You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression 

Welcome to 2024. We greet every year with optimism wondering what good things the months will bring. Some of us use January as a personal ‘reset,’ perhaps changing the route we jog or editing our wardrobes to update our own personal brand. 

What about your business’s brand? Is it time for a refresh there, too? After all, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make that first impression count!

The Effectiveness of Exterior Signage

You could think of on-premise, outdoor signs as the durable workhorse of all advertising types since they’re promoting your business  24/7 for years to showcase your company and brand. Exterior signs generate a strong ROI by helping define your brand while driving memorability and sales.

Exterior signs prove their investment year over year, with a range of benefits that improve your business. As a one-time expense, they’ll prove their worth with advertising that’s always “on.” A wide selection of materials, sizes, and styles means you’ve got flexibility to find the right sign design for your budget.

Exterior signs are unobtrusive — they won’t interrupt dinner with a telemarketing call or a movie with a poorly-timed commercial. They’re not sending dozens of spam emails into people’s inboxes, either. 

These outdoor signs catch the eye of a wide demographic to attract a diverse range of customers. And they’ll drive traffic — both old and new customers — into your business, too, which helps increase sales and profits.  

Freestanding Exterior Signs: Excellent for Branding

Freestanding signs like monument and pylon signs offer a wonderful, cost-effective option for branding. The right sign brands your business within the local economy. It helps cultivate top-of-mind awareness in all who pass the sign each day. As with other signage types, freestanding signs:

• Call out your business’s name, showcasing your brand and logo, creating brand recognition, and a positive feeling of familiarity, in a specific location
• Claim a physical location, helping you establish your business and brand
• Spark interest by using graphics or brief phrases to communicate your company’s value or philosophy — or even to make people laugh

But freestanding signs also draw attention with strategic placing and use your business’s location to take up more visual space than a storefront alone.

Monument signs

Elegant, prominent monument signs elevate a brand, promoting a business’s visibility and identity. Constructed from stone, wood, or similar materials, these low-profile signs sit low to (or on) the ground. They’re weather-resistant, fully customizable, and can even come in different shapes beyond a traditional rectangle block. 

Many business venues are recessed and not immediately visible from the street. Often installed at the entrance to parking lots, monument signs act like beacons. These sturdy, eye-catching signs attract the attention of passersby and can increase foot traffic to businesses by encouraging impulse stops.  

For example, Metro’s Seyon project included several branded monument signs at seven properties. 

Metro also designed and installed entranceway signs and wayfinding signage for Endicott College.

Pylon signs

Soaring into the sky much taller than a freestanding sign, pylon signs offer maximum visibility. Often supported by poles or pillars, you may see them at the entrance of shopping centers and industrial parks. Banks, casinos, entertainment centers, hotels, and restaurants also use pylon signs to attract attention and advertise specific brands.

Pylon signs add a little pizazz to brands that want to up their game by:

• Maximizing visibility because they can stand 15 – 150 feet high (or higher!)
• Growing brand awareness and generating top-of-mind recall in the community
• Helping brands stand out from the competition
• Generating cost savings on advertising, since they stand as tall as (or taller) than a billboard, but you won’t have to pay annual advertising fees!

In collaboration with Keypoint Partners, Metro assisted with the design, manufacture, and installation of a new pylon at Ocean State Plaza Shopping Center in Warren, RI.

Putting Your Best Sign Forward

Signage has power. Freestanding signs do so much more than mark the location of your business. They’re an integral part of your brand — and they’ll work hard to advertise your company, catch the eye of potential customers, and draw people in. Maybe 2022 is the year to think about updating your monument or pylon sign — or installing your first one! Contact Metro Sign to learn how we can help.