Signs and Displays

Signage is a key component of establishing and perpetuating your identity. On the most basic level, even your vehicles and employee uniforms can serve as commercial advertising devices. More traditional kinds of signage, such as on-premise signs, billboards and point-of-purchase (POP) displays are, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, "the most effective, yet least expensive, form of advertising for the small business."

An effective on-premise sign is one that attracts potential customers, brands your business and creates impulse sales. There are many types of signs from which a small business can choose to advertise its goods and services, depending on your location, what you can afford, your business's needs and what your community sign code allows. This includes building mounted signs (such as wall signs and awnings), freestanding signs (such as pole and monument signs) and interior signage (which influence customer decisions and provide directional guidance). Temporary signs, such as window graphics and banners, are also useful tools to promote your business.

Warning When you create posters and banners, be aware that using all capital letters sometimes hampers readability and be sure to check scrupulously for spelling and grammatical errors.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of your sign, it should be illuminated to properly communicate to potential customers at night. Signs can be externally or internally illuminated, using lighting technology like neon, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and fluorescent lamps. Electronic message centers (EMCs) are signs that use LED lighting and that can have changing messages programmed remotely from a computer.

Keep in mind that on-premise signs are governed by local law. Check with your signage provider on what your community allows in terms of sign type, size, height and other characteristics. It helps if, as a small business owner, you get involved and make your concerns known on sign code issues. After all, local sign code regulations can impact your business.

Point-of-purchase displays. The importance of POP displays cannot be overemphasized. Impulse buying accounts for a huge amount of product sales. Service businesses can also use some POP techniques, especially when going to add-ons to a regular service such as "wax my car as long as you're going to keep it to change the oil" type of last minute decisions. But it's in the product realm that POP is king.

Often it's manufacturers who pay the cost of POP advertising. Providing a retailer with an attractive display is money well-spent by any manufacturer if it entices a retailer to feature the product and the consumer to purchase it on impulse.

POP can take the form of danglers, signs, posters, banners, custom display racks, special lighting, or video monitors with promotional loops playing all day long. Bounceback and register tape coupons (printed on the back of the cash register receipt) are good to give at a POP location to stimulate customer's return to your business in the future. POP even has its own trade magazine, Shopper Marketing, and there are numerous website providing POP information, such as the In-Store Marketing Institute. If you are a retailer or a maker of consumer goods you'll want to study the opportunities POP offers.