SB: Yellow Pages and Thompson online worth it?

Florallounge

Hi A6. It can be really hard to get a return when in such a competitive market and I suppose the economic climate aint a help right now either. You have defi git the right idea with more than one ad but maybe a few diff styles almost looking like they are different companies and targetting areas e.g. if you were in Newcastle for instance then one saying Gateshead Windows, Newcastle Windows, Durham Windows etc as I know I like to purchase locally.

Food for thought mate. cheers ;-)

thebaldwindowfitter

Florallounge wrote: »

Hi A6. It can be really hard to get a return when in such a competitive market and I suppose the economic climate aint a help right now either. You have defi git the right idea with more than one ad but maybe a few diff styles almost looking like they are different companies and targetting areas e.g. if you were in Newcastle for instance then one saying Gateshead Windows, Newcastle Windows, Durham Windows etc as I know I like to purchase locally.

Food for thought mate. cheers ;-)

one ad in each book as company name and one ad is name of book ie bolton windows both different ads different numbers and still doesnt seem to generate much work compared to other media

sashman

TOP TIP when you evaluate the cost/benefit of yellow pages etc, most people ask customers "where did you get our number from" answer YP.......so thats great, wrong.

ALWAYS ask them twice, lots of people will then say," oh i saw you at, I heard about your from a friend, bla bla etc", but they got your number from yellow pages.

Moral of the story, ask twice and then you'll get a clearer picture of how people use yello pages

sashman

cavework

The most effective way to advertise your business is to target your market. We have one free entry in Yellow pages and the return isn,t too bad.
We have no web site but we have paid £100 per annum to a company who searches for avaliable tenders relevant to our company.
So far they have sent us 3, one of which we have made a bid for and is worth approx £20,000 per annum or more and we have a very good chance of winning it.
We would not have been aware of this without subscribing.
You could also aproach your local newspaper , but hold off until the deadline day. You will be able to negotiate a much better deal , 2 colour front page is possible for less than a quarter of the usual price, if thats not avaliable always go for the right hand page.
Best investment we ever made in advertising was to get our vans sign written. It's amazing how many jobs we have secured just because people have seen us in the area.

dacouch

sashman wrote: »

TOP TIP when you evaluate the cost/benefit of yellow pages etc, most people ask customers "where did you get our number from" answer YP.......so thats great, wrong.

ALWAYS ask them twice, lots of people will then say," oh i saw you at, I heard about your from a friend, bla bla etc", but they got your number from yellow pages.

Moral of the story, ask twice and then you'll get a clearer picture of how people use yello pages

sashman

Now days they are far more likelyn to google your company

cavework

Now days word of mouth due to customer satisfaction is worth 1000'000 googles.
The other thing to look at is a broader spectrum of where your business could be of interest to potential customers.
Have you looked at Local Authority contracts?
The profit margin may not be so good , but the guaranteed work over a long period of time is worth it. You then become an approved supplier.

dacouch

Agreed and if they have any sense they also google to find out anything good or more importanty bad about the company from the tinternet

cavework

No Sorry..WWW is not the be all and end all and many of our customers cannot be bothered or do not trust the internet. I am talking West Midlands .. it's the area we cover. We had an entry on a business site .. £500 a year , 3 responses in 1 year and all jobs we do not do, but we did refer them to local companies who could help, so in fact we were doing the job of the web site we were paying.
Start small..commercial advertising should not be a huge area of business expenditure, but where it's spent please make sure you will get a return for your money. If you make a mistake (we did) always , always keep a record of your return for the money invested and don,t waste your money the following year.
Target your market even if it means trawling the streets with home produced marketing leaflets.. suprisingly it does work and costs pennys.
When you do telephone sales .. yes it's part of the business, always make sure you get to the real decision maker or at least get their name.
Then go for it..grit your teeth and sell your product/service because you know it's the best on the market. If you don't believe that then give up now.
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