SB: Yellow Pages and Thompson online worth it?

Stu666

I am intending to advertise in the Yellow Pages and Thompson Local directories for the first time. I have had their sales people round for some quotes and they were heavily pushing their online directories.

I wasn't originally planning on doing online advertising with either, but they have, I'm afraid to say, got me wondering if it is worthwhile doing?

My line of business is computer repair, and I always thought online advertising would be a waste of time to me if many of my customers can't get online in the first place.

The Yellow Pages and Thompson Local people would have me think otherwise though.

I would appreciate any comments or thoughts on this.

Queenieviolet

We have a joinery business and advertised in the Yellow pages for a few years (Yell.com also). We got very little response from this type of advertising (maybe 3 or 4 calls a year). Advertising in the local newspaper has aways been most effective, but also very expensive and at the minute even this advertising is providing very few leads. I seem to remember that Yell was quite a small outlay so it might be worth a try, you only need a few responses to make your money back. Good luck!

heatherbelle_3

I can understand why you wouldn't advertise online with your business but I get 75% off my business through the internet and get a decent amount of clicks out of yell.com
I wouldn't bother with Thomson - I never use it. I only ever use yell.com and the yellow pages.

missm29

From our yellow pages ad we have only ever received 3 calls in 2 years, yellow pages keep trying to get us to go bigger, next time i will go for the smallest one line ad. You can have a free entry on yell.com i think i went online and did it myself, they keep hassling us to upgrade where it has a link to your website and so many lines of info. We have found the best advertising to be word or mouth, putting boards up where he is working, getting the van/car signed, and sending letters and our business card introducing us to other companies with a price list, we made our prices cheaper for the first year just so companies would try us, we are in the construction trade. We also have some leaflets that we deliver to the other houses in the road where he is working. We found the local papers expensive for advertising, and the sites where customers leave feedback useless because people never get round to doing it, even when they were given pre-paid postage cards to fill out, the customers were happy as he got more work from them.

As you are in computer repairs, you might want to offer them a laptop while theirs is in repair, i remember when ours was being fixed they took 2 weeks and it was a nightmare having no laptop/internet.

missm29

i forgot to mention do people use the thompson local? i always put ours straight in the bin, too much clutter in my house, and not many people advertise in there, we have never been approached by them to advertise. Yell.com is always my first place to search for a number, next time i declutter i might bin the yellow pages as i never used the paper version.

Stu666

missm29 wrote: »

i forgot to mention do people use the thompson local? i always put ours straight in the bin, too much clutter in my house, and not many people advertise in there, we have never been approached by them to advertise. Yell.com is always my first place to search for a number, next time i declutter i might bin the yellow pages as i never used the paper version.

I have to say that I personally reach for the Thompson first rather than the Yellow Pages. In my area, the Thompson has a more local feel to it and is easier to use than the Yellow Pages.

It has been suggested to me that Thompson has a stronger hold in my area, and this was something the sales lady mentioned to me, although the Yellow Pages rep was having none of it.

dacouch

I personally think advertising in yellow pages or thomson local is a waste of time and expensive now days.

If you want a tradesman or shop etc do you get the yellow pages out or do you use google. I bet you use the internet most of us do now as you get a better selection, you can find more information and you can often see reviews of them.

The problem with yell and thomsons is that if your customer was going on line to look for you they have to go into the yell or thomson site which is quite slow. You will also find as well as bringing your name up it will have your competitors names above you as they have paid more money than you.

If I were you I would get your own website then when someone googles your trade it will come up with your site. For information on how to get your site high on google see my advice in this thread.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1487945

There is some good advise in there.

If you want people to find you on line get a website and / or there are lots of free online directories you can put your business details on that will come up when people google you or your trade. I explain it all in the thread.

Yell and Thomsons will be asking you for about £300 to £400 each for a fairly basic entry I bet. You can get a decent website for less than you would be paying them and you will get a better return.

I hope this and my other thread helps, if you need any further advice post on here or pm me

Good luck

DKLS

I agree with dacouch, in fact every time I get a Yellow pages/Thomson delivered they go straight in the recycling bin.
For me they don't serve any purpose, and how many people use yell.com, when google is infinitely better.

dacouch

DKLS wrote: »

I agree with dacouch, in fact every time I get a Yellow pages/Thomson delivered they go straight in the recycling bin.
For me they don't serve any purpose, and how many people use yell.com, when google is infinitely better.

Like I said think how you would find say a plumber and ask your friends the same, things have changed a lot recently in this field with the advent of the internet and will keep changing very very quickly. 41 million people in the UK have internet access and the government recently pledged that by 2012 every one in the uk will have the ability to connect to a broadband connnection.

No doubt other people will not agree with my OPINION as will have other experiences thats why I say think how you and your friends would find a business and its likely that your customers will use the same method. Also have a search in yell and thomsons to see how it works and how much competition you will have

As I said before you can place free ads in online directories such as freeindex and the adverts on these tend to come up very high on google so you could always try this as well.

Remember when you have the Yell and Thomsons reps out they are on a very good commission to sell to you so take what they say with a pinch of salt and spend some time finding out whats best for you as its important to spend your budget wisely and to spend it in the best way to get customers

want2Bdebtfree

We run a small hotel and have stopped advertising in Thompson's and after reading others comments we should have stopped sooner.
We are seriously considering stopping Yell. Although they say so many clicks on site but if it does not turn into a paying customer it is worthless. As mentioned use the free ad sites.
We have also found that to generate a local response paying for a postcard or leaflet insertion into the local paper is far better and cheaper than an advert.

If you do a website enquiry for similar businesses see where they are advertising and do the same especially if when you search for info your company fails to be listed.

dacouch

I agree with you want2bdebtfree, here are some links to companies who allow you to advertise in their online directeries free of charges (Some may ring you after and offer to upgrade for a fee but you do not need to). A lot of these especially Freeindex, smilelocal, businessdirectory come very high on google if your customers search your name or if you word your listing well certain words your customer searches for. These are free and work well, if you put links on your site to your listing in these directories and have a link in your listing on them it really assist taking your name higher in googler.

Thanks for A6 windows for the list...
a6windows vbmenu_register("postmenu_18940775", true);
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i would also try the local free papers ads in there are quite cheap we advertise in the classifieds of 5 and get more work out of there than the phone books.internet is excellent and cheap advertising but if someones computer is broke how they gonna find you?.free listing on yell .com and bt tradespace are available and list your website on these and more
http://www.uksmallbusinessdirectory.co.uk/
http://www.searchme4.co.uk/
http://www.bizwiki.co.uk/
http://www.askalix.com/uk/
http://www.streetslocal.co.uk/
http://www.businessgalore.co.uk/
http://www.theigroup.co.uk/
http://www.easyadverts.co.uk/
http://cardiff.adzooks.co.uk/services/other/uk-free-directory-free-business-listings-for-local-communities-wwwukfreedirectorycom-1461562.html
http://www.sheriffratings.com/
http://www.kentfind.co.uk/
http://www.thomsondirectories.com/
http://www.thomsonlocal.com/
http://www.yourparish.co.uk/
http://www.business-directory-uk.co.uk/business-links.php
https://www.freeindex.co.uk
https://www.smilelocal.co.uk