Eat Here! An Outdoor Advertising Primer for Independent Restaurants

On east bound I-70, not far from the border of Kansas and Colorado, a massive green billboard invites travelers to stop at Lambert's café, the home of "throwed rolls" in Sikeston, Missouri.

The whole concept of "throwed rolls" is another story, but the point here is that this billboard appears almost 700 miles before the I-55 exit for Sikeston in southeast Missouri.

"Every couple of days, we have guests mention that billboard," says Lambert's manager Jerry Johnston. "We have another one that is upside down and it really gets people talking."

With current emphasis on social media and web-based promotion, it's easy for startup operators to overlook traditional media. The restaurant industry spends hundreds of million dollars on outdoor advertising each year. Should a portion of your marketing budget be included in that figure?

Getting people talking and pulling off the interstate into their parking lot is the reason Lambert's invests nearly 65 percent of its advertising budget in billboards. It works for this quirky concept known for down home, southern cooking and the occasional dinner roll flying through the air, but does that mean outdoor advertising will work for you?