Yellow Page Ads

winnjewett

I wonder if I could ask for advise about Yellow Page ads. As a new photographer, should I spend about $120 per month on yellow page ads, or are there better ways to advertise?

For people who have had success with their yellow page ads, do you have any advise on layout, wording, size vs cost considerations?

Any sort of information or thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks,
Winn

David_S85

$1,200 per year...
...is a LOT to spend in an advertising media that is near to its extinction.

YP is just not what it used to be. People's fingers go typing and searching now, not walking anymore.

Many (OK, most) brick and morter stores have decided to drop the display ads altogether, or taper it down to a mere trickle, such as in-column block ads or bold text listings only. The holdouts seem to be the lawyers and the plumbers. I am one who has spent tens of thousands of dollars to advertise that way over the years (not photography related). Every year, I saw less and less results from paying those guys more and more money.

If you were to devote anything at all to yellow page advertising, come up with a dynamite website first, making sure it is easily searchable in many ways, and than pay for a 2nd or 3rd text line listing that also includes your URL, if your directory allows it. Some don't. Most do. If they don't allow that, then forget it.

There are many other marketing ideas to promote your business for far less money (but more effort but better results), which I'm sure others will shortly chime in with here -- but I wanted to disuade you from making the mistake of buying into the YP hype that it is still the #1 force it was 20-30 years ago. It isn't, and never will be again.

Shay Stephens

I'm with David, put that money into web design. The yellow pages are about as effective as newspapers and radio for getting qualified customers to contact you (i.e. squat).

I don't even have a business listing. All my efforts now go to the web.

winnjewett

David_S85 wrote:

...is a LOT to spend in an advertising media that is near to its extinction.

Thank you, David and Shay very much for your advise. I certainly agree with you that it is a lot of money to spend on advertising in a medium that isn't all it's cracked up to be these days.

Is there anyone else who has had good experiences with their yellow page ads?

-winn

Andy

winnjewett wrote:

Any sort of information or thoughts would be helpful.

Thanks,
Winn

In The Search by John Battelle, he notes that in five years, the phonebooks could be obsolete. I'd agree - with the amount of internet usage nearing the stratosphere, your customers are far more likely to use Google or another search engine to find you than the yellow pages. Google Local, Citysearch, Yahoo, MSN, AOL they're all out with Local versions of their search....

Best of luck to you, Winn!

Nikolai

While I agree

Andy wrote:

In The Search by John Battelle, he notes that in five years, the phonebooks could be obsolete. I'd agree - with the amount of internet usage nearing the stratosphere, your customers are far more likely to use Google or another search engine to find you than the yellow pages. Google Local, Citysearch, Yahoo, MSN, AOL they're all out with Local versions of their search....

Best of luck to you, Winn!

with the extiction of paper-based ads that being replaced by online ones, the question is: how to make sure that google local, msn local, yahoo local, etc. have your listing?

One thing about YP was that once your listing got there it kinda automatically appeared in all those online ones, neh?

bham

Yeah like Nikolai said make sure to get listed in the phone book. If people use the phone book, or their website then they will get you listed. Yellowpages.com and others like it pull from local books to combine for a complete directory of the nation.

I am a former yellow page company employee, and I have a small in column with name # website. I get some but not a ton of calls.

What I think you will find that if you are a business or service that people will do research on and compare before buying (like photography) they will do research and find info on the web. If you are a business or service that people can't really compare ( repair a car, fix washer, restaurant ) without trying first then selling them on you in the yellow pages is probably more important.

Also you may try and get an idea how connected your area is. Is computer use and internet connectivity high or are they low. If they are low then you may think stronger about YP. The internet is a great thing, but if your potential customers don't have it or use it, then they won't find you that way. (This is not as likely but it is an important consideration IMHO)