Arm yourself !!

[Chris Muetterties]

Arm yourself against the YP rep. We have all been told to track new calls how about going further. When in the Custys home look and see what phone book they have. Most keep it under the phone. If one is not present ask.........


I think you might just find out that they don't use it anymore.


Sound off..............................

 

[Jim Pemberton]

The phone books have not helped most cleaners for years, even before the advent of the internet. I won't speak for all cleaners, as some that I respect have tracked and can prove success with that medium; but most do not.

I cannot list the amount of cleaners who had a mistake in their ad with the wrong phone number, and their business did not decline at all. Others have dropped franchises and had to change both name AND phone number and lost no business.

So what good was the phone book doing all of that time?

Now that even the marginal computer users google for services, the phone books are often still found in the bags that they were delivered in when the replacements show up the next year.

And remember, they'll call you with a really CLOSE deadline to get you to make a snap decision. Don't fall for it.

I won't tell anyone not to have their number in the book, but make sure you don't spend (or exceed) your entire advertising budget for just the phone book ad. Its rarely worth it.

 

[Chris Muetterties]

Great post Jim,

What I always see is the salesman working on your fears.

 

[Brian R]

Phone books will produce very little so you have to have decent cash flow to begin with...you can't start or survive off of them.


And who has home phones anymore?
Usually the homeowners phone is in her purse.

 

[Chris A]

This year I cut my YP budget in half, out of a 200,000 population book completely because I wasn't going to spend the money to go big. I kept the same size in a smaller book because it's more rural, and still has many people who use the phone book, and still ride horses, use oil lamps, etc.

 

[Walt]

Four years ago my YP agent said we'd go out of business when we cut all our ads. To be honest, I was a little nervous. So was my wife. We almost pulled the trigger on another year. But we didn't and we didn't feel it in the slightest.


YP book goes directly in the recycle bin. I wouldn't be surprised if its completely dead in 5 years.

 

[Jim Williams]

Same as Walt. been out for 2 years and still have more work than I can handle. I do pay $25 a month for a bold listing because I no longer have a land line and want old customers to be able to find me in the unfortunate event that thier refrigerator magnet gets lost.

 

[R W]

One BOLD listing, $25 a month. I'm not going to try to compete with the multi-truck companies around here....some of their YP ads are $3-4-5000 a month!

 

[Jeff Madsen]

Haven't been in the yellow pages since day one so I can't tell if it made a difference or not. I know I haven't missed dealing with the cost and all the nonsense that goes with it. I've kept busy for a long time now so no complaints.

 

[roro]

This year I cut my YP budget in half,

Ditto. We record source of all incoming calls and yellow pages has continually tracked down.

roro

 

[ACE]

This year I cut my YP budget in half,

Ditto. We record source of all incoming calls and yellow pages has continually tracked down.

roro

I'm also cutting my budget in half for 2010. The YP market share go's down as their price go's up. It's funny how the reps always offer a discount they had overlooked when you tell them you are pulling your Ad.

 

[Chris Muetterties]

This year I cut my YP budget in half,

Ditto. We record source of all incoming calls and yellow pages has continually tracked down.

roro

I'm also cutting my budget in half for 2010. The YP market share go's down as their price go's up. It's funny how the reps always offer a discount they had overlooked when you tell them you are pulling your Ad.

Their MO is always the same. "I can't tell you who but I can tell you quite a few of other CCers are going with bigger ads this year"

Blah Blah Blah

That why I say arm your self. Start looking while your in the home as to what phone book if any are in the home.

 

[randy]

I bought my first directory advertising at age 14. A business card size ad in "The Community Directory" for $125.00 per year. It was mailed to around 8,000 homes , got me a ton of lawn mowing jobs close enough that I could drive my riding lawnmower to , and helped expand my little enterprise. By the time I graduated from High School I had "real" yellowpage directory advertising. The quarter page ad would ring the phone off the hook in the spring & fall and keep myself and 6 helpers really business April -November. It was not unusual to sell enough new accounts to pay for a year of yellow page advertising by the end of March.

When I entered the carpet cleaning business I started off with a 1/2 page ad in two different directories and all though it was expensive it was my main source of leads for years. When the Internet went "mainstream" in 1999 and became easier to access for ordinary folks things started to change, but slowly. Around 5 years ago in our area the yellowpage became a dinosaur, today it is a decomposing dinosaur and people call in mass and request that it not be delivered to their home anymore. Like Saturday mail delivery it will soon disappear from our lives and not be missed. Who needs it when you can get better results with relatively FREE Internet advertising and have a decent website for $150 & $20 a year to host it. Right now one of my marketing efforts cost a whooping $480 per year and brings in more sales than $3,500 a month yellow pages ads were when I last ran them (about 5 years ago). Times have changed and the advertising industry is in denial, you can build a decent business today with a DSL line , $9.00 a month website and free Internet ads.

Soon you will see newspapers disappear along with the yellowpages. Major newspapers including the Washington Post, New York Times, and Chicago Tribune are in serious financial trouble and not expected to make it another 5 years.

Ten years after the internet became part of the common man's vernacular it was suddenly tough for them. Fifteen years into it and they will be gone. The vast majority of direct mail will disappear in another 10-20 years and home delivery will be gone in most of our lifetimes. All made obsolete by the net. I would never have guessed it and I'm still amazed at the changes it has brought about.

The only place I would run yellowpage ads today would be a rural area that is served by dial up exclusively and/ or has a population dominated by those 70 years of age or older.

 

[Ron Werner]

I just cut mine in half, in the one book anyway. Went from an inline info box to a basic listing with my website and an online link to my website. Have that in both the Big book and the small local book. Be about $500 for the year.

WHere they get you is when they bring out a new book in the area. There is the feeling of needing to be in the book, just in case. Right now there are 3, the actual YP's, big and local, and then Canpages book. In tracking, I make more from Canpages, the competitor, get more calls as well though they are end of month price shoppers.