green for sale sign
Image by Diana Parkhouse via Flickr

I’m often questioned about the necessity of a signboard when I’m discussing a marketing plan with a new client. A common concern is that people don’t want their neighbours to know that their home is coming on the market, and they don’t think that a sign will generate any interest when most buyers look for their new home on the internet.

My thoughts are that, even in the internet age, a good signboard is still an important part of your marketing plan. Now when I say good, I don’t mean a cheap and nasty corflute board cable tied to a wooden stake. These things are next to useless. The sign needs to be a top quality item that captures the attention of people passing through the neighbourhood.

For a sign to be worthwhile, it must have:

  • An attention grabbing photo of the most important aspect of the home, such as a swimming pool, entertaining area, games room with pool table, chef’s kitchen, etc.
  • A very brief but captivating description in a typeface that is readable by someone sitting in their car
  • A website address or a QR Code that will go straight to the online details of the property so that a potential buyer can view more pictures or watch a video tour immediately on their iPhone
  • And of course, the agent’s personal contact details so they can call to book a viewing.

The idea of all of this is to capture the interest of someone who may not have seen the property on the internet. It may be someone who isn’t actively searching for a new home but is captivated by the photo. It may be someone who is searching, but hasn’t searched for properties in your suburb, spotted the sign while visiting one of your neighbours, and again was captivated by the photo. It may be someone who is attending the open home of another property up the road who may not have considered your home, but was captivated by the photo. Spot the recurring theme?

A good signboard should be a tool to drive more buyers to the internet advertising, and incase you didn’t pick it up, a great quality photo of the most important feature of your home really is cruical to make it an effective tool in your marketing campaign.