First, when you are looking for places to put your yard signs, you may want to begin by obtaining maps of the community or neighborhoods that you intend to target.  You can also choose a location based upon prior voting habits.  This can help you identify the regions that you need to convert voter preference or target swing voters, a key for a successful campaign. 

You should study voting behavior from recent elections to map out a successful campaign strategy, and to determine priorities for you lawn sign placement.  By finding major intersections and heavily trafficked areas you can begin to design a strategy to target the communities where you need to convert voters.  You’ ll also want to place your campaign lawn signs in the most widely trafficked areas.

In addition to these locations, you should also look for homeowners who will agree to let you put your campaign signs in their yards.  You may find that you derive the best success by simply knocking on people’ s doors and asking for their permission. 

It is a good idea to have some campaign signs ready when the candidate or your volunteers campaign door to door.    You may want to erect the signs after you complete walking the neighborhood that afternoon or evening.  This gets campaign signs out into your election district in waves and may panic your opposition and/or energize your supporters.

One solid strategy is to walk door-to-door on a busy street lined with houses.  Simply knock on every door just after dinner.  Introduce yourself and then ask if you can put a sign in their yard.  Remember, corner houses are best, and need two or three signs.  Based on the law of averages, you’ ll have people who say yes and people who say no.  But, none of that matters.  All you have to do, is ask.  You’ ll inevitably get some locations.  If you have five or six signs on a long block, that’ s a huge presence.  Sometimes you’ ll get three or four signs in a row.  What kind of message does that send?  It shows you’ re serious about your campaign and that you’ re running hard.

Don’ t fall into the trap of having only residential or only commercial sign locations.  Make sure you get a good balance between the two.  Also, you’ ll want to make sure that you have 2’ by 4’ , 3’ X 5’ or 4’ X 8’ campaign signs for your commercial locations. 

An alternative sign strategy calls for placement of all your campaign yard signs on a single day or weekend.  This strategy requires a little more discipline.  First, you must get permission from your base to install the campaign signs second, you must make sure you keep updating an accurate list of all the locations where you are granted permission for lawn signs.  Third, you’ ll need to enlist friends and volunteers for the day or days you want to place your signs, and map out routes to make the placement process efficient.  Often, this can be a very powerful strategic decision, because it maximizes the visual impact of your political signs program.