Billboards for local marketing

Hopefully others can benefit from this tidbit. . .


I recently cut a deal with a local sign company where we're swapping my website ad space for their unused billboard inventory - the website covers news, schools, government, sports etc. in my local community.


For the cost of production ($288) I've got my URL and tag line on a 8'x24' billboard in a high traffic location. If they sell the spot they will move me to one of their other unsold signs. The only downside is if they sell-out in which case my sign will sit in the warehouse until the next billboard becomes available.


BTW. . there are three outdoor advertsing companies in my market and the newest/smallest was the only one interested in working with me.

 

hello , Billboard is a very good way of offline marketing for such a site , there are also others such as flyers and posters , btw can i get a small pic of the design you will put on the billboard , i have also plans to advertise a site on billboard , this will help me a bit ..

thx

 

billboards can definetly be effective but I wouldnt expect to pay $288 in a market like NY.

 

Awesome idea! What do you mean "swapping space" - they are getting advertising on your site in exchange?

I've always wanted to tinker with billboard ads, but wasn't sure if it'd be worth it or not.

 

The $288 was for the printing costs. The spot/exposure is free.

I've added banners into the rotation for them - 468x60 and 150x150s - and a few other places. Not much really considering what I'm getting in return.

 

Thats a cracking deal. Hope you get the traffic i think you will

 

well i never really gave thoughts about billboards as an advertising medium...may work out great.

 

awesome idea, how did it all start? did the vendor contact you or did you make the first contact?

 

Pretty creative idea - I don't think it would for for stuff like v7ndotcom elursrebmem since even those of in the contest can't spell that ... but yea, if you have an easy to remember domain names like www.classifiedads.com that also appeals to a mass audience, that could work darn well. Not surprising the newer/little guy wanted to work with 'ya - he probably "gets it" more than others about web advertising.

Plus hey, it's gotta be fun to have your domain up on a billboard. Be sure to post a picture here when it is up. Love hearing about off-the-wall (attempted pun intended) ideas like this - go get 'em Jay! ;-)

alek

P.S. I still have the billboard of the coppertone girl that we had a lotta fun with in college - lets just say this certainly caught people's eyes ...

 

I actually came up with the same idea of advertising on a billboard a few weeks ago. I havn't done it yet, please post what kind of results you get from it.

 

Alek,

Thanks for the kind words but the domain that's going up is my community news website - wakulla.com (I actually had not considered approaching them about a second billboard for ClassifiedAds.com - but I will next week ).

The blog listed on my posts is my personal therapy. I fight 419 check overpayment and "bogus ad" scammers daily and use this to document the successes and failures of the scam world. For some real entertainment visit www.419eater.com for the largest and best scambaiting community in the world.

WhatUdo, the uniqueness of the approach is the advertising swap - in my market the going rate for billboards is $800-$1,500 a month depending on the location with a 6 month minimum contract.

 

That should work great also, because easy name for local residents to remember and punch in when they get home.

I've spent many hours at www.419eater.com - yea, some great comedy there - one of the "classic" web sites. What gets me is even with all the publicity about these scams (even in mainstream press), they are still able to find folks who fall for it and part with LOTS of money. I guess there will always be snake oil salesmen.
alek

 

Here's screen shot of the billboard. It's a little loud :

 

That should catch some eyes - curious to see how it turns out in real life.

 

thats a cool method of advertising you cant miss it.

 

They finally installed it today.

I took this with my phone so the quality is not that good. . but it looks great!

 

WOW that should get some traffic man! way to go i have been considering bill board advertising.... unfortunately wouldn't work for some of sites as url it so long but may work on others

 

That is awesome, I'd love to be able to pull something like that off. In my area (bay area, CA) I am sure the cost would be outrageous.

Let us know how it works out for you.

 

I'll post before and after stats middle/end of next month.

The unqiues have been growing at about 5-10% a month for the last year.

It should be interesting (assuming of course that they go up )

yea, I agree that this is not something you can pull off on hwy 101 between San Jose and SFO

 

Looks great - I bet your local paper picks up a story about it ...