Small businesses can also find benefit in using programmable or scrolling LED signs for inside of their facility, and this works especially well when your small business has retail based operations and you can promote in store specials through these signs which can be changed as needed.

Outdoor signs are another option for small businesses who want to enjoy a greater visual presence so that new customers can be found through this targeted use of signage to attract attention to the name of the business. The right sign or combination of signage can go a long way in helping you to grow and promote your business. People read and look at signs, and when you have the right type of sign and information on the sign itself you will enjoy better presence in a competitive business world.

The need for cheap signs and those which are affordable for small businesses is a great way for you to increase your marketing campaigns through the inclusion of signs in to your total and comprehensive marketing and promotional plans. Signage is still one of the best forms of advertising and you need to use signs as a small business as you always need to be promoting your business so you can continue to grow and succeed.

Bringing in New Business

On-premise signage announces to customers that the business is open, conveys an image, and indicates the products or services offered. It’s in essence a welcome mat. Unique, relevant, and visible signs, whether they be programmable LED signs or custom neon signs, grab the attention of motorists and pedestrians. In addition, they promote traffic safety by providing a point of reference for drivers. Signs differentiate your businesses from the other businesses in the vicinity. In this way they serve as a low-cost sales person.

A study cited by the New York State Small Business Development Center found that “anywhere between 13-percent to 20-percent of the population moves during a given year.” It’s essential to continually replace these customers. Chances are some of the regulars are among those relocating. While the majority of customers tend to live or work in the area of a business, a substantial amount of profits can come from motorists who are shopping outside of their community. A bold, visible sign, coupled with window signs, is a powerful marketing tool for attracting this clientele.

Creating an Unforgettable Identity

By creating an identity and brand through signage, the business becomes the first one to pop into a customer’s mind when looking for specific products or services. Branding tells customers who the business is, what its core values are, how it differs from the competition, what the business is and what it does, why customers should choose this business, and establishes an image. Brands instill consumers with confidence, create loyalty, can often allow businesses to drive prices up, and negates customers’ risk perception.

With brand consistency, signs can be used to reinforce messages in other forms of advertising. Signage should include a logo, possibly a tagline, company colors, and the company’s name. Signs, especially those in the windows, should touch on brand purpose, differences and advantages offered by the business, the brand promise, and also reflect the brand’s personality. Creating a recognizable, respected, and trusted brand is one of the most effective ways to increase business.

Prompt Purchases

Signs can encourage consumers to make a purchase, particularly impulse purchases. People under a time constraint will often purchase a product at the first store they see or at a business they are familiar with. A prominent sign attracts motorists and shoppers. It should be the focal point of a storefront. Custom LED signs and custom neon signs are especially effective in drawing attention. If a customer is looking for a particular item and sees the sign as they are driving by, they’re likely to stop and enter the business. According to the New York State Small Business Development Center, “Today’s consumer tends to purchase goods and services both by habit and by impulse. However, studies have shown that the majority of sales come from impulse buying.” This is where signage plays a significant role in attracting attention.

In addition to impulse buyers, regular customers familiar with the brand can be enticed with window signs advertising specials or new services. Window signs can be swapped out easily and cheaply. This can prompt another type of impulse buy. A customer may visit the business for a specific product or service, but upon seeing a special prominently displayed, they can be swayed into making an additional purchase. Businesses that rely on impulse buyers should feature large, distinctive, simple signs. Programmable LED signs are perfect for businesses that sell a product or service that is generally purchased infrequently. By changing the message from time to time it will capture potential customers’ attention and make them remember the business.

The importance of signs for small businesses should not be underrated. A case study conducted by the International Sign Association found that when a car wash installed a large, new sign “in its first year, the new sign produced a 15% increase in overall business, which translated into an additional $135,000.00 – nearly nine times the cost of the sign.” Signage is one of the most cost-effective ways to bring in new customers, encourage impulse buys, and brand a small business.

A neon sign is an illuminated advertising display that’s constructed from one or more gas-filled glass tubes.  These tubes are formed into shapes such as letters, logos, and other decorative designs. The bright light that is emitted from the sign is created by some high-voltage electricity that is passed through the gas inside the glass tubes via electrodes on either end of the tube.

At first, only neon gas was used in the manufacturing of these signs. Currently, a number of kinds of gases are put to use, and when used in conjunction with particular tints and coatings may produce more than fifty different kinds of colors. These types of signs range from the modest, comparatively low-cost type you see on the walls of bars to the massive, remarkably illuminated kind that is regularly seen atop hotels and casinos.

Right after their heyday during the 50′s, neon signs were over time overshadowed by less expensive signs made from plastic that were lit from the inside by fluorescent tubes. Recently, neon has experienced a resurrection in both commercial signage and as an artistic medium. The Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles, CA features contemporary as well as historical works of neon. They also put together regular monthly tours of notable neon signage in and around Los Angeles.

Bendable lead glass that can very easily be re-formed is very important in producing the kind of glass tubing that you find in neon signs. The ends of the segmented tubing hold electrodes which are ordinarily made out of very high-purity iron that are encapsulated by a glass jacket or open-ended envelope. The electrode is hooked up to a wire which is passed through the end of the envelope which will then be sealed into the end of the tubing with the open part protruding into the tube.

Making neon signs is as much an art as it is a mechanical process. With a few exclusions practically every sign is unique and must be specifically designed to fit the desired display within the constraints of the available space. Special considerations of the tubing diameter, the minimum bendable tubing radius, and the total length of tubing the transformer can power can all restrict the final product. For instance, the smaller the diameter of the tubing you’re working with, the brighter the light. A smaller diameter tubing requires more power, which limits the over-all tubing length that one transformer can bear.

In the present day, neon gas is only used to emit red and orange colors. The majority of modern day neon signs incorporate argon or some kind of argon-neon mixture. In order to intensify the illumination, mercury is mixed with the argon, ultimately causing a strong blue light. It works along with the numerous elements coated inside the tube to give off all kinds of different colors. Depending on the desired color, optical tints may be utilized, or the tube may be left clear if the piece calls for a bright blue light. Other sorts of gases such as xenon, helium, and krypton may be used for special effects.

Manufacturing neon signs is almost entirely done manually. It mainly consists of bending the tubing and attaching electrodes while removing any impurities from inside the tubing itself, then removing the air inside and then adding the gas.

The tubing needs to be thoroughly prepared for manufacturing. In order to do this, portions of the tubing are first cleaned and then positioned upwards into a machine that coats their interior with liquid phosphor. Afterwards, the tubing is dried in an oven. If any color tints are to be added, they’re processed similarly. Some tubes (like those that are to be filled with neon or argon) are left clear.

Now that the tubing is all set, it is time for bending. Bending is when the glass tubing is re-shaped into whatever shape the design calls for. To facilitate the bending, the glass tubing must first be heated. A good deal of the bending process is actually done by hand, without protective gloves. The reason for this is that the benders need to be able to feel the subtle adjustments in the temperature of the glass tubing so that they will know the right moment to make their adjustments. It’s crucial that during this process the tube does not collapse, because that would stop it from functioning properly.

Following the bending process, it’s bombarding time. This process is done to remove any impurities that may still be left in the gas, the glass tube, or the electrodes. A vacuum is used to suck out all of the air from inside the tubing. After this is completed, some air is steadily seeped back into the tubing until the proper pressure levels are reached. The longer the tubing, the lower the pressure required. A high-current transformer is then attached to the electrodes and the tube gets heated to about 420 degrees and the metal electrode reaches about 1,400 degrees. This process causes any impurities to be driven out from the materials.

Now it’s time to fill the tube. Once it has finally cooled down, gas is inserted under low pressure. The previous step of bombarding will see to it that the gas will operate like it’s designed to and last for the maximum amount of time. The open end of the tube used to insert the gas is then heated and permanently sealed off.

The very last two steps in the process are aging and then the final assembly. The aging process is important to make sure that the gas inside the tube stabilizes adequately and is completely ready for use. Once it has aged for long enough, the bent glass is ready to be fastened to the sign. The way it is attached may vary depending on the type of sign that it is. The smaller, indoor types you often see at bars and restaurants usually have a small steel framework or an acrylic backing that supports the tubing and the power transformer. The backing is usually black, so that it is unable to distract from the sign.

Custom neon signs are an attractive solution for any business that is trying to round out their advertising strategy. A standard neon sign, like perhaps one that says “open” or “closed” is useful, but a custom neon sign that was created for a specific business will almost certainly draw more attention, and ultimately, bring more business.

Custom Neon Sign Advantages

• Relatively Low Cost . A neon sign is not terribly expensive, with standards signs around $90, and custom windows signs ranging from $250 or so up to $1000.  Unlike other methods of advertising, neon signs are a one-time cost that provide benefits for the life of the sign.  A typical neon sign lasts for 7-12 years.  Compare that to the monthly cost of a newspaper ad for example!
• Almost unlimited colors. Perhaps you were considering a custom LED sign instead of neon?  Here’s a secret the LED guys don’t want you to know:  With LED, only a select few colors are bright.  Other the red, green, and blue, most LED colors are extremely dim.   With neon, you have an almost unlimited palette to choose from, including colors that just don’t work well with LED, like purple.
• Attractive. There is no other sign medium that captures the nostalgic and classy look of neon.  Sure, you can buy a cheap lightbox, banner, or LED sign and save a few bucks…but it’s your image.  Do you want your business to evoke an image that says “We’re Serious”, or one that says “We’re short on cash?”.

You are in control!

With custom neon signs, you are in control of design considerations.  Here are some of the decisions you can make with a custom neon sign:

• Size: Want a small sign to fit in a tight space?  No problem.  Even a small, 10″ high X 24″ wide neon sign can make an impact.  How about a large sign?  Even a pretty large sign, around 20″ high and 37″ wide can be ordered online.  And, if you have the sign created by a local sign shop, the sky is the limit…go as large as you want.
• Logos: Most neon shops will work with you to create a version of your logo or graphic in neon.  Simple logos work best, but a good neon artist can work with you to transform almost any logo or design into a striking piece of neon art.  With the right mockup,  the glass blowers, can shape the neon glass tubes into almost any design.
• Colors: Every custom shop will show you a broad selection of colors for your sign.  And, you aren’t limited to just one color…feel free to mix up colors in the same sign.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions, the shop is there to help you and can offer advice on which colors are the brightest, and potentially, which colors to avoid.  Yellow, for example, is difficult to produce in neon, and many shops use a painted or colored tube to get a yellow tone.  This works, but may result in a dimmer overall shade.
• Fonts:  A talented glass-blower can reproduce almost any font that has a consistent width.   From plain block letters up to a complex script font, you’ll have lost of choices.   And, you can use more than one font in a single sign.   Perhaps something like “Freddy’s BAR”, with “Freddy” in a rich script, and “BAR” in a big, bold, block letter font.

In summary, custom neon signs will afford you the opportunity to buy an advertisement that pays you back every month, without the monthly cost of a radio, television, or newspaper ad.   The custom nature of the product means that you are in control of the design and message.   If the sign draws just one new customer every month, how long would it take to pay for itself in your business?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRCentral (Press Release) . Mar 30, 2011 . First Christian Church is growing!  The Church was founded in 1989 by Reverend Ronald Hightower.  .We’re a small group of 22 original members who originally met in a single room.  From there our congregation started to grow like wildfire.  We knew we needed to purchase a different kind of sign than any of the other local churches..

First Christian Church is situated in Plumbersville, Texas, a small rural town in the southeastern part of the state.

Hightower had two objectives about what the sign needed to achieve. First, the sign needed to be afforable.  First Life was growing, but more in numbers than in revenue. Money was a factor due to the relatively high existing expenses.  Secondly, Hightower wanted to purchase a sign that could be continue to be used well into the future, once a larger facility was finished.  The sign needed to be flexibile both in it’s messaging capabilities as well as size. The sign from AMS Signs met both of these needs fully.

The church members rave about the the sign and cited the ease of use, brightness, and variety of built-in graphics as key differentiators. We can announce a specific service several times, note our free community dinners, and most importantly,  share the important themes from a sermon when needed.

Since the installation of the sign they have had many new potential members visit either to attend services or visit us for a  special event.  It’s hard to think of our Church as a business, but the sign has literally paid for itself by serving it’s intended purpose of growing our flock.  We’re in the business of lighting up our member’s lives, and the LED sign has allowed us to do just that! We are the only church in this area of the state with this large and bright of a sign and it is makes a huge difference!

Thanks to our hard work and the addition of our AMSSigns LED sign, First Christian Church now is proud to have a congregation of 250+ members.  “Our plans are to move the sign to the new building once it is finished, and I look forward to the move. Already having the sign in place is a huge head start!”, said Hightower.

AMSSigns Supreme LED signs are available in custom sizes, as well as the standard sizes like  12″x40″, 15″x53″, and 28″x72″ outdoor business signs. The unique material can be customized for other sizes, and is 100% weather and waterproof. The aluminum framed outdoor signs offer additional support with a supporting core and are availab
le in pitch sizes from 15mm to 25mm.

Many of our customers are looking for long-term outdoor signage to get their  business name in a new locations said Kelly Jones, Director of Outside Sales at AMSSigns. A frequent request is for large signs and custom outdoor signs that are resistant to outdoor exposure. Now, we can recommend a product that can withstand just about anything Mother Nature can offer and still provide an attractive yet modern programmable LED sign..

Supreme LED signs are available with standard black finish. The signs are designed to stay rust-free (100% alumunum frames) , weather resistant, and UV and scratch protected for a high-quality and long-term business sign. Supreme LED can be mounted to nearly any surface and is perfect for a wide variety of small businesses. Set your custom size, pitch, color, and mounting styles.

While bending and heating the tube then you are maintaining the hollow shape of the neon signs. If you are don designing the neon sign that you want you can easily clean it by vacuuming out the suction pump and then that will produce the color of the neon sign. When the gas-filled tube glows in the current it will pass through the ionizing gas and then that will cause it to glow. You can have the neon gas tube for about 10 to 15 years because it does not contain the filament like any other ordinary bulb.

As we all know a small neon tube can be bent easily but it will not be that readable from a far distance.A large tube diameter is more visible from a far distance and that is effective in the illuminating store front letters and that cannot be practically be formed in a smaller application. If you have a large diameter of neon tubing then that means less brilliant for your neon sign. And because neon signs involve complex glass-blowing work, it is relatively expensive.

What is the real meaning of EL-Wire sign? It means electroluminescent wire and it has a cool running, lightweight, low power consumption light source and very flexible. It has a wire inside that includes a copper core coated with plastic. With this plastic is a coated core around and has ultra thin wires and it has a whole assembled in the clear and colored plastic to produce some attractive color. This EL-Wire runs only at AC current and you need to have the use of inverter with this. If you just need to light your entire car you need to have some inverter or sequencer. You can even find that EL-Wire in some place in your town.

You can create an EL-Wire sign with the same fine detail of the neon but there are no glass tubes to break. They can also be powered by  batteries, solar or traditional wall plugs. Custom designs are possible as well.

This EL-Wire sign are not expensive and it can also be customizes and then it is just cool and will not heat too much unlike the neon sign and there is also a flexible style of it for the font that you want and this can be used in more time than the neon barbershop signs.

Neon Signs

During 1893 the Neon sign came into being.  The Paris expo is the place where the first Neon sign is displayed. The first appearance of it was during 1912. The trend of it is now changing. There are a lot of types of Neon sign boards that is available in the market. You can try to add some neon beer sign to your establishment because that is a sure way to have a lot of customers attracted to your place. You can see a beer neon signs made of glass tubing and bent into the best shape that the owner wants to have. Then the glass bender will heat the tube and do the shape that the owner wants to have. After that heating the cooling process is next. As you can see an electrodes are attached to the end of the tube. If you try to look at it the Vacuum pumps in the glass tubes will be filled with inert gas. In the neon signs you can also see a fill of argon or helium.

The neon bar signs also have different colors formed with the gas. With the help of the inert gas you can use the Beer signs in the right amount of voltage and temperature condition. There will also be an Aragon gas used in this Neon sign that cab give you a use of pale lavender ligh that can be traced with a mercury. When the phosphorescent materials with aragon and mercury is inserted to the tube then it can produce a lot of different colors. The pure neon gas can produce abright pink red color. You can have an animated neon signs if you create some certain tubes that will be switched on and off in some intervals also. If you want a dim blue light then you need to have a combination of argon and helium gas. To achieve the combination of colors you want you need to follow those factors. Unlike the other gas the neon gas is not poisonous. The air we breathe is where the neon gas came from. Inert is also a means of stability and slow moving with out any reaction.

There are a lot of ways to have an advertisement by the use of Neon in displaying for your company logo, services offered, custom neon signs, Business Hours, Interior Borders, company name, products offered, decorative borders an a lot more.

Neon Sign