Alternatives to A-Board Advertising

A-board advertising is a great way to gain trade from passing foot traffic. Many shop owners have found this to be an essential tool for their business, as it attracts customers that would have otherwise passed by without noticing them. 

Sadly, towns across the UK are starting to restrict this type of advertising. Following successful trials in towns such as Bradford and Ilkley last year, York has implemented a complete ban on A-board advertising within a prohibition zone in the city centre. If the one year trial in York is also successful, many other towns could follow suit. 

Whilst this is an improvement for pedestrians who found A-boards to be a dangerous obstruction, particularly on narrow pathways, it is clearly bad news for shops. 

There are, however, plenty of eye-catching alternatives that will help attract the attention of potential customers, and give you the opportunity to entice them in.

Light and colour are two of the most effective tools to get customers to notice your shop window, and the illuminated totem displays tick both these boxes. Place them in front of your shop window, featuring attention grabbing posters that pique the curiosity of passers by, and encourage them to take the next step and come in to your shop. 

Try the double-sided, free-standing, fluorescent light box totem with a curved front for just £279 excluding VAT; or the LED double-sided, flat, snapframe totem for £449 excluding VAT. 

 

As a cheaper alternative to the totem display, the LED light poster frame can display posters close to your shop window, again increasing the chance that passers by will glance in your direction, as they notice the colour and lights out of the corner of their eye. 

You can get an LED light poster snapframe for as little as £67.50 excluding VAT. 

 

Information that you previously displayed outside on an A-board, could also be displayed on your outer walls in an outdoor snap frame. For example, if you are a cafe, restaurant or bar, you could display upcoming events or special menus in the frame, so that passers by can peruse the information without having to stare at customers through the window. Again, consider how you can attract their attention using colour, and specific words. 

Outdoor Snapframes start at just £12.95 excluding VAT.

 

Getting your customers' attention is not just about the information you display, but also about your shop window design itself. When choosing colours for your window display, make sure you pick a theme as this will be of more visual interest to potential customers than random use of colour. For example, either go monochrome, or pick a few colours that complement each other. 

Your chosen colour theme will be the most effective if it is associated with a particular concept. For example, if you are selling gardening equipment, people will easily be able to associate a green theme accented by occasional splashes of bright colour, with a garden; and if this is something that interests them, they may be more inclined to stop and look. 

Appealing to preconceptions that people have about colour in this way will encourage them to engage with your theme. People associate yellows with sand and sun, so if they have their holidays on their mind, they may be more likely to take note; the colour red represents stop, and can therefore be used to make people subconsciously pause and look when they pass your window. However, brighter colours may be more likely to attract attention, but they can also be off-putting, so use them intermittently to draw attention to particular areas, details or products. 

Whilst it may at first seem like a challenge to make passers by look in your direction without them stumbling into an A-board, it can allow you to get creative with different ways to engage people with your business; and when it works, this can be a very satisfying and rewarding task. 

This article has been provided by Linda Firth, who has worked as a volunteer window dresser at Oxfam, and runs the Lifestyle blog over at LoveMyVouchers.co.uk; where she shares her expertise on personal and business finance, and you will find her money saving advice and tips.