SB: Yellow Pages and Thompson online worth it?

HappySad

missm29 wrote: »

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.

thanks for the advice. I want to advertise my business with as little cost as possbile and get the best value. From what I am ready word of mouth is the most effective.

I used to work in IT support for large PLCs and Limited companies and we found that giving the customers a machine to work on while you fixed theirs really helped. Having a list of faults with expected fix times are good. If you fix times are greater than this then you call the customer to let them know.

HappySad

dacouch wrote: »

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);
MoneySaving Stalwart


Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Greater Manchester
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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
www.freeindex.co.uk
www.smilelocal.co.uk

WOW WOW and Wow again. This is GREAT advice to get my new company up there when they search for me....... Thanks

ukbill69

Maybe the thing about yell.com its good if your a service business like plumber or sparky. Dont bother with yellow pages, just use yell.com. They are suffering atm, so you can pickup a really good deal. I got offered a sponsored listing over two areas, he went from £35 per month, to £28, to £25, to £18, then £9.

dacouch

Happy sad its a really efficient way to get business as if someone googles you or your trade you should come up high on google. The more ads you have the more of a page you will take up on google so you will push your competitors onto the next page.

If you have a website having a link to your website from each advert will help you go higher on google as the more sites you are linked to the better with google. It will also help if at the bottom of the link page on your website if your put links back to your advert on each of your adverts.

If you have a wesbite using keywords and repeating relevant words on each page really helps. For instance if your a plumber try something like this. Joe Smith is an experienced plumber covering Reading, Newbury, Calthorpe and Berkshire. Joe Smith provides a 24 hour plumbing service. He has been a plumber including Central Heating and Boilers for 20 years and enjoys his work in the Reading Area.

etc etc

I would also carry on a bit further down the page and type similar things but for instance have "Do you need a plumber Reading, if so Joe Smith Plumber can provide 24 Hour Reading Callout. Has your Boiler Reading broken down"

By having the above when someone googles "Plumber Reading" or "Joe Smith Plumber" or "24 Hour Reading" or "Boiler + Reading" you will come up higher on google as you have the exact words in the text people are likely to type in google. You might wince at the grammar but people will not tend to read the paragraphs further down the page but google will and it will help you get higher on google.

To see how to harness google do some searches for your trade eg "Plumber + Reading" and see how the non sponsored websites have worded their websites to get high on google. Then to see how not to do it google your mates websites who don't know how to do it and see the differences between the websites.

The easy way to explain how google works is if you do a search it looks for the websites it thinks are the most relevant and also the most important eg linked to other websites and lots of traffic

Florallounge

Guys & Gals. Just been reading all these replies and have to say when it comes to Yellow Pages and Yell.com working or not it is all about the investment and thought that goes into your campaign.

Firstly, I advertise and spend around £20,000 doing so. This is across both media. It works fantastically well. I have a flower shop and considering the ave value of a customer being £30 I really need volume leads.

It delivers far above my minimum requirement. But I stress, sometimes you have to listen to the pro's and heed their advice. (Yes they want to sell to you, but it is in their interest to deliver results to keep you year after year) Too often we make assumptions like "well I use the internet" so does everyone else.

It is a little naieve to think this in my opinion. Indeed there is a large growth in internet useage but you cant change the habit of a lifetime overnight can you? I do however say this whilst not being able to recall the last time I picked up that big yellow book. But I know for a fact that the book is generating more leads than all of my online advertising - IT IS VITAL TO MONITOR LEADS WITH DEDICATED PHONE NUMBERS - ONLY THEN CAN YOU TRULY KNOW.

Remember Yellow Pages has been generating leads for business for decades and Yell.com is just the online equivalent, which I might add delivers a far better quality of lead compared to other search engines. You only really use Yells products when you have your wallet out ready - it's certainly not there as an interesting read now is it?

So now, I must confess. I am an ex Yell senior salesperson. So you could think "is this all talk" but I have to stress - absolutely not!!!

In my ten years with Yell I have experienced everything you could possibly imagine. Customers that love Yell, some that dont, some that get business from it, some that dont. I have many business interests having worked with Yell and seen how easy it can be to make money. This is what led to me buying this business from a customer of mine.

Advertising can be expensive but only if it doesn't make you money - the cost is somewhat irrelevant so long as you get a healthy return on your investment. Yes there are no guarantees, but typically the types of comments above can often be a result of having not done it right first time in the first place.

Buying the wrong advert is like putting Diesel into a Petrol engine. You wont get very far.

I have helped make lots of people very wealthy through Yellow Pages, and they trade in such a vast array of different industries many of which are not trades such as Plumbers which yes you may expect to get good response. Joiners, Bathroom Companies, Vets, Solicitors, Accountants, Kitchen Companies, and florists of course - the list goes on.

A considered, well targetted and dominant campaign CAN cost what may appear a small fortune - but as long as you think from the point of view of your target audience and ensure your message hits the right spot, then you should do well.

If Yellow Pages were not used / put straight in the bin / used for animal bedding .....etc then they would not have people in them and turn over over £400m + from print alone. Add to this the fact that they are the only UK classified advertising medium that is so confident that they deliver value that they give you monitored local numbers FREE then I dont know how else they can prove their commitment to delivering value.

Oh my god - I am going on. But I cant help reacting to some of the posts above considering my knowledge in this area.

And lastly, competition is good, so never be afriad of appearing near it in a book or online search as afterall - we as consumers love choice do we not? Think of the local retail park.... I bet there is a Comet and Currys on one side and then a DFS and SCS on the other. Dont we all go there because of this????

Make sure your ad is one they really want to call - so ensure you give them a reason to do so, and then deliver on your promises and then your business will naturally flourish - even in an economic downturn by the way.

I must stress also that the post about links on directory sites etc is great as indeed this does make a difference too. Even found some sites I've never thought of here. Cheers


You may by now be thinking that if I cut myself that I bleed yellow but end of preaching session. Hopefully of use to someone out there though.

Regards

M

thebaldwindowfitter

Florallounge wrote: »

Guys & Gals. Just been reading all these replies and have to say when it comes to Yellow Pages and Yell.com working or not it is all about the investment and thought that goes into your campaign
Having advertised in yellow pages now over 18 years and being a yellow pages senior account from our experience in my industry at least we have had less work from the yellow pages year on year.Our marketing campaign was dealt with by supposedly the senior business developement manager and despite spending almost 20k did not even recoup our money.Thomson local and bt phone book hasnt proved to have been the same our best form has been papers and top performer per pound by huge amount is website

weeclick

Queenieviolet wrote: »

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!

I signed up with Yell.com for a year in February this year, it cost me £110 but it hasnt been very effective. I have had maybe 1 client in the whole time its been up there, and yell promise this great customer service who review your account regularly to see if they can make changes - but since taking my money Ive only received one letter from them which was a general letter for all customers making us aware of changes.

If your thinking about online advertising why not try gumtree? Its free for a basic advert and you can add photos if you wish. Weve had maybe 3 or 4 clients in comparison and cost us nothing to do in the first place so any clients we got was total profit!

Florallounge

a6windows wrote: »

Florallounge wrote: »

Guys & Gals. Just been reading all these replies and have to say when it comes to Yellow Pages and Yell.com working or not it is all about the investment and thought that goes into your campaign
Having advertised in yellow pages now over 18 years and being a yellow pages senior account from our experience in my industry at least we have had less work from the yellow pages year on year.Our marketing campaign was dealt with by supposedly the senior business developement manager and despite spending almost 20k did not even recoup our money.Thomson local and bt phone book hasnt proved to have been the same our best form has been papers and top performer per pound by huge amount is website

I hear your plight. Often this can be the case, but again I stress my point that it is all about the design and unfortunatley sometimes just because you spend a lot, it does not really mean anything if the designs are not targetted right to the market. I presume you are a window company - I have had both sides in this very industry. 2 ex clients that spent around £25,000 each. One only just recovered his costs and the other made that year just over £150,000 profit. Not a bad return I would say, as each job had the potential for those all important recommendations in the future.

But yes, online is also good for them as too is some TV too.

thebaldwindowfitter

Florallounge wrote: »

a6windows wrote: »

I hear your plight. Often this can be the case, but again I stress my point that it is all about the design and unfortunatley sometimes just because you spend a lot, it does not really mean anything if the designs are not targetted right to the market. I presume you are a window company .

We are a window company yes .our adds were put together by yellow pages and in last years book we had 2 ads marketed supposedly at different target audiences in 4 books .ive re read my previous post and should have put that bt and thomson are not performing either

skellysgirl

Dont waste, your money, do a bit of market research and look at ways of targeting the audience you want better.