Is Billboard Advertising a Good Idea for a Service Company?

Posted by David Chism | Mon, May 2, 2011

 Is Billboard Advertising a Good Idea for a Service Company?
Bill­board Ads I’ve been asked on a num­ber of occa­sions what I think about bill­board adver­tis­ing. Many con­trac­tors want to know if it is a good use of their adver­tis­ing bud­get. The answer depends on the sit­u­a­tion. I love the idea of adver­tis­ing on a 40′ bill­board on a major free­way, but in gen­er­al, it is not prac­ti­cal for most small ser­vice busi­ness­es. In today’s mar­ket, bill­board adver­tis­ing has become slight­ly more com­pet­i­tive and some­what afford­able. I know of one painter who did secure a 40 foot bill­board for less than $800 a month on a major Los Ange­les inter­state. I typ­i­cal­ly see prices for $3,500 to 5,000+ a month. If the con­trac­tor real­ly wants to brand his/​her busi­ness and has the extra cash, bill­boards could be a good way to get the word out. How­ev­er, I would not spend more than $1,000 a month! Net­work­ing Is Better Anoth­er painter I know was strong­ly con­sid­er­ing a $5k a month bill­board share pro­gram. He was promised sup­pos­ed­ly 40 dif­fer­ent bill­boards. This too sounds entic­ing! Yet, I con­sult­ed him to save the $5,000 on bill­boards and spend it on hir­ing a sales or mar­ket­ing per­son. I asked him how much a pro­fes­sion­al sales­per­son could bring in the door if he was paid a min­i­mum of $5,000 a month. A good net­work­ing per­son could def­i­nite­ly bring in more qual­i­fied sales leads for a ser­vice busi­ness. So that would be my advice: stick with net­work­ing and refer­rals. By the way, I am not sug­gest­ing every­one pulls out $5,000 a month to hire a net­work­er. Many times you and your cur­rent staff can do this sort of thing. This par­tic­u­lar client wants to get in the growth mode and does not have much extra time on his plate to net­work him­self. In his case, hir­ing some­one to net­work is a good option. Have you had suc­cess with bill­boards? Why or why not was it suc­cess­ful for your business?

About David Chism

David Chism started his business out of a passion for helping small contracting businesses grow, be more profitable and become better known to their target clients. One lifelong hobby of David is using techie gadgets. So this blog is a place where he writes about technology, marketing ideas, just for fun (humor), personal thoughts on small business and more.

     
   
       

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