Yellow Pages online

[AndrewB]

Hi All

I am about to start a pavement/oily carpark cleaning business and want to put an advert in the yellow pages directory (the book version) but want to start advertising right away as I don't want to wait until November when the directories are delivered.

Can I put a advert in the online version right now?

I want a 2inch x 2inch sized ad and would like to up somewhere near the top on the online version?

How much do you think it would cost?

Any other tips?

Cheers

Andrew

[LeelaCosgrove]

Hi Andrew,

Is there a specific reason you want to use the Yellow Pages? In my experience people who do that say it's pretty much a waste of time and money ... who uses the books anymore? Just about everyone searches online (even my 86 year old grandmother!) - and the only people I know who use the Yellow Pages get the books in order to cold call and sell advertising space to people.

Who is your target market for your service?

[KarenC]

My difficulty with YP online is that they put you into an area category. I want to advertise to the whole of Australia, not just my area. Online YP is just too costly for me and still is because of the limited areas way their search engine works.

I think you should investigate the costs of target market advertising - as Leela said -who is your target? Then work out where they go looking for your services? Online, mags, local newspapers, business, building or construction or cleaning magazines or online directories - wherever your target would be looking ...

You can however add the website to your Y Pages listing for a nominal fee and at least searches on your name will show the website address. YP are updating their pages so I can't find any other link but this one http://www.yellowadvertising.com.au/ for more info.

[AndrewB]

My target audience is property managers, shopping center management, land developers etc

Can you get your ad on YP online at anytime? How do you get it to the top with big font?

When i type in car park cleaning (+my area) into google i get no businesses but YP online lists ten..

Im avoiding directly approaching possible clients as I'm no salesman LOL!
Stoked to find this forum!

[LeelaCosgrove]

If you don't want to do it in person, how about finding the details of potential clients in your area and doing a direct mail piece?

Send them out a letter with a special offer ... an offer that beats what they are getting now: whether that's on price, service, extras, whatever.

The thing with the industry you're looking at is that it's ALWAYS better to go to them rather than wait for them to come to you. Thing is, most of these people will ALREADY have the services you are looking to provide them ... so they probably won't be looking for you (unless something goes terribly wrong with the current service provider). However, that doesn't mean they wouldn't be open to changing providers if the right deal fell in their laps ...

Especially in the current economic climate, you can't afford to be passive ... you need to be proactive ...