If you want to save time and money while boosting your brand, temporary signage can provide a plethora of benefits. Small business owners especially benefit from temporary signage during events, one-time sales, and more. Here’s a guide to best practices for getting the most out of temporary signage. Hopefully, they’ll inspire a few ideas of your own!
Temporary Signage: A Great Little Idea
Temporary signage brings several advertising, marketing, and business benefits. Consider the following when you make the call to produce some:
Cost-Effective
Temporary signage is generally affordable. Permanent signage can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get just right. You may need to take into account the weather, sunlight, installment, positioning, and more. Temporary signage, as its name suggests, is supposed to be quick and easy. The processes of designing, printing, and installing are down to almost nothing. That’s a tremendous advantage if your advertising budget is limited!
Versatility and Flexibility
Billboards and similar large-scale print advertising methods place demands on design, installation, and the like. Temporary signage, on the other hand, provides plenty of flexibility and versatility. For instance, you can update the messaging at any time. Also, you can create and put up new signs just as swiftly. For short-term events, spontaneous offers, and similar off-the-cuff needs and specialties, you’ll remain timely, relevant, and ready to react to your audience’s wants and needs.
Greater Visibility
Want to be sure your messaging is visible? Put it where people can’t miss it! You can post temporary signs wherever the people gather or walk by. Banners, sidewalk signs, window decals, and similar signage have the benefit of being portable, especially in places where other signs aren’t.
People tend to tune out the signs they see every day. Temporary signs are something new in their path or field of vision and demand attention.
Quick Turnaround
Wide-format printers are especially handy for turning out temporary signage. They use wide-format bond paper and other media to produce banners, sidewalk signs, posters, vehicle wraparounds, window decals, and wall murals swiftly. This lets you react even faster to changes in the market, seasonal and holiday promotions, and those events that encourage you to rethink how to present your brand and messaging.
Types of Signage
If you aren’t using these signs already, take notes and think about how they can boost your brand, business, and messaging.
Banners
Banners are incredibly versatile and convenient to create and put up. If you don’t already have a storefront sign or are waiting for your official sign to arrive, throw up a banner to ensure people know where you are in the meantime. Banners are also great for announcing new products, promoting sales and special events, and advertising off-site at community events. You can hang them up almost anywhere as long as you have permission. Use them when you’re upgrading or renovating your store so that people know you’re still open for business!
Sidewalk Signs
Also known as A-frame signs or sandwich signs, sidewalk signs are foldable and most often found outside restaurants and other stores bearing clever slogans, cute art, and other enticements to enter. You can place them anywhere outside your business for people to see as they walk by.
A-frame signs are not restricted to storefronts! Bring them to fairs, outdoor markets, professional events, conventions, and trade shows. You might also use them to direct people to your booth. Be sure they replicate your company’s colors and branding! A-frames are portable and easy to set up in a more “fruitful” area if they’re not getting the attention you want.
Window Decals
Windows decals are adhesive graphics that go, yes, on windows. But which windows? Storefront windows, naturally, are prime real estate for decals, but don’t limit yourself to your home turf! Other businesses may allow you to stick up messaging in their windows, as well. Easy to apply and remove, window decals are great for spur of the moment promotions; plus, you can replace them as the times and messaging change.
Posters and Fliers
Let’s go old school with temporary signage! Posters and fliers are exciting and eye-catching means of grabbing and holding people’s attention. Often, there’s no cost to post them in different places, so long as you have the property owner’s permission. Bulletin boards, community walls, communal areas, public spaces, and even construction sites provide space to put up fliers and posters.
Fliers are great as handouts, and you can leave them in lobbies and entryways of restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores, and other places that encourage such communications.
Pop-Up Displays
Pop-up stores are incredibly popular right now for hitting potential customers hard and fast. They’re easy to set up and festoon with advertising at shows, fairs, markets, as well as temporary storefronts. Pop-up displays can become professional-looking, “real” stores with the right kind of temporary signage.
Next Steps in Temporary Signage
We get that the spontaneity and versatility of temporary signage can be intoxicating. Still, it’s wise to keep the following tips and best practices in mind to ensure your message isn’t lost and you don’t run into potential issues.
Clear and Concise
Just because you can say anything on temporary signage doesn’t mean you can say everything.Keep the main message clear and concise. Don’t clutter it up with excessive text and images. Stay focused so your potential customer can stay focused.
The Best Graphics
Pay for or provide high-quality graphics to your printer. Ensure they have high resolution and possess colors that won’t get washed out or overlooked. Make sure the text is readable and that the colors and fonts don’t get lost against the background.
Follow the Rules
Before posting a poster or flying a banner, make sure you’re allowed to do so. Check local laws about advertising in public places. There may be ordinances that result in the removal of your advertising or receiving a fine. If you’re not on your property, be sure to ask the property owner’s permission to post anything. It’s not just polite; it also establishes a relationship that could be beneficial for both of you!
Those are the basics of getting the most out of temporary signage. Despite its brevity, temporary signage is a powerful tool to boost your visibility and attract customers and clients. Use its power wisely!