Who Is Your Signage For?

A client asked me to have a look at their banner designs for an upcoming trade show. They were nice looking designs but they were nothing special. Too often we forget that our banners and our signage is not about us. They are about our clients and our prospects.

Here are a few thoughts for you on signage.

• What is the purpose of the banner? Is it to reinforce your brand, is it to attract prospects or is it to give a clean back drop for your booth. There are many reasons. Understand why you want them.
• The bottom half of Pull up banners are irrelevant. The majority of the time someone is standing in front of them and you can’t see it. The top half is what will attract the attention
• Banners are not about words. Too many people try and put the “About Us” section from their website on their banners. NO ONE CARES!! Put some eye catching images or bold sentences that inspire the prospect to come and talk to you.
• Can you connect to it? A prospect or customer needs to be able to look at the banner and think “I want that” or “That’s me”. That will then encourage them to come and discover more about what you offer.

For example, here is one of my banners from the Exhibiting and Sponsorship Institute at a recent event that we sponsored.

Notice our brand and website are at the top followed by three statements that are easy to read from a distance. These statement are ones that our prospects can relate to and also desire.

This banner is usually going to be on stage when we speak, so we are more likely to have the bottom half read but see how here the final statement is almost hidden behind the table (it was the least important of the three so that is why we put it there)

So Friends how is your signage?