Hello folks!
I just wanted to share with you a simple idea that I have been using to advertise my business.

I went to a local sign shop and had some "yard signs" made up. They are black in the shape of a baby grand, with white lettering that have my business name and phone number. The sign shop that I used only charged me $25 per sign. They are double sided, and came with the stake.

For my customers who live in highly visible areas, I give them a $10 discount if they are willing to put one of my signs in their yard for a month. This has worked GREAT for me! My customers have been more than happy to participate.
The only exception is that a few customers are in neighborhoods and subdivisions where signs are not allowed.

I took a picture to show you, however I cannot figure out how to post it here.

I even have a couple of churches displaying my signs as well. At first I thought it might be "tacky" to use a church for advertising, however both churches are small and really appreciated the discount.

I had four signs made up which came to around $100. However if it gets me even one new customer, it has paid for itself.

Ryan Hassell
Farmington, MO

How many tuning jobs are you getting per sign per week? I'd suggest just leaving the sign a week. 14 impressions (twice per day) should be enough, plus a sign left a month is more likely to be tossed out.

To see if this works well, you have to take in account the cost of the discount, the cost of the sign, the cost of picking the sign up again, and the number of tunings it generates.

BTW, it IS a good idea!

Thanks Bob!

Not sure exactly how many tunings have come from the signs, but it has gotten my name out there. I've had several people who know me (family & friends) tell me they had seen my sign around town. Keep in mind I am in rural Southeast Missouri, there are several small towns that sprang into existence due to the lead mines in the area years ago. I gave the time period of a month as just an idea. Some of my signs stay longer, some less. I usually only pick them up when I'm back in the area so there's really no cost in picking up the sign. I only give a $10 discount which really isn't much, but many people are glad to save money, and help my business out too. My customers are so supportive.

A funny story about one sign. There was a tornado that went through one of the towns where one of my signs was. It blew the entire roof off of a preschool just down the street. It's sad to say that the first thing that went through my mind was not if any people were hurt, but if my sign made it through. I know I'm an awful person . However my sign was just fine!!!!!

When I started doing this, I did have a fear that kids might steal the signs, however that has not been a problem thus far.

I know several of the local piano teachers, and have even considered covering the cost of printing their programs for their recitals in exchange for an ad in the program. Have not done that yet, but thinking about it.

Have a GREAT day!
Ryan Hassell
Farmington, MO

I hope you can figure out how to post a picture of your sign! I'd love to see it.

To post a picture you can use a service like photobucket.com. Once you have your picture uploaded to photobucket, you can right-click on it and "save image location". Then in your post you can use the UBB code for posting an image. type in [img] then the image location and then [/img]
Then you can post pictures like this:



Good luck!

ok I have to lol @ that don't-touch-the-piano sign... even though I h8 the idea of ppl making their pianos off limits for playing... anyone who happens to be in the same building/house with my pianos is pretty much as far as i'm concerned welcome to play them any time of the day/night as much as they want. I wouldn't mind even if the piano gets played so much that the hammers within a few months or so go from looking like...







to looking like...







Now explain something... why is it that the last pictured piano, in spite of having the badly worn hammers pictured, had a bottom end bass sound that to my ear sounded better than the few Steingraeber 138s I've played? How is it that a piano that's worth $0 could possibly even remotely compare in the bass with a piano that (ok I'll admit I l0ooked up the most expensive style in that size) lists in the 2008-09 supplement for $61,226 (and I thought for SURE there would be some super expensive upright in there that's at least 137cm tall with a fancy enough cabinet to put the best ones from the early 1900s to shame, with a cost-to-factory-of-materials,-not-including-labor-and-tools/equipment price (and assuming the piano is NOT made of solid gold) well OVER $100k (and the technical design quality that would be expected to go along with a piano that expensive)) , let alone possibly match or even beat it? I would expect the Steingraeber would be at least 61226/0 (price of good piano divided by price of not-so-good piano) times better.
I would normally expect the Steingraeber to make this sound like a bad spinet in comparison, but the truth actually is I have yet to play ANY new upright that even would come close to the bass on this old one (which I no longer have - the two Hamiltons have replaced it for now until I can find a taller upright (with a bass that would blow my old upright (even if rebuilt - and preferably at least as much as it blew away the aforementioned spinet as-is) away (although I should give props to the Baldwin 243 scale - while for me it was a huge step in the wrong direction, my 1956 Hamilton does have a better bass than most other similarly-sized verticals (and many larger ones up to about 52" or so) I have played., and a midrange somewhat similar to a couple other 1950s Baldwin Hamiltons I often play) than the old one that's in at least as good of a condition as the 2 Hamiltons, for a price comparable to what I paid for them.

Great idea Ryan,

I like it... you see a lot of other contractors doing this constantly....

Wonder if this idea would work for piano teachers as well? Discount to those students who put the sign in their yard. An idea worth considering.

Dr. J - The More You Play the Better Your Day

Hello folks!

I think I've figured out how to post a picture. Here's a picture of my yard signs...



It's hard to tell the size of the sign form the picture, but they measure about 18"tall by 22" wide. Yes, I think this would work for piano teachers too.

Ryan Hassell
Farmington, MO

Nice looking sign, Ryan! How many clients have them up now?

Here's a bigger picture:

Wow, Ryan, How did you blow up that picture? Thanks!!!!

I only had four of this sign made up, two customers have one like this out, one is in my driveway, and yet the fourth is in my truck, waiting a new home.

I also have some other signs.. (way less cool and only one sided) simply white backgound with black letters, three of those are out, two at different churches, and the other is at a friend's house that I've known from preschool. She doesn't even have a piano, but wanted to help me in repayment for helping her tear down a screened in porch.

Ryan
P.S. Ryan Sowers,You have the coolest first name too!!!! I was named after Ryan O'Neal. Did you know that our name means "little King". I learned that on a quiz that I took on Facebook today.

Ryan,

I went to your photobucket page and selected the image so I could view it in a larger format and then right clicked "save image location". I'm just tech savvy enough to get myself into trouble.

I'll have to have a few similar signs made up. My dad lives on a main street in Olympia with lots of traffic.

My middle names is Westley, which means from the West wood, so I am the "little king of the west wood" very fitting since I live in the woodsy Pacific Northwest!

Ryan,

Can you help me post an avatar? I tried it with the same process that I did with the other pic, however it keeps telling me "improper picture format".

I'm wondering if something is wrong with the site, because no one's avatar is showing up on my end.

Thanks!
Ryan

I'm not sure what the trouble could be - I can see everybody's avatar on my screen.

Ryan H:

Your avatar looks great to me! I am just surprised that you get away with it. Uh, that is your wife in that hot-tub with you, isn't it???

Jeff,

You're a funny guy! You had me in a panic for a few seconds!!! :0

So there's a av with yur wife in a hottub somewhere?

Your's too! (Want to buy it?)

ohhhh... I can see this back fired...

Just wondering if anyone else has tried my sign idea. You would not believe the number of people who have told me that they have seen my signs "everywhere". I don't tell them that I only have four signs, but just move them around every couple weeks. They have brought in a lot of business and have paid for their selves many times over.

I just had another advertising idea... and was wanting to run it by you guys... what about getting a t-shirt made that basically advertises your tuning business? Might that work?

I have several of these with the PTG logo on one side and my name on the other. Great business deduction!

I'm going to try your idea. Looks good!

What I've been doing is using magnetic car door signs on my car or truck. You see, if I have to go into the farm communities I use my truck, if the job is in town I use my car. (better gas mileage too)

Here's where I've found Mag Signs. You design them!
VistaPrint

I can use the same signs on two vehicles.

I think they have yard signs too. I'll take a look.

EDITED: Yes they do have Yard Signs!