Yellow Pages

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jmsbrush

jmsbrush

Senior Member
Location
Central Florida
How many EC's here have an add in a major phone book?
How much does it cost you?
Do you feel like it is worth it?
If you could say what area you are from that would be helpful.

In my area there are about 6 or 7 good size adds.
Then 20 to 40 Ec's just listed in normal text.
 
jmsbrush said:
How many EC's here have an add in a major phone book?
How much does it cost you?
Do you feel like it is worth it?
If you could say what area you are from that would be helpful.

In my area there are about 6 or 7 good size adds.
Then 20 to 40 Ec's just listed in normal text.
Click to expand...

2 column by 3 column add $89 on sale
Yes I think its worth it, I've received alot of calls from it, way more than it cost me....but I probably wont keep it but 2-3 years untill my client base gets big enough.

In contrast, I got a referal from a Non-advertising EC the other day. After talking to the customer that I was refered to, it came up in conversation that she went from the "bottom up" on the listings, meaning that she figured the ones that didnt have a add didnt need one. Anyway I found that interesting.
 
A well designed ad works.
The monthly price will vary all over the country. The sales man or woman are a little like car sales man. It seems , they can bicker with the price a bit.
 
I had a Yellow Book ad for the past 3 years and just now canclled it.

First year was a small 1/8 page ad. Cost was about $800/month. I think I got 2 calls from it the whole year.

Second I went bigger, I got a 1/4 page ad. Thought the problem the first year was my ad not being big enough. Cost on this was about $1200/month. I didn't even make $1200 the entire year from this one.

Third year ( you guessed it, I'm a sucker ) I figured I just need a bigger ad and I'll be all set, all the other EC's I know said they got plenty of calls from it. I went for a Half page, Professionally designed ad. Cost was $2000/month. I made about $400 for the entire year from this one.

After 3 times, I finally realized, The EC's I was listening to were not tracking the ads. The office help was probably not even bothering to track anything and just making up data. These guys actually think they got work from it. I've gotten more work from Bid clerk in 1 month than I got from Yellow Book in 3 years.

Yellow book cost for 3 years = $48,000 , total sales = less than $3000

Bid Clerk 2 months = $100 , total slaes = $4000

Area is South Florida, there are about 3 or 4 1/2 Page ads and probably 4 or 5 smaller ones.


All I can say is if you are thinking about locking yourself into a 1 year ad contract with one of the books for $10,000 or more, make sure the people you are talking to actually know what they are talking about. Half of these guys are throwing $20,000 or more per year down the drain and don't even know it.

If it wasn't for referrals / repeat customers I would be out of business
 
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There was a time when advertising in the (Phone Company) Yellow Pages got you an ad that reached an entire county. Now the books are broken down into regions that comprise maybe two or three townships and your advertising dollars don't go as far. In addition you now have Yellow Pages, Yellow Book and Yellow (Whatever) in competition with each other that target areas in basically the same way.

Anyway, I'm up here in northern NJ and and tried Yellow Pages for one year. It targeted my township and 3 other towns in my immidiate area. On a very small scale it cost about $80.00/month and for that I got a business listing and a business card sized ad. The phone calls I got were basically from price shoppers in the worst areas looking for the lowest bids. Truthfully, I get more quality business from referrals.

My opinion - you don't get a big "bang for your buck" with a Yellow Pages ad.
 
I have an unlisted number and do very well.
Big Service companys HAVE to have a large ad. One really large and respected local company I worked for spent 750k a year on advertising. They do very well. Smart business people too!
 
As a residential service EC I mark my biggest mistake as discontinuing phone book advertising. I started out by advertising a few years, getting a few hundred customers with steady work & then stopped the ad. The business went flat. Every year 10% of my base would move out of my territory & I'd get 10% increase from referrals. Dead Flat year after year. I started the ads again & the base is growing again. Just remember you need a lot of irons in the fire. Phone book is one of them, not all of them.

Dave
 
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Sparky555 said:
As a residential service EC I mark my biggest mistake as discontinuing phone book advertising. I started out by advertising a few years, getting a few hundred customers with steady work & then stopped the ad. The business went flat. Every year 10% of my base would move out of my territory & I'd get 10% increase from referrals. Dead Flat year after year. I started the ads again & the base is growing again. Just remember you need a lot of irons in the fire. Phone book is one of them, not all of them.

Dave
Click to expand...

Well said, the phone book does help pick up the accounts you loose, word of mouth, may keep a side job, or part time, guy busy for a while, but paid ad's sure help grow the business.
 
around here, its like if you want to wholesale your services to a builder or slumlord you will stay very busy, make less money, and dont need much advertisement.

If you want to retail your services, by doing service work, you need to advertise more to fill in the gaps.

For me I have one builder and one slumlord I work for and the rest is retail service and small jobs directly to the consumer. The 2x3 add is working really well.
 
scwirenut said:
i cant believe the prices I read above $2000/mo????? OMG!!! I see there is a big difference in pricing, I have a 1/3 page color ad, I pay $75/mo.
Click to expand...


Even a small 4 line ad in the local paper is $400/ month here
 
480sparky said:
What is the circulation?
Click to expand...
"Well, let's see... there's mom and dad, Aunt Edith and Uncle Ned, my sister Sheila, the lady who works at the post office..." :D
 
LarryFine said:
"Well, let's see... there's mom and dad, Aunt Edith and Uncle Ned, my sister Sheila, the lady who works at the post office..." :D
Click to expand...

That's my point. The bottom line dollar amount doesn't mean much without circulation figures to go with it.

Which costs more: A $400 ad that has a circulation of 50,000, or an $600 ad with 80,000 readers?
 
Rich R said:
I had a Yellow Book ad for the past 3 years and just now canclled it.

First year was a small 1/8 page ad. Cost was about $800/month. I think I got 2 calls from it the whole year.

Second I went bigger, I got a 1/4 page ad. Thought the problem the first year was my ad not being big enough. Cost on this was about $1200/month. I didn't even make $1200 the entire year from this one.

Third year ( you guessed it, I'm a sucker ) I figured I just need a bigger ad and I'll be all set, all the other EC's I know said they got plenty of calls from it. I went for a Half page, Professionally designed ad. Cost was $2000/month. I made about $400 for the entire year from this one.

After 3 times, I finally realized, The EC's I was listening to were not tracking the ads. The office help was probably not even bothering to track anything and just making up data. These guys actually think they got work from it. I've gotten more work from Bid clerk in 1 month than I got from Yellow Book in 3 years.

Yellow book cost for 3 years = $48,000 , total sales = less than $3000

Bid Clerk 2 months = $100 , total slaes = $4000

Area is South Florida, there are about 3 or 4 1/2 Page ads and probably 4 or 5 smaller ones.


All I can say is if you are thinking about locking yourself into a 1 year ad contract with one of the books for $10,000 or more, make sure the people you are talking to actually know what they are talking about. Half of these guys are throwing $20,000 or more per year down the drain and don't even know it.

If it wasn't for referrals / repeat customers I would be out of business
Click to expand...
I have a very small ad in the yellow pages. I get a call a month from it. 99% of my business is repeat / referals also.
 
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