What impact does poor signage have on your business?
Signage's Impact on Your Business: The Consequences of Poor Signage
Signage holds tremendous potential in promptly communicating with customers, reflecting your brand's style and tone, and attracting attention and foot traffic. It stands as one of the most crucial marketing investments any business can make.
Nevertheless, not all signage is created equal, and if your signage fails to hit the mark in terms of its message, design, or placement, you risk squandering the time and money invested in its creation.
However, the repercussions of bad signage extend beyond the initial loss of investment, as it can have four significant long-term effects that harm your business.
Rather than relying solely on our perspective, let's delve into concrete data to explore how subpar signage can damage your brand. By partnering with a reputable business signage provider like Rapid Signs, you can develop effective signage that not only pays for itself but also enhances your bottom line.
Defining "Poor" Signage
While some aspects of signage design and implementation are subjective, there are specific pitfalls that unquestionably result in an objectively subpar sign.
In essence, three objective elements can hinder the performance of your business signage, impede customer reach, and undermine your brand.
1. Unclear messaging in signage
Design, placement, size, and branding undoubtedly matter, but they all amount to nothing if your signage's central message is confusing. Missteps in this area have an immediate impact on your revenue.
According to a 2014 study by the Signage Research Foundation on consumer perceptions of retail signage, nearly 55% of consumers across various retail sectors admitted to driving past businesses or disregarding them entirely due to unclear messaging on their signage.
2. Poorly designed or difficult-to-read signage
When signage is challenging to read, it can undermine even the most well-crafted and focused messages. Although each sign is unique, legibility issues often arise from:
- Poor choice of location or angle
- Improper size
- Text that is too closely spaced
- Inadequate luminance
- Overly complex fonts
- Insufficient contrast between text and background colors
- Proximity to similar signs
- Excessive visual clutter
3. Dirty or neglected signage
Even if your signage has been expertly designed, strategically positioned, and conveys a clear message with wit and charm, it loses its impact if it appears dirty or in disrepair to your customers.
Nearly 40% of UK consumers indicate that they immediately form judgments about a business's quality based on the quality and maintenance of its signage. Therefore, the undeniable bottom-line impact of clean and well-maintained signage cannot be overlooked.
The Impact of Poor Signage on Your Business
1. Diminished brand awareness among your target audience.
While signage plays a significant role in attracting customers to your location, it also has a subtle yet crucial function: keeping your brand name and presence alive in your target markets.
Even if passersby don't immediately stop and enter your establishment, your signage helps them remember that your brand exists in the area. Over time, this familiarity instills confidence and trust in your brand.
However, when your signage is difficult to read or fails to catch attention from the street, you not only miss out on potential sales but also lose the opportunity to build brand familiarity over time. Additionally, all the marketing dollars invested in those ineffective signs go to waste.
2. Potential confusion and frustration among customers.
Even if your sign's placement and positioning are optimal, signage that is challenging to read will not contribute to expanding your reach into target markets.
In fact, a joint study conducted in 2011 by the University of Cincinnati and The Sign Research Foundation revealed that such signage is detrimental to your brand. The study found that over 80% of consumers expressed frustration and annoyance when confronted with hard-to-read signage.
Making a poor first impression like this is detrimental to your efforts in attracting customers and generating sales.
3. Negative perception of your brand.
Regardless of how straightforward the message on your signage may be, customers interpret your signs beyond the printed information.
If the signs are frustratingly difficult to read, dirty, or broken, around 85.7% of customers are more likely to perceive your brand as lower quality and expect a poor in-store experience.
This not only discourages foot traffic to your store but also diminishes your presence in the local market, making it harder to attract the business you could have gained with more legible signage.
4. Loss of valuable foot traffic and sales.
Whether due to design, placement, installation, or maintenance issues, signage that is hard to read directly results in lost sales.
Extensive research conducted by FedEx in 2012 on the financial impact of signage revealed telling numbers. The study confirmed that 52% of consumers simply would not enter a business if its signage was difficult to read, poorly designed, or contained spelling errors.
This means more than half of your potential customers consciously choose not to spend their money with you solely based on the quality of your signage. With such significant revenue being left untapped, the readability of your signage is a crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked.
Rapid Signs, Your Trusted Signage Partner, is Here to Assist You.
Given the critical role your signage plays and the limited marketing budgets faced by many small businesses, it's understandable to feel overwhelmed. However, there's no need to worry because we have your back. Over the years, we have supported numerous small businesses, just like yours, in comprehending how to connect with their customers, designing captivating signage that grabs attention, and elevating their brand and sales to unprecedented levels.
Take action today by calling us at 07734 884764 or reaching out to our sales team to kickstart your project. We are prepared to roll up our sleeves and work tirelessly on your behalf.
