Hi all,
This is my first post so bear with me;
I worked for an investor while in high school doing, you might have guessed it, putting out bandit signs. Here's the strategy that we did, and it worked very well;
-Buy blank signs for cheap - 18" X 24" and then cut them in half. So instead of $1.30/each (for the corrogated plastic), it's like $0.65/each.
-Go to a lumber yard. I can get a bundle (50) of 30" wooden stakes for like $13. They are a little rougher, little dirty, but code enforcement will pick them up anyways.
-Get roofing nails (the kind to tack down roofing tarp to the plywood). They look like a nail with an orange plastic washer thing on it. They hold the signs down very well.
-Get a ghost number and DO NOT post that number online - code enforcement will google it (if signs are illegal in your city) and track you through your website.
By doing it this way, your costs are something like $0.80/sign. Not too bad.
Now putting them out is a different story. Don't even think about picking them back up. Most will be missing as most cities declare them as trash. The goal is to blanket an area and hopefully some will be overlooked, giving you a 1-2 or even 3 week saturation time. Just do this weekly and calls DO come in.
Personally, what I do is this;
-wait until midnight or early, early in the morning (4am).
-Have them premade and ready to go. Throw them in your trunk (yes, if I can do this with a honda accord, you can do it with anything)
-Keep your hammer under your seat (bigger hammer = more leverage = easier to get into the ground)
-Drive to the intersection, put on your hazards, and just scramble to put them on all sides. Each intersection you should be putting out 2-4 signs.
-I just stay on the access ramp and troll up the highway doing this. This means great exposure, it's fast, and you're probably going to get calls.
Don't get me wrong, I HATE bandit signs, like someone said earlier, 100% love/hate relationship. But if you aren't seeing them out, then that means that marketing channel is not crowded and you can dominate.
Want to make it fun? invite a friend with you and put out signs at 1AM. Great cardio, might see some "zombies", and you might even pick up some properties.
Best of luck!
