A well-designed sign tells people what they will find on the inside of the building.  A potential customer with an unmet need should begin to feel comfortable with the ability of the business to meet that need before he or she even enters the building; once inside, that feeling of comfort should be further enhanced.  The prospective retailer should expend the necessary time and effort to ensure that the business’s sign will not only be seen and read, but also that its message will tell people what they want to know, and persuade them to stop, enter the store, and purchase the goods or services offered inside.  Put simply, the sign should reach out and talk to people.

A business’s sign and its message must be carefully tailored to the intended audience in order to ensure its effectiveness.  The first order of business is to know the customer.  The next step is to recognize the various functions of a sign, and then determine which of those functions should be emphasized in order to communicate effectively with the customer.  The business will then be able to design and implement on-premise signage that most effectively conveys the goods and services they offer.

A critical factor in designing an effective message for a sign is to understand that the purpose of the sign is to tell potential customers what they can find inside the business.  If they are unable to determine by looking at the sign what is for sale inside, they will not stop; and if they enter the store and do not find what they were expecting, they will leave with a poor impression of the business.  The business owner should put together the marketing strategy and then create the speech to implement the strategy.

Charles R. Taylor, Claus & Claus. On-Premise Signs as Storefront Marketing Devices and Systems. U.S. Small Business Administration. Washington, DC. 2005.