BT Phone book versus Yellow Pages

[Marcella Ross]

Hi John,

My hubby changed his advertising last year from Yell to BT. The cost difference was substantially cheaper. He’d previously spent £4k and lowered it to £600, slightly smaller ads but still full colour.
Anyway, there was a difference in phone calls to the business…….. they tailed off a bit! Definitely less enquiries. But I’d imagine this will change through time as people use the Phone Book for business purposes more.
He’s going back to Yell for this year, so that perhaps says a lot!

[Steve Underhill]

I used the BT book, spent £900 on 2 ads, emailed the rep the final proof with the phone numbers on and the pictures I designed myself etc, they sent me back their final proof with my 0800 number missing, the wrong fax number and all their own artwork that looked like my 4 year old daughter had done.
the art was pixellated, adjusted for height but not constrained so was all thin and stretched and just looked pathetic, all that was on it that people could ring me on was my 01503 number which doesnt look half as appealing as a freephone one.
In the end they offered me a 20% discount on the advert (yea right)
I said offer me a 100% discount and Ill be interested, they said ok 50% I said see you in court and they backed down and gave it to me for free.
So all in all Id say avoid them like the plague, there were 5 local businesses here I know of used them and had wrongly worded or placed ads in the wrong categories
So its like I said in the Roland GX-24 post, you get what you pay for in my books.
As the saying goes “Buy cheap, buy twice”

[Brian Little]

Hmm i dint bother with them now .TheYput an ad in for me that was disgusting to say the least .never sent a proof or anything but did manage to send an invoice for £800 plus,which i refused to pay.never heard anymore from them .Quite honestly i get most of my work from a networking group I’m involved with plus word of mouth

Regards Brian

[Tim Painter]

BT Phone book advertising is brilliant..NOT…… I would of had more fun sat burning the £ notes it cost………can’t actually remember having a call off it. Won’t be doing it again.

YP messed up the section my ad appeared in this year. Rep…oooohhh long gone. Made a call to them to be told my fault and they had smpathy. Made a call to them again guy could see my view point so put it up the line as a complaint. Got offered a total refund on 1 of my ads just have to see how much it affect me this year 🙁

Tim.

[Dave & Rob Lowery]

Don’t go there!!!!

Split what I usually pay to YP (£6500) betwix the two.

Firstly, I cancelled two smaller ads before the deadline and they went
ahead but they still printed them with the wrong phone numbers in 👿

The next thing they did wrong was to put my main ad under completely
under the wrong heading 👿 👿

After 6 months, they then sent me a letter telling me to pay up or court action would be taken. I was going to pay on standing order but they effed it all up and there was to be no charge!! 👿 👿 👿

They just haven’t got their act together, and I don’t think they ever will.

Stick with YP, Yell.com and get results, not p1ssed off.

[Phill Fenton]

BT sold yellow pages a few years ago and made a fortune. Now they expect us all to be gullible enough to subscribe to their latest directory even though most people are already in Yellow pages.

There are already too many directories on the go – so I certainly wouldn’t bother with them.

[P R Hughes]

Everyone goes straight to yellow pages it might be more expensive but it is the brand leader . Stick with them it works.

Paul

[Hugh Potter]

i’m in yell.com, but thats it, other than personally placed local ads in the local free paper, costs pence and usually produces at least my money back !

i think there are far better means of advertising than these directories, your vehicle for example, just seeing your van might make a customer think about the sign job they’re putting off, and call you, where-as if that reminder aint there, they wont be, and when they do, and they grab the yellow pages, they’ll have 100 companies to choose from !

i just go out and look for the work i want, i started off slow, but thru a bit of effort the order book is beginning to fill nicely without spending all day on the phone to price checkers.

[Jon Fields]

Hugh, What other methods do you use out of interest..word of mouth etc
always interesting to know.

Jon

[Dave Bruce]

I have to agree with none of you, but maybe this has to do with location I am out in the sticks in a sparsely populated are so maybe the YP don’t get used as much. I have doubled what I spent on yp last year but put it into BT Phonebook, much better quality advert full colour not yellow tinge, and you get a free web advert, yp charge another £100+ for that.

Like Phil says there are a few books on the go so I think everyone will be going for the all in one book at the end of the day, lets face it you are all going to get the phonebook at the end of the day, and its there for residential (A-Z), business (A-Z) and services.

Dave.com.com.com

[Nicola McIntosh]

i put two ads in the new bt phone book…spent weeks doing new artork sent it to them….got the okay, then they put in something totally different which looks really bad…and they charged £1400 but they aint getting it 👿

nik

[Carrie Brown]

We tried the BT book last year … only a basic listing …. waste of time … did not recieve one enquiry from it. The rep came a few weeks ago and we politely told her that we wont be going in it again. We get the majority of our work from YP, referrals and from peeps seeing our van when out and about or at fitting jobs.

😀

[autosign]

The BT book are doing good deals, we got a full colour ad double the size of our YP ad for the same price. Books only been out a month or so but no calls yet.

[Dave & Rob Lowery]

When BT come a’nockin and ask if you use their phone book, tell them, as I tell Thompson, that you use it daily. That you drill a hole in one corner and hang it up in the toilet 😀

[Jayne Marsh]

Ive got one advert in each book, and am waiting to see how well they work. The advert I placed with BT last year worked well, was a lot cheaper and there was no mistakes. The only problem I had was with paying them! I kept trying to pay them but they hadnt set up the DD properly so kept getting the money snatched back off them by my bank he he. It was eventually sorted but I did tell them that they couldnt take any more than the agreed monthly amount until it was all paid off. There was no way they were going to be allowed to take 6months worth in one go :lol1:

[David Rogers]

I get umpteen calls from different directories, including a couple a week from Thomsons.(They CANNOT take a telling). BT is useless as a business directory in our area no matter how ‘good a deal’ they clain to offer. YP works but is expensive. Online is growing, but not worth paying silly money for. Word of mouth accunts for a high percentage of my work – way more than YP.

Incedently, how many of you have had Thomsons trying to sell you ‘new start’ listings guaranteeing 100’s of leads in your chosen area, and better web search placements?
Ha! I really knock the wind out of their sails when I let them know that I’m already #1&2 in Yahoo, #1 in Jeeves(Ask.com) usually #3 in ‘your area’ for Google UK

ps.

quote :

The BT book are doing good deals, we got a full colour ad double the size of our YP ad for the same price. Books only been out a month or so but no calls yet.

Just how is that a good deal then?

[John Gregson]

Hi all,
After listening to all of your comments i’ve decided not to advertise in the BT phone book. I’ve never had any problems with the yellow pages and it does generate some interest in my company. I’ll have to see how the bt phone book fares over the next year and also ask potential customers which book they have used to contact me.
Thanks for your good advice as always.

Cheers
John

[John Gregson]

Hi – me again,
Just to post an update, the rep from the BT phone book never came back, he must have read this thread. I’ve stuck with Yellow Pages – thanks for the advice

Cheers John

[Lorraine Clinch]

I had a reasonable success with YP, but was ‘persuaded’ to go into BT book for last year-disaster-have had no feedback at all from there-I shall be going back to Yellow Pages this year.

[autosign]

quote David Rogers:

ps.

quote :

The BT book are doing good deals, we got a full colour ad double the size of our YP ad for the same price. Books only been out a month or so but no calls yet.

Just how is that a good deal then?

Well, had ONE call now from the BT book. It is for a coffee shop sign and window graphics though so that will pay for the ad’ and a bit more.

Having said that, we are probably only going to go for YP in future.