How to Advertise Your Pressure Washing Business with Bandit Signs

You are going to learn about the best way to implement a bandit sign advertising strategy to get your phone ringing off the hook. This form of advertising is often frowned upon, but it works. When I was just starting my pressure washing business many years ago this was the advertising strategy I used to start booking jobs immediately, before I had a strong online presence. Learn from my mistakes and design more effective signs that have better placement in your local service area.

First, what is the difference between a bandit sign and a yard sign?

A bandit sign is a sign that is on public property or an easement WITHOUT anybody’s permission.

A yard sign is put on a customer’s property WITH their permission.

This small section of land between the home owners private property and the road is an easement. Typically this is where utility structures are (telephone poles, power boxes, street signs)

This image shows another easement where the stop sign is located.

Easements are generally the 2-5ft on the edge of private properties that border roads and other utility structures. The easements that we are looking for to put bandit signs on will be along roads (so people can see them). A street sign will almost always denote an easement. Easements also tend to be less maintained than the private property next to it. We don’t need to go into the legal aspects of easements. Just know that when you put your sign on an easement, even if it is on the border of private property, most city municipalities can remove the sign and sometimes even fine you for it.

Important Notes

• You should never put your sign on private property unless given permission. Easements are both private and public which makes placing a sign there less intrusive and less likely to get an angry phone call from a homeowner.

• Always check with city ordinances on the permissions and fines of yard signs. Many cities have fines for bandit signs. In my experience, I have never been fined for bandit signs, however, I have received warning calls. My experience does not equate to your experience. Do your homework and find out what local regulations might be in place.

How to Design a Bandit Sign That Gets People Calling You

With bandit signs, there are a few factors that will make or break their effectiveness. You can have the best location for a bandit sign but if the sign itself is poorly designed then you won’t be getting any calls.

The design of a bandit sign is very easy to get right. Here is what you need to consider:

Keep it Simple

People are in their car driving by. They don’t have the time to read a paragraph of writing. This means keeping the writing short and the sign formatted simply.

• The service you are offering should be at the top

• The phone number beneath it

• You MAY want to also include the URL for your companies website. You do NOT need to include the www or the https: with the URL of your website. People will see the .com and know it is a website

This sign is a perfect example. Keep it simple! It should pass the 2 Second Test: I should know what the sign is advertising and who to call in under 2 seconds of looking at it. Anything else is a waste of your time.

Bad Bandit Sign Formats

• You do not need to include a QR code on the bandit sign unless your bandit sign is in a location where people will be walking by. A yard sign on the edge of someone’s yard by a sidewalk would be better suited to include a QR code.

• You do not need a logo. Your logo is not that important…and believe me, people driving by do not care about your logo either. Unless you are a well-established company that has spent time and resources building a strong and recognizable brand in your service area, you are wasting your time crowding your sign with a logo. If you are worried about branding your business, then let the bandit signs color match your company colors. This works better if your company color is unique and you have wrapped trucks.

• You do not need an image unless it is small and fits the formatting of your bandit sign. Remember, people are driving by your sign, all your sign needs to do is let them know the service you are offering and a phone number to contact you. Everything else is unnecessary.

• You do not need the name of your company. Once again, unless you have significant brand capital in your region, your company name is extra fluff. If you want to include your company name, make the font size small so that it does not take up much space.

How to Find Locations to Place Your Bandit Signs

Finding locations for your pressure washing bandit signs is as simple as using Google Maps satellite view.

1. Open Google Maps

2. Switch to the Satelite view layer

The goal is to find intersections of streets that:

1. Are in suburban areas

2. Preferably not cookie cutter subdivisions as these signs will get removed quickly. The opposite side of the street at the entrance or exits of cookie cutter subdivisions can sometimes work

3. Highly trafficked

4. At an intersection where people are stopped and have more time to see your sign and take a picture

5. The intersection is bordered by trees, vacant property, or not by the entrance to a home or store. Anything that might indicate the potential location of the sign is on an easement

6. At a 3-way intersection where the perpendicular road faces an empty lot or woods

This is great example of point #6

This is the streetview of the above intersection, which shows 3 potential placements for a bandit sign. The placement that is on the other side of the street would be my preference because it would be the least likely to get removed by the city or competition due to its placement.

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