I Ran Two Window Decals Against Each Other for a Month
Same size, same spot, two lines of copy. One nearly doubled the scans — and the after-scan numbers changed how I use each message.
For one month I ran a small, slightly obsessive experiment in my own shop. Two window decals, same size, same spot in the window on alternating weeks, with two different lines of copy. One said Scan for today's specials. The other said Scan to save 10% on your first order. I wanted to know if the words mattered more than I assumed.
They mattered a lot. The discount line pulled close to double the scans of the specials line, every week, regardless of which week it ran. That surprised me, because I had quietly believed the specials were the interesting thing. The customer disagreed. A concrete, personal reward beat a vague invitation to browse.
The only reason I could run this cleanly is that both decals pointed at editable links, so I could swap which message was live without reprinting anything, and see the two scan counts side by side instead of guessing. The whole test cost me the price of two decals and a month of paying attention.
The result I did not expect was what happened after the scan. The discount brought more people in, but the specials brought slightly better repeat visits, as if the people who cared about specials were already the loyal type. So the better answer was not one line, it was using each for a different goal: discount to acquire, specials to retain.
You do not need a fancy tool to learn this about your own customers. Two versions, one variable, a few weeks, and the honesty to let the numbers correct you. Mine corrected me, and the shop is better for it.