, before you start feeling sorry for me about the obvious lack of excitement in my life, you should think about going out on a sign drive-by. A lot of times looking at a yard sign or a custom vinyl banner on a computer screen is a lot different then seeing it in its natural habitat.

Start out with the type of sign or signs you’re thinking about creating for your business or event – yard signs, banners, vehicle magnets or fleet graphics. Next, hop in your car; turn up the radio (preferably something with a little bass) and go on a sign drive-by. Drive around some high-traffic areas near your neighborhood. Or, even better drive around some of the intersections where you plan to install your signs.

During one 30-minute trip you can get an idea of what your competition is doing and discover how people are using different types of signs effectively. You’ll also see what stands out from a color and copy standpoint. More times than not, the things that catch your eye will be the same thing that will grab the attention of your future customers. It’s a really easy way to improve your signs and sign strategy.

Now you can start feeling sorry for me about the lack of excitement in my life.

What can I say? Sometimes, I think of the headline before the blog topic. In this case though, it is relevant. People always come into the shop and ask us what size sign they should get.

Signs come in a bunch of sizes – 9×24, 12×18, 18×24, 24×24, and 24×32  – and that’s just yard signs. Throw in custom banner sizes and you can get a sign in virtually any size. But what’s the best size?

I can tell you the most popular size, that’s the 18×24 standard plastic yard sign. It might not be the right size for your purpose, but it offers a good compromise between affordability and printable surface area. It’s large enough to be readable from a relatively fast moving vehicle, yet cheap enough to allow you to purchase several signs to increase your advertising area.

Three things to consider when deciding on sign size:

• Speed of the vehicles that will see your sign – larger signs work better at higher speed limits.
• Complexity of message – a more complex message, requires a larger sign (see our 3 second rule to simplify your message)
• Area of advertising zone – more signs are better for a large advertising area. Smaller signs are cheaper so you can get more for the same price.

On our web site, you can experiment with sign size and quantity to get the best per-sign price – before you even design the sign.

When I was a kid, the three-second rule came into effect when you dropped your snickers bar on the floor. If you could pick it up within three seconds, you could eat without fear of germs and dirt – you were free and clear. Okay, actually, two days ago I used the three-second rule on a donut, but oh well. 

The three-second rule we’re talking about here is a way to make your yard signs communicate better. This rule is based on the fact that people see your sign for approximately three seconds as they drive by. 

So, when you’re coming up with the copy for your signs, write a few down, each on a separate sheet of paper. Next, get a person or a few people to act as a sounding board (I usually use Gary, our shop manager). Finally, show each piece of paper to your helper(s) for three seconds. 

In three seconds, people should be able 1.) Understand what product or service you’re selling; and 2.) locate your company contact information – phone or web site address. 

Almost all of the pre-designed yard-sign templates available on our site have gone through the three-second test to ensure they are clear and get to the point. 

Try it out the next time you need to create a sign. It really only takes a few minutes, but can make a huge difference on how well your signs drive business. 

If your company is like most, your web site is one of the best sources of information you have for your customers. Many people like to put their web addresses or domain names on yard signs.

That’s a great idea…however, when your domain is www.giganticdomainnamethatnoonecouldpossiblyremember.com…well, not so good.

First of all, on a sign, long domain names will only fit if you put them in small type, so readability takes a hit. Someone driving by won’t be able to read and/or remember your web site address. Plus, people usually can’t write down an entire domain name while they’re driving.

The answer, a shortcut domain name – a new domain that is shorter, but will point to your web site automatically.

With prices starting at $8.95 a year, you can go to a domain seller (godaddy.com, netsol.com, register.com) to research and buy a shorter domain that will direct people to your web site.  Most domain sellers offer domain redirection as a free service so any time someone enters the new short web site name on the sign, they automatically go to the company’s web site, instead.

For example, shortcut urls can direct the sign domain name bthomes.com to www.bonnietylerrealestate.com. It’s a very simple and inexpensive way to improve the reach of your custom yard signs.

When it started, almost a year and a half ago, I had an idea – I wanted Super Cheap Signs to have the best web site in the sign industry. When we talked to our customers to ask what they wanted from our web site, well…they wanted a lot of stuff…however we heard “make it easy for me to…” almost every time.

So, I thought to myself, “making it easy…hmmm…that doesn’t sound too hard.” Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not real easy. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy over the past 18 months creating an easy-to-use web site that’s the best in the business, and it looks like we’ve accomplished our goal.