Signs of Success^®

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering why billboard placement is so critical to the performance of your campaign or you might be trying to figure out how to engage the right type of client. If you’re not sure about how to choose a location or how to get customer engagement from your billboard advertisement read on.  By the time you’re done reading this, you will understand why billboard placement is not only important for your bottom line but vital to the survival of your brand and the expansion of your customers in a diverse market.  

Location, Location, Location…

You might be thinking, but I’m not in the real estate business why does that apply to me? “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION,” may have been coined for the real estate business, however it is not only true of the real estate business. It could also be argued that if you own any business, you are in the real estate business. Just look at McDonald’s as an example of this. The founder, Ray Kroc, said himself that he is not in the burger business, but in the real estate business. Each McDonald’s location is set up to be in the most successful area and piece of land so that everyone can see it and ultimately buy food from there. The same is true of your billboard. If you do not have a good location for your billboard your campaign will fail. Leaving you with a decrease in sales and ultimately your marketing dollars will be flushed down the proverbial toilet.

Location is the most important piece to your billboard puzzle. You need to know several main components to decide if the location is perfect for your billboard. You need to know your target audience, traffic patterns, visibility, and ultimately how close you are to the signage area.

1.     Target Audience

You need to know that the placement of your sign is in an area where the people who see it will be interested, curious, or need your product.

For instance, many attorneys look at what corners with billboards have the most accidents annually and then place their billboards there. When someone gets into a wreck there, they are the first lawyer they see, and they also know that the attorney takes care of accidents. Anyone in an accident is their target audience.

You also need to keep in mind based on your business if you want to target a city area like Phoenix, a rural area like the suburbs of Illinois, or an industrial area where businesses will see your information. Are you targeting consumer-to-consumer or business-to-business?  I highly recommend writing down some information about your target audience when looking at billboard placement. This will help you figure out if your marketing dollars will be well spent there or if you should move on to another form of advertising or a different billboard space.

2.     Traffic Patterns

This is important not only for the placement of your advertisement but also for what you have written on it. Are you in an area where people will be stuck in traffic for hours upon hours or is it more of a quick drive-by?  You sign should have verbiage and information based on the traffic patterns. You do not want to have a lengthy sign on a billboard in an area where traffic simply moves in and out constantly. You do want to have a short easy memorable message if that is the case.

Figure out what your messaging will look like and make sure that the traffic pattern of the area matches to be cohesive with your marketing ideologies.

3.     Visibility

How big will your billboard be? Is it big enough to see from your car or walk by? This is one area of life where size truly does matter. If no one can read or see your sign you’re not getting great customer engagement. Do a couple of tests yourself. Drive by where you want to put the billboard in, walk by it. If you can see your sign there and know that it will be read by everyone passing by then this is a good location for your sign.

Make sure your font is of proper size and is readable. There have been many marketing mistakes around the size and styling of the font. If your potential customer or client can’t read the sign, they cannot contact you either.  Your message should be bold and simple. Don’t complicate it.

Also, make sure the sign is not too tall or too short. It’s not obstructed by trees or other obstacles that could cause your advertisement detriment. Make sure no matter where you are on the street that your sign is visible, and your messaging is visible too.

4.     Your Location to the Billboards

This will greatly depend on the type of business you have, but you don’t want to throw a billboard halfway around the country if you cannot service that area of the country. Make sure if you’re a plumber and you have a distinct area that you do business in that your billboard is not only in that service area, but preferably near the middle of it or close to your office/home location.  Many businesses marketing billboards have failed, because they failed to realize that while a location may have had the perfect traffic and was great for their target audience it wasn’t close enough for them to be of service. Don’t advertise for other people. Remember to consider your location and how far you are willing to travel for work or how far a person may be willing to travel for you when picking the perfect billboard spot.

Conclusion

Overall, you should be mindful of your business and marketing goals when picking the perfect location for your billboard advertisement. You need to be steadfast in what your goals for your brand are and this will help you get the best engagement from your marketing investment. To review the four areas, you need to remember Target Audience, Traffic Patterns, Visibility, and Your Location/customers/clients’ location. These four aspects will help you know if you’re making the correct decision with your marketing dollars for your billboard campaign.  Do not get happy ears and spontaneously pick a spot for your billboard campaign. Really do a deep dive and think it through. In the end it will be worth it.