How You can Create Effective Retail Signs

Retail signage is not just a matter of making prominent a product name and its price to catch the eye of potential customers. It is about telling him what he needs to know (whether or not he realizes it), and giving him a compelling reason to buy it.

Many retailers with the best of products, locations and displays are often left wondering why their sales are flat. The reason is usually signage problems. There are a few basic points, if kept in mind seriously, will help you create and use effective signs that will surely sell fast your products.

Be to the point

Remember we live in the times of Twitter, one-minute YouTube videos and the like. Attention span of viewers is getting increasingly shorter; no one has the time or patience to read longish fine print on a congested sign. Let the message of your sign be brief and to the point.

Use the right fonts

Fancy lettering may look attractive, but reading it takes more time than straight forward clear-cut letters. Once again, your potential customers have other things to do than spend a few extra seconds looking at a hard-to-read sign. And for the older generation, who wants to use binoculars to read a sign with a tiny font?

Provide a reason to buy

Tell the potential customer why he should buy what you are selling. Saying that it’s good or not expensive is not enough. Tell him it will improve his appearance or increase his safety. Once again, with limited space, you need to be direct and to the point.

Get the potential customer to relate to the product

Get the customer to visualize himself or herself, using the product. Use the words “you” or “your” in the sign to create a link between buyer and product.

Let images be powerful

Texting is trending these days, the messages getting shorter and shorter with abbreviations, initials and emojis, replacing the full word. Use these elements in the sign wherever you can; but remember that the texting style is generation-specific; it is primarily the lingo of the world of netizens and teenagers. You may have to use the old world style if your target population is the 40 plus generation.

Let not your signs be monotonous

The aim of the sign is to attract attention and appeal to good humor; puns, jokes, amusing images and anything else that keeps the sign from being insipid is good. A person who can be made to smile at your sign is always an easier person to whom you can sell your products.

Test the signs

A sign may be perfect as a concept or when you hold it in your hands. However, it may not be so good when put up in its chosen location. The tinting of the glass, the reflection from the sign and other things could make it difficult for a person driving by to view it. Test out the sign with a few customers before actually using it.

Knowing how to use effectively your signs is half the battle won to increase sales. The other half is to get the right signs made effectively in the right way. That means using the right fonts, colors, sizes and materials.

This is where a professional sign making company can be a huge help. They have the experience and expertise to guide you properly and create the best signage for you. Your business acumen coupled with the proven skills of a signage professional will give you signs that sell your products to your satisfaction.

How to Use Signs in Your Retail Space

You know how important signs are in getting your customers to the checkout counters of your store. That is why you have ensured that they say what you want. But is that really what you need? Isn’t it more important that your signs tell customers what they want? The aim of a sign is to provide information and motivate purchases. To do that effectively, it must be customer friendly, not store management friendly. Here are a few tips on making your retail signs more effective and communicative.

Keep to the Point

We live in the age of Twitter where everything has to be conveyed in 140 characters. Novels are being written in texting language. Attention spans are getting shorter all the time. Customers are often in a hurry, and they want information as quickly and concisely as possible. Respect that and use signs to give them the information they want in the way they want it.

Make It Easy To Read

Ornate fonts with curly-cues and flourishes may look attractive and sophisticated. But you don’t want a customer to say “That’s a nice sign” and move on. The first objective is always to convey information that leads to a purchase: fancy lettering and colors can be distractive. Add extra touches to your signs only if these do not affect the main objective.

Give Reasons to Buy

Every purchase has a reason behind it. It could be a grooming aid to improve appearance. It may be a gift for an important date to please, or a reward for a child who got good grades. You know your business and you know your customers. Make it easier for them to buy by giving them compelling reasons  - for example “Get the latest look with this!”

Relate To Your Customers

A customer buys after visualizing how they would be using the product. Consider these two signs:

• Straighten curly hair with XXXX.
• Use XXXX to straighten your curly hair.

Which one relates more to the customer? Which one makes him think about how using the product will benefit him? It is the second one. Use expressions like “you”, “your”, “for you and your family” and so on, directly engaging them.

Use Images

Texting and social media like Twitter have made the use of emoticons an integral part of modern communication. A picture may not be worth a thousand words, but it is worth a dozen. With limited space on your signs and customer’s attention span itself limited, use effective images to convey emotions. Your sign could say “Buying XXXX will make you happy.” Or you could use instead a smiley face. Which one saves space and has a more positive impact?

The best way to get signs that work for you is to use the services of a signage professional. Tell him what you need the sign to do. Give him the specialized inputs about your business and customers that only you have. He can then combine his skills with your knowledge to give you the right signs that will work, and keep your checkout counters always busy.