Road Signs and Websites

san-antonio-center-credit-wikicommons-posted-cuttingedge-marketing-sales-blog-mhrponews-com You are driving along a highway or road. It is a drive you are used to making. You are 'running the path,' you see the signal lights and might pay some attention to the speed limit sign you've past hundreds of times before. The business signage has largely become background to you. What you notice this time is the 'new sign' that popped up! That catches your attention, because it is 'new and different.' But there is more to the story of signage…

As nice as this sign is, if you aren't specifically looking for these stores as you drive by, what they make on you is an 'impression.' That impression lodges in your subconscious mind, along with millions of other ones. If someone at the gas station asks you for directions to Trader Joe's or WalMart, you may automatically know right where to tell them to go.

The “impressions” made by your driving past that sign so many times sank in.

More powerful for quick attention getting that drives traffic is the far less costly sign being used below that is being held up by a man. ad-sign-man-credit-wikicommons-posted-cutting-edge-blog-mhpronews-com-

If you were in the market for jewelry (guys, a hint, Mom's day is coming up fast!) and drove past a man holding a sign like this, you might just peel off your drive route and pull in. This, by the way, would be interesting to test for your next public manufactured housing open house, if you are located on or near a favorable road way.

picadilly_circus_london_2006-credit-wiki-commons-posted-cuttingedgeblog-mhpronews-com More expensive than a regular vinyl billboard – but far more effective – are the new electronic billboards.

As the message changes every 10-15 seconds (+/-) your eye is just naturally drawn to it, even if you drive by the sign many times a day. The “motion” (change) in the sign attracts the eye.

A Signs Web Corollary

If you are placing a 'banner ad' on a website, and have the choice, we recommend the animated banner ad vs. the static one. The reason for it is similar to the one for the static vinyl banner billboard vs. the electronic billboard.

The “impression” on a visitor of a site for an ad hits the subconscious mind the same as driving past that road sign does. Some of our clients have had millions of impressions on MHProNews, because we have lots of traffic from professionals focused on manufactured housing related news, tips and views.

With a banner ad, the impressions are the same be the ad static or animated, but you will get more click throughs on an animation on our site or any other one too.

A similar principle holds true for your website. If your website doesn't appear to 'move' or change,' once a person has visited once or twice, what is there that will 'bring them back' to you online?

This is more important than you may think! Because studies show that the millions of big ticket buyers will shop 3-6-to-12 months in advance. You want to get them coming to you regularly. We could talk about strategies that will also cause them to sign up with you, just as we have thousands signed up to get business building and protecting information from us twice weekly via this link.

So, for example, on the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show's website that we built, the high impact image slider 'above the fold' on the site draws the eye and keeps the reader for the ever so critical first 5-10 seconds. That is how long a person statistically takes – 5 to 10 seconds – to decide if they are going to stay on your site, or surf eleswhere.

Then, as you scroll down the page, we have a blog that is updated in the run-up to show season and that features some post show info as well. Plus, at the bottom of every page, there are news feeds that are updated 24/7/365.

/old_sign_pil-credit-wikicommons-mhpronews-com-cuttingedge-blog-.jpg Having the right first impression on your website is important and so too is keeping a steady diet of information that your target audience will want to come back and check out. If you haven't done an update on your website in the past 3-4-5 years, odds are you are way overdue.

An outdated website, like an old sign, might be better than nothing. On the other hand, the turn off from a bad business sign may keep people away. The same could be true for many of those 'better customers' you want to attract who have the cash or good credit. The newer, nicer website is far more likely to draw and keep them engaged.

Websites and road signs both need to be kept fresh and appealing. When you do so properly, it will be reflected on the bottom line of your factory built housing business. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for April and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach