Billboards can indeed make an impact for your business. If you don’t have an
advertising agency, the billboard companies will design the boards for you.
Keep in mind that the biggest mistake is to put too much “copy” on a billboard.
The actual “reading time” for a billboard is about 3 seconds. That means the
average driver only has that much time to read your message so if your message
is too long or “busy” it won’t work very well. The other thing you’ll need to
be aware of is that in advertising the rule of impact is “reach and frequency.”
This means that the more messages you have that are repeatedly read, the
chances of making a real impact grows substantially. What this means is that
buying just one billboard may not work too well. The axiom is “the more the
better.” Also, keep in mind that your billboard will only be posted for a
30-day period. Again, a one-month display will achieve limited results. So plan
accordingly. It also might make sense to have a mix of billboards, i.e. bus
benches, shelters, a few posters and maybe one large bulletin. One more thing
to be aware of is “illumination.” Virtually all paint bulletins and bus
shelters are illuminated as our most (but not all) posters. Even taxi cab tops
are illuminated but you won’t find that on bus shelters and sides of busses. If
you have an after-hours business you might want to catch the nighttime crowd.