Yellow Pages

[emahler]

A good course in marketing and advertising should be taken by anyone who owns their own business.

The segment of our industry that you gpo after matters - as was said, don't advetise in the YP if you do new construction.

But if your target market uses the YP, don't kid yourself. There is a right way, and a wrong way, to advertise in them.

As contractors we'll commit to $30, $40, $50k+ a year, then think paying a professional $5k to come up with a proper ad is too expensive. So we use our professional advertising skills (I mean, how hard can it be?) Or rely on the YP interns (that's their job, right?) To make our ad.

Then we don't get any calls because our ad is bad. But it must be the phone book.

If you want to go after the phone book market (service, emergencies,etc) you have to put the right ad in the right place. Otherwise you are wasting money, pretending to know what you are doing.

 

[bbaumer]

$3,000 per month????

I used to be in the yellow pages under Electrical Contractors and under Engineers, Electrical.

Since I had a business line I got one listing, non-bold, just a listing in the pages for free.

I could upgrade it to bold and add the second listing for something like $28 per month. Could do the 2x2 or a smaller box etc. for a little more but it was nothing like $3,000 per month. Yikes!

Oh, and the sales reps ARE willing to deal. Prices are not cast in stone. Totally negotiable.

By the way, I live in a very rural part of Indiana so probably not near the customer base as most of you. The contractors ad paid for itself in work generated pretty easily, but it was not overwhelming for sure. Never get any calls for engineering from the yellow pages.

 

[mkgrady]

my local paper brings me most of my work, i missed advertising in it one week, and had very few jobs come in, ad in again next week and the phone started ringing again. if you are advertising, check to see if it is working!

Do you recommend a daily regional newspaper or a weekly local paper?

My daily regional paper covers too wide of an area. All the towns around me have a weekly town newspaper (all owned by same company) but of course it only comes out once a week. Any thoughts on which is better. Both types have a decent "services" section with the classified ads.

 

[powerslave]

I guess I just depends where you live, if I advertise in the local paper all I get are people who what some kind of flaky deal (renters that want you to bill the landlord, etc....), or they want you to come out and start a project on the weekend, but dont want to pay after normal business hours rates. I think the best advertising is on the side of my truck, lawn signs on site, and handing out buisness cards when I introduce myself.

I had the same experience with the paper. There's a section at the back of the classifieds called dial-a-service. The only calls I got were people who were looking for some "deal". People would ask me, "what kind of rebate do I get?" Rebate for what? The ad cost about as much as a comparable ad in the yellowpages.

I think emahler hit it right on the head. If you put in a small, improperly designed ad in the phone book or anywhere else for that matter, don't be surprised if it doesn't work. I know I learned the hard way.