Yellow pages

[Richard A]

Dear All,

I would be interested to get your thoughts and experiences on advertising in the hard copy of the Yellow Pages.

I am thinking it may be appropriate for my market (seniors) as they are more likely to use the YP vs surfing the net.

Thoughts???

Richard

[BB]

HeyRichard,

Let me share my experience with you -

Two years ago, I purchased a Yellow Pages offline and online package. The promises of a great return were high, but their 'back-end' was poor and it took many weeks and lots of calls from me, to get the paperwork sorted out, and the account fees aligned with what I had signed up for.

Yellow Pages didn't know what to category to put my business into (there's no category for Budget Consulting, and there's certainly none for 'bitches') - so they elected to place the ad into Financial Planning. They're supposedly the experts, I followed their advice.

Because I always ask each new caller where they found me, it was easy for me to track the progress. Yellow Pages told me they would also track the advertisment responses, but they are yet to provide their results.

Over the next 12 months I had seven calls as a direct response from the Yellow Pages offline advertisement. None of them wished to partake of my services - 6 of them wanted to sell me something, and the other caller was interested in forming a strategic alliance.

There were no calls as a result of the online advertisement.

When they called to renew the advertising, they had many excuses as to why the ad didn't work - ranging from the wrong category to a badly worded advertisement.

As you could imagine, I didn't renew the advertising package - I have found other more fruitful ways to spend my marketing dollars.

I thought it would work well as, living in a regional area, I'm somebody who uses the book often for calls within my local community. I was wrong.
And I also realise that if I was looking for the type of product that you offer, Richard, then I would probably 'google' it first.

Hope this helps with your decision,

B.B.

[janet]

Originally Posted by Richard A

Dear All,

I would be interested to get your thoughts and experiences on advertising in the hard copy of the Yellow Pages.

I am thinking it may be appropriate for my market (seniors) as they are more likely to use the YP vs surfing the net.

Thoughts???

Richard

Hmmm,seniors are a mixed bunch, especially as I was told that "oldies" now included 50 year olds! (Advertising request by YOUNG male!) I am 48....
Yellow pages: I also was led by them as to where I should go, and am in a peculiar place: no concierges/lifestyle managers in Hobart. So I have not paid for an ad, but have a line, as most of my business is word of mouth and internet! Good luck, both places may not hurt. Janet, Errands Run, Hobart

[Burgo]

Great place for tradies.

Now as for the 'oldies' maybe Im not quite in that category at 67.
You would be surprised just how many senior citizens use the internet to surf for what they need, they just type in what they are looking for usually do a comparison and try and get the best deal.

I really get a buz out of just how many seniors are computer savvy, Ive even met several 80 + year olds using it. The yellow pages is a dying duck, as many seniors cant remember where they put when it came in or it just tooslow to look up thing from it have a look at Greypath, From memory its www.greypath.com it is a seniors forum and believe me it is very active with many members

Hope that helps.

[Jules]

Originally Posted by Burgo

Great place for tradies.

Now as for the 'oldies' maybe Im not quite in that category at 67.
You would be surprised just how many senior citizens use the internet to surf for what they need, they just type in what they are looking for usually do a comparison and try and get the best deal.

I really get a buz out of just how many seniors are computer savvy, Ive even met several 80 + year olds using it. The yellow pages is a dying duck, as many seniors cant remember where they put when it came in or it just tooslow to look up thing from it have a look at Greypath, From memory its www.greypath.com it is a seniors forum and believe me it is very active with many members

Hope that helps.

I agree... so many of the 'older' demographic: 45+ are actually online now and are one of the fastest growing groups to adopt the web.

The Yellow Pages print version is really a bit of a dying vehicle for advertising as people can find the information they need in so many other places much more quickly and efficiently, on or offline. That's one of the reason they have built on and offline combined advertising packages to try and overcome this issue - to sell you into the notion that no matter where the customer goes to find their information, they will also find you...

That said - I'm really not convinced about the results of Yellow Pages advertising... most of the people I've spoken to about it have either had a bad experience with the process (wrong position/ad/copy etc...) or just had no results. Depending on what your messaging is to them, I'd just do a free listing with the Yellow Pages online and then find somewhere more targeted for your advertising $$

[THE SALES WARLORD]

Most advertising lacks the ability for you to quantify the value of the spend.

Beware any advertising you can't track the return of.

Don't spend on anything you can't guarantee ROI on.

[soliddata]

Jules just a query - do you have stats that show that the physical yellow pages is a dying advertising medium? I have seen lots of businesses come and go over the years saying that they are revolutionising the business of trade directories online etc etc, but they never manage to replace the yellow pages as first point for getting access to certain businesses, esp tradies. The trade directories in free-local newspapers are biting a bit I reckon, but anecdotally I see many people still using the yellow pages to find providers.

Just wondering if there are stats showing if that is happening? Stats like that would help everyone lower their Yellow Pages charges :-)

Kev

[dust]

Originally Posted by Richard A

Dear All,

I would be interested to get your thoughts and experiences on advertising in the hard copy of the Yellow Pages.

I am thinking it may be appropriate for my market (seniors) as they are more likely to use the YP vs surfing the net.

Thoughts???

Richard

altho i have no experience myself.. i have heard from a friend that their sales team are completely delusional that yellow pages is not being made redundant, ineffective yadda yadda. They were trying to sell a spot to a small business that manufactures promo stickers(All business to business)

[RawMarketing]

I've had moderately positive results from advertising in the YellowPages. However, my ad rep did make specific mention that the hard copy was a lot more popular in Tasmania than in other states of Australia.

Leads
Generally I've found that the leads generated aren't quality long-term clients. They're usually good for a quick sale though as they're calling you because they want to purchase something specific.

Category
Choose your category carefully, look for something that people are actually searching for and if it's competitive, you can use creative copywriting to get the upper hand (rather than size). In my case, I advertise in 'Printers' to sell runs of business cards, then I try and sell websites when I know them.... Rather than listing in 'Internet and Web Services' because it doesn't get many searches.

ROI
I think many advertisers place too much pressure on the medium to hand a positive ROI to them on a platter.... Really, there is a lot more to it than that and the advertiser needs to be accountable for the leads generated. After all, you're not paying the medium for sales, you're paying them for leads. For example, some people may get 10 calls and only generate 1 sale because of poor business processes, so they lose.... or you can get 10 calls, and generate 5 sales, then up sell and also benefit from referrals... meaning you may make more like 20 sales.

[DanR]

If you want to get conned into advertising in yellow pages online then go for it.... I have had experience as well and the sales guy was a joke... he actually said to me... "are your servers up to par because once this goes online we are going to flood you with traffic".

What garbage! Once my campaign went online I didn't even notice a different in web site traffic or phone calls.

Being an online business as well doesn't suit their model... they don't work well unless you are a brick and mortar shop. I am online... I want to be listed EVERYWHERE in Australia but you have to pay for each state, it's a complete rip off.

For a year in all the states it was like 20k or something ridiculous.

Honestly... stay away.