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griffiths
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Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Posts: 65
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 16:47
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How many of you advertise in your local yellow pages? I feel that it is a must if we are trying to "treat our business like a business."
I do however would like input as to other directors success directly related to sales coming from the phone book. I am contemplating as to the level of investment that I am going to put into the phone book to represent my company. Is a full page color ad necessary? Or does a small bolded text suffice? Or somewhere in between? Thanks.
Brandon
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jnapier
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 647
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 17:14
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Hey Brandon,
I've not advertised my Coastal Business in the yellow pages, but I've consulted with ALOT of companies that do. It will cost an arm and a leg and it will not produce results that you'd want. A free listing might be ok, but you'd better have a business name that will let people know what you do or you'll get alot of calls that waste your time.
I'm a member of a barter club and had my listing under travel. Almost every call I get was from people who wanted to travel NOW, not 60-90 days. I've since switched to marketing consultant - Which is another service I've offered in the past, but don't market it much anymore...I use it as more of a bonus with my b2b clients.
The yellow pages work well for plumbers and the like, but we're a unique business. If you did advertise there you'd better have a dang good ad. I see ads all the time that are Name, Address, Phone...We do Hair...that kind of thing. But when it comes to marketing, the message is important.
A good example is a great barber shop who'd been in business for years. They charged $12 and business was great. Then, one day another company came around and had $6 hair cuts....the $12 barber put a sign in the door "We fix $6 hair cuts".
Jay NaPier
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wapahm
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Joined: 6 Jun 2007
Posts: 185
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 20:03
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I agree with Jay on this one.
Yellow page ads are expensive!!
Hundreds of $$$ a month!!
I bet if you look around you town, you'll find small magazines or newspaper type publications that target just parents or the 55+ club,etc, etc,.....................
Work out an ad for the targeted audience.
hope this helps, 
Cindy
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pcwork
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Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Posts: 1480
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 20:12
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If you are advertising a local service, then yellow pages are best otherwise online advertising is cheaper.
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ateamfuntimer
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Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 645
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 22:05
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I find online advertising a better choice. In the yellow pages your target market is your area online its the entire world. Thats not to say you cant get good results in the yellow pages. I just look at this as a numbers game. Get in front of as mny people or the least expensive.
Adam Frederick
302 476 2753
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rhondap
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Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 270
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# Posted: 21 Sep 2007 23:22
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I can confirm yellow page ads are EXPENSIVE....when I was an Insurance Agent those ads cost and arm and a leg!
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luvtravel
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Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Posts: 771
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# Posted: 22 Sep 2007 08:36
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I began my marketing career selling yellow pages ads for General Telephone (that's what it was called in CA yrs ago) I was going to college at the time to get a degree in marketing, but there were so many changes thru the years in tools to use its amazing.
I had to go thru 6 weeks of intensive training on placing advertising in the yellow pages.
When it was time to renew the ads we each had boxes of accounts that we had to call, the goal was to renew and/or upgrade their ads from say a small text ad to a larger display ad.
Each year the ads became more expensive, there were a certain segment of businesses that should always be listed in the yellow pages for best result for their advertising dollars.
Why am I telling you all this because I will get to the point of yellow pages advertising and who profits the most from it from one who learned how and why yellow pages works and for which businesses.
There was one question to ask yourself, when you first move to a new city/state, where do you look for a Doctor, Dentist, beauty shop, auto repair? Of course the yellow pages. So our entire sales pitch was think about a new person in town and what they may be looking for. So based on that would a person be looking for a vacation package? Possibly but unlikely.
They used to have free listings for businesses, I have no idea if they still offer that nor how to get the free listing, it may be worth it to look into that. Even the bold listing was getting costly.
Hope that helps.
Terri
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griffiths
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Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Posts: 65
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2007 02:28
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Thanks for your advise everyone!
Yes I can get a standard business listing for free, but a half page ad would run me about $150 a month. I will prob. just stick with a free listing or even just a bold text listing ($89 for the year) My area population is around 150,000 so their is definetly a local market but like you say it is all a numbers game...
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ateamfuntimer
Preferred Member
Joined: 22 May 2007
Posts: 645
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2007 12:13
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Hey Brandon what are you going to list your venture under? What category?
Adam Frederick
Level III Director
302 476 2753
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jnapier
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 647
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2007 12:42
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I believe travel...and if there's a wholesale travel...that would be a great option.
Jay NaPier
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griffiths
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Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Posts: 65
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# Posted: 23 Sep 2007 23:54
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My only option associated with travel is "travel agencies and bureaus." I was thinking listing under that and a cross listing under "marketing consultants".
Brandon
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goldmills
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Joined: 3 Apr 2007
Posts: 183
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# Posted: 24 Sep 2007 02:57
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I would NOT place ads in the Yellow Pages ever for this product.
Wrong place to do it... it will be a waste of money.
Put the money into PPC or buying leads. You'll get more leads for the money this way.
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twnuck
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Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 89
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2007 00:22
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I work with offline businesses in a consulting capacity and the general rule of thumb is this:
If your customer is a CONSUMER then use advertising methods like the Yellow Pages as your PRIMARY advertising method
If your customer is another BUSINESS then have a Yellow Page presence but don't waste your money on a huge ad.
The reason being is that consumers use Yellow Pages to find information and purchase products. On the other hand, businesses tend to purchase based on direct sales methods and response to targeted advertising (i.e.direct mail).
Todd
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jnapier
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Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 647
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2007 13:16
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Hey Todd,
Can you tell us what type of results your getting from your yellow page ad? What does the ad copy say? What are you paying each month?
Jay NaPier
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