Any business that needs to advertise its services can benefit from using vehicle wraps. These are like billboards for your business – billboards that are applied or wrapped around your vehicle and catch people’s eye as they drive along the road. You must have seen cars, vans and Utes on the road with these vehicle wraps, and knowing that they caught your attention, have you also wondered if your business could benefit from using the same technique?

Full colour graphics that are designed to advertise your business and catch people’s eye can be applied to the sides, front or rear of your vehicles, even covering the windows. These partial or full wraps are becoming more and more popular with local businesses, but are they right for your business?

Are vehicle wraps effective for small businesses?

If you consider that every time one of your employees drives along the road, even if they are only going to Officeworks –  they are advertising your business to the local community, you start to understand the benefits of these vehicle wraps.

Radio ads, social media ads, letterbox drops and ads in the local community paper all cost you money, and each time you want to place another ad it costs you more money. With vehicle wraps, once you have purchased it for your vehicle, that’s all you pay. So every time your vehicle is on the road, even if it’s stationary in a car park, it’s advertising your business.

These advertisements can go a long way to increasing your customer base, so it’s definitely worth the investment for small businesses who are on limited marketing budgets.

How much do vehicle wraps cost?

Vehicle wraps are not cheap, but since they last for up to five years and they don’t cost you a dollar more for advertising during their lifetime, they work out to be very cost effective. As an example, for a small car, you might pay $3000 for a full wrap, rising to $4000+ for a Ute or 4WD. So the initial outlay is not small, but if it lasts for 5 years, you could say that over this 5 year time span, your daily promotional costs are between $1.60 and $2.20 per day, which isn’t very much at all. You will also be advertising your business to a very broad market, every day, whether or not it’s on the road.

Don’t forget that these costs include full colour graphics created by a professional who customises your wrap to suit your business’s logo and branding. So your vehicle wraps will be unique to your business. These costs also include professional installation as well.

What’s the ROI on vehicle wraps?

This is a hard one, because it can be difficult to determine which customers contacted your business, because they saw your vehicle wrap – short of asking them. There are however, several strategies you can use to track your ROI, as follows:

• Use a different phone number on your wraps, so anyone who calls that number must have seen your vehicle wrap.
• Use a different URL on your wraps, so anyone who visits that page is assumed to have taken it from your vehicle wrap.
• Advertise a special discount on your wraps or give them a code word on your wraps to receive a discount when they call.

Without a doubt, vehicle wrapping is a cost-effective investment for all small businesses, particularly if you want to increase your customer base.