Old school marketing still rules.

But they got your attention

No, but your forum avatar got my attention. I'm a legs man.

Honestly? No

First would you trust your SEO to a guy who took a page out of the yard sale marketing play book?

Second if a business knows what "SEO Services" are he sure can google to find people to provide it.

Third "Google 1st Page". Would you like me to screen cap what I get when I Google "1st Page". And yes that is how the average person will read that. Google is the verb. BTW these guys are #1 for that term. 1st-Page.com SEO Solution | Just One Client Per Market Guess our friend likes advertising for his competitors.

Fourth I googled the number. Which I am sure others would do before calling and the only thing that came up for it company wise is a shoe store in Downer's Grove.

Finally do you really think that someone driving by is going to take the time to actually write the number down if they do happen to understand it and need the service?

I'm not saying he won't get calls and it may be worth the investment since such signs are cheap. But I wouldn't assume he is killing it with the sign. Those signs work best for certain demographics and business owner isn't one of them IMO. Really look at the vast majority of those signs and tell me who they are targeting. And think why that group is targeted by them.

Then come up with an offer and sign that makes sense.

very funny. I hope he does get a lot of calls! (Or is it a she?)

Here's an awesome story that illustrates this exact point

We literally had professional signs that generated almost no calls. Back before marketing I ran a successful real estate business. We always ran professional signs that would cost us several dollars each and in minimum orders of 500. It usually resulted in just a few calls.

One day as a test, we started putting homemade signs on telephone poles and the phone rang off the hook. We literally went from 1-2 calls per week with 500 signs to 40-50 calls per week with 50 signs.

It's similar to your average "yard sale" sign. It pokes you in the eye and when customers have ad blindness, that's just what you need.

Don't be afraid to be different.

haha thats pretty cool.

you just never know

I think some of the offline marketing strategies like yard signs will work. And with the higher prices of good SEO services this sign could produce positive ROI if you were to secure a customers off of it, But here are a few suggestions to help make it profitable.

Is the location of the sign near a business complex or district where it will be seen by business owners?

Perhaps a better headline, one that tells the benefits of being on the 1st page, "Want Customers From The Internet" #602-XXX-XXX. Something like that because only people that are not internet savvy would call from a yard sign about SEO rather then doing an internet search themselves.

I have seen effective sighs that were placed in a sequence on the side of the road that allowed a driver to see 3-4 seo messages on his route. I don't now how effective it is but using multiple signs over just could be helpful.

LOL THATS AWESOME !!! I guess their not doing well if there advertising on the side of the road lol .

Hi there,

I wonder if it's the personal touch of the "ugly" signs that makes them more successful? I personally wouldn't call one but then I'm jaded from working in this industry.

It might be that the regular consumer identifies with what appears to be another consumer trying to get ahead.

Interesting thread

All the best,

Sasha.

of course it does. Human psychology cannot change.

I know a guy who hand writes his own bandit signs to sell mattresses. He's put up thousands of them, and he did it for years. I went and visited him out of curiosity. He's selling them out of a warehouse in an industrial district, by appointment. He just recently stopped so I am guessing the new mayor cracked down on him. It was a serious amount of signs, so it was working.

I love these ironies! By the very existence of the sign, you can take a good guess that they don't know what they are doing. Awesome!

I never had any luck with the old stuff, flyers, and business cards never worked.
I design art so people need to see the art so phone won't work.
Maybe I should look into other old school marketing.

ha - that's a local number to me. I've seen the web development services like that all the time....

Definitely not. Ironic that they provide SEO services but look at how they market. Now regarding traditional marketing, there are still those that work until today it is just a matter of how you strategize.

Someone who doesn't know what he's doing based on the comments, yet has 30+ responses on a marketing message board.

The beautiful thing about it is that he's out there trying... more than what most people on here do. I believe he probably does get business from it as well. If you want growth, then test.

I'd be interested to see if our arm chair quarterbacking is correct or not. Hell your post made me tempted to replicate the sign and just see how many calls I get from it. Literally just have it go to a fake voicemail.

A classic test before product.

I once knew a guy that people paid to place signs like that along roads. He'd take real good care of the signs too, making rounds to make sure they stayed up and clean. His built a nice reputation and as he made more money, he parlayed that into a multi million dollar contract with the NYC transit system placing billboards in subways.

Old school.

Anyone doing bandit signs in the UK? I really want to do this but in my part of the world our local council is so anal its unbelievable......"it affects the street furniture" they say to any local business who dares put a ad board anywhere out of place pmsl

Any ideas how to box clever like putting ads on non public items eg phone boxes?

I have seen these signs in the Chicagoland Area.

I love them. They don't cost much, your initial investment is low, and because they are so NOT the typical sign for "Make Money In Real Estate", you will take notice.

And if someone drives by it more than a few times AND they might be interested in the whole "Google Thing", who knows.

Plus, some people like the idea of a local provider who they could actually meet in person. There are still people in the world who want to meet face to face, and those kind of people may not have a lot of preconceived notions about SEO and what it can do.

It's a great thing ... old school rocks!!

I'd be shocked if anyone called those signs especially with SEO acronym. I owned a mfg company and had IT/software sales call on me, after a couple acronym filled presentations(techies can get 2 in each sentence!) I warned them the first time they use any an tech acronym they are out the door. haha SEO, CRM, ERP, MRP, SAAS, etc......talk to a prospect in their terms and their language. easier life, more customers, efficiency, profitability, etc...

Why not combine old marketing with new marketing.
I mean we still have snail mail right?

What if Google finds that out ? :/

Postcard Marketing is the way to go these days having great success with it.
www.wealthyfrompostcards.com

It may not work as much as you would like it too, but how much did this cost him? $10 bucks?

How many business people are driving around town and are obviously misinformed about SEO? Let's say one of them bites. He paid for his campaign, and it's done.

Man...I haven't seen tactics like that ..I wonder how much business they actually get from this. I'm rather tempted to try it once.