Well now businesses have decided that it'd be a great idea to go out and purchase these things for themselves, as if they would help. Here are the most common problems I've seen with these boards that make you stop and think, how exactly have these business owners gotten this far with limited ability to forsee obvious problems like these:

1. Placing. First and foremost, signs put in bad places make them impossible to read. I've seen signs at the peak of a bend in the road, where they're visible for 2 seconds as you drive by. I've never actually seen what they had to say.

2. Timing. The biggest problem with putting electronic signs along the road is the fact that people driving by will only have a few seconds to catch what it says. Too many times have I driven by to see a fragment of a sentence that made no sense at all. As with any advertisement, the entire message should be seen and understood at first glance, you can't do this if the entire message isn't being seen.

3. Animations. Whether it's animated transitions for text, or just plain animations, they're a bad idea. I've driven by boards that were doing an animation routine. I assume they had a message as well, but they decided to put in one of the preset animations of a car driving or of pacman being chased. Let's be realistic here, if that's all I saw when I drove by, then your sign is ineffective. Again with animated text, it's the same idea. If you have an important message, and a neat animated transition for this text that takes 3 seconds, and it takes me 5 seconds to drive by, that gives me only 2 seconds to get the message. If I'm closer than that when the transition starts, then I may catch less or none of the message as I drive by. This is, yet again, another example of poor use of advertising space.

4. Messages. Even if you follow every guideline to placement and timing, it doesn't mean crap if your message is bad. While you may think it's useful to have your board say the time or date every so often, I promise you it's not. (Save banks, keep up the good work.) What's better for your business, telling people the time, or that you have a sale on an item that they MUST HAVE? Yeah, that's what I thought. The time is useless. This misappropriated sign usage also applies to pusing politics (It's ineffective to support your party instead of display a message, and it also alienates half of your user-base), pushing your sports team, ("Go Red Sox" anyone?), or post random useless sayings such as "Let it snow," "Hurry up spring," or just about anything that's not relevant to your business.

5. Static Signs. An electronic signboard is not a replacement for a static sign. Especially if you have poor messages, you need to make sure to give the consumer an idea of who you are immediately.

Before purchasing an electronic signboard for your business, really think to yourself, "Do we really need one? Will it actually help customers understand why they need to come to us? Do our business strategies or sales items change regularly enough to require a dynamic sign?

Next time you see a business without an electronic sign, ask yourself what it is that they do. Do you understand what they do? If you needed the service they provided, would you feel compelled to stop in? How have they conveyed this information to you without the use of an electronic sign. It is important to establish a good static sign that conveys all the information you need to the consumer before you even consider a dynamic sign. You should not be depending on the dynamic sign to convey messages that explain the core of your business. Yes you can use the sign to expand on your services, but what should always be static are your business name, what you do, and in some cases your phone number.

Electronic signboard usage can be effective, but only if it's well researched before hand. The decision should be based on whether or not you need one, and not on whether or not they're neat. Don't give in to peer pressure just because everybody else has one.