Yellow pages Question

[CG Effect]

Hi Would you look for a graphic designer in the yellow pages book or on Yell.com or use your browser search engine?

[bwglaw]

Look anywhere but Yellow Pages/Yell.com - usually make contacts etc

I think there has been a discussion about the effectiveness of advertising in YP

[confused]

There was indeed a recent discussion, I beleive the general feelings were, if yuo needed someone local, i.e. plumber, electrician, IT fixit people then Yellow pages or Yell were fine, but other such services the net was better, that said, someone might want a LOCAL designer?

[clairemackaness]

I use yellow pages all the time, but wouldn't actually think of looking in there for someting like web design. Although saying that, I may have done a local search when I first got started LOL

[Juvanescence]

No, don't waste your money.

:)

The Yellow pages have been a complete waste.

[confused]

The Yellow pages have been a complete waste
again, it depends on your business, the chap whos premises I'm trading from gets a lot of business from yellow pages.


CALV

[Juvanescence]

Im just giving my opinion and experience, since I am in the same profession.

:)

[CG Effect]

I'll tell the sales rep I've decided to burn the cash instead when she rings again then. Thaks for the help

[Red Creative]

To be honest, the YP will not contain that many listing at all, compared to Yell. You will get a mixture of larger agencies and single soletraders on Yell.

Some will have pretty well optimised websites also, so a geographic search with relevant keyworsd could pay dividends.


Good luck!

[JoyDivision]

I have been thinking of yellow pages, but its stupidly expensive but if people are having problems with their PC won't they look in YP?

The main problem with YP I can see is people tend to phone round for prices where with leaflets if they are in the market for a PC repair person you are likely to get the job.

[coxadmin]

I have a free listing in Yellow Pages and yell.com and since I started the business in September 2003 I have had two local customers from the free listing in Yellow Pages and none from yell.com.

[Red Creative]

Forget to say originally,

we had no actuall revenues from YP or Yell. We only now have a basic listing in Yell (they try to upsell you very much), and haven't bothered with YP - saving £4k!

It all boils down to where you clients/customers look and advertise themselves. Spend a few hours reaserchin this in depth and you will have it cracked.

For us the best ROI is undoubtably our website, free directory listings (loved by search engines also), and well though out optimisation.

I can reccomned Phil @ www.fusionxs.co.uk by the way!

[creacom]

I'll tell the sales rep I've decided to burn the cash instead when she rings again then. Thaks for the help

Good luck !

If she is anything like the one who has called me 6 times already this year you will need to take out a restraining order first ! They are very......persistent to be polite about it.

Jacqui

[Admiral Collections]

Hi Would you look for a graphic designer in the yellow pages book or on Yell.com or use your browser search engine?

Hi

I use both


Nic :wink:

[seabro]

Yellow Pages and Yell.com work great for me.

At one stage I was getting a job a day from it but it has cooled off now.

I have a few white ad's in a few sections which cost just over £300 a month.

118 118 has been a waste of £120 - I have never had a single call from there.

[sjbeale]

Best to get out there and network to personally sell your business and your services.

[Pebble Communications]

I think it very much depends on the type of business you are in and also the amount of competition already in that section of the Yellow Pages.

I used to budget £30k a year on yellow pages for a company I was running the marketing for and it worked well. Now for my own company, I just have the free listing and do not consider it worth paying for.

It is expensive. It can work well....or it can be a complete waste of money. Think about it and don't be rushed into anything by the rep.

[instalek]

I have spent £400 on this service and in 6 months have received not one call :x . I have also contacted Yell to see if they can provide any stats but each time the ' computer ' seems to have a problem :evil: I may as well gone and stood on top of a tall building and chucked the money off .

[confused]

Very interesting, a friend of mine get loads from yellow pages. Mine goes in in the next issue and it will be interesting to see the response.

CALV

[Azam.net]

Interesting discussion. Most people I've asked have had a poor experience with YP advertising. They are very hard-sell and pressurise many new businesspeople into advertising with them. They pretend they are 'verifying' your free listing and then you can't get them off the phone as they rabbit on about the virtues of premium advertising with them.

[DarrenC]

YP - simple FORGET IT.

Waste of money - pray on the new businesses, spend your cash, and get a trickle of visitors from the yell.com site and nothing from Yellow Pages.

Lesson Learnt pretty quickly there.

Darren

[Coding Monkey]

I've decided not to go ahead with the Yellow Pages, but I've won 2 customers this year from Yell.com and had 3 more phone me up, with a meeting next week and someone to call back as well. Strange, cos it's taken 7 months for anything to happen at all.

[Rob Holmes]

I think alot of people make the mistake of misunderstanding a yellow pages advert.

Yellow Pages are unique.

People don't read yellow pages for fun - they are hot buyers and looking for 1 to 3 numbers to call to satisfy their problem.

Your advert must be as high up the page, preferably on the right and equal or biggest on the page. Colour is not necessary BUT a direct marketing approach is.

Start your ad with a the clients problem, have some persuasive blurb next then a call to action (this is where 0800 numbers DO work) and your website email address and finally your address in small.

Rob

[Sarah-Ink Promotions]

I found YP a nightmare to deal with to be honest - one day the woman rung me 6 times before 10am!! nightmare. Have now got Kellysearch doing the same thing, has anyone got any experience of them?

[Mwebb]

I will put my 2 pence in...

I have not used yellow pages, so i put this question to a friend of mine that owns and runs a tyre depot...bit like quick fit.

He takes out a 1/2 page advert in the YP each and every year. He reckoned that it brought enquiries, but only 25% were new ones. The other 75 % were people that had used them before, or been recommended. They didn't know their number so they looked in the yellow pages for it...his opinion was if they were not in there, they would have lost the business to someone that was, even though they were existing customers. ( customer loyalty is very hard to maintain in a competitive market)

Opinions on this would be good...i will pass them on.

michael

[directmarketingadvice]

The yellow pages can work very well .... or it can be a complete waste of money.

Comments like "the yellow pages are useless" or "the yellow pages are great" miss the point completely.

It depends on who your market is, what your selling advantages are and how good your ad is.

I'm tempted to also say that it depends on what your competitors are doing with their yellow pages ads, but the vast majority of YP ads are so exceptionally poor that, if you've got your act together, this really shouldn't be an issue.

3 questions to ask yourself are:

(1) are my target prospects actually looking in the YP?

(2) If so, how do I make sure my ad one of the 3 ads that they're going to pick out and call up?

(3) how do I make sure I convert the maximum number of these enquiries?

Steve

[Stationery-Direct]

So far I would say don't bother.

This is my first year in the Yellow Pages, I paid around £200 and have been listed since the beginning of January. I thought that for a service like I offer that this would be a good idea, so far not 1 call, I would have expected at least 1 enquiry in 2 months.

I will let you know how I get on as the year progresses, however, so far I am not confident that this was money well spent.

[directmarketingadvice]

So far I would say don't bother.

But this is just a reflection of your experience of the response you've received to your ad.

When I start to work with a business and review their current marketing, I find some get a good return on their YP investment.

Most don't.

But the same is true for all types of advertising.

With any type of advertising, most businesses will fail to recoup their investment, but some will make a good profit.

The key is understanding if and when a particular advertising medium is likely to get results for your particular business.

Having said all that, I'm not a huge fan of advertising as there are other forms of marketing which have far higher success rates and can be done with little or no financial investment.

Steve

[Rob Holmes]

I will let you know how I get on as the year progresses, however, so far I am not confident that this was money well spent.

SD - that maybe due to the criteria Steve and I have mentioned above.

Mine (as I can only speak for myself) are proven to work.

But the question at the start of the thread is would you look in the YP for a designer.

For me I wouldn't as my network of companies where I cross reference sales is pretty massive - theres little 'ordinary' stuff I have to look far for.

For those with no network then I would say YP is one of the most likely options.

So maybe an additional question is how many designers do not consider themselves in any sort of network - but how do you ask them? ;)

Therefore you are far more likely to find people on a networking style site like this saying they wouldn't look in the YP.

Hope this helps a bit,

Rob

[Stationery-Direct]

I totally agree Steve + Rob, this was just my experience with YP.

I have other friends with businesses and it works for some and not for others.

Firstly I would go for a FREE line entry in the directory and see if you get any response from that, afterwhich, it is really trial and error. Pay for 12 months, see how you get on and make a decision on year 2.

I am not sure how often the YP is published, is it once a year? anyway, by phoning them just before the cut off date for advertising which in my case was around November, I received 40% discount.

Good luck

[mattk]

I have spent £400 on this service and in 6 months have received not one call :x . I have also contacted Yell to see if they can provide any stats but each time the ' computer ' seems to have a problem :evil: I may as well gone and stood on top of a tall building and chucked the money off .
As a consumer, I can safely say the only time I use Yellow Pages is to look up the number for a taxi - cos let's be honest, a taxi is a taxi, they all charge a few quid to take you into town, so I'm not fussy.

If for example I was looking for a handsfree kit for my car I definitely wouldn't use YP. I'd ask friends, maybe post on an Alfa Romeo forum, that kind of thing. I definitely wouldn't use a company without some kind of recommendation.

[AandP]

Yellow Pages is a great resource if you pay a good designer to create a great ad. Don't try to cut corners and get the YP people to design it or, worse, try to do it yourself!

Remember to bargain hard with the rep. You should get at least 50% off whatever is their best price.

Try calling some of the ads in the section you are considering. Pretend you are planning on putting an ad in a different section (they wont be very honest or helpful if they think you are a competitor!) and wanted to know how much business they got from YP. Most people will be surprisingly helpful.

Don't rely on any one type of marketing or advertising. Set a marketing budget for the year. Allocate how much goes on networking, how much on direct mail, how much on flyer, press ads and directories, etc. And stick to it.

And good luck.

[Lee Mark Thomas]

The Yellow Pages is just a waste of money for anyone outside offering a domestic skill/tradesman service.

Just my 2p's worth.

[directmarketingadvice]

Set a marketing budget for the year. Allocate how much goes on networking, how much on direct mail, how much on flyer, press ads and directories, etc. And stick to it.

I disagree with both of those points.

Firstly, once you get your marketing working, your marketing budget should only be limited by how much business you can handle.

For example, if it costs you £200 to get a client and the client represents a profit of £800, you should be willing to spend £200 as often as you can, provided you are able to serve that client.

I have a client who does exactly that, he spends nothing up front on marketing, but will pay people £200 for each client they bring in for him.

That way, he's only paying for results and has effectively an infinite marketing budget without actually putting any money up front.

Secondly, sticking to a budget regardles of results would mean that you're not using feedback from your activities.

You'd be far better off running small tests of different things, dropping those things that didn't produce a profit, and taking the things that did make you money and rolling them out on a larger scale.

For example, if you're spending 10% of your money on directories and you're not getting any business out of them, but your direct mail is going gangbusters, it would make sense to me to drop the directories and re-direct the money into sending out more direct mail.

Of course, to be able to do this, you need to test and measure your marketing.

If anyone wants more information on this, see the second half of this article

http://www.greaterprofitsguaranteed.com/warning.html

and testing is also discussed in some of the articles here:

http://www.greaterprofitsguaranteed.com/articles.html

(shameless plugs over)

Steve

[multilingual]

We spend £282 / month on Yell.com advertising and it may as well blow away in the wind for the amount of good it does.

Once the current contract is up I willl be looking at better ways to spend that money:

No. 1 on my list of options is paying a monthly retainer to a PR company to boost our profile and standing.

At least that way I can actually talk to someone and gain some feedback on a regular basis. Currently with Yell, the ad is not working, but I can't change it that much and am locked in for another 6 months.

JB