Anyone use "bandit" signs for advertising?

[KVA]

The end of my driveway is right on a major road 313 that thousands of people drive on daily. Thinking about putting a sign up what do I have to lose? Anybody here get calls from these signs?

 

[sd4524]

Nothing to loose unless its a neighborhood where signs aren't allowed. I say go for it. Some people could drive past it 2 or 3 times a day.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Check with your local planning department. We require permits, even for temp signs.

 

[GUNNING]

ITS A SIGN

ITS A SIGN

Signs here are a big thing. Directly relates to property values and the kind of community that is envision by the property planning board gurus.

Might want to try out yard signs to get your feet wet before delving into the sign ordinances. Investing $8k into something your going to have to dig up and dispose of properly compared to a $100 bunch of yard signs you can retrieve and toss in the trash.

The sign board here would like to regulate the beer and milk banners at the 7-11 and Mickey D's but can't because they change them too frequently. Yup, ya need a permit to advertise 89 cent big gulp slushies and mocha caramel frapays. There reasoning is they might be a fire hazard or entice a flash mob, a general danger to society by blocking the view of the front of the store for if the police are summoned. Your sign might be a traffic hazard or block a street entryway or be on a state HWY right of way which the county does not regulate and would need a state permit also. My point here is "they" need control of the placement of signs for public safety and prosperity.

Fines by the code board here are by the day retroactive to the time of infraction plus trip fees for the inspectors. Can get very expensive fast, especially the second or third time.

Have you thought about wrapping your trucks with advertising, maybe getting a focused quantifiable plan together. Track your phone calls to see where they are coming from. Image and branding is what you need to be sustainable. The perception of reliability and competence will evoke the trust you need for the customer to call. If you decide to put that sign up, do it well, it is an advertised symbol of your professionalism.

 

[kwired]

Have you thought about wrapping your trucks with advertising

According to what you said before that - why don't they regulate the signage on vehicles too. It could also be a traffic hazard.

I know a guy in small town that owns a furniture store. He always parks his delivery van (with sign on the van) near higher traffic areas when it is not in use. It is parked legally on public streets and is not left for extended periods to cause other potential issues of whether or not it is legally parked. His store is in a business district, but there are other streets with higher volume of traffic to potentially see the advertising on the van.

 

[Rampage_Rick]

The end of my driveway is right on a major road 313 that thousands of people drive on daily. Thinking about putting a sign up what do I have to lose? Anybody here get calls from these signs?

Buy a cube van or 5-ton, doesn't even have to run. Clean it up, put signage on the sides, and park it in your driveway.

See it all the time around here. Lots of 1970s semitrailers used as billboards along the Trans-Canada Highway, but since they're "vehicles" they're not considered billboards. Some of them are quite elaborate too, with large earthfill "parking spots" to raise them up, cedar privacy fencing hiding the wheels and chassis, and signs that go way beyond vinyl lettering (we're talking plywood or foam lettering, faux roofs with cedar shakes, any of the stuff you'd see on any other eye-popping signage) Some of them you wouldn't guess were trailers until you're beside them and notice the width.

 

[GUNNING]

I know of a plumber that used to park his trucks around town. They sited him for sign violation. His wrapped truck was parked in a parking lot along a busy road in front of a mall.
His defense was that he had permission from the property owner to park his trucks there, and the truck was not real property which are an exception to the sign ordinance.

The catch was he had to hire legal council to represent him in front of the board. He stopped parking there. It got his attention.

 

[jmellc]

Our city is fascist about sign permits too, even inside stores. Only so much percentage of window space can be signs, etc. Outdoor signs have height restrictions. Every now & then, a committee of bureaucrats here get together to discuss how to attract more business to town. What a laugh. the county has made people take business names off mailboxes too.

 

[Richardtheelectrician]

A website is a better means of advertising. You can even have one free of charge, if you invest a little of your own time designing it. Wordpress offers a free website. Read about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), implement what you read, and you will get calls.
https://kerrvilleelectrician.wordpress.com/

 

[cadpoint]

Looks like some good places to put a Y bridge....

 

[Richardtheelectrician]

Just to follow up a bit...
Build a website, and register it with the search engines (Bing, Google, Yahoo). Of course Bing and Yahoo suck, but they are 30% of the search market.
A Google Places listing is paramount. Google Places shows up right on the first page of organic search results, and is crucial for name recognition.
Give it some thought. I dominate local search results here for electrical search terms. If anyone wants a ceiling fan installed in the Kerrville area, and googles it, I'm probably the first organic search result. But then i got to thinking....
What if they search for real estate? Or public utilities? Or anything locally familiar? So I have very recently put seperate pages on my website for different popular search terms. So if you want to go hunting in the Texas Hill Country, RM Electric's webpage has the links for you.
Essentially, if you Google just my zipcode, you get me.

 

[hurk27]

Some very good points that have been made, I know here signage around here has been a very political battle as they have made so many restrictions on them its almost impossible to even get any kind of permission to install one even in a commercial zoned area, here they limit hight, size and how its lit, nothing flashing, or very bright, we can no longer install neon even on buildings, programmable LED signs also are very restricted, no outside rotating beacons or strobes.

we have a fireworks place right at a major exit off I-94 that when they built it the owners tried to get around the hight limitation by building one end to over 7 stories, the town gave him the permits and all to erect the building knowing very well what he was intending to do, but when it was done they wouldn't allow any signage to be put up on that high part, all he was trying to do was grab the attention from the interstate, the poor guy just about went bankrupt trying to fight them but the town won. even here in Portage your not allowed to put yard signs in your yard if it is zoned residential, well that is unless it is for candidates running for an office, then they can put them everywhere, even vehicle signs can be required to be removed, some tried to put signs on trailers or vans even semi-trailers and park them on property they owned to get around some of the ordnance's but they even band them, if the vehicle is not moved in a certain amount of time.

While I know that signage did get out of hand back before they started regulating them and in some cases just down right made the area looked run down and ugly, but allot of the ordnances were pushed through by large advertising agency's just so us poor folk couldn't do any self advertising thinking that we would run to them, I cant even afford to put a small card size ad in the phone book, so I put my BC's and flyer's in every restaurant or store I can, (at least the ones who will allow it) and I do get a few calls from them but its mostly people looking for cheap, most of my work comes from word of mouth, and lately it has slammed me with too much work, as why you have only seen me posting mostly late at night.

Ya this is kind of a rant, as I feel that some city's and towns have gone overboard with the regulating of signage, one even tried to adopt an ordnance to not allow and vehicles with painted on signs to not be allowed to be parked in your driveway in a residential area and if you had magnetic signs you had to remove them if parked in your driveway, but that got shot down in court real fast when it was challenged by a few contractors

 

[hurk27]

Another thing is if you put signage on a vehicle always put one the back where people waiting behind you at a traffic light and can write down the number, make sure the phone number is larger enough to see several cars behind you and high enough, one van I drove we even had a place across the front of the ladder rack with everything mirrored so they could read it when looking in their rear view mirrors and high enough to see several car lengths ahead.

I have seen some really neat ideas over time, one was even functional that he had a fiberglass cover over the front of his ladder rack that would cut down on the air drag the ladders caused, he said it improved his gas mileage to boot and made a great place to just put his company name and phone number mirrored, he made it out of a camper pop up that camper vans have to give more head room, I have thought about using one to go completely over the whole ladder rack to not only make the ladder rack more aero-dynamic (open ladders do grab allot of air if you do allot of highway driving) but to also have a place to put advertising higher up on the van so it can be seen more easily. But it can limit you if you stack allot of ladders on top?

Back when I used my new van (2007) to travel to all the IAEI meetings and then go on vacations, I found out by taking my ladder rack off before making these trips saved me allot of gas, with it on I was only getting 13 to 14 miles a gallon, with it off I was able to get 24 to 26 miles a gallon on the highway, and cruse 60-70 MPH with no problem getting over 700 miles a tank full (30 gallon tank) was very nice, even back then gas was over $1.50 a gallon

 

[kwired]

Buy a cube van or 5-ton, doesn't even have to run. Clean it up, put signage on the sides, and park it in your driveway.

See it all the time around here. Lots of 1970s semitrailers used as billboards along the Trans-Canada Highway, but since they're "vehicles" they're not considered billboards. Some of them are quite elaborate too, with large earthfill "parking spots" to raise them up, cedar privacy fencing hiding the wheels and chassis, and signs that go way beyond vinyl lettering (we're talking plywood or foam lettering, faux roofs with cedar shakes, any of the stuff you'd see on any other eye-popping signage) Some of them you wouldn't guess were trailers until you're beside them and notice the width.

I know of a plumber that used to park his trucks around town. They sited him for sign violation. His wrapped truck was parked in a parking lot along a busy road in front of a mall.
His defense was that he had permission from the property owner to park his trucks there, and the truck was not real property which are an exception to the sign ordinance.

The catch was he had to hire legal council to represent him in front of the board. He stopped parking there. It got his attention.

Some places have a limit on how long a vehicle or trailer can be parked without ever moving. It often has nothing to do with advertising, but they can do same for a vehicle with a sign on it. The intent is to prevent accumulation of non working vehicles in yards, driveways, streets - more of a "junk" ordinance. Now if a sign is on a vehicle that does run all you have to do is move it periodically and it is legal.

 

[satcom]

Some places have a limit on how long a vehicle or trailer can be parked without ever moving. It often has nothing to do with advertising, but they can do same for a vehicle with a sign on it. The intent is to prevent accumulation of non working vehicles in yards, driveways, streets - more of a "junk" ordinance. Now if a sign is on a vehicle that does run all you have to do is move it periodically and it is legal.

Yes, our town goes on a ticket blizz often to clean up the un regestered and trucks parked littering the neighborhoods, where signs are posted on parking regs. they raise a nice sum. I just noticed the signs alarm companies and builders were sitting on properties they did work on. it seems the city had so many complaints from homeowners that it was littering the neighborhood, and pushed for a local law requiring the signs to be removed in 30 days after the projects were completed, the small up to 2 sq inch alarm warning stickers can stay but the yard signs has to go, I had to agree they do litter a neighborhood. there are many commercial buildings that will rent you legal space at a rate you can afford.

 

[jmellc]

Some places have a limit on how long a vehicle or trailer can be parked without ever moving. It often has nothing to do with advertising, but they can do same for a vehicle with a sign on it. The intent is to prevent accumulation of non working vehicles in yards, driveways, streets - more of a "junk" ordinance. Now if a sign is on a vehicle that does run all you have to do is move it periodically and it is legal.

Preferably move it with a bureaucrat's neck under one of the wheels.

 

[KVA]

These are "bandit" signs and what I am talking about.

 

[bullheimer]

my car is a billboard. i used to do the same as above. i have received one call in about four years from someone saying they saw my car. (for work that is. i have received numerous calls complaining about my wife's driving).

i have a 2ft sign hanging on my mailbox post by the street. i have received one job in the last five years, maybe two. i would put a sign there if i was you but don't plan on it giving you the least bit of business, but at least the UPS driver will be able to find you easier.

frankly i am amazed at the complete lack of business my signs get me. i also have one on a VERY busy rural route, a larger sign on the front fence of a customer i had. in the year it has been there, and it is big enough to read it at 55mph, i have received NO calls whatsoever. zip. on the other hand, all my phone book ads seem to be doing just as well lately too. i am sucking hind t!t again. what is it about this time of year. man it will be a miracle if i make it past the end of this month.

 

[readydave8]

The signs may not directly bring calls but may increase awareness of your business. When people are looking for an electrician it helps me to be a familiar sounding name.

 

[KVA]

my car is a billboard. i used to do the same as above. i have received one call in about four years from someone saying they saw my car. (for work that is. i have received numerous calls complaining about my wife's driving).

i have a 2ft sign hanging on my mailbox post by the street. i have received one job in the last five years, maybe two. i would put a sign there if i was you but don't plan on it giving you the least bit of business, but at least the UPS driver will be able to find you easier.

frankly i am amazed at the complete lack of business my signs get me. i also have one on a VERY busy rural route, a larger sign on the front fence of a customer i had. in the year it has been there, and it is big enough to read it at 55mph, i have received NO calls whatsoever. zip. on the other hand, all my phone book ads seem to be doing just as well lately too. i am sucking hind t!t again. what is it about this time of year. man it will be a miracle if i make it past the end of this month.

You work out of a car?