Thinking about advertising on banner at local high school. I have known surveyors for yrs who have done it. Has anyone had success with this or is it just a feel good thing?
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I had a banner several years ago at the local soccer fields. I also helped run the program, and we had a large enclosed trailer that we pulled up to the fields every weekend that we "worked out of". The fields were behind the elementary school, and I pulled the trailer with my pickup, and had my signs on it.
I picked up a few jobs from parents, but also picked up some from people that knew the parents. It can stirr up some work, especially in a small town like where I live.
I bought the entire back page of the football program to advertise when my son played in high school.
As far as I know only one job came from it. The caller asked, "Are you the guy who advertises on the back of the football program?"
When I said "Yes", he hired me to do a survey.
I've bought space on the local HS program over the years never expecting anything out of it other than good will. It didn't cost much but if it drove one kid to think about this profession, that would be cool. Now that I am retired from the hockey referee business, I may consider sending something back that way. Those parents supported my hobby for 27 years.
Any local endorsements and advertising is great for your showing support for your local groups and schools.
In the 80s the company sponsored Bowing Team for the employees.
We helped out every school activity and other group that was within our budget for contributions.
It may or may not bring clients, when it puts a smile on a child's face, it is worth the effort.
A Harris, post: 442791, member: 81 wrote: Any local endorsements and advertising is great for your showing support for your local groups and schools.
In the 80s the company sponsored Bowing Team for the employees.
We helped out every school activity and other group that was within our budget for contributions.
It may or may not bring clients, when it puts a smile on a child's face, it is worth the effort.
This exactly, if we, as generally local and small businesses, cannot support the community that supports us then we may as well all join together and become wal-mart survey inc.
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I agree. But at the same time buying a small sign if it will not get bites is cheaper than buying a large one.
My wife and I try to support local as much as possible.
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I sold the banner sponsorships for a local sports non-profit group
for a number of years
It's good entry level PR for a local business. Cost was minimal and exposure was very good.
Some businesses are more suitable to
setting. For instance, the orthodontist's banner at the youth soccer and lacrosse fields was successful for new patients.
Some of the HS here have very elaborate modern scoreboards now.
CocaCola and Chevron and others are major sponsors They have the large video screens. I imagine that they will sell Ad space on the screens during games.
But I dealt with a PR firm from Acadian who represented a rice company that liked to buy banners at sports fields across Louisiana. They were trying to catch the eyes of moms attending events.
[USER=323]@Paul D[/USER]
Understand that this type of advertising is a good thing, however it does not reach out to that large of a number of people.
When a person looks at their school's team schedule of 10 or 12 games that is on a triple fold, two sided print, they usually do not read the ads unless there is a menu of the available goodies at the onsite grub hut.
They do not look for their team's football schedule when searching for a surveyor.
Not everyone reads the results of last tuesday men's bowling results and we did not usually wear out bowling shirts outside the lanes or at the pizza hut afterwards.
When advertising for real, one must at the number of possible clients that may or may not see your form of advertising.
I have a $400 hundred dollar annual budget for advertising and assisting various groups that has actually gained me a dozen clients in the last 30yrs.
It does help out a half dozen or so local groups pay their expenses and fill a space on my tax returns......
It can't hurt in my opinion. It's all about name recognition. Someone may see your ads over and over and choose you just because they recognize the name, and they may not even remember where they heard the name at.
We buy an ad in 90% of what we get contacted about. Our company is only a year so that is one reason but I just mainly want people to know we are out there since it is a city map.
I did turn down an ad opportunity in local paper map that gets dropped off the visitors bereau and banks etc just a few weeks ago. It was basically a city/county street map with the large ads for the 7 "select business". I told the lady I really didn't think people used paper maps anymore much less locals and that a out of towner wouldn't be looking for a surveyor for the most part.
3 days later I saw a guy in a minivan on the side of the road trying to figure out which way was up on one of those maps. Made me wonder if I messed up
They have a year round on the end zone for $1500. Or we can go for a 4x6 on home side for a few hundred. I am just trying to figure if it is "worth" the $1500. I realize I need to get our name out there. And I am thinking this is as good a way.
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When my daughter was in high school, I ran an ad in the sports programs at baseball, football & basketball games. I also did some pro bono layout work for the school, laid out a football practice field, soccer field, etc. I picked up a few small jobs from it. Also a sponsor of the band boosters and ran an ad in their programs too.
Over the years, I've also sponsored little league teams, with my company name and logo on a sleeve.
Jawja, post: 442831, member: 12766 wrote: They have a year round on the end zone for $1500. Or we can go for a 4x6 on home side for a few hundred. I am just trying to figure if it is "worth" the $1500. I realize I need to get our name out there. And I am thinking this is as good a way.
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How many of your "normal" jobs would it take to pay for the ad? Advertising in my book is all about the long term. Every new customer could present zero new business by passing your name or 1 who passes your name then to another and so on and so on
A Harris, post: 442827, member: 81 wrote: [USER=323]@Paul D[/USER]
Understand that this type of advertising is a good thing, however it does not reach out to that large of a number of people.
When a person looks at their school's team schedule of 10 or 12 games that is on a triple fold, two sided print, they usually do not read the ads unless there is a menu of the available goodies at the onsite grub hut.
They do not look for their team's football schedule when searching for a surveyor.
Not everyone reads the results of last tuesday men's bowling results and we did not usually wear out bowling shirts outside the lanes or at the pizza hut afterwards.
When advertising for real, one must at the number of possible clients that may or may not see your form of advertising.
I have a $400 hundred dollar annual budget for advertising and assisting various groups that has actually gained me a dozen clients in the last 30yrs.
It does help out a half dozen or so local groups pay their expenses and fill a space on my tax returns......
I get that and I understand that it may have limited business returns. That said, the company I work for does pro bono work for the local little league and supports my towns soccer league (that I coach in). Unfortunately, we can't get a name on the kit or banner at the field due to league rules/politics of what group conrols advertising at the local field. All I know is that our small contibutions that allow a kid to get a scholarship whose parents can't afford the fee or the baseball team not needing to cancel games due to drainage problems is well worth evey cent, even if we don't get a single job from it.
These are our communities and our kids. If we don't care for them who will? The superstore down the way? I think not. Sometimes being a local business is about more than money, it's about being a member of a community. For all the old guys on here and elsewhere lamenting the bygone "good old days", this is exactly the type of thing we should be doing. Who on here played ball with the local pharmacy or construction company's name on the jersey? As a young person, knowing your town and the local businesses support you helps instill the vital, and all too often missing, sense of community that cultivates benifits far greater than a return on advertising dollars.
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Jawja, post: 442680, member: 12766 wrote: Thinking about advertising on banner at local high school. I have known surveyors for yrs who have done it. Has anyone had success with this or is it just a feel good thing?
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I done many over the last 15 years. Not really sure how much business I've got from it. But it helps the schools or teams. Well worth it if you can afford it.
It depends on who you want to be calling you for work. In my case, I prefer small boundary jobs, so letting every local yokel know I'm in the business is important. My problem (a good one) is that I'm probably too well known. I pass quite a bit of work on to other surveyors because I do not have the time or inclination to try to do it all.
Nevertheless, you may find my name connected with a wide variety of charitable giving. Everything from historical museum support to 4-H support to high school yearbook advertising to simply having my name in the paper routinely as a vocal member of the local school board whose opinions differ significantly from the current superintendent of schools. That last one alone gets many people to converse with me and thank me for my service.
Jawja, post: 442680, member: 12766 wrote: Thinking about advertising on banner at local high school. I have known surveyors for yrs who have done it. Has anyone had success with this or is it just a feel good thing?
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When I ran my own business and had a step son deeply involved in the various programs through to HS graduation I always bought banners, full pages in the programs and co sponsored many events. I did it to give back to the programs that kept the kids constructively busy and did manage to make connections with contractors in the like through socialization but I already had my strong foothold in the local market so the potential increase in revenue was not my motivation. What turned out to benefit me more was the relationships I built with the other cosponsors, most of whom I had known for years, was already doing business with and continue to. Through all the years I bought the various adds and the like the satisfaction that came to me was through the appreciation of the teams, the athletes and the parents who didn't have the means to contribute sometimes a few thousand annually. Another added benefit though, was the ability to write that off on my taxes as and advertising expense.
If you can afford it, why not. If a few kids ask their parents " What's a Surveyor?", it plants the seed for the next generation of us. Go for it.
