Yellow Pages

[Doug Nelson]

Several mentions of successful Yellow Page entries have been posted here. I was wondering if we could get specific. What wording do you use? What size is it? What heading is it under? Etc.

Brave souls could perhaps even attach a scan of their ad (black out areas you'd prefer not to share).

[Jakaleena]

Great thread Doug, thanks.

I'm looking into taking out my first yellow pages ad this year. Maybe I'll learn what works before I have to learn the EXPENSIVE way!

[DJ Dubovsky]

Here's the ad I've had for 2 years now. The first year they gave me a bonus of $5 off a month for the ad plus a second listing under another heading becasue I went with the half inch ad. So I was listed under Photo Restoration and Photo Refinishing. This year I am only under the one heading. I don't know if it's the same everywhere but that's the deal I got here. Turns out, paying the extra for the half inch ad really made the difference because so many callers told me they called me first or that I had the biggest ad. Think of how you search the Yellow Pages. What ads attract you most? Use that as a guide. Smaller towns are obviously less expensive per month than bigger cities. Mine runs around $40 a month but it does bring in the business. Also, plan ahead way in advance to get a listing in the Yellow Pages. Different areas have different cut off dates to make it in the next years book. I think it's been worth it for me. It does pay for itself.
DJ

[Ed_L]

Nice ad Deb. I think one of the reasons yours attracts more calls is the fact that you give them a little information about what you do. The others simply give a phone number to call.

I think different areas will offer different options, and at different prices. We also found that the prices are somewhat negotiable. But we had a half-page ad, and while it cost big bucks, it was well worth the price. Of course it might be different with different types of business.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Thanks Ed.
DJ

[Jim Conway]

Get specific? I use two words MUSEUM QUALITY for a headliner ...that's enough to get the attention of the savy shopper. Those two words helps to break the ice on price as well, people don't look for Museum Quality then figure we are competing with WalMart so it blocks a lot of low end calls that I don't want.

The key copy is in red - although the added color costs a bit more it's worth the extra money We have numerous phone books in our area and that makes it costly - two and a half inch ads in all the various books runs me just under $1,000 a month. The Portland metro book getting over half of that budget.

Jim Conway

[Sanda]

I've just put my first ad in the yellow pages and hopefully it will generate business. I didn't go for more than a basic listing as it's very expensiver here and I didn't have a big enough budget to pay for it. But hopefully next year I can expand it.

[Jim Conway]

Small changes

Some changes that seem to be working out - I mentioned the 2 1/2 inch ads earlier in this thread.

I reduced that by 1" in the PDX directory for this year with an added emphasis on going to the web site. The saving amount to $180 a month for me!

The change was effective in book distributed in Nov. so it's been worry worry worry until the results started coming in! So far so good - business has increased by more than 12% over the previous year :-).

While I sincerely doubt I would ever have the ability to use a web site for direct sales, it's doing a great job in backing up my yellow page ads and allowing me to do some cost cutting.

Jim Conway.

[Sanda]

Well the new yellow pages has been out for a while now and so far it's bought me 3 customers who would have not known I even existed. So I would say that the yellowpages is going to be a help in generating business.

[Sanda]

Update on the Yellow pages advert.
I'm finding that I get 1 to 2 calls per week directly from the yellow pages. So far it has generated 6 sales and has paid for it's self already.

[Photo Grafix]

Unpredictable

I spent alot of money buying a display ad in a book for Evanston, IL. It was near the thousand$. I got less than 4 or 5 calls out of that book. For no charge, my local yellow books/pages gave me a line listing--with company name and number--for no charge in about 8 neighboring books. I have been receiving at least one call a month from those FREE listings. Too unpredicatable for me!

[Jim Conway]

It may take a little effort to find out which directories will work for you but most of the time it's by far the least expensive way to reach prospective new clients ...

In other posts I've mentioned that you have to "buy" market share. So what are your alternatives? Try Radio, TV or the newspapers and you soon find out just how high the bill can get when compared to directory advertising (not ruling out associations and other directory sources as well as yellow pages)

Keep in mind that the cost is for "new" business. It's the repeat business that makes you prosper. Calc the cost for ONE new customer against your order avg. to see which media is feasible and, if you can add just one new client a week from ANY ad at less than 100% of gross and keep the customers you had, you are on the road to success.

Jim Conway

[Wayne_J_Gilbert]

I only advertise locally and through word of mouth.