Category: Yard Sign Marketing

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

How to Give Directions to Bandit Sign Placers

Asking for Directions - Map in Speech Bubble
A map in a speech bubble, symbolizing someone speaking to give directions

The other day … I was chatting with a new SimpleCrew subscriber, Evan G.

He needed urgent advice.

See, he hired someone from Craigslist to put out bandit signs for his real estate company.

But he ran into an issue. After, he gave his employee these directions:

“Hang up 200 bandit signs on telephone poles in this neighborhood”

The task is straightforward.

And so the sign placer immediately started driving her car to place the bandit signs all over the neighborhood.

Now, even though he hired a great person who had all of the credentials.

It turned out after an hour or so …

He logged into SimpleCrew to check up on her progress …

Instantly, he noticed …

He made a TERRIBLE mistake.

The first 45 bandit signs (out of the 200 signs) were placed shoulder-to-shoulder on a single road!

Here’s what it looked like in SimpleCrew:

bandit-sign-placers-map
(At the very least, our app caught this problem early on before the bandit sign placer put out all two hundred bandit signs).

Look at how all those bandit signs were placed “shoulder-to-shoulder”. Doing this can annoy the neighborhood and cause a hell of complaints.

Admittedly, the fault was his poor directions (for his sign placer.)

Here is what you can take away from this story.

If you struggle with giving directions to your bandit sign placer … for example, should you draw a detailed map, or should you trust your sign placer to make his own decisions?

There are two solutions to this problem:

1) Tell your bandit sign placers to “place a sign at every 3rd lighted intersection”

Lighted intersections have more traffic as opposed to a stop sign intersection.

This is a great way to give your sign placer some freedom while preventing the mistake you saw earlier.

On the other hand … what if you DO want more control?

Say, for example, you want your signs ONLY at certain locations and not others.

2) There is a free tool that is PERFECT for bandit sign placers

It’s called Google My Maps.

You can use this tool to set up a driving route for your sign placers to follow.

These routes can be created in a few minutes and it can look like this:

Driving-route

It’s easy and fast to set up.

In fact, I made a post to quickly walk you through the basics of Google My Maps.

You can read the post here.

By the way, I use this tool myself all the time.

It makes planning out where you want your signs and communicating it to your team a breeze.

All the best 🍻

Mike McCabe

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

How this real estate investor outsourced his bandit signs

computer to attract sign placers

A while back, a curious real estate investor replied to one of my emails.

Based on his tone, he sounded fed up.

It seemed he was tired of posting up bandit signs himself

He wrote to me:

“My struggle right now is trying to find someone to hang the bandit signs for me. Have any advice on that?”

I assumed he no longer wanted to do all the manual work, like driving around in the early morning to put those bandit signs up. Only to have the sign police rip it down the next hour.

But, if he were to hire a full-time sign placer … his life will be a lot easier.

Problem was … I only knew WHERE to hire a sign placer, but I didn't know HOW to hire a sign placer.

I’ve heard from multiple customers that Craigslist is still the best way to hire sign placers as long as you post a job in the “Gigs” section under “event” or “labor.”

That’s where my advice would end for him. I had no idea how to craft a highly effective job post.

So much for being helpful, right? 🤦‍♂️

Besides, hiring a sign placer can be … tricky.

How much do we pay them? Do you pay for their gas? (especially with the rising gas prices) Where to find them? What to say?

Honestly, at the time, I didn’t have an answer.

I believed outsourcing your bandit signs couldn’t be done in a few days, It is just too time-consuming.

Or so I thought.

And as I had given up …

PING!

I got another email. From the real estate investor.

Apparently, while I was busy yapping to myself about how hard it is to hire sign placers.

He wrote to me saying:

He already found 5 potential sign placers! (all qualified)

And all that was left from him was to interview one of those 5 applicants. Soon, he would never need to manually put out bandit signs again.

I thought, wow.

That was quick.

I asked him, how did you find a sign placer so fast!?

The secret was not some kind of trick.

But, rather it was that he had written a …

Dead …

Simple …

… Job post.

That job post found him 5 quality candidates, some of the best he could’ve asked for.

I quickly thought how my readers, like you, would probably LOVE to have a “job post” like the one he wrote.

So, I asked him to see it.

And to my surprise, he was kind enough to share the exact job post that he used to hire a sign placer.

I then turned his job post and made it into a … template.

Which will help you quickly hire a sign placer, regardless of the niche you’re in.

If this is something that you need, well, I’ve packed it into a hefty PDF along with a bunch of solid tips.

And I’m calling it …

The Ultimate ‘Job Post Template’
For Hiring A Sign Placer

Template for hiring a sign placer

It’s a template that helps you write a job post for a sign placer.

It shows you what to look for in a sign placer and some of the most important precautions to take.

This template also answers burning questions I hear all the time:

1. What’s the best rate to pay for a sign placer?
2. How to filter out bad candidates?
3. How to systematize your entire sign placement?

You can read it for free.

It’s something I wish I had long ago. Surprisingly, not a lot of answers are floating around the web.

(Hiring sign placers is something that doesn’t get talked about a lot.)

So, if you’ve tried to stop posting signs yourself … but haven’t gotten to the hiring part, then press the green button below to download the job post template 👇

Download-box-for-outsourcing-bandit-signs

Mike McCabe

P.S.

Last time we spoke he was successfully tracking all of his bandit sign placements using SimpleCrew.

P.S.S.

Here’s the link again:

Click here and get the job post template

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

The Ultimate Job Post Template For Hiring A Sign Placer

Ultimate_Job_Post_Template

If you’re looking to hire someone to post yard signs, then I have a job post template that is proven to get good sign placers in record time.

In fact, at the time of this writing, a recent subscriber has just
messaged us: “Your strategy worked! I already have 5 applicants to sort through”.

To make things simple, I’ll just show the template.

‘Copy & Paste’ This
Job Post Template

Use the job post template below.

And adapt it to however you like:

				
					SIGN PLACERS WANTED

Outdoor sign placers are needed.

A flexible schedule preferably works in the evening.

$15-20 an hour.

Start immediately.

Need a smartphone with data and the ability to download 1-3 apps and ability to take pictures.

Must be able to use a hammer tacker.

Must be able to get the job done each week.

Must have a reliable vehicle.

Applicant must be able to lift 50 pounds if signs are delivered to you.

Training will be provided.

Learn business while getting paid!

Open to delivery and rideshare drivers to get paid while out making deliveries and rides.

Now - follow the next 5 steps to create a job post on Craigslist.

When we’re looking to hire sign placers, Craigslist works the best.

After all, it’s the most popular website for finding part-time jobs and gigs.

Step 1:

Go to www.Craigslist.org

Click on the “create a posting” link on the main page. This will let you easily create a job post for an entire city to see.

The image below shows you where to find that link.

hire_yard_sign_placer_step_1

Step 2:

Select the “gig offered” option. It’s the best option to choose when you’re first starting out with Craigslist.

hire_yard_sign_placer_step_2

Step 3:

Then, choose either the “event” or “labor” option. From our experience, both of them can attract good sign placers and get you the best results.

Step 4:

Here is where you can finally use our “job post template”. Just copy and paste the template into these sections:

hire_yard_sign_placer_step_4

Final Step:

Once you finish filling out your personal details, you can submit the post.

You’re done! 🙌

Sit back and watch the applicants roll in.

Download PDF

Wait … there's more!?

You see, posting a job on Craigslist is easy. 

And getting the applicants is also … easy.

The next challenge is WHAT to do once the applicants come knocking on your door.

For example, “will you hire the first person who applied to your job post!?”

Probably not.

That’s why we dedicated an entire blog post on helping you navigate the hiring process after you have posted a job on Craigslist.

In this next post, you will learn:

  • How to interview applicants fast
  • 3-point checklist to spot a good sign placer
  • How to systematize your yard signs 

So, if you’re unsure what to do after you posted a job on Craigslist, go ahead and click the below:

How to Hire a Yard Sign Placer In Under 7.5 minutes

Enjoy!

Mike McCabe

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

Should you hire a yard sign placement service or a sign placer?

Rolling the dice — between hiring a sign placement service or hiring YOUR own sign placer — is a tough one.

Because it depends on your situation.

To help YOU choose, we wrote this article.

Shall we begin?

Now, we’ll first jump into the pros and cons of a ‘yard sign placement service’. Then, we’ll zoom into the pros and cons of a ‘personal sign placer’.

1. What are the PROS of a Yard Sign Placement Service?

An agency is amazing. They hire, train, and manage teams of sign placers so you don’t have to lift a finger.

Additionally, a good sign placement service should do these important tasks for you:

1. Pick up signs
2. Write signs
3. Place signs
4. Proof of placement
5. Consult on where to place

Another major benefit is this. You’re NOT the bottleneck!

So, you can scale up to a giant team that can put out thousands of signs and it’ll be helluva lot easier.

That said, however, all of these benefits do come at a greater cost.

2. What are the CONS a yard sign placement service?

Frankly, we don’t have many bad comments on agencies. But, there are some important downsides:

Higher Price – Each agency has its own pricing formula. And so the price will vary between different agencies. But typically, an agency WILL cost you more than hiring your own sign placer.

If money might be an issue for you, then consider a personal sign placer that you can hire.

Less flexibility – There’s always a middle man. In an agency, any changes or updates will have to go to the middle man BEFORE it reaches the sign placers. For some flexibility is important, for others it’s not.

Delayed reporting – Normally, with an agency, you’ll get emailed a report AFTER the sign placement job is done. But if you have an important sign placement strategy, you may want to see the job being done in almost real-time (we’ll show you how in a bit).

3. What are the PROS of hiring your own sign placer

Unlike an agency, hiring your own sign placer comes with unique perks.

Lower Costs – You control the cost. For any sign placement job, you can choose the exact price you want to pay. This is great for bootstrapped businesses that are looking to keep the overhead cost down to the bare minimum.

Greater freedom – There is no middle man. You can chat with your sign placer freely. And make any special requests on the fly. At the same time, you can build a closer relationship with your sign placers. And that has its benefits. For example, sign placers can give you instant updates about what’s on the battlefield so you can make strategic moves on where and how to place your signs.

Those are some of the major benefits.

But if you never hired a sign placer, you do need not to worry. We got you covered at the end of this article.

4. What are the CONS of hiring your own sign placer?

More responsibility – When a sign placer quits, you’ll need to restart the hiring process … again. This includes training them as well (Whereas an agency would already have taken care of that for you.)

Lack of trust – Hiring a sign placer can be risky. Just imagine the nerve-wracking feeling of giving hundreds of yard signs to a sign placer who is still a complete stranger.

Will they throw out your signs in the garbage? Will they place the signs to your instructions?

You’ll never really know, unless you have “proof” that each yard sign was placed. But there is a solution. For getting that “proof”, you can use our smartphone app SimpleCrew that forces your sign placers to take a photo of each yard sign they put up, which will guarantee ALL your signs were placed.

To wrap it up this article:

By now, I believe you have a good idea which option is best in your situation.

If you believe a yard sign placement service is right for you, then a quick Google search will pull up the best agencies in your area.

Or -

If you believe hiring a sign placer is right for you, we have the perfect resource to get you started 👇

Download-box-for-outsourcing-bandit-signs

This template will help you with writing a job post, deciding on what price to pay, where to find a sign placer, and many more nuances.

We understand it can be hard to process everything.

But we got your back.

If you need any help with hiring a sign placer, just message us anytime.

Best of luck!

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

How to Hire a Yard Sign Placer In Under 7.5 minutes

If you want to hire a good yard sign placer quickly, then this is the best place to start.

In this ‘down-to-earth’ guide, I’ve laid out an easy process on how to hire a sign placer from beginning to end.

You’ll uncover some interesting tips, such as … the secret behind how to not get “screwed over” by your sign placer on their first job.

And how to make the interview process fast and painless. So that your sign placer can start working asap.

In the later parts, I’ll show you a swift way to filter out your applicants and cherry-pick out the best candidates.

(In a second, we’ll dive head-first into the guide.)

Hi, I’m Mike McCabe👋

Co-founder of SimpleCrew, a software you probably never knew existed.

For the past 9 years, I’ve helped business owners track and manage their sign placers.

My goal here is to save you time and get you back to doing what you love to do most.

Part I: How to Quickly Find a Good Yard Sign Placer

This guide is broken down into 4 easy-to-consume sections:

Thanks to the internet.

You can hire a good sign placer in a single afternoon and have ‘em place your signs by tomorrow morning.

To hire a yard sign placer, where would you go?

You might’ve heard of Indeed, SimplyHired, ZipRecruiter, or even LinkedIn.

However I wouldn’t recommend those sites for beginners who have never hired a sign placer before. 

Instead, I suggest using a more popular website that’ll give you a bigger base of applicants to choose from. 

In fact, this is a better website that’ll give you access to a horde of hard workers at an instant.

Don’t take my word for it. You probably heard it already.

It’s called:

Craigslist

This website is the BEST site for finding a ton of qualified applicants for sign placement in any location. After all, it’s the most popular website for finding part-time jobs and gigs in the world.

And if you’re under time pressure, you’d be more likely to find a good candidate faster on that site than on any other job recruiting site.

But, if you never hired a sign placer on Craigslist, then it may seem impossible.

“How do I write a job post on Craigslist?”, you might ask.

Or even more importantly, “How do I find a GOOD sign placer for my business?”

This brings me to the next important point.

If you need help with
either of the following:

  1. Writing a job post on Craigslist – that helps you attract a yard sign placer that meets your needs.
  2. Launching a job post on Craigslist – such as where to post the job and how to set it up.

In the link above, you’ll learn how to launch a job post on Craigslist, and you also get a “copy & paste” job post template that works well for attracting the right sign placer, regardless of the niche you’re in.

Other than that, the following sections will cover everything AFTER you have posted a job on Craigslist.

So, once your job post is live, you’re ready for part II.

Part II: Quick ‘n’ Painless Interview Process

If you followed everything above, then your job post is out there fishing for some high-quality yard sign placers.

And in no time, you’ll get a decent number of responses to look over, such as one of my favorite first liners: 

“R u you still hiring hiring?”

Just kidding. 

But other than that, you will have some note-worthy applicants to choose from. 

And assuming you do, what can you do next?

First, choose your preferred medium of communication.

Out of all the ways you can communicate with your candidate, we recommend the use of … video chat.

Through video chatting, you’ll quickly get a general sense of the quality of the candidate.

For sign placement, I recommend placing a big emphasis on finding someone who will be reliable.

After you choose the medium of communication, it’s best practice to get familiar with good ‘interviewing questions’.

Here are a few important interviewing questions to ask any potential sign placer:

				
					Which city do you live in?
Which cities in your area are you available to work?
Do you own a Car, Truck, Van, or large SUV?
Do you have a qualified backup to run signs in case you are unavailable?
Have you done sign placing before?
Why are you interested in this job?
Can you meet our schedule consistently?

After you get answers to these questions, you should start looking for how a good candidate looks like. 

It can be challenging though. There a ton of factors to consider. 

That’s why we created a mental checklist to help you filter out the good candidates from the bad.

Here is a simple checklist: 

3-point ‘fool-proof’ checklist for picking the right candidate

Chances are, if you’re looking for a sign placer, these are important qualities to look for:

  • Proximity - How close do they live to your sign placing route?
  • Reliability - Do they have the time and flexibility to meet your schedule?
  • Readiness - Do they have the tools (car, smartphone), the physical fitness, and the knowledge to complete the job?
What to look for in responses?

Assuming your candidate passes the checklist, you should be looking for — detailed responses.

A candidate who is genuinely motivated will often express themselves in more words than someone who is not interested.

Finding detailed responses with many words and emotions is an indicator that someone is motivated and willing to do a good job.

Most importantly … It’s best not to overthink it. Allow me to illustrate.

Part III: Trial Run

Alrighty. So, you’ve decided on a candidate.

Doing a trial run is great option.

Start by giving your candidate the resources to learn the rules of proper sign placement.

Then put your candidate to the test.

It’s time to put them up for a trial run.

A trial run will give you all the answers you need. Such as “Are they quick or slow”, “Have they followed the rules of good sign placement?”, “Have they placed the signs on schedule?”

In theory, a trial run sounds like a good idea, huh?

… but there is a problem.

See, giving a bunch of yard signs to a sign placer you met, can spell disaster.

For example, what if … they just throw your yard signs straight into the garbage?

Besides there’d be no way of you knowing what happens to your yard signs. 

Which is why you should have some way to “track” your signs. 

Here are two different ways to do it:

First, Ask your sign placer to Send you the photos of each yard sign they place.  

In other words … 

Tell your sign placer to take a photo of each yard sign they put up. 

Getting a photo of each yard sign will help you get answers to critical questions. 

Such as, were your yard signs placed by a intersection or hanged up on a telephone pole. And were they placed in neighborhood A or neighborhood b?  

But the con of this is that the sign placer will blow up your phone with text messages, which can be tiresome and over time you won’t even look at the photos your sign placers would submit.

Now there is a better alternative.

OR - Have them download SimpleCrew

Why?

SimpleCrew is a smartphone app that lets you SEE all the bandit signs your sign placer has placed for you – taking trust out of the equation.

Without you ever being there in person.

But I won’t go into full detail about how SimpleCrew works here.

Bottom line: SimpleCrew verifies whether or not your sign placer has put out your bandit signs in the way you want.

And knowing how expensive bandit signs or yard signs could be (hundreds of dollars), SimpleCrew becomes an essential tool for managing your sign placer and verifying their work.

Thus, if you’re going to use a sign placer for the first time, I highly recommend you check out our 14-day free trial plan.

How to begin a trial run?

To start a trial run, just follow these four steps:

Step 1: Distribute the signs

Start by ordering the yard signs from your favorite yard sign vendor and have them shipped to your sign placer, (or even better, let your sign placers order it themselves 😉).

Give your candidate a decent number of signs. Enough that it justify their time working with you.

Step 2: Give them the instructions

Instructions can be added inside your SimpleCrew campaign folder. 

This can be as simple as picking a county or zip code to start with. 

Or you can paste in a google route map link into your campaign’s description.

Step 3: Have yard sign placers snap photos of each sign using the SimpleCrew mobile app.

Using SimpleCrew is like having a secret window to watch your sign placer doing his work in the present moment.

Photos appear as soon as they “snap” a photo. 

And you get special features such as the exact location and time they’ve placed each sign, which are necessary if you need signs to be placed within a specific date and time.

Step 4: Pay them for the trial run

Our SimpleCrew reports make it easy to know the total number of signs placed from your sign placer, so you can quickly figure out how much to pay for their awesome work.

Some of our customers like to surprise their sign placers with a reward when their yard sign contributed to a successful deal.

And that’s basically it.

Yep.

Seriously.

From here on out, there is little that you need to do.

Set it and forget it.

You don’t need to worry about your leads, calls, or sales tanking because of a bad apple.

There is no trust needed.

They can manage the campaigns themselves.

Most importantly, they do the work themselves.

Best of luck!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the BEST rate to pay for a sign placer?

There are two ways to pay for a sign placer. 

1. Pay Per Hour

2. Pay Per Sign

Allow me to break down both options.  

If paying per sign:

First, it’s impossible for me to say what is the perfect price to pay per sign.

Because at the time of this writing, the cost of gas and minimum wage has been increasing fairly rapidly. By the time you read this, you might find that $1 or even $2 per sign is not doable anymore.

That said, there is an easy way to figure out how much to pay for a sign placer.

It’s downright sneaky. And that is by simply checking what other business owners are currently paying for each sign placer right now.

To do so, search on Google for “Sign Placer Job Posts” in your area. This search will quickly let you see how much sign placers are getting paid in your area at this very moment.

If you’re new to hiring a sign placer, I suggest sticking to the lower end of the pay scale, until you figure out what price makes sense for your business.

If paying an hourly rate:

The same technique applies for figuring out the hourly rate. Search on Google for “sign placer job posts” and see what the common hourly rate for sign placers in your area is. Then, decide on a good rate.

If you’re concerned about overpaying, set a limit for the number of hours a sign placer can work, until you figure out how much you can afford to pay.

In any case, it’s important to use a tracking software like SimpleCrew, that will act like an insurance for your signs.

For example, if you hand over 100 signs to your sign placer, then you need to make sure each and every sign will actually get posted up, right?

Well, SimpleCrew is a way for you to verify that each sign IS posted up, thereby giving you a piece of mind.

That’s just the beginning of what you can do with our software.

To learn more visit our website and get a 14-day free trial.

How to pay for extra tasks to a sign placer?

If you’re looking to outsource extra tasks, such as cutting out yard signs (or bandit signs) and writing out a message on it as well, then the question begs: are your sign placers responsible for that?

Or should you pay them extra for those tasks?

I’m in the camp of paying your sign placers fairly, otherwise they’ll simply quit.

Here’s one way you can do that. For any extra task that you wish to outsource, such as cutting out signs or writing out signs…

Start by timing how long it takes YOU to do those tasks. For example, let’s say it takes you 3 minutes to cut out and write out each sign. And the minimum wage is $20 per hour, which means each minute will cost you 0.33 cents.

Therefore, for 3 minutes of labor at 0.33 cent per minute will cost you 0.99 cents for cutting and writing out each sign.

That’s your baseline rate. Of course, you can increase it if you want to be more generous.

Now, the more responsibility you give, such as sending the stakes to your sign placers and having them placing buy orders for signs and materials on your behalf, the more you’ll want to raise their pay.

Should you pay for their gas?

It’s NOT absolutely necessary to pay their gas if you’re already paying them a good rate.

However, paying for their gas will prevent sign placers from feeling taken advantage of when gas prices are rising, rapidly.

If you do pay for their gas, don’t promise to pay them for a full tank. Instead, pay them for the miles driven during their sign placement route. 

But for that you would need a separate tracking software that would track their mileage.

If you’re starting out with a new sign placer, I wouldn’t suggest it at first. It adds more complications. 

Just keep it simple and pay them a fair rate.

Just a reminder ...

I highly recommend you to download our “Job Post” Template below. 

(Especially if you have never hired a sign placer before.) 

The downloadable template below will do a few things:

First, it’ll give you a “copy & paste” job post template that’ll attract high-quality sign placers. And it’ll show you how to launch a job post in minutes. 

If you haven’t already … download the “Ultimate Job Post Template For Hiring A Sign Placer” 👇

Download-box-for-outsourcing-bandit-signs
Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

The most infamous yard sign in Texas

Yard sign with text 'Your lawn was not treated today, your neighbor's was'

Today a video of a controversial yard sign in Texas appeared in my news feed.

It was about a Texan man who was pissed off for finding this yard sign on his lawn:

Yard sign with text 'Your lawn was not treated today, your neighbor's was'

Was Dr. Green out of his mind!

Shaming is a great persuasive technique … but not directly at your prospects.

(The irony is the Texan man actually ended up cleaning his lawn 😂)

I’ll give Dr.Green a hand though.

I instantly noticed … their sign is doing something extraordinarily well!

Which is “getting people’s attention”.

After all, this yard sign got millions of views and was featured on major news stations.

In fact, this yard sign is an excellent example of how to do so.

And I can show you how to profit from it by using it in your own yard signs.

See, the Dr.Green sign is using a little sneaky persuasion technique called:

“Breaking a schema”

This means doing something against what people normally expect.

See what I mean?

The empty space above is a “break-in schema”, which is why it is grabbing your attention.

Dr.Green’s yard sign follows the same principle.

Case in point:

You should experiment with your yard signs
by doing something that violates your market’s expectations.

Your yard signs should be different from the signs around it.

Use different wording … a different design … or a different location, something that your market won’t expect to see.

In doing so, you will get more results.

Speaking of results …our software, SimpleCrew, has been growing at a steady pace this year.

Especially after the recent release for our reduced pricing plan.

Anyone who is using yard signs and that needs to manage and keep track of their signs … should check SimpleCrew out.

More deets: https://simplecrew.com/two-user-plan

But, if you’re Dr.Green … then don’t check it out.

We don’t support lawn shaming.

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

Do These Five Things for a Successful Yard Sign Campaign

Yard sign under the sky
Blank yellow road signs on sky background.

Real estate investors face many of the same challenges as other entrepreneurs and business owners. When starting out, they need a reliable and low-cost way to generate leads. Once they start getting results it remains important for them to maximize their return on investment and to keep expenses low.

That’s why yard signs are both the perfect avenue for a newbie real estate investor to start his marketing efforts and for a seasoned pro to generate inexpensive leads. The following is a list of the top five things you should do to start reaping the benefits of a successful yard sign advertising campaign.

1. Find the Perfect Time to Hang and Take Down Your Signs

The best time to put up your signs is on a Friday afternoon when traffic is high and many people will drive by and see them. Make sure to take them down by Monday morning though to get the optimal return on your investment. yard signs have the tendency to disappear or even become damaged or defaced when they are left out too long. By taking them down during the week you protect them from vandalism, damage, and theft. After all, yard signs are an asset which you should protect and you can save a lot of money by recycling them.

Also, since most code enforcement officials do not work on the weekends, there is less of a chance of your signs being removed due to a violation of any city codes or ordinances you were not aware existed.

2. Hire people to put up and take down your signs

Putting together a team to put up and take down your signs is a vital element of managing your real estate business. As a real estate investor you want to work ON the business, not IN the business. The more efficient and hands-off your processes are, the more you can focus on actually closing those big deals. Using an app like SimpleCrew even makes it possible to track what your team is up to and make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to.

When finding good people to hire in order to help implement your yard sign campaigns, ask them the following questions:

  • Do you have a car or other reliable means of transportation?
  • Do you have a cell phone so that you can use SimpleCrew to take photos of the work that has been completed?
  • Are you available Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings/Monday mornings for take up and put down?
  • Are you aware of the municipal codes and regulations when it comes to hanging yard signs in the designated area?

Hanging signs is a task that is best outsourced. It will allow you more time and energy to close deals and find new properties.

3. Hold your team accountable with SimpleCrew

SimpleCrew is an app that your team can use to share photos of each sign after it has made it to its location. The GPS technology included with the app will record the location of where the photo was taken, so you will know exactly where and when your signs were put up or taken down.

With time you’ll be able to identify the most profitable locations for putting up signs and start focusing exclusively on the areas for generating leads with the highest ROI.

4. Be Consistent

For a yard sign campaign to be effective, you must be consistent with your marketing efforts. If you don’t get the signs out, then people will not know who you are or what you can do for them. Visibility is essential when it comes to effective advertising.

This is where a lot of beginners fail. They do all the hard work of putting up the signs but because they don’t get results quickly they simply give up. What they don’t realize is that for yard signs to be an effective marketing strategy, they require consistency. Only by putting up signs every single week can you get a regular influx of qualified leads.

This is another reason why it’s important to outsource the task of putting up signs. You’re far more likely to do it consistently if it simply involves managing a team that will do it for you, instead of having to do it yourself every single time.

Another benefit of doing it regularly is that with time you will be able to see where you are getting most of your leads. As soon as you find an area that works and people are responding to your yard signs, take note of this particular area and focus on it. Don’t waste your time and efforts in areas that are not responding to your advertising.

5. Have a System for Managing Leads

Getting leads is only the first (although vital!) step in the process of closing deals. When people start calling and reaching out to you it’s time to make the most of each opportunity. That means there’s no room for missed deals, forgotten conversations, and disorganized leads.

That’s where Investorfuse comes in. Investorfuse is a lead management CRM system designed to help investors close more deals through automation and time-saving technology.

They help you organize and track your leads and make the most out of your existing marketing. For example, you can put your follow up on autopilot with customizable sequences and delegate tasks to your team automatically. It takes the guesswork out of your business operations which provides you with more time to focus on your deals.

Next step: Diversification

If you follow the five guidelines that have been outlined, you will be well on your way to automatically generating leads from yard signs with minimal effort on your part. Once you have gotten your foot in the door it will be time to diversify your marketing by using a combination of both inbound and outbound advertising. Combine that with a good system of lead organization and the possibilities are endless.

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Yard Sign Marketing

Why Yard Signs are Making a Comeback

Yerd sign from the laptop
Blank Real Estate Sign & New Home on Laptop isolated on a white Background.

The two most popular methods to generate leads as a real investor are currently PPC and direct mail campaigns. As a result the space is getting crowded and it’s getting harder and harder to use these strategies and be profitable. So what can you as a real investor do to set yourself apart in today’s real estate market? Easy: do what other’s are not doing. Add strategies such as yard signs and prospecting to your lead generation toolset.

The current state of real estate marketing

The two strategies that most real estate investors are using to generate leads right now are “Pay-Per-Click” (PPC) campaigns and direct mail campaigns.

PPC is paid advertising either on Facebook or on Google. It’s relatively easy to set up and while it may take some time dial in the campaigns and reduce their cost, it’s definitely worth it. Once it’s up and running you can simply sit back and watch the leads come in.

Direct mail campaigns start with purchasing a list, e.g. from Flip This Real Estate List and bulk mailing letters to the leads you purchased. You can either do it yourself or outsource it to a specialized service, which can send out large numbers of yellow letters in a short amount of time.

The benefits of both strategies are easy to spot: it takes very little time to get started, both are relatively inexpensive and you can set them up from the comfort of your own home.

Low barrier to entry = a lot of competition

One of the reasons why real estate investing is such an amazing business to get into is the low barrier to entry. Almost anyone can get started as long as they can purchase a list and are willing to put in the work to send out mail.

However, a low barrier to entry also means that there is a steady influx of new aspiring real estate investors and potential competitors coming into the market. The same applies to the marketing strategies they use. Since PPC and direct mail are so easy to set up and outsource, everyone ends up doing it.

This results in the continuous decrease in effectiveness of both strategies. More and more competition in PPC drives up the prices. It becomes harder and harder to run profitable campaigns. More people sending out tons of direct mail means that potential sellers get letters not just from you. The number of calls you will receive will start to go down. In other words: the space is becoming too crowded.

I don’t mean to bash these two approaches. Both PPC and direct mail are powerful and are here to stay. However, I believe that the time is right for yard signs to make a comeback.

Want exceptional results? Do something different!

Most people are not prepared to put in the effort and do the difficult work. The masses will naturally gravitate towards what is easy. And that’s where your opportunity to stand out exists.

Doing the hard things means less competition. Even better, doing them thing consistently will result in exponential results. As our friend Dan Schwartz from InvestorFuse put it:

“The key is to diversify your lead gen across different levels of barriers to entry. For instance, don’t put ALL your marketing dollar eggs into the direct mail basket. Understanding this will put you in the position to rise above the rest. Focusing on the things that most people aren’t willing to do because it’s slightly harder to execute will win you exponentially more deals.”

The return of yard signs

Right now, when everyone is focused on PPC and direct mail, is the perfect time to turn your attention towards both yard signs and deal prospecting.

Putting up yard signs used to take a long time. Real estate investors had to either spend all day driving around and putting up signs or outsource the tasks but with no real guarantee that the people they hired actually put up the signs.

Luckily, with SimpleCrew, it’s now easier than ever to automate the process. You can finally hold your team accountable. The person you hired to put up the signs will take a picture of the signs with their phone and thanks to GPS tracking you will know exactly where and when it was taken. Not only will you be able to check whether the signs have been put up but you’ll also remember where they were places so that you can take them down and reuse them.

You’ll set yourself apart from the competition by being able to be more consistent in putting up signs as well as by running more optimized campaigns than your competitors.

Prospecting: the return of “active” lead generation

Prospecting, unlike the marketing strategies we have discussed above, is an “active” form of lead generation. You target someone and qualify them to see whether they are a potential lead or not. It takes consistent effort and is definitely harder than e.g. direct mail.

This difficulty however is exactly the reason why it’s an opportunity for you. While most real estate investors are not willing to put in the work, you can set yourself apart by doing what they’re not prepared to do.

Skip tracing, driving for dollars and networking are all powerful tools and doing them well can set you apart from other real estate investors. If you’re interested to learn more then check out this post on InvestorFure.

Diversification is key

The key to successful lead generation is diversification. You want to have leads coming in from many different sources so that you’re not too dependent on any one of them. With everyone else doing PPC and direct mail right now, it’s the perfect time to start adding yard signs and prospecting to your marketing strategy.

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

Top Three Tools to Optimize Your Yard Sign Campaign

Optimization

If you’re a real estate investor and are already using yard signs as part of your marketing strategy, then you’re on your way to producing promising leads and ensuring continued business and revenue. However, while it is a cost-effective means of advertising and a way of getting your name out there, there’s more to running successful yard sign campaigns than initially meets the eye.

The tools we present in this blog post will allow you to stand out from the competition. There’s a lot other ambitious investors in the real estate game and if you want to set yourself apart then you need the right tools.

Tool #1 for Increased Speed: Sign Staplers

Whether you put the signs up yourself or have someone do it for you (which we recommend), using a sign stapler will significantly decrease the amount of time it takes to make your rounds. Sign staplers are great to use on any corrugated plastic signs. Corrugated plastic signs can withstand rain and other weather conditions which ensure that you can continue to reuse your signs again and again.

Staples are easier and faster to use than the typical nail and hammer, and the staplers do not require the use of a dangerous ladder to put the signs up. The staples also won’t damage your signs when taking them down like traditional nails would. Nails can leave big holes in the signs which can render them too damaged to be reusable. Staples will leave small holes that do not hurt the integrity of the sign.

Staples will also not be as distracting as nails because they aren’t nearly as noticeable.

Benefits:

  • Does not require the use of a ladder
  • Easier and faster than a hammer and nails
  • You can put your signs up higher than the competition
  • Signs will stay up for longer
  • Long-handle hammer tacker

Tool #2 for Better Organization: SimpleCrew

SimpleCrew makes it possible to manage and track yard sign campaigns. As a real estate investor, you don’t want to spend your time putting up signs yourself. After all, you want to work ON the business, not IN the business. When you hire someone to put up yard signs for you (e.g. from Craigslist) however, you have to rely on their word that they actually did what they were supposed to.

Enter SimpleCrew: now, thanks to GPS technology, you can see exactly what your team is doing and where. Your team members use the app to post pictures of the signs they put up and you can verify both the time and location without leaving your home. Outsourcing your yard sign campaigns just got easy.

A GPS map of the signs also comes in handy if you’re planning to take the signs down on Sunday in order to recycle them and save money that way. Moreover, since you can now keep track of where your signs are located, you’ll be able to identify the locations that are producing leads.

Tool #3 for Optimization: Split-Testing

Our third and final tool is actually more of a strategy: if you want to set yourself apart from your competitors then you should be constantly split-testing. Always test out new ways of doing things, record which one worked better, and then test the next thing.

Doing this consistently is no easy task. Many investors get lazy and prefer to just do things the way they always did in the past. That’s why it’s an opportunity to set yourself apart.

An example of something you could test as part of your yard sign campaign is the color of the yard signs you put up. Some of the most common variation of corrugated plastic signs that people use are white lettering on a blue background, black lettering on a white background, or black lettering on a yellow background. Try out all three and record which one results in the best leads.

One step at a time

Remember, “done is better than perfect”. Don’t get overwhelmed by all the possibilities of how to improve your campaigns. Start with one improvement and be consistent. You’ll see results in no time.

Categories
Yard Sign Marketing

Why You Shouldn’t Be Scared of using Yard Signs

A yard with a lot of signs
IRVING, TX, USA-OCT 22, 2018:Row of yard sign at residential street for primary election day in Dallas county, Texas, USA. Signs greeting early voters, political party posters for the midterm election

Yard signs are a cost-effective way to generate leads. They’ve been tried and tested for many years and have withstood the test of time.

For some people, the prospect of putting up signs in their neighborhood still seems daunting. Some are taken aback by the perceived complexity of it all (Where do I put up the signs? How many do I need? What should I watch out for?) and others are afraid of getting confronted by ‘the man’ and possibly getting fined.

Today I’d like to give you a few reasons why I think that there is no reason to be afraid of putting up yard signs.

Reason #1: Yard signs are cheap

Yard signs are one of the most cost-effective way to generate leads as a real estate investor, which is one of the reasons why they’re so popular. It’s not only inexpensive to get started, you can even recycle the signs when you take them back down. After all, they’re your business asset and you should treat them as such.

Reason #2: It’s Easy

Many beginner real estate investors overthink things. At the end of the day, putting up yard signs is very easy. It can literally be as simple as ordering the signs online, using a call tracking service, and putting up the signs in your neighborhood. Plus, there’s a lot of resources online that can help you get started. Take a look at these blog posts we’ve published if you’re looking for more actionable advice:

Reason #3: Immediate Leads

As a real estate investor you’re in this for the long haul. You know that it takes time and hard work to build up a real estate empire. That said, no one wants to wait months or years for their first deal. There’s nothing quite like the sound of a phone ringing with the potential for a new deal. That’s another reason why yard signs are so great. You can put up the signs this week and start getting calls immediately.

Reason #4: Outsourceable

There’s no reason why you should have to put up yard signs yourself. You’re a real investor building a business so in most cases there’s more important tasks you should be focusing on (for example handling the leads you’re getting as a result of your yard sign campaigns!). Thankfully it’s inexpensive to hire someone off Craigslist to do it for you. You can pay them $2 per sign to write them, place them, and take them down. Pay half when they place them, half when they return them.

Reason #5: Trackable

It used to be difficult to track how many yard signs were actually put up by your team. Thanks to tools like SimpleCrew, that is no longer the case. Thanks to GPS technology, you can see exactly what your team is doing and where. Your team members use the app to post pictures of the signs they put up and you can verify both the time and location without leaving your home. You can also use this information to take the signs down each Monday morning and re-use them.

Reason #6: Scalable

I mentioned before that yard signs are easy to get started with and that they’re perfect for beginner real estate investors. What makes them even better however is that there’s no real upper limit on using them! You can start by putting up small numbers of signs yourself and eventually have a whole team of people who do the entire process for you while you track their work through an app like SimpleCrew. There’s no reason you can’t be putting up yard signs in multiple neighborhoods or even multiple cities!

Reason #7: SimpleCrew Exists

Most of the reasons why real estate investors are scared to start using yard signs can be overcome with one tool: SimpleCrew. Afraid of getting confronted by ‘the man’? You can now outsource putting up signs. You want to work ON the business instead of IN the business? You can now manage your team without leaving your home. You want to track your signs and take them down each Monday in order to re-use them? It’s now possible thanks to GPS technology.

Warning: Do Your Research

While there are many benefits related to running a yard sign campaign, there are also some risks. Before placing your signs or having your team go out and do it for you, refresh yourself on local municipality codes so that you will not incur any fines for placing signs in areas that they are not allowed.

Some places you definitely shouldn’t place signs:

  • Do not block any street signs or speed limit signs that can cause any safety hazard for drivers or pedestrians
  • Do not place signs on any private property unless you can obtain explicit consent from the property owner
  • Some cities do not allow yard signs to be placed in public right-of-ways unless they are previously approved by the city council
  • Avoid placing signs on lampposts, public trash cans, and buildings
  • Signs on highways and other public roads can be deemed distracting

The best thing to do before placing your yard signs is to get in touch with the local government and research the laws concerning legal and proper placement. There also may be restrictions on the size and content of these signs and permits may be required to place them in public areas. If you fail to check into these laws and regulations, you may lose the investment you made when purchasing the signs. Most law enforcement officials and code enforcement officials are instructed to immediately take down signs that are illegally placed and dispose of them.

In some cases, you may receive a written warning before your signs are taken down and in other situations, you may have to pay fines. Some real estate investors consider this to be the cost of doing business but a lot of trouble can be avoided with just a little research.