Yard signs are about as simple and old fashioned as advertising gets. Put a message on a sign. Stick it in the ground. Let passing drivers and pedestrians see it.
And yet, when they are designed and placed well, yard signs can be remarkably effective.
For small businesses, yard signs can turn a completed job into advertising for the next customer. For political campaigns and advocacy groups, lawn signs can build name recognition, show visible support, and make a candidate or issue seem suddenly present everywhere.
The catch is that, unlike posters and banners, people usually see a yard sign for only a few seconds. That means your VistaPrint lawn sign has to get noticed and communicate quickly or it will get lost in the landscaping.
Here are a couple good promo codes plus ways to design, place, and use VistaPrint yard signs more effectively instead of simply printing a large batch and hoping people notice them.
*You can view all VistaPrint coupons here, or view all yard sign options on this page at vistaprint.com.
VistaPrint Yard Sign Marketing Strategies
Like just about every other printed marketing material from business cards to door hangers, keep it simple and start with one goal.
A small business might want someone to:
- Remember the company name
- Call for a free estimate
- Visit a website
- Attend a grand opening or free trial
- Notice who completed a nearby project
A political campaign might be trying to:
- Build candidate name recognition
- Encourage people to vote
- Promote a ballot initiative
- Increase awareness of an election date
- Demonstrate visible community support
The simpler the goal, the easier it is to design a sign that actually works.
Trying to squeeze your company history, phone number, website, slogan, QR code, services, social media handles, and a coupon onto one yard sign usually produces a word salad that nobody can read from the road.
Also, think Like a Driver, Not a Designer. This may be the most important yard sign rule. Your sign probably won’t be studied from three feet away. Someone may see it through a windshield while traveling 30 miles per hour, and that changes everything.
Large type matters. Contrast matters. Short messages matter. Did I mention to keep it simple!?
Before ordering your VistaPrint yard signs, shrink your design on your computer screen or stand several feet away from it. If the important words suddenly become difficult to read, the design probably needs simplifying.
A beautiful sign that can’t be read quickly is not a successful sign.
Are you feeling inspired yet? If so, you can view VistaPrint yard sign designs, sizes, and cost on this page at VistaPrint.com
Lawn Signs: Make the Most Important Words the BIGGEST
The visual hierarchy on your VistaPrint yard sign should be obvious.
For a landscaping company, the sign might say:
BEAUTIFUL LAWNS
Greenview Lawn Care
555-123-4567
For a political campaign:
SMITH
FOR SCHOOL BOARD
The person’s eye should immediately land on the information you most want remembered.
Don’t give every word equal importance. Your business name, candidate name, core offer, or primary message should dominate the design.
Tip: When it comes to designing your VistaPrint yard signs, take inspiration from the simplicity of the Uncle Sam poster, one of the most effective signs ever! I also love postage stamp design because it only has about a square inch to communicate its message.
Yard Signs: Keep the Message Short!
Yard signs are not brochures. They’re actually more like those stickers you see on signs and poles in cities.
As a general rule, fewer words are better.
Something like:
ROOF REPLACEMENT
Free Estimates
SmithRoofing.com
Boom, that’s it! A few bold, digestible lines of text with white space are much easier to absorb than a paragraph describing 25 years of family ownership and six varieties of roofing materials. Let people find that info later on your website.
Political signs benefit from the same discipline.
A candidate’s name, office, and perhaps one short slogan will usually communicate more effectively than several campaign positions printed in tiny type.
Save the details for your website, mailers, flyers, or social media.
Use Strong Contrast in Your Text
Color can make a sign attractive, but readability comes first. You generally want strong separation between the background and the lettering.
Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background tends to be easier to read than combinations with similar brightness.
Be careful with complicated photos, gradients, patterns, and decorative backgrounds.
They may look impressive on a computer screen but turn into visual clutter from across the street. While I can’t predict if your political candidate will win, your simple and effective design definitely will!
Design Tip: Don’t Make Your Logo Do All the Work
Small business owners understandably love their logos. However, you aren’t an established national brand, so potential customer may not recognize yours.
A logo can absolutely be part of the sign, but unless your brand is already well known locally, make sure the sign also explains what you do.
Instead of displaying only:
GREENVIEW
consider:
GREENVIEW
LAWN CARE
Now someone driving past understands both the brand and the service!
Yard Signs Turn Every Completed Job Into Advertising
For contractors and home-service businesses, this is where yard signs become especially useful.
Also, don’t just stick your sign in someone’s lawn! I’ve had contractors do that, and I think it’s a little rude. So, ask satisfied customers whether you can temporarily place a sign in the yard while you are completing a job or for a short period afterward.
For example:
ANOTHER ROOF BY SMITH ROOFING
or:
ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL LAWN BY GREENVIEW
That adds something ordinary advertising cannot easily provide: context.
The sign isn’t merely claiming that your business does good work. People can potentially see the work themselves. A neighbor walks past a freshly landscaped yard, notices the sign, and suddenly knows exactly who did it. It also helps to establish trust, because if the customer wasn’t happy, that lawn sign wouldn’t be there!
Use the Neighborhood Effect
Local marketing tends to become more powerful when people see the same business repeatedly.
One sign may be ignored, but three signs scattered around the same neighborhood can start creating familiarity.
People may begin thinking, “I keep seeing that company around here.”
That perceived local presence can be particularly valuable for businesses built on trust including landscapers, roofers, painters, cleaners, real estate agents, contractors, basement waterproofing, house cleaners, and pool services.
Political campaigns use essentially the same principle.
A candidate whose signs appear throughout a community can develop substantial name recognition even among voters who know very little about the race. Repeated exposure matters!
Political Yard Signs Should Build Recognition First
Political groups sometimes try to make a yard sign do too much, but voters driving past a sign generally aren’t going to absorb a detailed policy platform.
For candidate signs, the most important element is often simply the candidate’s name.
The office should also be easy to understand:
MARTINEZ
FOR CITY COUNCIL
If there is room, a short slogan can reinforce the message. For ballot measures or advocacy campaigns, clarity becomes even more important.
VOTE YES ON 12
is much easier to process than several sentences explaining what Proposition 12 does. The sign can create awareness. Your website and other campaign materials can provide the argument.
Tip: Your yard sign colors and fonts can say a lot about your political views. Big, bold, sans-serif (no decoration) fonts usually appeal to the left or conservative part of the brain that loves order, and vice-versa for the right brain which is more creative and empathetic.
Think Twice About Using a QR Code On Your Lawn Signs
QR codes can be useful on printed marketing materials, but yard signs are a special case. If most viewers will be driving past, they are unlikely to pull out a phone and scan one.
QR codes make more sense when the sign will also be seen by pedestrians or people standing nearby. For roadside visibility, a short, memorable website address is often more useful.
SmithForMayor.com
is considerably easier to remember than a complicated URL.
Small businesses can use the same approach.
Tip: If possible, use a short .com domain and never a long URL or something from a free web host with a slash or period. That’s why we moved from www.geocities.ws/prettysweet/ to PrettySweet.com!
Yard Sign Placement Matters More Than Quantity
You’ve surely heard that “location, location, and location” are the three most important things in real estate, right? It’s important with yard signs, too. Consider that 50 lawn signs in poor locations will probably be less effective than 10 signs positioned in good, thoughtful locations.
Look to plant your lawn signs in places where:
- Traffic slows down
- Drivers stop at intersections
- Pedestrians frequently pass
- The viewing is not obstructed or a bad angle
- People have enough time to read the message
For businesses, customer properties can be particularly valuable because the sign appears next to actual examples of your work.
Political groups often focus on busy roads, supporter properties, and highly visible intersections where signs are legally permitted.
Tip: Always obtain permission before placing signs on private property, and check local rules regarding public rights-of-way, election signs, size restrictions, and removal deadlines.
Lawn Sign Height and Viewing Angle
A yard sign that looks perfectly positioned while you’re standing beside it may disappear behind a parked car when viewed from the road. So, step back and look at the placement from the perspective of the actual audience.
- Is it facing traffic?
- Can drivers see it?
- Is tall grass covering the bottom?
- Is another sign blocking it?
- Is someone wearing a Chewbaca mask watching you from the bushes?
Would moving the yard sign to a different spot make it dramatically more visible? Small adjustments can make a surprising difference!
VistaPrint Yard Signs: Timing Matters!
For businesses, yard signs can follow seasonal demand.
Landscapers might increase signs during spring. Roofers, home generators, and basement waterproofers may focus on periods following storm activity. Tax-related businesses should obviously advertise heavily early in the tax season. Holiday-light installers have a relatively short window when their signs matter!
Political campaigns have an even more obvious timeline.
Putting signs out too early can cause visual fatigue. Too late, and you lose weeks of valuable name recognition. Campaigns may gradually increase visibility as Election Day approaches, then concentrate signs strategically during the final stretch.
Just remember that local election rules may govern when signs can be placed and when they must be removed. You’ll probably find that info on your town or borough’s website.
Yard Signs Should Give People an Easy Next Step
For a business sign, don’t make interested customers investigate how to reach you. Provide an obvious next step. That might be:
FREE ESTIMATES
555-555-3141
or:
Book at GreenviewLawns.com
Political signs can use a similarly simple website:
SmithForCouncil.com
The easier the information is to remember, the better.
Track Your VistaPrint Yard Sign Results
Political campaigns often measure signs largely through visibility and awareness, but businesses can track them more directly.
Try using:
- A dedicated URL and landing page, like “GreenViewLawns.com/Bristol”
- A unique phone number
- A memorable promotional code
- A “How did you hear about us?” question
You may discover that signs near completed projects generate considerably more leads than signs placed randomly. Once you know that, future campaigns become smarter.
Test Your VistaPrint Yard Signs Before Ordering a Huge Batch!
VistaPrint makes it relatively easy to create matching printed marketing materials, but there is no reason your first sign design has to be your final one.
Start with a smaller quantity, like 5-10 signs, if you have time. Test your design in the real world. Put one in a yard. Walk across the street. Drive past it. Ask yourself what you actually noticed.
- If the phone number gets lost, enlarge it.
- If the slogan competes with the company name, make it smaller or remove it.
- If it’s not obvious what your business does, fix that before ordering hundreds more.
Tip: Consider getting a friend’s help when testing your VistaPrint yard signs. You’ve probably been staring at the design a long time, so a more objective opinion will help for criticism!
Make Your VistaPrint Yard Signs Work Harder
Successful yard sign marketing isn’t complicated. The best signs usually communicate one idea, very quickly.
Use large type. Keep the message short. Create strong contrast. Put signs where people will actually see them. And think carefully about what you want someone to remember after they have passed by.
For small businesses, yard signs can turn neighborhoods and completed jobs into inexpensive local advertising.
For political campaigns, they can transform an unfamiliar name into one voters have seemingly seen everywhere.
VistaPrint can print the custom yard signs. Your job is making sure they say something worth noticing.
VIstaPrint Yard Signs FAQs
Yes. VistaPrint offers customizable yard signs for businesses, political campaigns, events, real estate, and other local advertising. You can add your own text, logo, colors, images, and contact information.
Their lawn signs start at $1.97 each for their smallest size in bulk quantity and cost as much as $29.99 or more each for just one of their largest size yard signs. Shipping costs extra, and $100+ orders ship free.
Vistaprint has 19 size options for yard signs from the smallest 5×18″ to the largest 48×96″ size
No, you can buy just one yard sign if you’d like. Small quantities are a good idea for testing signs before placing a large order.
Yes. VistaPrint yard signs can be customized for candidates, ballot initiatives, and political groups. Keep the candidate name or primary message large and easy to read from the road.
VistaPrint yard signs can work well for local businesses, especially contractors, landscapers, roofers, real estate agents, and home-service companies. Clear designs and strategic placement can help build local visibility and generate leads.
Have you used VistaPrint to design and print custom yard signs? If so, leave us a brief review below. Thanks for visiting PrettySweet.com!