Yellow Pages and slow economy

[Mule]

How many of you that currently advertise in the Yellow pages are renewing your ad with the current state of the economy?

And are there some of you that didnt advertise that are planning on running a new ad in the Yellow Pages.??

Also, how many do the yellow pages "on line" advertisement in addition to the book?

Just curious....Im meeting with the salesman this friday....

 

[BackInTheHabit]

Phonebooks are highway robbery. I used to advertise in them. Won't say who I advertised with. A full page color ad was $1000 a month. It never brought in much business and never paid for itself. Also, there are are too many phonebooks out there and one just can't advertise in all of them.

 

[jmsbrush]

I'm running a small add in one of the phone books, It starts in March. Even the phone books have came down in prices because of the economy.
My add is not very much. If it makes my phone ring a couple of times and I get a couple of jobs then it will pay off. Even if it's just one call a month. That's more than what I would have got before

 

[Greg Swartz]

We renewed 1 phone book.
Started another.

And will be pulling out of 3 other phone books this year...

One called on Friday, trying to upsell their internet presense...

I told them that I am higher on Google than they are... they did not like that. I won't be renewing them next year either...

 

[electricguy]

I am keeping the same Ad as last year gets me to stay on the first page of electrical contractors , also use yellow pages online they get me in the first listing for electrician in my area for a google search

 

[CopperTone]

we pulled all print yellow book, pages, verizon, local tel, etc. they were running almost $1000 month and we certainly were not getting that much work - waste of money - we still have a banner ad on yellowbook.com but that is $75/month. only advertising in the local town book now - get lots of work from that.

Every company out there I had a new rep every year because the reps quit and don't last a year - tells you a lot about their company.

Seemed like all the calls we got were small residential service jobs - not very profitable and more running around than it was worth - lots of tire kickers too.

 

[Rawls007]

I get one or two calls a week from my ad. Most are extremely small jobs and less than half actually turn into a sale. Definately not worth the $350 a month that I'm paying. Maybe one good aspect of it is getting your name out to hopefully get some word of mouth business, but as it stands right now I don't think I'm going to renew. Maybe if I land a substantial commercial job because of it or if the economy picks up.

 

[emahler]

unless you are set up to run resi service, the yellow pages is mostly for ego...however, if you are set up to run resi service, the yellow pages are essential...

when we ran resi service, we could anticipate the yellow page ads (all of them) to give us a 900% ROI...for example, if we spent $1000, we could expect $9000 to $10,000 in sales....

but like anything else, it's all how it's presented...if you spend $10,000 a month, but have a bad ad....well, you just wasted $10,000...

like contracting, not every ad is equal...some are good, some are bad...

granted this was a few years ago, and we could actually get our prices without having our throats cut by every desperate contractor out there....

 

[Curtis4President]

We did an ad our first year in. Total waste, ad cost 14900 and brought in about 5K of work. Not a good ROI if you ask me. It all depends on what you target IMO. For us it was a waste, maybe later on it would of been good but it wasnt for the first year. My buddy owns a small shop up north, he has a little ad in the book, he does all resi and is hurting like the rest of us.
Good luck, I am not doing it again. :grin:

 

[Mule]

Wow....my ad is only $89/mo....cant believe the huge overhead prices you guys have........

 

[tonyou812]

The yellow pages has been a homerun for me. They acually made a mistake with my add and printed my 1/4 page ad on two opposing pages. So its almost as good as a half page ad. Ive already seen a 500 percent return on the 1300 bucks a year it cost. (by "already" I mean 5 months in on one year contract.)
If you are the type of EC that doesnt want to deal with residential the yellow pages isnt a good place to be.
I have also gotten a few calls from my free internet ad. I usually try to make it a point to ask were they got my number from so I can better judge what works and what doesnt.

well maybe not a homerun but I didnt loose money on it

 

[Rewire]

Buying a yellow pages add is like buying a used car it could be a good deal or you may get a lemon.Just like with a used car never pay sticker price,we got a third of a page for less than what we were first quoted for a 1/4 page.I know it produces because I have been to several homes to find the phone book open to our add.We went with a simple add our logo with just a few bullets.

 

[tom baker]

I would have the smallest add possible with a web site address. Most will look up the web site over calling.

 

[Rewire]

I would have the smallest add possible with a web site address. Most will look up the web site over calling.

What if the power is out,just kidding but usually when people open the phone book they are ready to call.We do give our web site in our radio add.

 

[Mule]

I would have the smallest add possible with a web site address. Most will look up the web site over calling.

That's the way I did it last year..dovetailing it with our website.....I figure I'll advertise one or two more years in the yeller pages, until I get my client base built up. Actaully I probably could go ahead and delete the add this year....but Im a scare'dy cat with the economy

 

[JohnJ0906]

I usually try to make it a point to ask were they got my number from so I can better judge what works and what doesnt

This is an important point. My boss keeps saying how important it is to know if specific advertising is bringing in calls.

 

[Dennis Alwon]

I only have my company name and phone number listed in the standard form- no frills- nothing. $28/ month. A few service calls and I am set- don't really need more than that. They always want to upsell but I haven't changed the ad for 28 or so years.

I do get more calls from the online directory that has me listed as a TV repairman. I can't get them to change it. I finally had to put a message on my machine that I don't repair TV's.