Signposting for your cafe

Having a sign outside your restaurant is a great way to take advantage of the passing footfall and draw more customers in to eat. However, signs only work when people notice them. Unless you're the only business on your street, potential patrons will be bombarded by dozens (or even hundreds) of signs while walking past your restaurant. That means propping an A-board outside your door and calling it a day is unlikely to catch anyone's attention.

If you want your outdoor signs to work better and increase your revenue, here are three ways to make them more visible to passing customers.

Reposition the Sign

Choosing the right position for your signage is just as important as choosing the right design. You can design the best sign in the world, but it won't make any difference to your bottom line if no one can see it. Take a walk around the area surrounding your restaurant at various times of day to get a better idea of whether people can get a good view of your signs. You may notice that your sign gets blocked by parked cars at certain times of day or is partially obscured by a tree or streetlamp. If that's the case, repositioning your sign to a better location or opting for higher placed signage should bring in more customers.

Make the Sign Bigger

Size is another obvious and important factor that affects sign visibility. A short floor sign, for example, may not be noticed by anyone of adult height. A small wall sign may be impossible for people to read as they walk past. If you don't feel like you're sign is getting the attention it should, bigger is always better—as long as you're not obnoxiously blocking walkways or creating an eyesore. Try to make your sign tall and wide enough that it can be seen and read easily by people who are both walking and driving by.

Consider Something More Unique

Sometimes even a big, well-positioned sign fails to perform well because it simply looks too similar to the other signs around it. One of the best ways to make your signage more visible to passersby is to opt for more unique sign designs. If all the other business signs in the area are static, for example, consider a brightly-lit digital sign. If standard square, text-heavy placards dominate the street, buy signage with big and vibrant images or invest in a sign shaped like your mascot or something relevant to your business.