How signs benefit new businesses:  Recently, a survey was conducted among businesses to find out whether their signs were bringing in customers. All businesses surveyed were a year or less old, and the surveys were conducted within two months after the installation of a new sign. Thousands of shoppers were asked: "How did you hear about us?" The results demonstrated that the signs attracted at least half of the new businesses' customers - more than any other form of advertising they used and even more than word-of-mouth referrals.

As your business matures, you will generate sales from repeat customers and fewer customers will be 'new', but your signage remains a valuable advertising tool. It serves to remind previous customers that you are there. More importantly, studies have shown that on any given day, as many as 35% of the people passing your business have never seen it before, and could become first-time customers because of your sign.

How sign improvements can benefit an existing business:  A study by the University of San Diego, conducted to determine the effectiveness of on-premise signs, showed that when an existing business made improvements to their signage (ie, added additional signs or replaced old signs with newer or larger ones) sales increased as much as 15%.

The value of investing in a sign vs other forms of advertising:  A sign purchased for $5,000 that should last at least 7 years = an investment of only $1.95 per day. When this sign is placed on a street with a traffic count of 20,000 cars per day, the cost of 1,000 views is only .10! A similar exenditure in newspaper would cost approximately .53 per 1,000 views, while radio would cost as much as $2.20.

Keeping in mind that approximately half of a business's new customers come as result of their sign, it is easy to see that a great sign is the best advertsing investment you'll ever make.

*Information contained in this article is as per statistics from www.signs.org, and industry information website.