As our world becomes more and more digital, it is easy to pay less attention to the traditional forms of marketing. So says Tasmin van den Heever at Assignment 3.
We can get so concerned with pay per click advertising, SEO and social media that we forget about how simple and effective traditional signage is. This is especially true for retail and small businesses.
In 2012, FedEx Office commissioned a What’s Your Sign? survey through Ketchum Global Research and Analytics to really find out what role signs play in attracting customers and leading to purchases.
The study shows there is no doubt that attention-grabbing signage brings in customers. The survey found that 76 percent of consumers will enter a new store solely because of its signs, and 68 percent have gone so far as to buy a product or service simply because a sign got their attention. The survey found that signage even has an influence on word of mouth marketing. Three out of four consumers claim to have told someone about a store based on its signage.
Signage does more than grab attention though, seeing as how 68 percent of consumers believe a store’s signage is an indication of the quality of its products or services. While this means good signage will accomplish good things for your business, the inverse must also be realised. In other words, consumers infer that a business with a badly designed or unappealing sign will provide an inferior product or service.
Therefore, it is important to realise that not all signage is created equally. While the right signage is effective, sometimes no signage is better than bad signage.
Supporting this, the survey also found that more than half of consumers are less willing to enter a store with misspelled or poorly-made signs. That is why it is essential that you employ the services of a signage professional that is able to assess all the factors involved with creating the ideal signage for your store, such as the type of business, the target market and the situation and location.
Eben Human from Assignment 3, a leading signage and printing company in South Africa, says: "Signage influences decision-making and can drive sales, but it must be the right signage. Besides being well designed, your signage importantly must also be suited to your brand. In other words, before a signage company designs and manufactures signage for you, it needs to understand who you are as a brand."
What about your store or business? Have you neglected traditional forms of marketing in favour of digital means? Do you have effective, professionally designed signage that does your business a favour, or do you just have signage for the sake of having signage? As the FedEx Office survey shows, signage definitely attracts customers and drive sales, but just make sure it is the right kind of signage.
For more information, visit the Assignment 3 website. Alternatively, connect with Assignment 3 on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.