How to Give Your Business More Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the attractiveness and assumed value of a property based on how it looks from the outside. This term is usually applied to residential homes that are intending to go up for sale, but it can apply to businesses too. A store with has strong curb appeal will draw in more customers — and a store without it could scare customers away.

How can you increase your business’s curb appeal?

Go Green

One of the best ways to increase your business’s curb appeal is to add greenery by the building’s entrance. You could have a beautiful garden or lush lawn along the front steps. If you don’t have a lot of room for greenery, you could still put out window boxes full of flowers or place seasonal planters by the door to add freshness and colour. This will immediately draw the eyes of pedestrians walking by. 

It’s important that you maintain your greenery as best as you can. Mow the lawn to stop it from looking overgrown. Prune dying leaves. Snip dead flowers. To keep things from wilting or drying out, you should get commercial sprinklers installed by a local sprinkler company to make sure that the greenery always looks incredible. A top-quality sprinkler system will have automatic timers so that you can easily schedule watering at your convenience. 

Why should you do this? A dried lawn or fading garden will drop your curb appeal in an instant, subconsciously pushing potential clients and customers away from your business. It gives the impression that the building is poorly maintained and not worth patronizing.

Put It on Display 

If you have a large front-facing window, you need to take advantage of it. Leaving that glass view empty is a wasted opportunity. You can bring up your curb appeal and attract more customers when you set up a creative window display. 

The art of window displays has been around for over a century, first gaining popularity in the late 19th century with elaborate holiday scenes in department stores. That advertising style became a holiday tradition, and eventually,storeowners started putting up displays all year round. 

You need to show more than clean windows. You need to use an attractive window display to show off the products in your store and give the customer a strong impression of your brand. Is your brand casual and laidback? Bold and fashionable? Family-friendly and wholesome? You can signal these things with the right lighting, decorations and presentation.

Give Them a Sign

Your business’s sign needs to be clear, compelling and on-brand. If you don’t think your design is good enough, you should consider hiring a graphic designer to draft some new versions. The right pick could be a game-changer.

If you don’t have the budget for this solution, that’s okay. Lots of small businesses manage to attract customers with affordable chalkboard signs. They use cheeky messages and artistic drawings to grab their attention and entice them to walk through those front doors. 

Curb appeal is just another form of advertising. Making your front entrance look better is just good business. 

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.