Could Your Business Benefit From A Blackboard?

Blackboards might not seem like the most obvious marketing tools and it’s true that it won’t work for everyone, but blackboards can actually be incredibly useful for a range of industries.

Pubs, Cafes & Restaurants

You don’t often see a traditional British pub without a blackboard, but cafes and restaurants can look great with a blackboard. There are so many types of blackboards that are perfect for the hospitality industry – from simple wall blackboards to table top boards and boards on easels.

Retail

Some shops could use a blackboard to market themselves to great effect. Having an A-frame or wall blackboard on the outside of your premises means that you can written daily messages to passers-by to encourage them to come in off the streets. In these times where more and more people are buying online rather than going into stores, something as simple as this to get customer into your store must be worth a try. Remember to employ a good sign writer though as a poorly drawn blackboard won’t represent your business well.

Offices

Businesses with offices could benefit from having a blackboard. When brainstorming, reams and reams of paper can be wasted with spider diagrams and ideas. A blackboard can be used over and over again and simply subbed away should you want to scrap the ideas. Some businesses like to install an entire wall blackboard that can be a central feature in a meeting room.

Food & Drink

If you run a food or drink manufacturing business and not using promotional blackboards, then you’re missing a trick! This is especially true for independent or local manufacturers. If your products are being sold in pubs, restaurants, delis and cafes nearby, then make sure to get some branded blackboards in there! You want people to be eating your products and know where they’ve come from.

Notice Boards For Kids

Blackboards and notice boards are great for kids. There are so many colours, shapes and materials available that there will be sure to be something to a child of any age – even fussy teenagers!

We all know that kids love to put things up on the wall. Whether it’s a drawing they’re particularly proud of or an award they’ve won, there is always something that needs to be pride of place. A notice board saves your walls from endless sticky-tac and tape and means that your children can change what’s on their walls as often as they like.

Sundeala make a great range of fun notice boards for kids. All of their boards are made from recycled materials making them ideal for the eco-conscious among us. From hexagonal, pastel-coloured boards that can be tessellated together to fill spaces of any size, to boards in the shapes of teddy bears, trains and rabbits these boards are great for younger children.

For older children, there are slightly more sophisticated boards available but with a fun twist. Cork and felt notice boards are available in a range of colours from reds, greens and blues to shocking pink! You could also buy a plainer cork board but get some funky pins instead.

Finally, getting a notice board for your kids can help to keep them a little bit more organised! You can leave helpful reminders on a whiteboard or dry wipe board, and attached school reports, forms and receipts that they should be keeping a hold of.

Top Blackboards For Restaurants, Bars and Pubs

Pubs are renowned for having blackboards in them, so here are Moores Message Boards top 4 blackboards for the catering and hospitality industry:

1. A Frame
A Frame blackboards are great for pubs. They stand outside and are a fantastic opportunity to encourage punters to come in and spend some time in your pub. For cafes and restaurants, use the boards to advertise your specials for the day, or even perhaps employ a chalkboard writer to draw some nice illustrations of cakes, tea or juices depending on what you offer.

2. Wall
Wall blackboards are of course the most obvious choice. Whether you want to use a wall blackboard to keep track of the darts score, advertise events that are coming up or just to write a friendly, welcoming message, there is still a range you can choose from. Antique-style framed boards are particularly popular in old-style pubs as they add to the warm and country-feel. But you can also buy chrome-framed blackboards that are great for trendier establishments, or even brightly framed boards.

3. Tabletop
Tabletop chalkboards are perfect for your cross-sell or up-sell. Advertise your soup of the day, coffee list, or your dessert menu so that while your guests have made their main order, they can’t help but be tempted by something else!

Tabletop chalkboards often come in a range of colours other than black, including blue, green and red.

4. Easel
Easel blackboards are great for having inside your establishment. Many restaurants use them to ask people to wait until seated when they can’t always have a member of staff at the door. You might also like to leave  a snippet of your menu so that while guests wait, they can whet their appetite.
The blackboard is such a useful tool in the catering world – which boards do you prefer to use?

Organising your home with blackboards and notice boards

Blackboards and notice boards are not only fun to use, but they are great for organising a hectic family life. Many designs are also very stylish to have around the home, especially with the rise in popularity of country-chic and retro interior design. This post will take a look at some of the different blackboards and notice boards you can use in your home to get organised and do your own home improvement.

Kitchen blackboards are perfect for writing out shopping lists, recipes or even helpful reminders for the more forgetful members of your family! From small wall hanging kitchen blackboards to entire chalkboard walls, they are a fun and easy way of making sure you don’t forget important information.

Having a centralised family notice board maybe in your hallway or other communal areas can help to ensure that any important pieces of paper such as receipts, school reports, forms or prescriptions don’t go amiss. Everyone will know to check the notice board first before they declare something lost or misplaced – reducing the amount of times you have to hear, “I can’t find it!”. Cork, felt or magnetic notice boards are best for this.

Finally, why not give your kids a notice board of their own in their bedrooms? There are a range of shapes and designs around that are perfect for encouraging them to take responsibility for their own organisation while still being fun. For younger children, message boards are available in shapes including trains, cats and teddy bears but also in bright colours. By allowing them to decorate their own notice board, you will also reduce the amount of sticky tape and blu-tac that appears on your walls!

Promotional Blackboards

Whatever type of business you run, you need to market it correctly or no one will know you exist. From newspaper advertisements, to emails and online advertising, there are a range of marketing options that can be used depending on your company aims and industry.

For the food and drink industry, blackboards can be a surprisingly good way of marketing your product or brand to a relevant audience.

Think of your average local pub and you will almost definitely see a blackboard in there somewhere! Whether it’s to advertise their desert menu, show off their latest offers or sitting outside drawing punters in off the street, there is an opportunity to get your brand on there. There are two ways of doing this, offer a discounted rate to the pubs on your product in exchange for providing them with branded, promotional blackboards that can be used throughout their establishment, or pay them a monthly fee to have them in. Even if you’re not an alcohol retailer or supplier, you should still consider whether a pub might be the right place to promote your product.

Studies have shown that blackboards are actually better advertisements than posters. This is because people see posters every day and sub-consciously expect that they might be out of date, and that they are selling to them so sometimes just ignore them. The information on a blackboard is far more likely to change in a regular basis so people are more likely to check back time and time again – and they will see your branding each time they do. Studies have shown that on average someone has to see a piece of information 21 times before they actually remember it in their conscious brain!

Blackboard art has been on the rise in recent years with a graffiti-like style spreading around the world, especially in the USA. Think about how you can get your promotional blackboard to stand out and become memorable.

Promotional blackboards could also be used at football matches and other sporting venues where your products are served, corner shops, mobile food vendors, restaurants and even on the high street.

While promotional blackboards may not bring a direct return on investment as some forms of advertising do, it is fantastic for brand awareness, getting people to remember you.

Using Notice Boards In Your Home

Decorating your home is brilliant fun. It gives you the opportunity to put your stamp on a house, making it comfortable for you to live in. No two homes are the same. Some are modern and minimalistic, others are cosy and cluttered – each one is personal to the individual.

A notice board can not only be a useful accessory to have in the home, but also a decorative one. Gone are the days of a simple royal-blue felt notice board or a plain pine-framed whiteboard – there are some brilliant designs out there that will suit any person or home.

There has been a rise in popularity of kitchen notice boards recently, especially with the rise of Country-Chic décor. From small wall-hanging blackboards in the shape of hearts, to large whiteboards with images on – there is something for everyone. You can even buy blackboard paint that can be used to transform an entire wall into a blackboard – some upmarket and modern restaurants have used this to their advantage to display their menus and latest offers. You could even let customers leave comments about their meal on there – as long as they’ve enjoyed it!

Many families find it helpful to have a notice board somewhere central in the house – perhaps where school timetables, calendars, important notes or receipts can be kept out of the way. When your life is hectic, a notice board can be very useful for keeping a little bit of calm – if in doubt, check the notice board.

Notice boards are fantastic for kids’ bedrooms. There are so many materials that they can be made from in a range of different colours and shapes. They are perfect for young and older children alike and great for trying to organise them a little bit! There are pin boards in the shape of trains, teddies or cats and in bright colours too.  A notice board is a great way to help your children express themselves and have a creative area that is their own.

The History Of The Blackboard

Blackboards are common place in schools, colleges, pubs and homes throughout the UK and have been for many years now. But have you ever wondered about the history of the blackboard?

Originally blackboards were made from a smooth sheet of black slate which were then frame with wood to stop them from breaking when used. Nowadays there are made from board or more upmarket versions are made from porcelain-enamelled black steel which lasts far longer. They are also know slightly green which is accepted to be better for the eyes.

The earliest recorded use of a blackboard was in 1801 in the USA where they were often used by instructors in military academies for lessons, tactics and drills.

The biggest leap forward in the blackboard world was in 1820 in scotland where a Geography teacher is said to have taken his student's work slates from them and attached them to the wall to make one large slate. This meant that teachers could save a huge amount of time as they no longer needed to write out individual problems for each pupil - all the problems could be displayed at the front of the class and taught to all the pupils at once. This is when the term 'blackboard' was first coined.

Since then blackboards have evolved to become more user-friendly and in many schools and colleges, they have been replaced with whiteboards. However, in recent years with the rise of country-chic styles being implemented into home decor, blackboards often appear in many homes and kitchens.