Watch the video here to learn more about why this website is quickly becoming the premier website for linking owners, tenants and lenders with pre-screened commercial real estate professionals in markets across the country.

Landmark Sign Group is the owner of the website featured in this week’s Innovative Friday installment.  More so than most industries that use websites to promote their companies, the signage industry has a unique opportunity to showcase their work through pictures.  Set these pictures to music and you have a perfect recipe to impart more than a list of past clients or a paragraph about how one’s company was founded.  Music and pictures (used appropriately) make a website come alive and fill more than just your brain with information about the company.  They leave an impression that lasts longer than the minute or two that the website occupies your computer screen.

Think back to a memory of an event from the past few years; a baseball game perhaps.  When you remember the event, do you recall sounds and smells that you associate with this memory?  In a small way, the proper use of sound and images on a website can cause the same effect. In reviewing several websites for this week’s blog, I can’t tell you specifics about many of the sites I visited but I can tell you that when I think about Landmark Sign Group, my mind evokes an image of a “visual parade of pictures” and upbeat music that reminds me of Chicago.  This adds interest and excitement and as a result, the life of the website has lived longer in my mind than any of the others.

Try a little test with me.  Click on the link above to the Landmark Sign Group website and view it for about 30 seconds with your speakers turned up.  Set an appointment reminder for this time tomorrow and when your reminder alerts you, think back to the website.  Can you remember the website?  Can you remember more than just the words and the names on the sign?  Do you remember the music and how it made you feel?  If you’re like me, the memory will bring back the sound of the trumpets and the “parade of pictures.”  Congratulations Landmark Sign Group for a website that is well done and appropriate for the sign industry.

After reviewing literally thousands of websites over the last 12 months we (Zoliath.com) can say that the best websites in our opinion are the ones that combine key information and “flavor.”  Every Friday we are going to highlight one of these websites.  Sometimes the company who owns the highlighted website will be one that advertises on Zoliath.com but this will not always be the case.  Our goal with Innovative Friday is to make our readers aware of websites that are both informative, creative, and fun.  After all, isn’t advertising by its very nature supposed to leave the viewer with a positive lasting impression?  Just like memorable commercials aired during the Super Bowl, websites can impart a positive message in each of us if presented correctly.  We hope you find these websites as visually pleasing and flavorful as we do!

Our pick for the first website to be displayed on Innovative Friday belongs to Legend Retail Group in Denver, Colorado.  This is a site that is laid out extremely well.  It combines all of the elements of an informative website and does so in a way that engages the visitor to navigate far longer than one would on a more traditional industry website.  Cheers to Legend Retail Group for being the first to make the grade with Zoliath.com.  Legend is an advertiser on our website and can be found under Commercial R.E. brokerages.

If you would like to submit other commercial real estate industry websites for inclusion in Innovative Friday please send us a link and we will be sure to take it under consideration.  The only qualification is that the website must fall into one of the categories listed in Zoliath.com.  Have a great weekend.

The best advice I can offer in this regard is to get your sign person involved as early as possible. This can even include having him or her evaluate your properties as they come on the market and report to you on their signage potential. Consider these time frames. From experience I can tell you that  from the first meeting with a business to the time the art work has been completed and a price agreed to, this process will probably take an average of 30 days. This is without design revisions or delays in making decisions. Permitting may take up to two weeks or more unless a variance is involved and that procedure may take up to 6 months. Actual manufacturing and installation may take 45 days or longer, depending on the project, from the time the actual permits are approved and pulled. Add it up. That’s 90 days from start to finish. And that’s on a good day!

A qualified sign professional should be able to provide you with:

Realistic expectations in regard to the time needed to get artwork and estimates, permits, and manufacturing and installation.

An intimate knowledge of the local sign ordinance including any overlay districts that might be involved, for example, an historic district. This would include being aware of any special sign programs that might be in effect for a specific property.

Sound, and brutally honest advice on what it will take to get your signs approved at all levels.

A working relationship with local planning staff. Beware of the sign sales person that hands your project off to somebody else for permitting. This of course is my professional opinion. The fact is, when I need to take something to a city that requires “special attention”, I do it myself because I have developed those relationships and will want to “hand walk” your application through.  Your signage specialist should be prepared to do the same.

A commitment to personally seeing your project through to the end and not just to the point that they have your deposit.

What you can do to assist in these efforts:

Whether you are the agent or the tenant, make your sign person a part of your team and provide them with the information that they need to go to work for you. This would include any established sign criteria and landlord contact information, if applicable.

As the tenant or owner, it will be very helpful to provide your sign person with quality artwork, your preferred signage options, a realistic budget, and your best advice regarding the time frames involved. This would include communicating any changes that may occur in a timely manner.

If you find particular sign person that you you trust, use them to help you to evaluate any competitive bids that you may have received. In this business as with most, you get what you pay for and that “pretty picture” you may be looking at may tell you little about actual construction or materials used. Chances are that your sign person understands their industry better than and you should leverage their knowledge.

If new construction is involved, you will want your sign person involved early and you should place them in contact with all construction parties involved. Wall signs may involve needed backing behind the walls for support, trenches may need to be dug to ground mounted signs for electrical service, and any illuminated signs will need electrical service stubbed to the sign location. The choice is yours. You can arrange to tear out that new sheetrock to provide backing and electrical service or maybe even have to break up that nice new asphalt to get power to a ground mounted sign or …………. make arrangements ahead of time and save in the associated costs and timing.  

What everybody will receive in return:

A good clean project within your budget, the quality you expect, and signage delivered within the agreed to time frame. These are the results one should expect when retaining a qualified sign professional.