Car wraps, the latest thing in small business and advertising has actually been around for about 15 years. That's time enough to be certain that it's not a passing trend. As long as we drive vehicles, have businesses, and need to develop more leads car wraps will be with us.

We've all seen the billboard by the side of the road, the one that says, "Does Advertising Work?" then answers its own question with, "Just did!". Well, a billboard's a car wrap without wheels. Billboards work. A car wrap is simply a billboard on wheels and it does get results.

Here's what you need to get the best return from a car wrap:

1. A good message with an obvious call-to-action and a way to accomplish that.
2. A sharp design.
3. A way to track your responses.

What's your message? How can what you offer benefit your next prospect? Forget features. People buy benefits. What impact will that benefit have in their lives? Answer the benefit and impact questions and you know what your message should be.

You'll need a call to action (CTA). Silly as it might sound, if you don't tell people what you want them to do, a large number of them won't do anything. So tell them what you want them to do and make it simple; a phone number or text message number are best. Remember, they're driving in their cars when they see your car. A long email or internet address is very difficult to remember no matter how good you think your vanity number or vanity domain name is.

You'll need a clever design. Something that catches their attention but more importantly, something that helps project the message you're trying to deliver. It really does matter. A bad design will turn away the eye of your prospect or make it impossible for him to decipher your message. Make sure the company you hire to do your wrap has a designer that can accomplish that objective, not one that is enchanted with dragons, skulls, flames and other nonsense that might look good in his portfolio but won't help you sell a thing.

You might think tracking responses is unnecessary but here's what's going to happen. If you don't track responses you won't ever really know how many sales can be directly attributed to your car wrap. Then when the market gets tight and your financial plan follows soon thereafter, those things that you can't prove to yourself are bringing in dollars will be cut from your commerce effort. That means when it's time to re-wrap or possibly wrap more vehicles, you won't. Don't do it! Track your responses. What you'll find is that over the life of the car wrap your cost per lead will be lower than any other form of advertising you're employing. Your cost per new account will also be your lowest acquisition cost. But you won't know that unless you track.

Car wraps are affordable, tend to pay for themselves in a matter of months (depending upon the cost of whatever it is you're selling), and protect your paint and resale value.