It is truly the era of Digitalization. If you look at the trends, you would notice that even the most remote and isolated industries are now digitalizing and creating some virtual presence either for their customers or their stakeholders. Even the printing industry that is solely serving the offline conventional market is digitizing with an online print shop. So, if digitalization is in the center of things then why is the Signage Printing industry growing?
If you look at the statistics, the Sign Industry of the United States is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2% from 2020 to 2025! (Source) So, while digital signage observes an increasing adaptation rate, the printed signage is also becoming an integral part of the marketing campaigns due to various marketing and branding trends. To help signage printers make the most out of this growth and to increase their sales, we have listed below the trends that are contributing to the increase in the signage demand and along with it the tools and approaches that they require to make the most out of this demand in 2022.
Trends that will disrupt the Printed Signage Market in 2022:
1. Creative guerrilla marketing:
Have you seen signage being used for the creative presentation of a series or a product? Whether we talk about the global campaign of Netflix for Narcos season 3 using the signage and banners or creative use of Signs by Burger King and Apple for various campaigns, marketers have been using different themes, things, elements and spaces to create a buzz in the market.
2. Brand personalization of Banners and Signs:
Brands are targeting Marketing uniformity across all channels as they want their target audience to know their ad when they see it. Banners and signs are one of the best ways to ensure that users have a brand recall. Whether it is the festive promotion that marketers are showcasing with banners or an upcoming product, there will be fonts, logos, colors and other such elements that create a personalized banner or signage for effective brand recognition and recall.
3. Informative banners for delightful store experiences:
As far as the indoor signs are concerned, the idea is to create seamless store navigation to ensure that the customers have a delightful store experience. While this was always the agenda of installing signs in a store, but with the pandemic restrictions, the use of signs to communicate the directions and regulations with the walk-in customers has increased many folds.
4. Using offline banners and signs to promote online platforms:
One of the most recent signage trends that will also continue in 2022 is the use of them to bring users on Brand’s digital platforms. Based on the campaign, brands are using Banners and Signage to create a QR code and encourage people to scan it and reach on their targeted digital platform.
5. The use of minimalism:
Marketers understand that in this fast-paced world where people are consuming content and marketing campaigns almost all the time, conventional and simple marketing tactics would never work in creating the buzz. Thus, marketers are using Minimal and creative design approaches to reach their audience. Also, with creative banners and signage, there is a huge chance of the campaign going viral on social media.
6. Using signs for supporting a cause:
In today’s world of social media, the best way to make a marketing campaign go viral is by supporting a local cause of the region or country that the brand is targeting. While the campaign goes viral on social media platforms, the idea is normally a simple way to communicate with the people via offline platforms and majorly via banners and signage. Marketers use multiple channels to promote the campaign and then show the results as impressions and changes in the cause that they are supporting.
Reasons why these trends are being adopted:
1. Increased Visibility:
In this competitive world where any brand can promote their product via multiple channels, established brands are spending a fortune on creating strong brand visibility. Since the idea is to reach maximum people, signage and banners are the number 1 conventional marketing tactic that is being targeted.
2. Uniform marketing:
For the extensive reach of a campaign, marketers are now targeting uniform and omnipresent marketing. So, not only is the campaign promoted with the same creative and copies across different platforms, but they are also extended in the conventional marketing collaterals such as banners, signs, pamphlets and others. Some of these campaigns are also global such as Apple’s ongoing “shot on iPhone” campaign.
3. Brand engagement:
The idea is to bring customers in contact with the brand using all the marketing channels. Marketers are now using conventional marketing to help customers connect and reach brands on online platforms with QR codes and app promotions via banners and signs. Apart from customer insight and feedback, signages are majorly used for upcoming promotions and brand establishment during expansions.
4. Encourages impulsive shopping:
Signs indoor are used to communicate with people the discounts and promotions that are currently being availed by the brand. These signs are placed in respective sections of the store for respective categories and are used to prompt users to make an impulsive shopping decision.
5. Promotions and seasonal advertisements:
Whether you look at brick-and-mortar stores or e-commerce platforms, every retail business has some promotions going on during certain times and seasons. So, whether it is the black Friday sale or the end-of-season sale, these sales and promotions are one of the biggest events for such retail industries and they leave no stone unturned while promoting it. Because of their mixed nature and extensive reach, signs and banners are an integral part of the Retail Industry and they are also one of the biggest consumers for the printed signage industry.
Now that you know the trends and their reasons, it is time to understand how can a signage printer business cater to these needs and what are the essential assets and approaches that they would require to make the most out of this demand in 2022.
Watch how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYhluBqfHGo
Approach and Tools to make the most from the Signage Printing Business in 2022:
1. Creative Signage resources:
First and foremost the signage printing businesses have to up their game and cater to the creative concepts that marketers bring to them. This is one of the best ways to attract and bag big clients that need signage frequently for their different campaigns. So, as their printing partner, you must cater to their out-of-the-box requirements. Whether it is the use of the unique shape of signs or their unique placements and elements, you must have a feasible and affordable solution for such requirements.
2. Signage Design Online Tool:
One of the biggest brand requirements currently is creative graphic designing for marketers. Not only do they want to create a buzz in the market, but they also want to create a brand identity and brand recall with their graphics. Thus, no matter what the branding activity or marketing collateral is, businesses need personalized and customized designing for optimum impact.
Thus, it is essential that as a print business you provide them the best tool that can interpret and convert their vision into brilliant and creative signage. Instead of hiring extensive graphic resources, you can just integrate the software for sign design and let brands design their own signs and banners! An ideal web-to-print will not only allow your customers to create custom banners, but also allow them to go out-of-the-box with various customization options and capabilities. Right from unique shapes to extensive design areas and elements, the custom sign design software will have it all! Also the best thing, it lets you and your customers create creative designs without much designing skills or technical skills.
3. High-quality printing:
With an online design editor at your corner, the designing creativity will increase and it will also provide printers with the ready-to-print output file. But, printers must deliver high-quality prints to match the design and customer expectations. Use the digital printing platforms that can cater to complex designs and create a reputation in the market by being the master of all types of creative signage requirements.
4. Cost-effective offerings and promotions:
Since the requirements of brands can be huge and frequent, they must get the printing services at cost-effective rates. Create various bulk order discounts along with various promotions and bundling of service options for your customers to attract them and engage effective cross-selling and up-selling tactics.
5. Effective service marketing:
What good is your platform, service and sign design online tool if your customers are not even aware of your services and platforms? Make sure that you promote your business and service both online and offline to make sure that your customers notice your presence and your print capabilities. Also, you must create an effective marketing strategy that includes both paid and organic marketing activities for extensive and long-term reach and brand identity creation.
Make your business future-proof with quality services and robust technologies:
Just like any other business or industry, to ensure your success as a signage printing business you must have unique and effective services and a strong virtual presence for optimum reach. The gist of all this is about adopting a customer-centric approach and creating a futuristic and scalable business model with the help of technology. So, whether the decision is about buying printing machines or creating an online print shop or integrating a signage design software, just make sure that it aligns with your customer expectations and your business goals.
