Designing custom business signs

Hello friends,
My brother started a small business in our locality and now planning various methods to promote his business. As we all know, local promotion of our products and services is an excellent method of getting potential customers, and so we need to do the local marketing to get local clients.
As of late, one inquiry that comes to my mind is, what are the ideal methods of Local Marketing for both independent venture and perceived business?
One of our family friends suggested custom business signs is one of the effective methods to promote local marketing.
Friends, what are your considerations and sentiments about ideal methods of Local Marketing other than business signs? What all care must be taken while designing business signs? It will be ideal if you talk about your intuition with us all.
Thanks!