Sign Politics

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While elections occur in municipalities across the U.S. every year, when it comes time to elect a president, the stakes certainly go up—as do the signs, even at the local level. As it gets closer to the first Tuesday in November, everyone will see more and more campaign signs; some areas will seem almost littered with them.

How can you make your sign stand out? What are some dos and don’t for campaign signage? Allow us to enlighten you:

• Know the rules. Before you start planning to blitz an area with signs, check out the rules and regulations that apply to temporary signage. You may be limited in terms of size as well as where signs can be placed. The last thing you want to do is spend a bunch on signs that you subsequently learn are unusable.
• Less is more. Most people are going to interact with your sign for seconds, especially if they’re passing it in a car. Your intent with campaign signs should be to develop name recognition, not promote specific agendas or positions, so it’s best to keep things simple, i.e., Brad Jones for City Council.
• Choose your material wisely. Any sign that will live outdoors needs to be weatherproof—or you risk it being damaged or destroyed by the elements. Be sure you select a sturdy material for your sign that can survive wind and rain, and won’t “wilt” after a few weeks outside.
• Go professional. There’s nothing wrong with purchasing poster board and making your signs yourself—but if you want to enhance your image with the voting public, it makes sense to work with a sign company that can assist you with things like choosing materials and fonts…and will then produce professional signs that are a positive reflection of who you are.

Can we help? We’ve worked with many candidates to design and produce signs that have helped them get elected.

Sign Politics

Habitat for Humanity

SIGNARAMA Partners with Habitat For Humanity to Build Homes Across The Country

by SIGNARAMA on Sept 23, 2012

Worldwide Sign Franly 23chise to Participate in Various Initiatives to Help Families in Need of Better Homes

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Sept 23, 2012- SIGNARAMA, a full-service sign business, today announced a $250,000 partnership with Habitat for Humanity to help build and rehabilitate affordable homes across the United States and around the world. Through financial support, in-kind donations and hands-on building projects, SIGNARAMA will help advance Habitat for Humanity’s mission to build homes, communities and hope.
“We are very excited to partner with Habitat for Humanity and help families in need realize their dreams of homeownership,” said “JT” Jim Tatem, president of SIGNARAMA. “As the world’s largest signage franchise, serving our communities has been a long-standing tradition at SIGNARAMA, not only because it makes good business sense, but more importantly, because it’s the right thing to do for our customers and those living in the areas we serve.”
As part of the commitment, SIGNARAMA employees and franchise operators will volunteer in regional team builds throughout the course of the year and participate in marketing efforts to raise funds for Habitat’s work. In addition, SIGNARAMA corporate and local operators will also donate materials and signs in support of various Habitat for Humanity initiatives, including wrapping 14 Nissan trucks across the country to increase consumer awareness.
“In order to serve more families in more communities faster, we rely on creative partnerships like SIGNARAMA’S,” said Kymberly Wolff, senior vice president, Development, Habitat for Humanity International. “We’re grateful for their support, which will mobilize volunteers and resources, while raising awareness of Habitat’s vital work in communities across the country.”
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit organization that has helped to build over 500,000 decent, affordable houses and served 2.5 million people worldwide.

About SIGNARAMA (SAR)
SIGNARAMA is part of a successful system of business-to-business franchise brands and development services under the United Franchise Group. As part of the $30-billion-plus worldwide sign market, SIGNARAMA has been at the forefront of the sign industry for more than two decades providing cost effective advertising and branding solutions for companies to increase recognition. Approaching 900 locations in more than 50 countries, SIGNARAMA uses cutting-edge industry software programs to provide a full range of comprehensive sign and graphic services to both the private and commercial segments of the business community. For franchising information, please call (800) 465-0362 or visit www.signarama.com.

About the United Franchise Group (UFG):
United Franchise Group (http://www.unitedfranchisegroup.com), the Global Leader for Entrepreneurs, is a $500-million franchising expert with 30 years of experience and 1,400 franchise locations in over 50 countries. Brands include SIGNARAMA, EmbroidMe, Billboard Connection, Plan Ahead Events,
SuperGreen Solutions and Transworld Business Advisors. Information on franchising opportunities is available at 800-286-8671 (U.S.) or 001-561-640-5570 (international).

About Habitat for Humanity International
Habitat for Humanity International is a global nonprofit Christian housing organization that seeks to put God’s love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities and hope. Since 1976, Habitat has served more than 500,000 families by welcoming people of all races, religions and nationalities to construct, rehabilitate or preserve homes; by advocating for fair and just housing policies; and by providing training and access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions. For more information, to donate or to volunteer, please visit www.habitat.org, or follow us at www.facebook.com/habitat or at www.twitter.com/habitat_org or join Habitat’s blog community at www.habitat.org/blog.

Habitat for Humanity

Unlocking The Secrets Of QR Codes

What are QR Codes?
Quick Response Codes are similar to bar codes… they are
used to store information like text, locations, website URLs,
phone numbers or maps. When scanned by a smart phone
with a reader application, the code takes the user to that
stored information. Suddenly, that customer is engaged in
your business. For the first time, signs, displays and banners
can be truly interactive.

A recent study by InfoTrends reveals right now only 20%
of sign buyers are using QR codes, but 70% of buyers will
consider using QR codes or other interactive elements on
the signs they create in the future. This presents a huge
opportunity for us! Now, something that was first created in
Japan to identify car parts on assembly lines can be used
by your customers to market, promote products, and share
information.

How Does a QR Code Work?
Nearly any cell phone with the right application can be used
to scan a QR code. Some new phones have readers built
right in, but others require a free (or inexpensive) download.
Once the phone has a scanner, all you have to do is take a
picture of the code, and it automatically takes you to the linked
information.

QR codes most commonly link to:

• Websites (which should be mobile friendly)
• Social Media sites (Facebook, Twitter)
• Contact information
• A map of your location
• A mobile landing page with links to other pages
• A gallery of previous work
• A video designed to capture the mobile user
• Coupons & deals

How To Generate a QR Code.
Creating QR Codes is free. There are many services that
can be readily found on the internet. Several franchisees
recommend Zxing. (http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/).
This generator allows you to easily create a contact link, a url
link, or several other options in a format that’s clean enough
to blow up the file for almost all uses. This site is free and
allows you to create a code that doesn’t communicate with a
server, so the code you create is not dependent on another
site to function. The QR code size made available through
Zxing is adequate for most jobs, but if you need a bigger
image, you can vectorize the file for unlimited scaling.

QR Codes Resources

Free QR Code Generators
http://zxing.appspot.com/generator
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
http://www.qrstuff.com/
http://www.quikqr.com/
https://bitly.com/

www.sdsar.com

Unlocking The Secrets Of QR Codes

Sign Grammer

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Does it matter if the copy on your signs is grammatically correct? Of course! Regardless of whether you’re using a sign to attract customers or provide information, you certainly don’t want to turn off people by failing to take the time to properly craft your copy and then proofread it to ensure its correctness.

What should you be looking for as you review your sign verbiage? Most people immediately think, typos, and while those should be avoided at any cost, there are other things to be concerned about, including:

• Spelling errors. Be sure every word on your sign is spelled correctly.  
• Homophone mistakes. Remember that spell check won’t catch instances when you’ve used the wrong word—i.e., “are” instead of "our," "there" instead of "their," etc. -so you need to take special care to ensure you haven’t erred in that way.  
• Unclear messaging. If your sign is outlining a process, providing directions or describing the details of a sale, it’s especially important to make sure the copy is clear and not subject to different interpretations.  
• "Fancy" words. Simpler is always better when it comes to sign copy. Don’t use words that may not be present in many people’s vocabularies.

You don’t necessarily need to hire a professional writer to create copy for your signs—but that’s never a bad way to go. What you must absolutely do is ensure that plenty of people have reviewed your sign copy to ensure none of the issues noted above are present. You want your signs to be compelling and informative, not confusing or error-filled.  

www.sdsar.com

Sign Grammer

Design Factors for Political Signs

by CASEY VALIANT on SEPTEMBER 4, 2012

When designing your political signs for your campaign, there are many different factors to consider. Most political advertising signs have a 1 – 3 month lifespan, so the signs need to last at least that long. They also need to be attractive and easy to read. Beyond that, here are three things you need to consider when designing your political signs.

1. Is a Coraplast Substrate a Good Choice… ?
The life expectancy of the sign can be greatly affected by choosing the right material. You can go with Coraplast — corrugated plastic — which is then mounted to a heavy wire frame, which is driven into the ground.

You can print directly to Coraplast with a UV printer, which is a real time saver and lets you do full-color signs. You can also screenprint to the substrate, which is perfect for high volume print jobs, like 400 – 500 signs.

However, if you want to use full color, show a photo of the candidate, or more than one color, than UV printing would be your best bet. These full color signs will also have a greater impact than those single color signs, although they will cost more.

2. . . . or are Bag Signs?
Bag signs are another popular choice for political campaigns. These signs are printed on plastic “bags” that are then slipped over a heavy wire frame. Since the signs don’t need to last longer than three months, they aren’t printed on heavier materials. That really makes the price drop significantly for these signs. Bag signs are typically screenprinted, and people often use this method for its high volume, low cost benefit.

3. Signs Should be as Large as They Need to Be
That may not sound profound, but it’s important. It means don’t stick a 4 foot by 8 foot sign in a front yard, and don’t stick a 12 inch by 18 inch sign on the highway. Typically, political campaign signs come in an 18 inch by 24 inch size, which highway signs are about the size of a piece of plywood — 4 feet by 8 feet — in either corrugated plastic, or even plywood.

Recently, however, we’ve noticed that a lot of candidates aren’t really using traditional sizes. Every single sign starts to look alike, but the candidates want to stand apart from one another.

Here at SIGNARAMA Evansville, we have a die cutter that lets us do different shapes and sizes, which can help a candidate’s sign stand out a little bit more from its neighbors, helping the candidate’s name stand out from the competition.

Photo credit: Mpls55408 (Flickr, Creative Commons)
Source: http://blog.signarama.com/
 
www.sdsar.com

Design Factors for Political Signs

10 Tips on How to Write the Perfect Blog Post

by Sarah Fudin 

You have a story that everybody wants to hear, but how do you get people to your blog? The perfect blog post is about more than just great content. In fact, the way you format your post is almost paramount to the actual content itself. Readers may not even realize that they like these formatting nuances, but a well organized and designed post can help keep them reading and sharing.

Here are ten things you can do to turn your content into the perfect blog post:

1. Pick the Perfect Title 
Coming up with a direct but enticing title is the most important part of your blog post. You want readers to find your article easily with a simple search. Picking a title that will accurately match what the reader is searching for is obviously important in this age when nearly every Internet experience begins with Google.

The tricky part is striking the perfect balance between a relevant title and an exciting one. The perfect blog post title will be fun, funny, ironic or controversial while still keeping the core point of the article clear and present.

 2. Make the Main Point Clear 
The perfect blog post will let readers know what they are about to enjoy right away. Unlike a novel or movie, you don’t want the crux of the blog post to develop slowly. Internet readers have notoriously short attention spans, so make sure you open with an intro paragraph that lays out the post and lets the reader know he or she has come to the right place.

3. Make a List 
One easy formatting trick is to organize your post as a list. Make your different arguments into numbered or bulleted points, or include bolded subheadings. Top-ten lists and rankings are interesting to readers and give the post a clear reason to be read to the end. It also makes the post organized and clearly shows the reader what the key points will be.

4. Linkbait 
The perfect blog post will have content that other bloggers want to link to. Posts with “How to…” or “Top 10” in the title tend to get a lot of blogosphere attention. A great blog post also needs to have a large number of outbound links in the body. This is will help other bloggers notice your work and give you a return link, and will also give readers a feeling that you have done your research before writing your post.

5. Make It Attractive 
Making your post look nice is a quick and easy way to make readers happy. Before making a post public, take time to go back and format it to your liking. Make keywords bold, form organized or bulleted paragraphs, cut out unnecessary content to shorten up the post, enlarge titles and subject lines, and so on. A perfect post will be a pretty post.

6. Include Multimedia 
Even if your writing is the richest on the Internet, adding images or videos is crucial to breaking up the text and keeping things interesting. If you are writing a travel post, include attractive images of the destination. If you are writing an editorial piece, embed a fun video clip that helps illustrate your point. Multimedia livens up a post and is a critical part of the perfect blog post.

7. Stick to the Point
For a blog post to be perfect, it needs to be concise and it needs to stay on topic. As stated before, blog readers have a short attention span. When they search for a specific subject, they want the post to deal with that subject and not meander between several topics. Unless your post is about a Hollywood star or political scandal, mentioning such an event will only draw readers who are really looking for a post on a different topic.

8. Use Keywords 
The perfect blog post will be constructed with keywords in mind. A simple search using Google AdWords on a subject will let you know which related keywords are most commonly searched. Keeping those words in your title and throughout the body will make it easy for your audience to find your post and will make it clear to them that they have come to the right place.

9. Keep Length in Mind
Though it depends on the nature of your blog, keeping your post to an appropriate length is crucial. There is no optimal post length, but if it is too long, you risk readers getting impatient and leaving before they are done. In general, keeping a post under 1,000 words is a good rule of thumb. Keeping it between 500-800 words is ideal.

10. Be Original
 Make your post unique! Don’t simply say what everybody else is saying. Add your mark by mixing it up and making your post stand out in some way. The perfect blog post will make your audience stop and think. It will conjure some sort of emotion and make readers talk amongst themselves. A good indication that you have done your job is a post with a lot of engagement. If a post has readers commenting or arguing, you know you have given your audience something valuable to talk about.

While the perfect blog post starts with compelling content, there is clearly much more to the formula. Use these ten tips when you write your next post and sit back and enjoy the results!

Source: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-tips-on-how-to-write-the-perfect-blog-post/

www.sdsar.com

10 Tips on How to Write the Perfect Blog Post