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Welcome to the Billboard Mastery Podcast, where you will learn the correct way to identify, evaluate, negotiate, perform diligence on, select the construction type, build, rent the ad space and operate billboard signs. And now here is your host – the guy that built from scratch the largest privately-owned billboard company in Dallas/Ft. Worth – Frank Rolfe.
So you've got an empty billboard and you're racing the clock to get it full, because time means money, and every day it sits vacant there's more money out of your pocket. So where do you go? Where do you get that first initial list of potential advertisers? This is Frank Rolfe, The Billboard Mastery Podcast. We're gonna talk about two built in lists of potential advertiser for any billboard that you definitely want to attack almost immediately. The first in my favorite list is every business at the next exit. In fact, you can be the next exit, even the exit down from that, and maybe even one more down, because nothing is better for a billboard than an advertiser where you can put on the billboard next exit. That's one of the most powerful combinations of terms. 'Cause it makes that billboard like a salesman, a point of purchase salesman who screams at the customer in the car, okay, McDonald's is right now, get over and exit, and you can come in and have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, whatever you are seeking to make a list of every business at those nearby exits because those people will do well with the sign.
It'll pay for itself, and they fully understand why that makes sense for them. And if you hit all of those restaurants and those hotels and those gas stations and every other service at those exits, you're gonna have a winner. And don't say, well now wait a minute though. There are those exit logo signs that I see on the highway at those exits. Who would want my billboard? Because they can put their logo there. Well, there's more to sell than just the logo. Sure, you see the logo for McDonald's, for Arby's, for Taco Bell, and you know, okay, hey, those are at this exit, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to sell them on why they want that. So having a delicious picture of the Big Mac is all part of the marketing. And a lot of those advertisers have learned that the logo sign is strictly directional, but it doesn't actually sell anything.
So many have been instructed by the home office or by the franchisee to go ahead and run a billboard to help direct people to the exit, even though there's that little extra logo help. Now, the next type of built-in list is all the other advertisers are on that highway, because every other advertiser that's on that highway, whether they are directional to an exit or generic like an insurance company, they're just trying to get people who are going that direction on that road. And if you make a list of everyone, an exhaustive list of every other person on that sign in that general area, and you go to them, what you have found now is you have people who already are renting a billboard. It's not the same kind of a sale when you say, hey, have you considered renting a billboard on the street? Well, the answer is they already have. They already did.
Now it's a matter of two things. Number one, what are they currently paying and can you undercut that? And two, when does their lease end? If someone's on a one year lease with eight months to go, it's not gonna do you any good unless you wanna hold your sign empty for eight months. However, as you go down that list, you will find people coming due in a month or two months, and you can say to them, okay, well look, I've got a billboard that's actually better than the one you're on in the same vicinity. So what would it take to get you to move from the sign you're on to my sign? And you may find that the price that they throw out is still perhaps even better than what you were seeking. So that's another great built in list. Now, if you take the power of those two lists, all the other people on the signs in that general area and the exit now grouping, you're definitely gonna find an advertiser.
If you work that, you're definitely gonna find somebody at some price that will rent the sign. Now, if the price is not as high as what you were hoping for, you're still probably better off taking it because if you wait around and let that sign sit empty for a while, when you average in the rent, you should have taken that lower rent to begin with. But most importantly, look at the quality of the advertiser you're gonna get. What you want are advertisers who can actually make money with your sign. Those are the kind that renew. They can renew over and over and over. I've had people who've renewed on the same sign for 10 years or more. And when you have someone who renews, you therefore have no vacancy, you have no effort, no risk on your part, and you're doing nothing more every year than having them just sign the renewal.
Some cases they'll sign a multi-year contract. So you need to spot the correct advertiser out of that grouping, out of those two lists that are most ideal, and that's who you need to pursue. If it comes down to several offers, again, pick the one who you think will make money because the advertiser who uses their investment dollars as an investment, they will stay. Those who look at the sign as it's simply a matter of cost or a line item expense, those are the ones who typically drop. This is Frank Rolfe, The Billboard Mastery Podcast. Hope you enjoyed this. Talk to you again soon.