Saturday, October 27, 2018

Smart Strategies For Creating Powerful Retail Storefront Signage

By Kimberly Parker


If you're in the retail business, you need customers. If you own a brick and mortar establishment, you have to get those customers inside in order to buy your product. You will need a multiple pronged advertising approach that includes a great website, local media advertising, promotional mailers, and community outreach. In addition to all this, you must have effective retail storefront signage. There are a few tried and true design tips that will solve the mistakes business owners make in this area of advertising.

Your signs must be visible to your customers. Before putting signs in the window or above your door, you need to look around and decide what location is most likely to maximize the sign's effectiveness. After determining that, you can go on to choose the size, design, and amount of copy it needs to have. It is critical that your signage be visible and legible.

Avoid cluttering the sign with graphics and copy. It is a big temptation for the inexperienced to fill every available space on a sign with graphics, logos, and copy. The problem with this is that the reader's eye can't decide where to go. When a potential customer glances at your sign, she will be confused. You can't expect the buying public to go the extra mile for you and try to decipher your sign. It just won't happen.

White space is your friend. If your sign is cluttered with copy, it is hard to read. If it is hard to read, the buying public won't read it. White space helps the reader's eye move through the copy. About forty percent of your sign should be completely empty. That may seem like a lot, but the experts say it is the best way to ensure your message is clear, concise and easy to read.

Fonts, typefaces, have to be chosen with care. A common mistake people make is to capitalize too many words on a sign. Their theory is that capital letters look bigger, bolder, and get more attention. These people are not considering the reader's eye. If all the letters are the exact same height, the eye has trouble reading them as words. Copy printed in upper case and lower case is what the human brain is used to seeing and what is most discernible to it.

Borders can be very effective. This is especially true when you're trying to get the attention of street traffic. Borders tend to focus the reader's eye on the body of the sign. The careful use of graphics is a good way to make people notice a sign. Graphics printed in full color have more effect than those printed in black and white.

Color combinations matter. You need plenty of contract between your background and foreground colors. If you choose a black background, be sure the copy is in a light color such as white or yellow. The same goes for a white background. Be careful with a dark background. It is harder to read light colored copy against a dark background than the reverse.

Advertising isn't cheap. You don't want to waste your money on ineffective signage. You can make your signs pop, without spending more money, by following these smart strategies.




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