Yard Sign Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners – SuperCheapSigns.com Blog

Curiosity works – think about Alice in Wonderland when Alice followed the rabbit down the hole? There’s a simple way to drive a lot of curious buyers to your property. Directional signs can be a great marketing tactic for real estate investors because they can create curiosity among people who are already looking for a house in the neighborhood of your property.

Directional signs are usually simple plastic yard signs with arrows on them that direct people toward an end point – usually an open house, new development, etc. For real estate investors a few well-placed signs can bring potential customers right to their doorstep. Arrow signs eliminate the need for memorizing phone numbers, getting directions, etc., and breaks your call to action down into the simplest terms – follow me.

Creating and placing Directional Signs

Sign content should describe the kind of property you are advertising and the address underneath in big, bold letters to catch the buyer’s attention, and (of course) arrows. Placement strategy for directional signs is pretty easy, as long as you do your homework on the neighborhood. Start by driving around and figuring out the best routes to get from Point A (busy intersections) to Point B (the property). Street corners should be key spots for your signs as they dictate where to turn. You may not need signs on a long stretch road, but it may be a good idea to place one there anyway to let your potential buyers know that they’re on the right track and to avoid any confusion. Signs can be placed at the corner of someone’s property as long as you ask for their permission first. Most people will agree to the sign if you agree not to disturb anything on their lawn such as sprinkler systems or anything else on their yard. It would also be nice to toss in a gift card for their troubles, if it is within your budget.

Directional arrow signs are inexpensive, no-hassle on your time, and easy to implement and manage. There you have it, an effective marketing tool that will drive people from their cars straight to your front door.

Tuesday at Shop.org; the session was led by Kelly Moore from www.resourceinteractive.com.  I am using the ‘*’ to denote what could work for SuperCheapSigns.com. I have included examples throughout and I encourage you to explore these on your own.  The same goes for any terms you don’t recognize…

Kelly from Resource Interactive wrote a book called ‘OPEN BRAND’.  It will be available in December 2007.  Her presentation was very well thought out and detailed.  I’ll just note areas that stood out for me, and include what I’m thinking www.supercheapsigns.com can utilize and how.

It’s all about being ‘OPEN’ vs closed.  The ‘Social Web’ and birth of the iCitizen is the theme, with the moral of the story being this: you need to not only allow, but encourage your customers to talk about your products/services with each other in a way that is easy.  This interaction will not only increase profits, it will move your brand in the way your customers want it to move.

‘Closed’ is a monologue that targets customers. ‘Open’ fosters communication and dialogue, allowing customer to create, edit, and share what’s already out there.  George Lucas was called ‘letigious Lucas’ because he wanted to lock up his brand from being used in any way outside of his intent.  He now has opened up star wars clips for editing by users online to share with others. OPEN is an acronym you can use in any order; On demand, Personal, Engaging, and Networked.  I see this as feeding the child instincts; I want it now, It’s just for me, its interesting, and everybody else can see what I have done.  On one hand we are recognizing and encouraging individual ego, while at the same time realizing that we live in a global world and no one person has all the answers (but together we have a lot of them)! For those of you who know what ‘open source’ coding refers to, this is credited to have influenced ‘open branding’.  Now the brand is being created by the consumer.  Truly, this is bottom up managing.

It starts with people having fun with delicious and flickr because its easy and anyone who tries it feels competent to use it regularly.  Bringing everyone and anyone into the mix makes it interesting (i.e. mugglenet, geriatrick1927, & Emmerson Sparcs).  Ebay & Amazon take it to the consumer level.  Beautydish.com shows what bad can happen when Marykay doesn’t support the social web that encourages more sales.  ZeFrank is a now celeb because of some youtube videos he launched (and now he has paid sponsors).  Starts out as one person with a passion for sharing a message, then  people like it and keep tuning in for more.

*How can SuperCheapSigns.com use this stuff? Internally, first: Training videos put into youtube.  Communication with blogs.  Allowing CSR’s to share experiences online, and if customers want to chime in, all the better (careful, this would not be for venting be it employee or customer).

*We now offer a brief survey in exchange for a $10 coupon on the next order.  Survey is sent few days after customer gets their order.  The customer needs to be able to offer input a multiple points along the buying path.  Each template could have a customer rating system, “I give this template the highest rating of 5 signs because I got 1 call for every sign I put out”.  Build in an email reply that encourages feedback about customer’s template selection; must be easy and give consumer reason to do it (examples of reasons are celebrity, competence, collectivism, maybe a coupon).

The Funnel is the web page path a consumer is suppose to follow through to the sale.  The social web funnel is different; Listen & learn by monitoring the buzz around your products, build awareness with consumers who want to contribute, facilitate participation with a follow up email or call out etc, support the purchase (this is the part we are use to), and then re-engage by using what has been created by other consumers to bring them back.

JayRuns from Nike is a great example of a segment oriented community site.  *supercheapsigns.com can do this with REI’s & our Partners like an affiliate site.  It can be separate like a “yousigns.com” or can be part of the main site.  You gotta have some cool tools to make the sites.  According to Kelly, 10% of consumers contribute the majority of all social media.  Those 10% have to be actively engaged to facilitate participation.  Netflix.com includes customer reviews and recommendations that other users can interact with.

Lot’s of great opportunities for consumer involvement that has to be encouraged!

I’m writing this post after finishing the last session at Shop.org. This was a 3 day event for Internet Retailers to learn how to increase business by working with the web.

What a great experience! Most of the attendees are from big e-retailers looking to improve everything online. The other big group is trying to sell to the previous. It was humbling for me, cause these sales people sort of smiled at the our web site name, SuperCheapSigns.com, and then moved on to bigger fish. Nobody was rude, and I understand: I’ve been in sales and nobody is getting paid by the hour. But so many people were very helpful: Laura Galante, Dana Todd, Elizabeth Bell, and lot’s more too. I’m going to be posting what I learned.  Hopefully, it will help things sink in, and through the process I’ll figure out what action steps to take from all this new knowledge.

I just have to remember not to try and implement too many things too fast!

What do you want to see in a ‘Sign Design Tool’ on our website? I know what WE want, but that may not be what the customer wants! Many of you have suggested adding a this kind of feature. Other printing and sign companies have created things that are good, some very good. But there is always better.  What do you think?

A few months ago, I picked up The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It and quickly realized that there were areas within Super Cheap Signs that I could apply the E-Myth principles. The gist of the book is this: “Work ON your business, not IN your business.”The E in E-myth stands for Entrepreneur, not E-commerce or E-mail or anything online or computer related. Most people who start a business (Entrepreneurs) are usually widget makers within a company who think that they can make a better widget, or provide better widget service, or sell more widgets, etc.

And what usually happens is this: The widget maker starts a new business and makes the widgets himself, unconcerned (or unaware) that a business has to concern itself with more than just widget making. This includes marketing (sales & customer service), finance (collecting and spending money, and asking “Are we making money?”), and, last but not least, operations (everything between sales and delivery). An established business of any size must address these concerns daily.

The first mistake the new business owner usually makes is that he keeps making widgets himself and hires someone else to do the other stuff.  The widget maker is still working IN his business. Not good according to the books author and I agree.

Working ON the business means (1) deciding how to make a better widget, (2) contracting with others to implement your plans, and (3) making sure that all jobs are being attended to.

The end result is that the entrepreneur (no longer the widget maker!) has what is needed to create the company’ operations manual a fundamental component of a well-run business. The operations manual serves many purposes, from being a reference for employees to an instructional guide for potential franchisees and new owners.

The beauty of working ON your business and not IN your business is that you do not have to be there to handle day to day operations. You can take a vacation without widget production coming to a screeching halt.

That doesn’t mean you have to give everything up at once. I work ON my business as CEO, making sure that everybody does what they’re supposed to, but I like the marketing aspect so much that I do that, too.  Maybe someday I’ll have to give that job to someone else when I do, the transition plan is in the manual.

I love working ON my business and not IN my business and E-myth is a great read if you enjoy that also.

When it started, almost a year and a half ago, I had an idea;I wanted Super Cheap Signs to have the best web site in the sign industry. When we talked to our customers to ask what they wanted from our web site, well they wanted a lot of complicated stuff to be added.

So, I thought to myself, making it easy, hmmm…that doesn’t sound too hard. Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s not real easy. We’ve spent a lot of time and energy over the past 18 months creating an easy-to-use web site that’s the best in the business, and it looks like we’ve accomplished our goal.

Below some of the questions we got from our users and how we changed our site to address these challenges.

Can you make it easier for repeat customers?
Once we’ve earned a customer, we want to make it as easy as possible for that customer to keep doing business with us. Our customers can now log on to the site and see their purchase history online with the ability to reorder a previous purchase with one click. They can also proof orders online and track the shipping status of orders. Finally, we will be regularly sending out special discounts and promotions to our existing customers.

Can you make it easier to complete the entire ordering process online?
We’ve simplified the ordering process, enabling you to order custom signs and banners online without ever having to call or email us. Additionally, you’ll always know the exact price of your items and how certain attributes affect the overall cost. You can play around with almost any variable size, quantity, colors, directional, etc and immediately see how it changes the price.

Can you make it easier to create and customize my signs online?
Now, you can easily upload a logo or custom art directly from your computer, add your own sign text, and include any special instructions as a standard part of your order. You can complete an entire process online with no need for extra emailing or calling.

Can you make it easier for me to check out quickly?
On the new site, we’ve drastically improved the check out process. Not only can you place your order quickly and easily, but now check out is a snap, too. You can use your billing information from previous orders or shop as a guest.

Can you make it easier for me to understand some of these sign terms?
Almost every sign-specific term on the site has an information icon next to it.  It is a yellow circle with an ? in it. Click on that graphic any time you don’t understand a term and an explanation will pop up in a separate window.

Just because we’ve made it easier to complete your order or get your questions answered online, doesn’t mean we’re not still here. Please call us if you have any questions or want to speak to someone to make your order!