Print & livery
The physical surfaces you already own, doing some work for once.
A builder’s site board stands outside a job for five months. A gas engineer’s boiler sticker is next year’s booking. A scaffolder has fifteen structures out at a time and no idea what state the boards are in. What to print, what it costs, and when it gets replaced.
You are already paying for this advertising. It is mostly blank
A van sits outside a job for a day and in traffic for two hours. A site board stands outside an extension for five months. A boiler sticker is in a cupboard for a decade. Between them a trade business owns more advertising space than most local companies buy, and almost all of it is either empty or unreadable at the distance it is actually read from.
That is the whole opportunity here. Not printing more things — using the surfaces already being paid for. The van is bought either way. The board goes up either way. The only question is whether either produces a phone call.
The failure is nearly always legibility. A phone number in a script font at sixty miles an hour is decoration. Three services, a number and a town, set large, is an advert.
What we actually do
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Work out what each surface is for.
A van is recognition and one number. A board is a five-month advert to a street that is already thinking about work. A sticker is a booking next year.
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Set it to be read at the real distance.
Which usually means far less information, far larger.
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Put a trackable number or a short address on it.
Otherwise you will never know whether it worked, and it will be first to be cut.
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Cover the surfaces most trades forget.
Workwear, the invoice, the quote folder, the door hanger for the neighbours of the job you are already on.
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Buy it sensibly.
What to spend on wrap versus cut vinyl, when a magnetic panel is right, what a board should cost.
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Set a replacement rhythm.
Faded livery and a weathered board actively argue against you.
The best surface is different for every trade
A builder’s site board outperforms everything else they own. A gas engineer’s boiler sticker is next year’s booking sitting in a cupboard. A scaffolder has fifteen structures out at once and usually no idea what condition the boards are in.
The trade pages below say which surface earns most for your trade, what it should say, and roughly what it costs.
The first ninety days
- Weeks 1–4
Audit of what you already have out there, photographed as it is rather than as it was designed.
- Weeks 5–8
The highest-earning surface redone first, with a way to measure it.
- Weeks 9–12
The rest brought into line as things get replaced, and a rhythm set so it stays that way.
What good looks like
- The number on the van is readable from the next lane
- Every job you are on has a board or a sign while you are there
- Installed equipment carries a sticker with your details
- Print carries a number you can trace
- Nothing out there is faded enough to argue against you
Questions we get asked
Is a full wrap worth it? Sometimes. Cut vinyl on a plain van is a fraction of the cost and often just as legible, which is the part that matters.
What should a site board cost? Less than most people are quoted. The design matters more than the material, and the material only has to survive one job.
Does anybody read these? The neighbours of the job you are on do, and they are the most likely customers you will ever have.
How do I know if it works? A separate number on the print, or a short web address. Without one it is unmeasurable and it gets cut first.
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