The Yard Sign Nobody Ignores

Why the standard sign disappears

The 18-by-24-inch corrugated sign on an H-stake is the default because it is the cheapest thing the sign shop sells, which means every plumber, roofer, landscaper, and political candidate in the county uses it too. A yard collects them. By the third week of a busy season a homeowner’s street has a dozen identical rectangles, and the eye has learned to skip the shape entirely. The sign is doing its job as a sign and failing its job as marketing.

The non-standard sign

The fix is not a bigger message on the same sign. It is a sign the eye has not learned to skip.

• A different size or proportion. A tall vertical sign, a 24-by-36, or a small square, anything that breaks the rectangle every other contractor uses.
• A cut shape. A sign cut to the outline of the truck, the logo, or the trade’s tool reads as an object, not a sign.
• A rider. A second small sign on the same stake with one line: the neighborhood, the date, or “ask them how it went.”
• The same color as the truck, so the sign, the wrap, and the listing photos all read as one company.
• One name, one trade, one number, big. The homeowner walking the dog has about two seconds and is not writing anything down; the sign’s job is to be remembered when the truck goes by later.

Placement, permission, and the pickup

• Ask the customer at the end of the job, not before, and offer to take it down at a date. Most say yes when the work is done well and the sign is nice.
• Two weeks is the standard stay. Longer and the sign starts to fade and lean, and a faded sign advertises neglect.
• Log where every sign is and pick them up on the date. A crew that forgets signs leaves the shop’s name on a dozen lawns looking abandoned.
• Townships and villages differ on signs in the right-of-way and on corner lots. Check the local ordinance once and write the rule on the sign log.

Counting it

A sign works by neighbor recognition, which shows up as “saw your sign on the street” at intake, or as a call from a house three doors down from a recent job. Put “sign” on the fixed intake list and give the signs their own tracking number if the volume justifies it. Over a busy season the sign row on the cost-per-booked-job sheet will be small, and it will be one of the cheapest rows on it.