Yellow Pages

[badranman]

For you guys that aren't flat out just by word of mouth, what seems to be you're best advertising bang for the buck? Ads in my local classifieds bring me quite a bit of work. I was wondering about the Yellow Pages. I know on ******** and some other forums alot of guys say people just use them to get the lowest price. Of course some say they won't use it again, others swear by it. I have an appointment next week with a Yellow Pages rep just to get an idea on price etc. What are your thoughts?

Thanks

[Steve Frazier]

I have just an expanded column ad in my yellow pages, costs about $120/month. We've got 3 different companies providing yellow pages here, one has a real aggressive sales team that just turns me off. I only advertise in the Verizon book, it's the one I look for when I need something.

The only reason I've got the ad is to legitimize my business, if a potential customer wants to see if I'm fly by night and checks, I've got an ad there. Nearly all my work comes from referals.

I find my best advertising money is spent in a local quarterly magazine. I've had a number of clients call quoting my ad there. It's distributed free among residents within a 10 mile radius of my home, so I'm hitting my target area right where I want to.

The magazine is an informational type, hitting on highlights of the area. Pretty interesting and I run a full page ad there. It's worked real well for me.

[badranman]

Steve, that's exactly what I was thinking when you mentioned "legitimate business". I also have a local magazine type paper that comes out twice a month. I guess it couldn't hurt to give it a try, it is pretty cheap to place an ad there. I'm just making sure the Yellow Page ad isn't a complete waste of about $1400.00.

[CT18fireman]

I just run the standard listing at no charge. Just in case someone says "Jesse Fry, I can't remember his number though". It does legitimize it. I am not looking for people surfing the yellow pages. I find that other then referrals my pennysaver ad brings the most big jobs in.

[Dwan Hall]

I find my best advertising is on the side of my equipment. All of it. The phone # is not all that big but My name is and the logo is known all around town. I have standerd 1 line name and number in 14 dfferent places in the phone book. everyone knows my name and it is easy to find my number that way. Compition in the phone book is to expencive and when I did have an add I don't think it ever paid for itself.