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Yellow Pages?
We get numerous calls from yellow pages and loads of other directories throughout the year, question is, what is the best form of advert, For me its Word off Mouth 😛
Peter & Lynn -
22 Replies
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We get word of mouth aswell but our large contracts have come to us via yellow pages, so for us Yellow pages.
Carrie 😀
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I’m the same as carrie, I spend about £1700 on my yp add each year and it does a good job of getting me decent new business leads. But I also rely on a LOT of recommendation/word of mouth too. It’s much much easier to get a job when you’ve been recommended than if someone is ringing several companies out of the yp.
Incidentally last year I had a thompson ad with a freephone number which was monitored for me and the response was really poor – about 1-2 calls a month.
Nigel
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I’ve just finished my first year of trading and would say that I’ve probably had more work from word of mouth referrals. The best jobs though, have come from the yellow pages and it has been well worth it. When I say ‘best jobs’, I mean the most valuable and profitable ones. In fact, just today I signed up for next year’s advert.
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So far, my big gob 😉 I talk about signs everywhere I go, to everyone I speak to, even my bank manager 😀 I’ve got an advert in the Thompsons, but its only just been published, so no idea, but I have had calls from Yell.com as well… it was listed for free so I’m not complaining.
Cheers, Dewi
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thing is with yellow pages, and I say this from experience from other buisiness’s If people dont know were to go for a plumber, carpenter, etc.
they look in yellow pages and just work through the list. If you are a pound cheaper you get the job.
So do you place a full page ad or a line listing?. What I really want to know, is it cost effective?
Peter & Lynn -
I started with the cheapest box that allowed a logo: about 180 squids. This year I’ve gone to a slightly bigger ad as it allows me complete control over the content. I suppose experience will determine what is the most effective (cost wise and response). As I said before, I’m happy so far with the responses I’ve had.
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Personally I think it’s a question of a balance between a huge ad and a single line. It also depends on what type of jobs you want to attract – eg a local taxi driver is less likely to call you if you have a full page ad in my experience anyway. I have a full colour credit card sized advert which I designed to look professional and appeal to larger companies which tend to provide more profitable work.
Nigel
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i’m situated on the main A90 north, i have only had the need to put a line in the yp, under signmakers & screenprinters, one of them is free, so it has only cost me £79 per year!! 😛 which is not a lot of pennies. my work is all word of mouth. (and the sign on the main road) decided on a coloured box costing £600 just to see what response i get from this !! 😛
Nik
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Last year we had a small box with our basic details in and this year we have gone up a size because we wanted to include our logo & a bit more info. We dont do a full page or half page. Personally I feel it is very cost effective, last two years we have spent just over £300 each time with YP and we made that back on one order. This year we have spent just over £500 and are pretty sure the same will happen ….. one job and its paid for. On the other hand Yell.com the web advertising, personally I don’t think is good value at all, I was shocked at the cost of it and there was no way I was going to sign up for it.
Carrie 😀
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One job and its paid for? But for £500 You need a job Valued At about £5000, IE !0% for advertising. If you do a job for £1000. and you pay for the ad you probably didnt make a profit, see what I mean?
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Our first years advert was paid for by one job which was invoiced for around £6000 so to me I can class it as being paid for in one go. YP has brought a lot of work our way not just the odd plumber or builder. As Nigel said the larger clients that you get or can get make it worth while …. but obviously large clients are not guaranteed to everyone.
Carrie 😀
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A phone call from someone who looked you up in yellow pages has to be converted into a sale. So if you get a call from any source, its still down to you to convert it. So if, for instance you spent your £500 on another form of getting the calls would it be more cosr effective?
Peter. -
In addition rather than add an edit to last post … 😀
I guess as with everything, you dont know till you have tried it and most things are always worth a try once, if it doesnt work out you dont do it again or you do it differently? Im sure YP still offer some new customer discounts aswell which arent too bad. I had my doubts about YP before we used them but now I can honestly say it works for us. We are well aware from surrounding compaines that it does not work for everyone, we know a couple of companies that dont have a good word to say about yp as they have only had a few calls from their ad?
Carrie 😀
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Its not YP that makes the sale its us, but it is the advert in the book that brings the leads to us in the first place. We are pleased with the amount of leads we get from it. We have advertised with other places and the amount of leads was terrible, one company we advertised with schemes I think … not one single lead in 12 months, now we know not to go there again.
Carrie 😀
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quote Carrie:one company we advertised with schemes I think … not one single lead in 12 months, now we know not to go there again.Carrie 😀
Is that the school one (SCEMES) I have just tried them and they pushed a hard sell at me for banner advertising on their web site and I fell for it. Then three months down the line they are pushing me to advertise in next years book & web site and of course pushing me for more SPECIALS 🙄
Needles to say they have phoned me on about 4 occasions and each time I have told them that I have as yet (4 months down the line) not recieved one lousy phone call from any school and will not sign up again untill I get some regular work from them.
Yellow pages (£2500 😮 ) and word of mouth does it for me
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Mike, yes thats the scheme company …… They constantly called and every time I would say “No Thanks too expensive” In the end they rang and offered us the ad for about £50 (cant remember but I know it wasnt a huge amount… well it is for no return 👿 ) I think as they were low on advertisers, so I thought ok why not ……….. well now I know, not one single lead in 12 months, they kept calling us to see if we wanted to advertise in other areas etc and you can imagine my response 😮 They called to see if we wanted to go in the next one …… I told them that I had not recieved one lead off them in 12 months, they didnt have a lot to say. I would not recommend them at all.
Carrie 😀
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Good arguments Carrie, But how do you moniter where the call comes from?
peter -
Once we know its a go ahead on the order we ask the customer how they found us 😀 or they usually mention it first. If you dont ask you wont know 😉
Carrie 😀
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Huh! Scemes
I advertised with them lot 3 – 4 years ago and I too did not get a single call, what a load a s***te. They still after all these years ring me up and say how much better it is, yes right, NO THANKS!
I have a different crowd just called recently and the obvious answer is NO!
Anyway on topic, I decided this year (from April) taht I would not advertise in YP as I was starting another business and knew alot of my time would be spent on that. Also an experiment to see if my turnover dropped, potentially a dodgy move but one I was prepared to take. I never vetted my calls much at all in the past so I never really knew the true turn over rate fom YP.
Also took into account my regulars and what I could potentially gain from word of mouth. Well I m happy to say it wasn’t a bad idea and my turnover has not dropped!
Thankfully we have still been mad busy allyear and the new business is doing ok too!
Some think that if you stop advertising in YP then people will think you have gone out of busines. Well if YP is for attracting new customers then they would not have a clue either way. Only ones who may think this, is your copetitors.
Still got my free single line entry though! -
I must really be a nutter because I still won’t advertise with YP 🙄
Cheers, Dewi
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I advertise in YP, Talking pages and Yell.com
3 leads all year, waste of time for me….
but then again it may have been because i’m was in a small village out of the main town, now i’m in town it may change. i shall see
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Scemes? Is that the one where they phone up and try to persuade you to advertise in a telephone directory being sent out to NHS, or local council employees? Apparently when you advertise in these directories you become an “Approved supplier” – yeah right, since when did a directory publisher have the right to decide who was and who wasn’t approved suppliers to NHS and council.
There are too many “rip off” companies trying to sell advertising space. They prefer to target small and new start business as older businesses tend to have seen it all before and having had fingers burned inthe past are less likely to fall for their false claims.
As for yellow pages – we are on the periphery of the Edinburgh directory so it doesn’t work very well for us but I still think it’s the one directory we need to be in as even some of our regular customers will look us up there when looking for our number.
It annoys me that BT having sold Yellow pages to Yell a few years ago and have now gone and launched a business directory as part of their normal phone directory… Greedy b*st*rds!!!
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