Signage is one of the -- correction; CAN be one of the -- most valuable ways you advertise. Few businesses do it effectively.
I talked with Jeff Seidel recently. Jeff owns Colonial Jewelers in Elkton MD. He's been with me for many years. He has great success with the radio scripts. And through the years, he's ordered 22x28 posters from me.
He recently ordered 9 new ones.
He said he spent several hundred dollars to have each one framed. And he has them on walls around the store. He says customers walk around, and he sees and hears them chuckle, point at different ones, talk about them. He said it puts them in a relaxed mood, and gets them smiling.
What is one of the most difficult things about a jewelry store? It is intimidating to many people. This is especially so for men, but it's not just men.
Most things are in cases, locked up. You often don't know, and can't tell, the price of an item without asking.
These things are intimidating to many people.
Everything is 'fine looking.' Yes, that's the image you want to have -- a fine jewelry store. But you want your store, as well as you and your staff, to be approachable. To feel human. Warm. Open. Friendly. And many jewelry stores do not feel that way. And so ... for men especially, it's just uncomfortable to go into a jewelry store. You know that. But how do you change that?
Well, signage can change that.
But not just any signage. You can't put up a vendor-supplied image of a beautiful ring, and change the feeling of a jewelry store. You change it by saying things, on those posters, that make people do a double-take. That make them stop, look again, think about the message on that poster. And have some kind of reaction to it.
I've been into many jewelry stores where there are very nice looking posters on the wall, or in stands. Almost always, those posters are nice photographs of jewelry. Of some brand. And those images are very nice.
But do they sell?
I would suggest that posters like that sell, about as much as a salesperson in your store would sell if all she did was stand there with a piece of jewelry in her hand.
You would never allow your salespeople to remain silent when a customer comes in the store. So why not consider messages on those posters that talk to people? That make them smile, laugh, feel good -- in exactly the same way that you want your salespeople to do?
Make your signage sell for you. That's all it's really about.
And this includes signage that you put out on your sidewalk, if that opportunity is available to me.
I often ask jewelers if they can put signs out on the sidewalk. Some cannot, because of city restrictions. But if you can put signage out there, and you're not -- well, this is a wonderful opportunity for you to put messages out there that stop people, and bring them in the door.
From 'Free head exam' to 'Hardware store for women' to 'Your girlfriend wants me,' these signs have a history of stopping passersby.
It's hard to put a value on signage like that. One person who stops, who comes in, who does business with you because a sign stopped him -- how much is that worth? There's no way to know. Does that customer spend $50? $500? More? Does he become a long time customer? Does he refer people to you over time?
Anything is possible when a person walks in your store. No one knows the value of that woman when she first walks in the door. She could be worth literally tens of thousands of dollars to you over time. Some customers are. Some of those men and women walking by -- they could be huge customers for you.. But only if they walk in the door.
How can you get those men and women walking by -- just one of them, a few of them, many of them -- to walk in your door, instead of walking by?
And 'walking by' is a problem.
Many years ago, I had a conversation with a customer, Bob, in Maine. He had a small store on the main street in town. He'd been in that spot for quite a few years.
One day, a woman stopped in. She said, "I just noticed your store. I've been going up and down this street for years. How long have you been here?"
She'd been passing by his store, on a regular basis, for years. And she never noticed he was there.
I always remember a conversation with another jeweler, probably 15 years ago. He told me he had had a 'store closing' sale for a store he had had. He put up lots of signage. He advertised heavily. And one day, a man came in. He said, "I've lived around the corner from you for years. I didn't even know you were here."
Which makes me think of a quote from one of my favorite books on business and advertising. It's called "Retail Advertising Complete," by Frank Farrington. It was written in 1913. He wrote,
'There are people living in sight of your windows who don't even know you exist."
It's a problem that every retail business faces -- especially small businesses. People are going by you all the time, some walking by your very doors -- and they don't even know you exist. You do it yourself. We all do. We go by businesses, all the time, that we don't even know exist. We often go by those businesses for years, never knowing they're even there.
We don't need to get into the reasons why that's the case. We all simply know it's true.
So how do you get people to notice you?
Signage. Signage. Signage.
It could be posters in your window. Nancy Schuring is a customer in New Jersey. For years, I've created different big posters for one of her windows that faces out on the street. These are almost 5 feet wide, by 5 feet high. She said it's some of the best advertising she does.
It could be posters in sign holders out in front of your store. Two-sided poster holders are one of the best investments you can make, along with some great posters to go into them. Those posters, right out there where people are walking by all the time, can and will create customers and business for you.
At a recent show, a jeweler told me of a $10,000 sale that resulted because of a two JATW posters that he had in a sign holder. The fellow walked in, saying he had intended to go to another jewelry store, but happened to see his signs. He liked the messages, came in to talk with Randy, and ended up buying from Randy.
No signs ... no attention ... the fellow doesn't know Randy exists ... and he buys somewhere else.
These stories go on and on. The idea is simple: use the spaces that are available to you, to sell. Sidewalks ... the foyer or entrance into your store ... windows facing out to the street ... floor space inside ... wall space inside.
Another excellent way to get the attention of people going by your store is to use JATW banners. And I write about that in that section of this site.
Now, the problem for most retail businesses is that they don't have a place where they can go, and select from hundreds of different posters that they can put in the store ... in windows facing out to passersby and traffic ... in sign holders out on the sidewalk, which can and do (with the right messages) stop people all day long for you.
But you do have that place to go. You do have that resource. That place, that resource, is Jewelry Ads That Work.
Over the last 12 years or so, I've created many hundreds of posters. Hundreds of jewelers have bought thousands of my posters. And I've heard story after story through the years of how the posters help to bring customers in the store, and sell them while they're in the store.
So I encourage you to take time, and go through the posters. See what catches you eye. What makes you laugh. What makes you think. What surprises you. What would cause YOU, if you were the one walking by that sign, to stop ... smile ... chuckle ... point.
I’ve had many jewelers tell me they watch people walk by ... stop ... take a photo of the poster ... sometimes even pose by the poster and have someone take a photo of them with the poster.
We all talk about ‘measurable advertising.’ Well, you’ll find JATW signage to be measurable. You’ll see people stop ... you’ll have people walk in.
Wouldn’t that be nice, rather than just watching people walk by all day? Don’t let them just walk on by. Put up some great messages. The investment is small. Just one customer will pay for many signs. One good to very good sale will return your investment many times over.
One last thing to note.
I can print on a lot of different materials:
* Photogloss
* Polypropylene (great for indoor, and windows)
* Tyvek (outdoor)
* Scrim vinyl (for those outside sign holders)
* Lightbox material (often called duratrans)
I can print in pretty much any size. Common sizes are 22x28, and 24x36. And I’ve printed on 40x50, 30x40, 36x48. You tell me the size you need. And I’ll design it to fit.
If you want your logo or store name on a poster, we can do that. We charge you a bit extra to do it, and are happy to offer that service.
Thanks for taking a look through the site. And we’re here to help in whatever ways we can.
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