There are quite a few ways you can make sure that your business is noticed by consumers around your area. Window displays, flashing lights, conventional signs, banners, and vibrant building paint can all make your establishment get attention. However, does anything work quite like neon signage does? The possibilities used to be limited with neon, but modern technology and decades of innovation mean that custom neon signs have quite a few benefits to offer the businesses that choose to use them.
While neon signs have been long-established as one of the public choices when it comes to business displays, the LED market is becoming more popular nowadays. LED lights and signs are created using light emitting diodes (LEDs) which are strung closely together so that the light they emit overlaps and makes a steady source of light. LED signs are usually lighter and more guarded than glass neon as LEDs are often packed in their own polymer jacket to protect each diode from external damage. LED signs and the many benefits make them ideal choices for nearly all kinds of brick and mortar businesses with physical locations.
Your Guide To Neon Signage
If you ever walk around town at night, you might notice how many buildings have glowing signs that almost seem luminescent. Those are the neon signs, and if you're noticing them first above all others, then you already know one of the primary benefits of these kinds of advertising.
Historians say that the very first neon sign showed up in 1910. This was at the Grand Palais in France. The display along caught the attention of people, the point that this particular visual effect caught on quickly in other nations. By the 1950s, the commercial demand for neon signs grew dramatically, especially as postwar America was booming.
By some accounts, demand for neon signs may have peaked in the 1970s, but they've stuck around in the new millennium and are making a strong comeback.
Still, they're a surefire hit with many consumers. For all the advantages of a digital world, paperback books still sell, and vinyl records are actually outselling compact disc CDs once again. The thirst for genuine articles is real, and there's an authentic acceptance of such things. It would seem that old school is cool again.
Why Many Popular Commercial Signs Are Changing To LED Neon
Cities are most distinguished for their attention-grabbing lights and ads. If you walk down the sidewalk, it’s not possible not to see the flashing signs that promise a good time, or the neon signs that welcome you to a hotel. Nonetheless, traditional neon signs are swiftly being replaced nowadays by more low-cost LED neon lights.
Here are some of the well-known advantages of choosing LED signs over the traditional neon lights:
- Very Safe
- More Cost-Efficient Than The Traditional Neon
- Energy-Efficient
- Same Brightness And Color As Traditional Neon
- The Option For More Effects And Patterns
- Recyclable
With the public going forward to a greener future, and with safe recycling becoming the standard, it’s likely that the classic signs you see around will replace their traditional neon with newly-improved LED neon.
12 Advantages Your Business Can Enjoy With Custom Neon Signs
Speaking of advantages that custom neon signage can offer your business, here are a dozen specific ones that you should consider. Some, if not all, are likely to open your eyes to the possibilities.
1. Energy Efficiency
Custom neon signs are quite popular with many business owners, given how much less energy they use. If you’re searching for the most energy-efficient lighting or signage then LED operates much less power than a neon light. Neon bulbs need 15,000 volts to run while LEDs need just 12 volts. If you’re contemplating about a large outdoor display and thinking about LED or neon then this implies a big saving in running costs if you were to opt for a LED display.
2. Creative Freedom In Design
The very name of custom neon signs should imply the possibilities, but they truly are endless. This particular advertising medium opens up a wide world of options for logos and lettering. Businesses can design their own neon signs in nearly any shape or color. Many neon sign makers have online tools for design work you can use on your own, and they can also do it themselves. You can even find third-party professionals for just the layout and image creation.
3. Durability
Customized neon signs are just as robust and sturdy as any other neon sign, which already has great lifespans. You can typically expect a neon sign that's built well and kept up to last your business for a decade, but with true care, from creation through installation and to upkeep, you can probably get it to last even longer. That's a far cry better than sending an employee up a ladder to replace bulbs in conventional outdoor signs twice a year. It's a lot safer, too, depending on the weather and who is actually willing to climb that ladder.
4. Easy Installation
Even if you need professionals to handle the installation, most neon sign makers either have someone on their team to handle that or partner with someone regularly for that. Even if you can do the installation yourself, it's worth letting industry experts do it so you have the peace of mind of it being done right and the chance to learn how to manage your signage. In either case, this isn't a construction project that will hamper or even close your business for days on end. Only a few hours are usually necessary, with minimal disruption to foot traffic. Depending on your business hours, you might even arrange to get this done when no one is around. The sign shows up, goes up, and turns on, all in one day.
5. Environmentally-Friendly
If you've been reading all of this, then you already know that neon signs use less power. They also have a longer lifespan. This adds up to being better for the world you share with your employees, your vendors, and your clients. Using less power means a lower carbon footprint generated, if you even rely on fossil fuel power where you are. Also, since these signs last longer without needing to be changed as often, there is far less waste material involved, both with production or disposal and recycling.
6. Broad Range Of Operation
Neon signs aren't just durable, but they also have a broad range of operations. Is your business location in a storm-prone area? Are surges and brownouts common for your line voltage? Neon signage is typically quite safe in all of these cases.
7. Versatility
You already have some idea of the range of colors, designs, and shapes that are available. However, even if you don't think you would ever take advantage of the flexibility of custom neon signage, you might have to. Anything from municipal building codes and state regulations to rules enforced by your property manager or building owner might mean certain stipulations and guidelines that your signs have to comply with. The versatility and flexibility of neon signage let you align with the rules that apply to your location and still stand out while your neighbors might be scratching their heads about how to make flat signs work.
8. Win The Night
Does your business shut down at 5 in the afternoon on weekdays? Or do you stay open late and on weekends? If you have any nighttime hours, then neon signage can let those around the area know who you are, where you are, and that you are open. Of course, you can always install lighting to illuminate your daytime signage, but neon signs are more cost-efficient and need far less maintenance and upkeep.
9. Make A Great First Impression
How many times have you driven by a business and saw just a bland text-only sign, perhaps with some basic colors? How many stores or establishments don't even have a logo? How many times do you just see a vinyl banner hanging up in the wind? Neon signs let you use any colors, shapes, styles, and sizes you want. Mount a work of art, and the quality and caliber of your business will sell themselves to customers and prospects alike before they even walk in your door. It might even happen before they get out of their car.
10. Match Your Branding
Social media dominates the world now. It's not enough to just be open for business and be selling a product or service. A company name and website aren't enough, because you have to have a brand around you. Branding is hard to match with flat signage at times, but custom neon lets you create signs that meld right into your current logo, colors, and content.
11. Fonts Galore
One of the most pertinent benefits of custom neon signs is the ability to choose from so many fonts. This relates closely to matching your business branding, if that is important to you, but at the least, it means choosing a particular font style that suits your decor and visual aesthetic. For an outside sign, you can choose a font that makes your business name stand out from the rest of the establishments around you. Even if you deal with a neon sign maker that doesn't have a font you want, there's a good chance that you can provide them with one and then they can work with it.
12. Neon Is Really Bright
Neon stands out. Not only are the colors typically more vibrant than conventional or traditional signage, but the luminosity is also greatly enhanced. This makes it far easier for passersby to notice your business, as well as for customers to find you when they've already decided to visit.
Custom Neon Signs Help Businesses
The underlying technology is more than a century old, and yet neon signs are a retro-chic way of saying your store is open or even displaying sophisticated branding. Use this option to communicate information to your customers and prospects with a delicious mix of urgency and style.
Functionality
Neon signs draw attention, first and foremost. They do this even during the hours when the sun is still up. Their high visibility made them quite popular during the booming roadside culture through America in the 1950s and 1960s. To this day, anyone traveling on a highway relies on the Vacancy/No Vacancy neon signs of hotels and motels to find a place to stay the night.
The Kinds Of Signs
Not everything that is called a neon sign actually has neon in it. The modern resurgence of this industry started up in the latter half of the 1990s, as engineers and chemists started coming up with a variety of color spectrums possible these days. Modern 'neon' signs might have argon, carbon dioxide, helium, or even fiber optic and LED technology that looks and works like traditional neon lighting.
Know Your Neighborhood
Not all communities actually prefer neon signs, but most welcome the look, given the classical slice of Americana that it is, as well as how effective and useful consumers find it. Still, make sure your property ownership, if you have to deal with such a thing, will permit it. Also, make sure that zoning ordinances and building codes allow for neon signage as well.
You should also take note of businesses around you already doing custom neon signs. If you see quite a few, don't immediately assume that one more will clutter up the area or overwhelm customers. It might just be a sign that custom neon signage works. Take notice of how many cars are in each parking lot. How many people are walking in and out?
The proof is in the pudding, and you can see with your own eyes how custom neon signs help your local stores and restaurants benefit. Join the crowd, and make sure your sign is better than the rest.
