The Importance of Effective Signage for Your Business

It’s probably no surprise that your customers are paying attention to your business’s signage, both inside and out. In fact, a FedEx Office survey from a couple of years ago reported that 8 in 10 consumers said they had entered a store or business for the first time purely based on eye-catching signage.

Yet, because the sign management process can be extremely complicated—especially for businesses with multiple locations—you’ve perhaps put company signage on the back burner. You likely realize that this is not a wise move, and today’s post offers a little more information on just how critical it is to have effective exterior and interior signage in place at all of your business locations.

What Great Signs Need to Do

In short, great signs will increase brand awareness, lead customers into your business while directing them around your interior space, and give you a competitive edge.

There are many different types of signage available today—including high tech digital signs—and many of these can be highly effective with the right design and maintenance approaches.

Above all, signage needs to be attractive, legible, high quality and kept in good repair, or it could cost you. That same FedEx survey mentioned above found that roughly 50% of all respondents said that poor signage—with things like misspelled words, visible damage, or even just an outdated look—actually drives customers away from interacting with your business.

Neglecting your signs could mean that you’re losing business without even realizing it, and that’s a shame.

Exterior Signage

The best exterior signs follow a few essential branding rules of thumb, namely:

• Appropriate use of your logo
• Construction with durable, premium-grade materials
• Design and placement for the best possible visibility and legibility
• Consistency across multiple physical locations and/or placements within a single location

As previously noted, there are many different types of signs that can qualify as great—from bright and modern LED signs to stud mounted letters to window vinyl graphics and many more.

Sometimes the best way to understand what makes for successful signage is to view a visual presentation. You’ll want to visit our Egan Sign Gallery of completed sign projects to experience just what effective signage looks like.

Interior Signage

While a high-impact sign on the front of your building can entice new customers to stop in and see what you’re all about, have you considered your interior signs lately? To be effective, interior signs need to follow the key branding rules mentioned above for exterior signs.

Additionally, if you use signs for wayfinding within your building or corporate office, it’s important to review how those work.

Do customers or clients tend to get lost trying to find what they need in your retail outlets? Or do they have trouble finding the reception desk in your suite of offices? Especially if you’ve moved recently or even just rearranged your waiting room furniture, your signs may no longer be doing their job effectively. It may be time to call in the experts for some advice about your signage.

What Happens When Signage Needs to Change?

Is your business’s current signage effective? If not, it’s time for a change. Yes, we know that suggestion is not one often met with enthusiasm. Changing out your signage is complicated, as you have to consider design, permitting, manufacturing, and installation, among other factors. Egan can handle all of the above for you!

Consider this statistic from a 2012 study conducted by University of Cincinnati on the economic value of on-premise signage:

Approximately 60% of businesses reported that changing their signs’ design and/or enhancing visibility had a positive impact on sales and profits, with an average increase of 10% or more.

While it’s perhaps not a project you look forward to in your business, refreshing your signage is likely to benefit your bottom line—the proof is in the research results!

A Client Success Story

Sometimes, the decision to change out signage is not optional. As we highlighted in our last Egan Sign email, it’s not unheard of for businesses to face a “branding emergency” that necessitates changing out all of the assets—including the company name—almost overnight.

This happened to our client, Customers Bank, when a competitor with a name the same as their former name (New Century Bank) was suddenly making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Obviously, rebranding with a new name was the best solution, and that involved creating an entire new signage program.

You can read our case study, which shows how Egan Sign came to the rescue and successfully managed the rebranding process for all of Customers Bank’s multiple locations with speed and accuracy.

Make Sign Management Simple

Here at Egan Sign, we work with you to create the most effective signs possible and then handle everything you could ever need related to your signs.

Whether you’re expanding your business with new locations that require extension of your branding to make a new building your own, or you’re looking to change out all of your signs like our friends at Customers Bank, we make the process easy and painless for you—that’s the Egan Sign spirit of service which is unmatched in our industry.

Get in touch with us today to start the conversation about your business’s signage and how you can leverage it for more sales and better overall branding.