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Advertising - Yellow Pages #

Posted by Graham Clark on September 13, 2007, 8:02 pm
Message modified by board administrator November 13, 2010, 11:11 am

Hi Guys

I have just been approach by Yellow Pages to renew my advertising in there book for the next 12 months.

I am not sure if its good value for money, in one aspect I grudge every penny spent (£1600 plus vat on 3 ads in garage servicing, MOT & Tow Bar fitting sections) on the other hand I am aware that some customers may have forgotten my phone number (although it's a very easy number to remember (std) 22 23 24).

I am of the opinion that customer referrals and search engines are my main resource of new customers.

What is the general feeling about lining Yellow Pages deep pockets ? Am I been overly miserable

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Tom Sinclair on September 13, 2007, 9:38 pm, in reply to "Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Tom Sinclair

Hi Graham,

I used to tick boxes on invoice indicating where the customer got our phone number. This led me to believe that local papers and yellow pages were important. Eventually I realised that people are habitual and lazy, they go to where your number was last easily found. If your main source is repeat or referral, customers will find you without spending more,
goodnight, Tom

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Keith Simpson on September 13, 2007, 9:47 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

I dont find any advertising in directories benificial anymore, If you havnt already, I would spend my money on a good informative website now that potential customers are nowadays very internet savvy. Infact thinking back the last time I was in the yellow pages was 1995.

Keith

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Barry Rudd on September 13, 2007, 11:41 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

Hi
i think we are quickly going over to the I pod generation whereby people at work just type in towbars stockport and carnt be arsed to leaf through a hefty volume.
we spend 2 grand a year on paper / web advertising and next year i'm going to take a gamble and pull the paper ads. just make sure you can be found on line and go for it. to not advertise at all is complacent
cheers
Barry

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Russell Davey on September 14, 2007, 12:23 am, in reply to "Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Russell Davey

It is, without doubt No.1 for the Joe public at the moment, shed loads of our work comes from this and we don't have to do advertising surveys anymore, as its the only rag we advertise in, its perfectly obvious where they got our No. from.

I would say 70% is word of mouth/regualar customers, 28% Yellow pages, 2% website.

We don't do Thompson(does anyone read it!)or local press.

Worth every penny IMO.

Russell

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Sean Connelly on September 14, 2007, 8:55 am, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Sean Connelly

We have always advertised in the Thomson Local ahead of Yellow Pages as I for one don't like to leaf through pages of adverts for companies that are million miles away from us. Something like a garage needs to be local....if your looking for something special that you will travel for (furniture shops, etc) then Yellow Pages....for me though Thomson Local is the main paper reference.

However, I think as has been said the majority use the web for looking up information and if a company doesn't have a website then I'm immediately put off them.

Perhaps just pay for the weblinks on the online vesion of Yell.com and Thomson and monitor hits on your website to see where they come from (look at logs).

Cheers

Sean

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Derek Warwick on September 14, 2007, 8:56 am, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Derek Warwick

Hi Graham,
I advertise in YP and local paper, I think probably about 30% of work comes through word of mouth, 30% YP and the rest from the local paper. Year before last I did a big splurge in YP, spent nearly £2000 but it was a complete waste of money. I was in Yell.com and 118 24 7 as well. Now I just have a very small box in two sections and a free line in the Engine Tuning section.
HTH,
Derek

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Phil Dunmore on September 14, 2007, 8:44 pm, in reply to "Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Philip Dunmore

Even if you don't advertise you are still listed in the YP, every BT business line is. Regular customers can find you.

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Shaun Dale on September 15, 2007, 9:16 pm, in reply to "Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Shaun Dale

I spend about £1600 a year on yellow pages (I sit right on the boundary of 2 areas)and I'm not sure if it generates that much work let alone that much profit, I have decided that 95% of my work is locally generated and I'm going to advertise in strictly local media(parish magazines etc.)and see how that does.

Shaun

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by john white on September 17, 2007, 9:52 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

dropping yp & bt main adverts this yr.just ave the free lines .will still do local rags once a month.i find most work is repeat business & recommendation

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Colin Bunn on November 13, 2010, 1:02 am, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

I am just trying to sort out my yellow pages adverts for the coming year.What a nightmare.My garage is inconveniently located right on the boundary of 3 publication areas.There is also yell.com to consider and 118247 and also pay per click through google adwords of which yellow pages are now a reseller.There is black and white or colour options for the book and lots of different sizes also.Then there's the classifications to consider,,garage services,Mots,car air con,diesel injection,car electrics,engine tuning etc etc.As most garages have to try to be a one stop shop for their customers,but covering all classifications is not financially viable.After having spent a couple of hours going over the various options and trying to get a decent price and signing up it is still very expensive to even cover the basics.Has anyone had a similar problem?Having received a load of paperwork for each of the different sections etc (5 x A4 envelopes )and a bill for over 3 k I am having second thoughts on the whole thing.I have a website and google local and google adwords so do we really need yellow pages??

Colin

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Keith Simpson on November 13, 2010, 9:29 am, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

Colin I would forget the whole thing. I would concentrate on your website as pointed out earlier.

Keith

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Michael Whitworth on November 14, 2010, 11:06 am, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Mike Whitworth - Administrator

Hi Colin,

I was in a similar situation to you some years ago When I ran a "Hometune" Franchise I had to be in 5 or 6 yellow pages to cover the area I serviced. My yellow pages bill was horendous. The problem then was everybody knew you could find hometune in the yellow pages and thats was where most of our enquiries came from.

These days I don't advertise at all, the last time I advertised in Yellow Pages I got nothing but poeple fingering through the directory ringing everybody in the book for the cheapest price.

So from my experience you need yellow pages if you want timewasters to call looking for the cheapest price. Or If all your regulars expect to find you there, otherwise you don't need it.

And these days the internet has taken over from the directories anyway. So the price of advertising in YP should be going down not up.

Just my thoughts,

Mike

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Colin Bunn on November 14, 2010, 1:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

Thanks for that Mike,it makes a lot of sense.I know its a bit unrelated but the other day I was looking to get a key cut at the local shoe shop.I Couldnt be bothered to use the directory so tried Yell.com.I tried every combination to find his number,from cobblers to key cutting to shoe repairs I even know the name of the shop and that didnt come up either.So having got results of shops that were up to 20 miles away I tried google for shoe repairs ripley and hey presto there it was!I suppose he dumped yellow pages or didnt pay for yell.com and as such he isnt listed.I can remember when everyone was in the book and assume that this is still true but obviously not!!!

Colin

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Simon Dean on November 14, 2010, 4:07 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Simon Dean

Hi
Well i am in the same boat really.
We have used yellow pages for many years,moving premises 2 years ago we added yell.com.

At present my gut feeling is to drop them both.
We have our own site and use google adwords.

We have analyzed yell.com visitors and found the bounce rate high....So for us people are not on your site link for long,this may suggest the cheapest price brigade.

Have you noticed the new yellow pages advert on the bill boards 'the new smaller compact yellow pages'......i think that says it all.

Decision made i think and 2k saved

.

Anybody tried networking?

Simon

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Colin Bunn on November 14, 2010, 6:10 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

Hello Simon
The other thing is that yell use a dummy phone number so that they can monitor calls.This seems helpful on the surface but it also means that customers dont have access to your actual number so the number dies with the advert.What a minefield.The rep says that the new format for the book has increased the books use by 40%!Not sure how this was worked out though.

Colin

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Pete Mutlow on November 14, 2010, 8:34 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Peter Mutlow

Evening Colin,

By coincidence I was going to post something about this so thought I would add my tuppence worth.

Being mobile, advertising is vital to me. Not having premises and therefore a presence which I could spruce up with banners etc to attract passing trade, I need advertising to overcome this major hurdle.

This is done at the moment by way of Yellow Pages and web site. I do have an ad in Yorkshire Auto trader but only for re-mapping advertising. I subscribe to 4 editions of YP in Car engine Tuning Section only. My web-site is normally in the first two pages of Google and normally ranked above most other competitors but below most on-line directories. My site is not managed by any professional outfit but ranking is kept at a reasonable profile by key words and advertising in the free on-line directories. I do not subscribe to Adwords because I think that to be a waste of money.

I keep a strict record of where my jobs come from and this is what it looks like for this year to end of September:

Old Customers: 36%
Recommendations: 29%
Yellow Pages: 24%
Internet: 9%
Misc: 2%

Like you, I am currently renewing my YP adverts and find it frustrating of where to place the advert. ie. Garage services or Car Engine Tuning. I also believe that more people are now turning to the Internet to find what they want and the decline in YP is now becoming obvious. What I intend to do is in two of the YP's is to advertise in Garage Services and then compare the results the following year. I cannot afford to advertise in both sections in all 4 editions. I can justify the outlay in YP's because the income I derive outweighs the costs incurred. Also, New customers become old customers with recommendations.

Turning to the Internet. I feel I am under-performing results wise on this medium. Rather than spend money on a professional company to promote my site, I am looking at revising and adding to my key words and advertising in different sections of the on-line directories. This will take time to produce results but hopefully this will do the trick.

Finally, I would be interested if any of you guys out there actually spend money other than adwords on promoting your web-sites. I would be grateful on your views and especially any success or failure stories.

Regards

Pete M

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Paul Foster on November 18, 2010, 8:38 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

I won't bore you with my dealings with Yellow Pages and BT but my experience is that a lot of Yellow pages enquiries were from people doing the ringaround for the cheapest possible price. You know the type - someone who'll drive 20 miles to save a fiver! I also got a lot of calls from people wanting free advice, over-the-phone diagnosis or part worn tyres!

By far the biggest proportion of calls generated by Yellow pages was from other companies trying to sell me something - It's dead easy to give call centre monkeys a big yellow book and tell them to call everybody in it!

My advice: Drop the yellow book and the BT book but keep Yell.com and 118 247. Just my opinion!

Paul.

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Colin Bunn on November 20, 2010, 3:50 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"

Hello Paul
I tried to drop the book and just have yell.com but they are now selling the adverts as a package deal.Great!It costs about the same to have stand alone Yell.com as it is to have a display ad in the book and vice versa(well thats what they tell me!!).I am a bit stuck really and have got the cost as low as possible without dropping out of the book altogether.I might give it a year and make sure I monitor the calls properly then pull the pin next time!!

Colin

Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages

Posted by Paul Foster on November 21, 2010, 4:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Advertising/Yellow Pages"
Paul Foster

Tell them to stick it. There's lots of search engines to put your business on! See how quickly they let you just have Yell.com/118247 when they realise they're going to lose all the business! The Yellow Pages reps will say absolutely anything to get you to sign up to the book as lots of people are coming to the same conclusion as us. 40% more users my ar5e!

What really pi55ed me off about them was when I complained, year on year, about the number/quality of enquiries from the book the response was always "Well, your advert's all wrong. You need.....blah blah blah" (always at additional cost). This despite the fact that it was Yellow pages that designed the original ad in the first place!

I could go on and on but I'll only wind myself up!!

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