Yellow Page Advertising - Is it worth it?

[Glenn Davidson]

Been using ATT Yellow Pages for over 25 years. Works for me. In fact it has been pivotal to my company's success. There are some secrets to using the Yellow Pages for advertising however.

[Oliver Neubert]

Originally Posted by Glenn Davidson

Been using ATT Yellow Pages for over 25 years. Works for me. In fact it has been pivotal to my company's success. There are some secrets to using the Yellow Pages for advertising however.

could you share some of those secrets with us???

[Andrew Smith]

That's the same thought that I had when I read the post.

Andrew

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Oliver Neubert

could you share some of those secrets with us???

They wouldn't be secrets anymore then would they?:-)

[David Nibeck]

I am not a videographer but I am a wedding DJ (flame suit on), I tried the Yellow Pages once and it produced OK traffic. The problem was the clients were almost always looking for the cheapest DJ's available. Same result with less expense on Craigslist.

Most of my work comes from referral.

[Oliver Neubert]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

They wouldn't be secrets anymore then would they?:-)

ahww... come on - I won't tell anyone...

[Andrew Smith]

One thing I would suggest would be to have your web site as the most prominent form of contact ... ie force them (if at all possible) to go to your web site first in order that they can then make contact with you.

Your web site, complete with info and packages, then becomes a filtering tool.

Potential clients view your sample videos (pre-qualifying you) and call when they have selected a package (pre-qualifying them). You simply take the bookings.

Easy!

Andrew

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Glenn Davidson

Been using ATT Yellow Pages for over 25 years. Works for me. In fact it has been pivotal to my company's success. There are some secrets to using the Yellow Pages for advertising however.

not in the spirit of this forum.

Btw, I know the secret to making millions of dollars. Sorry I can't share. But you can buy my tapes, books, or sign up for my seminars.

[Alessandro Machi]

Originally Posted by Marty Welk

i did it, it worked sort of, i got many calls that i did not want, with enough business i stopped it, to reduce the SPAM calls.
getting in there gave every tom dink and harry who wanted to sell something my number :-( got a secratary to feild calls?

here is some stuff that happend while i was paying:
the yeller books try to beat eachother to the punch, and things like the "Fingers" logo were not trademarked, so the competition with no respect for doing thier own thing, and needing Laws to actually control thier plagerism, looks just like the other one(s).
The people didnt care and tossed out the old book , from the OTHER company, when the new one came in. then i pay $75-125 monthly to be in a book that is in someones trash can.
Then one book "extended" it was in the contract, so the book is 13months to 18 months old, in the trash, and i have to keep paying monthly, the full time of the extention.
a 1 year commitment became 18 months like it or not. that means the Payment for that book , which is monthly went to 1.5X, not that i got 6 months for free.

they did the "extend" because now that book wants to come out AFTER the other one, so the other one gets tossed. and on to battle they go. the worst thing being that the Off-Brand one, was not cheaper at all, even though they said they were.

if you get in ONE book, make sure it is used, and discover who got the jump on the competition that year, by putting thier book out AFTER the other one :-)

watch how they distribute the books, specifically in the area you want to serve.
one book was being dump & run. They delivered uncovered like a newspaper, and it was raining (which is rare here) they dumped books by mailboxes in stacks and they got wet, peed on by dogs , etc etc. one run that year went to complete waste. and As usual i kept paying monthly.

Often they will give you big discounts for upgrading your monthly payments , err Add size, so starting smaller and punching it up for a discount, is cheaper than starting big and downgrading, they dont give discounts for giving them less money :-)

i dont know how effective they are now , with the WEB being used lots. in this place the use of the actual book itself is 2times a year. getting a Hold of customers with anything is a good thing, keeping them and getting word of mouth is the best thing.

Hey Marty, EXCELLENT recap. I pretty much went through everything you described up above.