Car Signage – How Effective Is It?

I was once asked by a real estate salesman to give him a quote on sign writing his car. I came back with a price for just over $1000 which included a part vehicle wrap, artwork and application. It was a fair price given he was also in my BNI (Business Networking International) group.

Immediately he said “no way, that’s too much, I can’t justify that sort of money for some stickers on a car”, so I asked him a couple of questions.

Q1. How many houses would you need to sell to get your money back on the cost of sign writing your car?

Answer: He said 1 house sale would pay for itself 5 times over.

Q2. How much do you pay for the billboard on the main road of town?

Answer: He said just over $6,000 a month

By this stage I could see the light come on inside his mind. I’d justified that if just one person called after seeing his car signage to sell or buy a house from him, it would more than pay for the cost of the signage.

He agreed to go ahead with the signs and within a week, we’d signed off on the artwork and booked the car in.

He returned by the end of the day to collect the vehicle and drove off happy. Within 20 minutes of him leaving the store, one of my staff paged me, saying the same client was on the phone and wanting to talk to me. Naturally I thought something was wrong, but instead he was calling to tell me how amazed he was with the response he’d just had because of the signage.

He had pulled up at a service station straight after leaving the office to buy fuel. While he was standing there filling up, another guy who was doing the same thing struck up a conversation. He said his car signage reminded him that his wife wanted to get a real estate agent around to value their property and he hadn’t done anything about finding someone. The guy asked if he would head over and take a look at the house and give them an appraisal before listing it with him.

The real estate agent was thrilled that in such a short time, his signage was already working for him. That client became one of my biggest ‘word of mouth’ signage advocates. It wasn’t long before we’d done 7 other agents cars from that same office.

Providing you don’t drive like a maniac, car signage is priceless for any business! Why bother spending countless dollars on roadside billboards when you have a good looking car, that acts as a mobile billboard.

Vehicle signage starts from as little as $300 and regardless of what people say – signage stickers don’t ruin your paint work. Of all things, they preserve the paint underneath like sunscreen!

If you are looking to get signs put on your car, here’s a couple of questions you should ask your sign writer.

1. I only want a quote for POLYMERIC VINYL – It’s a long lasting vinyl (approx 5 – 7 years) that is easily removed before resale.
2. What brand vinyls (sticker material) do you use? The better brands of vinyl include Avery and 3M. They’re trusted brands that have been used in the signage industry for a substantial period of time.
3. Do you offer a guarantee on your work? Most quality sign writers will offer a guarantee on their workmanship, but all 3M and Avery products have a warranty which is normally 3 years.

If you’re ever concerned about the workmanship of a sign writer, ask for some of his most recent clients who’ve had their cars sign written and call them to see if they’re happy with the job.

Overall, signwriting your vehicle is a great way of cheaply and effectively promoting your business (unless you don’t want any more customers).

Good luck in your ventures and feel free to contact us anytime for a quote to sign write any size car, bus, boat or plane.