Question
If I want to go in the yellow pages I'll need to do it this week. I am not even considering a big ad. I can spend about $50 per month and get an ad that will be kind of "middle of the road" size wise (relative to the competition already in the book). I mostly do smaller projects like bath vanities, entertainment centers, wall units etc. I really need the work, but I'm kind of concerned that although it's only $50 per month, it may be a wasted $600 per year. Worse still I can see it possibly being not only a waste of money, but of time as well if it gets me mostly "tire kicker" or bargain shopper calls. Any experience anyone can share?
Forum Responses
(Business and Management Forum)
From contributor J:
I feel that the yellow pages are a thing of the past. The major yellow pages here have us in as a free listing. Two years ago we noticed that 95% of our calls were off the internet. Most of the yellow page companies have an internet division. That's where you need to be. I'm in Texas and mine is only $29 per month.
That said, if your prospects are using the traditional yellow pages and you are not there but all your competitors are, would you be conspicuously absent? In many small to midsized markets, that absence can have a dramatic impact on your sales. Another question to answer is, if you don't spend the money on the yellow pages, what would you buy that would generate inquiries for you? Most successful businesses do not rely on one or two channels of incoming inquiries, but several are normally in their marketing mix.
With any paid advertising, as well as with word of mouth referrals, there are always going to be a certain number of "tire kickers". That is now, has always been and likely will always be a part of the sales process and not a function of advertising or marketing. Advertising's job is to make the phone ring with an inquiry, nothing more. Anything that happens after that initial inquiry is part of the sales process, not part of advertising. In this business as in all others, there will always be a number of off target inquiries or "tire kickers". Part of your function is to process all the inquiries and distill them down to the few real prospects that will buy what you sell.
Every inquiry has a price tag attached to it. You have invested some form of cash dollars or "time dollars" or both to get the phone to ring, or get an e-mail from a prospect or have someone walk into your office or shop or meet you on a job site. The very best form of advertising for your business may be entirely different than for your competitor across town or a similar business in a larger or smaller city in another part of the country. It's much more about who you view as an ideal client and how you reach them with your message than it is about which kind of advertising works for someone else. Once you have defined that ideal client or prime prospect, your advertising buys can become instantly much easier and much more effective.
Yet another question is how do I know which ad or ads are working the best for me? The answer to that one is contained in a very easy system to track your inquiries. It is a system I teach at seminars I give at various woodworking shows and events across the country. That seminar contains much of what I said above in detail, and helps define what works and what doesn't work in advertising and marketing from a client centered approach.
The key is a website that is more than a place to put your contact information. Putting large amounts of information and pictures of your products and abilities will keep potential customers from just hitting the back button. The more information you put in your web pages, in the form of text, the more potential hits your website will get. Submitting sitemaps to Google will also increase your standing in multiple search engines since many search engines use Google’s database.
I subscribe to the "a picture says a thousand words" school of thought. Yellow page ads do not give you this type of attention holding advertising. Getting good pictures of some or all of your finished work and keeping your website updated often with new completed work can keep people checking back to your site. When things get slow you can throw up a sale banner. When an item does not sell you can put it up on a clearance page or an unclaimed work page. The website gives you so much more content for your money and if used correctly can boost you business greatly.
