Small Business Administration
Signage Study Findings

Here’s  what the U.S. Small Business Administration says regarding signage for your business.

1. Effective signage is a critical component of your retail business success, and can contribute to the success of all businesses.
2. In today’s very competitive business environment, good on-premise signage is essential to helping achieve business vitality
3. Business owners who invest in an EMC typically see an increase in business revenue of between 15% and 150%.
4. NO other form of advertising comes close to matching the efficiency and cost-effectiveness, of an electronic message display.
5. The electronic message display rapidly becomes a landmark in a business's local community, because it offers a valuable public service to the entire community by displaying:  Public service information, civic event dates/times, personal and holiday greetings, and other advertising messages.
6. EMC’s offer the ability to advertise and operate 24 hours a day continuously for many years with minimal bulb or LED replacement and consume electricity of as little as $0.20 per day.
7. An electronic or variable message center offers a unique way to capture the attention of these passers-by. All EMC allows you to communicate more effectively with the typical person passing by at a particular time of day by changing the message and graphic of your sign to match the profile on the street.  This kind of flexibility increases the readership of a message unit, as it can correspond to the traffic profile by the day of the week, the time of day, or the season.
8. The demand by businesses for these electronic or variable message centers is increasing because these signs improve the economic viability of difficult commercial sites with limited space.  Municipalities that wish to prevent urban sprawl or deterioration of urban land are passing enabling acts that require optimization of existing urban space, and thus are more willing to look at EMCs as a signage option for businesses
9. Motorists often spot electronic message centers quickly because the copy changes, the letters are illuminated, and the signs have traditionally been used as public service devices.
10. Electronic message centers are not a distraction to drives.  Their exceptional readability and conspicuity means that EMC’s actually increase driver safety.  The federal government and other reviews, after conducting numerous studies, analyzing court cases, and reviewing the available literature, have concluded that signs and electronic message centers are traffic safety enhancements.

You Do The Math

Businesses often select their advertising medium, and messages, based upon the cost per thousand exposures of their message to the public.  On this basis, no other form of advertising comes close to matching the efficiency and cost-effectiveness, of an electronic message display.

Compare the figures:

1. Newspaper advertising – the cost on average is about $7.39 for 1000 exposures within a 10 mile radius of the business location.
2. Television advertising -The cost on average is approximately $6.26 per 1000 exposures.
3. Radio advertising -The cost is about $5.47 per 1000 exposures.
4. New LED electronic message center display -The cost is less than $0.45 per 1000 exposures.

Do you own math.  Assume for example that you spend $30,000 on this type of system, and that its useful life is about ten years. The amortized daily cost of the message center would equal about $2.74. Add to this the daily cost of electricity for this new LED unit (approximately $0.20), thus giving your business a daily message center expense total of $2.94.  With a daily traffic count of 20,000 vehicles passing your business, you would have a cost of less then $0.45 per thousand exposures (counting drivers only-factor in passengers and your cost per thousand drops significantly).

Find Traffic Counts At Your Location
http://www2.dot.state.fl.us/FloridaTrafficOnline/viewer.html

Turn Traffic Into Sales

The public - your existing and potential customers-is on the move, both literally and figuratively, and sometimes catching their attention is like hitting a moving target. Consider that approximately 18.6% of Americans move every year.  Whether they move a short or long distance, they usually change their basic trade area. Add to that the fact that 15-35% of the traffic on a given street is "just passing through" (running errands), and you can see the great potential for single stops by those unfamiliar with the area.
 
An electronic or variable message center offers a unique way to capture the attention of these passers-by. All EMCs allows you to communicate more effectively with the typical person passing by at a particular time of day by changing the message and graphic of your sign to match the profile on the street.  This kind of flexibility increases the readership of a message unit, as it can correspond to the traffic profile by the day of the week, the time of day, or the season. With Our LED Studio software, virtually any message can be created and displayed at any time.