Signs play a variety of roles in helping businesses attract customers, educate and clients, inform patients, and create lasting impressions. How important is signage? A survey by the International Sign Association (ISA) found that 91% of shoppers said signs influence their decision to make a purchase.
However, as vital as signage may be, businesses face 2 primary issues: 1) justifying the expense of a digital sign and 2) measuring the impact that signage actually has on audiences. It’s important to estimate the impressions to make sure the signage is being seen and remembered by the intended audience. It’s also helpful to know how often a sign is seen and to estimate and compare the sign’s cost per exposure to other forms of marketing.
To make things easy, businesses should define clear objectives for what they want their signs to accomplish. It’s not unusual for a business or organization to have more than one type of sign and use them for a variety of purposes. We recommend establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) tailored to what the goal of each sign is. Some ideas for goals might be spreading brand awareness, increasing sales, or directing people through a facility. Choosing the appropriate measuring methodology provides insights about customer engagement and behavior. Measurements can be qualitative and/ or observational. The more specific and relevant the metrics, the greater the ability to obtain useful and actionable data.
Calculating Signage Return on Investment (ROI) and Return on Objectives (ROO)
Calculating ROI is usually a pretty straightforward process. The first step is to determine all the costs of a project. In the case of a sign project, these could include design, creation, installation, and maintenance. Once costs are determined, divide the expected or actual revenue by the costs to arrive at ROI. However, because not all signage is directly related to revenue and tangible numbers, another metric used by businesses is return on objectives (ROO), which looks at the overall effectiveness of advertising over time rather than as a one-time investment. A team of experts can help you determine which metrics would be most useful in calculating ROI or ROO.
Measuring Static Traditional Print Signage ROI
Printed signage is one of the most widely used forms of signage solutions across the world, and valued for its ability to create immediate awareness and messaging in the few moments that occur as viewers move past the sign. Businesses favor traditional print signage for its cost-effectiveness, low initial investment, and long lifespan. In addition, printed signage is becoming environmentally friendly and longer lasting as a result of innovations in the development and production of sustainable print materials.
Measuring the impact and success to justify the cost of print signage has historically been difficult for several reasons. By its very nature print signage is a passive, 2D form of advertising that relies upon subtle influences like color and font size and prominent placement to attract attention. Size and distance also play a role in a sign’s effectiveness, and because the viewer’s interaction with the sign can be fleeting, they may not even be aware of its influence. Also, while the print sign could (and always should) have a call-to-action or contact information and play a role increasing revenue, it can be difficult to be sure that the signage was the determining factor in the customer’s decision.
Here are a few ways to measure print signage ROI to see if it’s meeting the objectives you establish in your planning:
- Listen to Your Customers. Collect impressions from your customers with surveys and questionnaires. Consider that they might be hesitant to take the extra time to complete your form, so perhaps make it worthwhile with incentives to respond. Also pay attention to remarks and ratings from customers to identify problems with sign visibility or comprehensiveness.
- Monitor Behavioral Patterns. When signs are deployed to influence the way people act, important issues to get right include clarity of intended purpose and whether the signs produce the desired change in behavior. This information can be gained through inspections, audits, before-and-after reports, and be reflected in reductions of injuries and lower operating costs.
- Increased Revenue. As mentioned previously, your signage may be only one component influencing a customer’s decision, but when results like increased sales, store traffic, or reservations can be closely tied to the timing of the signage and its messaging, it’s a good indicator that the sign is attracting attention.
- A/B Testing. This very common method of assessing signage effectiveness has two signs competing to see which achieves better results. The changes are typically made in layouts, headlines, imagery placement, and color. The important rule to follow in A/B testing is to only test one thing at a time or otherwise it can be tough to see what is working and what isn’t.
- Cost Effectiveness. Compare the costs of designing, producing and installing the sign with the additional revenue or benefits it generates. For example, if a store puts up a promotional sign, they can measure the increase in sales during the promotion period. On the other hand, healthcare organizations and corporations may see lowered insurance premiums and other cost savings that help improve the bottom line.
- Combine Print and Digital With Interactive Print and A/R. While not practical for all signage, vanity or branded URLs and QR codes with UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) tracking codes allow businesses to integrate traditional print signage with digital and AR and multichannel measurement opportunities. When UTM codes are added to the text of a URL or QR code on product packaging, banners and posters, menus, and other static signage, it’s easy to track when a smartphone is used to initiate contact through print signage.
Measuring Digital Signage ROI and ROO
In addition to the methods listed above, digital signage provides opportunities to gather customer data and impressions that can be integrated into multichannel analytics platforms for greater signage success. Many ways exist to collect data with digital signage. Active engagements can be measured by touch, voice interactions, or RF-enabled badges or ID cards. Passive digital data can be gathered with camera visions or motion detection. Innovations and affordability are allowing organizations to embed technologies that track eye and hand movement for valuable customer insights. Two of the most important metrics to understand and act upon are average dwell time and session count.
- Average Dwell Time. This important digital metric records the amount of time someone actively engages with digital content appearing on the screen. A basic dwell time baseline establishes the expected average time that your viewer will stay connected. The amount of allotted time will vary depending on the type of digital signage and the length of the content loop display. Other factors that can influence dwell time include distance, location, and time of day. The information gathered can help reduce wait times in restaurant lines, decrease guest registration times, and lower patient anxiety.
- Session Count. Representing each visitor as a separate session, session count can give a business a good idea of the number of total interactions that occur between customers and digital signage over the course of a day or preselected time period. Metrics like average session duration can be compared to industry benchmarks to determine growth and success. Session count is an excellent indicator of engagement, and can provide actionable data, but should not be the only measurement used to gain insights into the total impact of digital signage.
Not every signmetric matters, but understanding which ones do, and consistently applying them help guide signage decision-making, will improve the effectiveness of every sign. It also leads to peace of mind that your investment in a sign is getting the results you want.