Congratulations on the newest addition to your sales team – your LED sign! Now that you’ve made the investment you expect your signs to pay for themselves by driving traffic to your door. But do you actually know how to make that happen?Let’s review the important things you MUST do in order to really put your LED signs to work for your business.Don’t Be BoringChange your messages frequently. viewers develop “sign immunity” when they see the same message over and over. They stop paying attention to your sign. Simply rotating two or three messages is not enough to keep your content interesting if your viewer sees the same messages every time they pass your sign. Viewers want fresh content on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have a new message, change how you’re saying it or change the visual graphic that accompanies your message. Keeping your messages fresh doesn’t have to be a chore if you make good use of your message scheduling software. Plan out a week’s worth of messages in advance and mix things up. Change the order of your messages and the time of day they display.Target Your AudienceSchedule your messages to reach different types of customers passing your business at different times of the day. You know the buying interests and habits of the daily commuter are different from other consumers. They’re focused. They’re driving with a purpose. If you want their attention your message should be directed to their mindset. What product or service do you offer that would appeal to the business commuter? Schedule your message content to target that demographic during those times of the day when they’re passing your location.Keep in mind the commuter is your MOST FREQUENT VIEWER. They take the same route to and from work every day. They see your sign up to ten times a week. That’s ten opportunities to grab their attention. If your restaurant has a breakfast special, run messages advertising those specials in the morning. If your hotel has special weekend rates for families get those messages up and running BEFORE the weekend starts.Fresh is always better than staleIf your store has a big sale this weekend, start advertising the sale early to attract new customers. When you want your potential customer to act on a promotion because there’s a time limit your message should state when that promotion starts and ends. This can create a sense of urgency. But if your messages reads THIS WEEKEND ONLY make sure that message stops appearing when the sale is over. You lose all credibility if that message is still running the following Tuesday. Clear communicationToo much information will overwhelm your viewer. If your message requires several frames to complete the idea your viewer will probably only pick up on a portion of what you’re trying to convey. Focus your message on the most important keywords you need to communicate. Your viewer only has a few seconds to read your message. Keep your message short and to the point.Take a good look at your message before you send it to the sign. Is it clear and easy to understand? Does it represent your business in a professional manner?I once passed a business with the message U R INVITED in one frame. Really? Was there no space for the Y and O to spell the word YOUR? This was a realty company. The invitation was to an open house. Buying a home is one of the most important purchase decisions in your life. I need to feel I can trust my realtor. But the message had a negative impact on me. It was immature and unprofessional. It’s highly unlikely I’d ever call that realtor.A message at a church in my neighborhood read ASSBLY SUNDAY. I’m pretty sure they were abbreviating the word assembly. But it didn’t read as the word assembly to me when I drove past the sign. I had to think about it until I could make a word association that made sense. Ah-ha -- assembly! They could have chosen to abbreviate the word Sunday so the message read ASSEMBLY SUN. I would have instantly recognized the abbreviation SUN for Sunday.That doesn’t mean you can’t add some humor or personality to your messages. I have a truck-stop customer who uses humor in his messages so effectively customers have told him they always check his sign for new messages.
MistakesThere are thousands of images of sign errors available on the internet. Don’t let your location be famous for “that funny sign” mistake. Use your critical eye to check your message and make certain everything is correct – including the spelling, punctuation and the message itself. Don’t limit the effectiveness of your sign with mistakes. With LED signs, the fixes are easy.If you engage your viewers with fresh, relevant content your cash register will thank you. * This blog is a reflection of my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Signs Plus. You can email me at colleen@signsplussigns.com for any comments, questions or assistance.
