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kwatt wrote:Let me just ask something…
How many of you actually use YP to find anything now and how many of you haven’t seen sight of a YP book since you stuck it in the cupboard the last time it was delivered beside the phone book?
K.Perzactly.
I’m in the plus 55 age bracket, I never use the telephone book, nor do I use yellow pages. I Google everything. Like many I have wireless B/Band and apart from full accessibility from the networked pc’s in the office, the home machine is on-line all day.
A few years ago we all had 1 phone and that would have been on the hall table with the books underneath, now we all enjoy cordless handsets, and consequently the books could be anywhere, (in my case so could the phone). So much easier to press a button, and see instant up to date information on the screen.
Therfore I have no need for books or directories which end up at the back of the cupboard or wherever. So being a typical consumer, despite a lack of youth, my first port of call is the web. If I’m doing it that way, you can be sure so does most of a younger generation. I’ve even got out of Christmas shopping.
Now looking at it from the business point of view:-
I used to spend £6k p.a. on Yellow pages, and I’m about to reduce to Yell.com only. The Y.P. salesmen cannot deny they are finding life difficult. He told me I’m mad, but he won’t be there next year to see me prove him wrong!
As I said earlier, I need to factor £8 from the first 15 calls of each week to cover the present level of my advertising just to break even, and that is just for one book out of 4 for my area.
Keeping a spread sheet on my income and departmentalising it I am able to see at a glance exactly what the levels are, and I can see if there is a change 3 Months after the new book is out. I’m happy to keep you all updated, and happier not to be wasting my money.
Alex
Re: Yellow Pages
I ask all my customers where they got my number, most are recommendations, followed by our local paper then yellow pages, the pages still give me enough business to continue advertising tho next year I will cut my spending with them.
One place that brings me in new business is my local hairdresser, he agreed (50 quid cash in hand per year) to display three A4 posters in front of his chairs just below the mirrors, now we know how long women can sit having the hairdo so these posters get maximum exposure throughout the year and I know my 50 quid has been well spent.
silverbroom
Re: Yellow Pages
I’ve got a different referance (i.e TP1, YEL!1 YEL2) on every ad I place and every customer who rings I ask about the referance :lesson: . And the results are:
Yel1,2
Reccomends and repeat custom
PB1,2 (phonebook)…
….
…
….
….
…
TP1
Guess what happened to Tomsons this year……finally 😆TC
Re: Yellow Pages
Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 12:31 am
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I’ve got a different referance (i.e TP1, YEL!1 YEL2) on every ad I place and every customer who rings I ask about the referance . And the results are:
Yel1,2
Reccomends and repeat custom
PB1,2 (phonebook)…
….
…
….
….
…
TP1
Guess what happened to Tomsons this year……finallyTC
But its Thursday!
How can you post with Fridays date?Re: Yellow Pages
‘Cos you haven’t reset the time………
Go into “Profile” from any forum, and reset your site time.
Chris.
PS – we do a little box ad in YP and nothing else now. Just so as the little old ladies can still find me when they lose the business cards…..
Re: Yellow Pages
Now that the Yellowpages are hitting the doorsteps I always check my ads as I advertise in three classifications and want to ensure that the ads are correct. Once thats done I survey the rest of the book to see my compeditors ads and who’s packed it in and who’s just started up.
Always a useful exercise I find !. However this year I have noticed that although we have four new comers, several of my main compeditors have scaled sown their adverstising noticably.
You have to wonder if they have a downturn in business or are just reducing overheads in this volitile climate.
These last months we have been busy and lately the phone rings constantly with decent work coming through. It’s always a gamble to knock YP on the head and I will this coming year be quantifying if YP is worth the money at nearly 5k Per year !
Re: Yellow Pages
just been told they are no longer going to have a section for vacuum cleaners (repairs & spares) how stupid is that,we get alot of business through this channel.
They suggest going into the electrical appliance section but i ain’t sure.Dave
Re: Yellow Pages
kladave wrote:They suggest going into the electrical appliance section but i ain’t sure.
The take in most areas under the Vacuum Cleaner Repairs & Spares is pretty poor. And if they remove the heading it will no doubt refer all potential customers to look under the Electrical Appliance Repairs & Spares heading anyway, so no need to worry on that score I guess? 😉
Re: Yellow Pages
Just had this year’s rep back in, produced some pretty pictures, something I told him not to bother with.
Every year they looked at my advert, and proceded to berate the picture I had, telling me it was not very good, yet his predecessor done just that the year before, it would be them that produces it, and they used to charge artwork for the priviledge.
I told him he was wasting his time, and elected for 2 bold minimum displays @ £98 each, and my free line. Sent him off with a flea in his ear.
I’m sure I can justify the saving, and next year I shall know.
Alex
Re: Yellow Pages
I had the same last year, they came and told me how awfull my existing adds were (which have basicly evolved form the original add from years ago) Subject to his hard sell I agreed the adds were somewhat old fashioned and dated so I went with his slick mdern approach.
During the following year I was constantly told by customers that they had trouble finding our phone number and when I mentioned yellow pages they swore we were not in there. I then asked them to show me where they were looking and there we were, right across the bottom £2k’s odd of shiny colourful advert. ” oh, I didnt think that was you” was the usual comment as the add seemed to suggest to them that we were some sort of multinational and they didnt associate it with the local guy who has worked on their stuff for years. (and no doubt there is a sticker with our number inside the door anyway!)
Admittedly we had moved from a shop during that period and it is amazing how many people only knew us from the street name we were in without remembering our actual name.
Now we are back to our old adds, updated and importantly a “formerly of” statement added under our name. I did notice an air of resignation and disheartedness in the usually flamboyant salesman who didnt try to get me to increase my budget at all and happily agreed with my points.
I also noticed nowdays you do not need to have your address in the advert….Re: Yellow Pages
In my area the book has been split into two from Ipswich & Colchester into seperate books for each .
In the Ipswich book (my local one )I put our usual ad as a reminder that we are still here ,but in the other book I put in three small ads but in Bold I have placed brands as a heading followed by the phone no i.e SMEG repairs ,HYGENA Repairs ,DIPLOMAT Repairs ,and what do you know I am getting shed loads of Smeg And a bit of the others and when I am writing the bill and ask where they got my no from they all say the same thing ,the yellow pages because yours was the obvious one .the lovely thing is I charge £50 callout in Colchester and they always have them repaired as they are so expensive to replace .
LawrenceRe: Yellow Pages
Well it seems that the advertising downturn is affecting Yell.com severely. So bad in fact that they have a debts shortfall of £3.7bn since they tried to build up their empire in the USA and Spain in 2005 & 2006. Shortly after they invested heavily in both countries, those countries suffered a major property market slump that dragged their respective economies with it. Yell’s shares have plummeted since.
Yell is desperate now to raise cash to prop up their empire. Small businesses represent the bulk of their income and they will be after your money in whatever way it can do to convince you advertising with them gives results. The fact is, it doesn’t!!!!!!!!!! 👿
The same fate awaits newspaper groups, the fall in the housing market has meant they are not getting the adverts from estate agents and motor dealers. Those that advertise in their local rag will be asked for more money up front to fund their shortfall.
The best advice is, take a close look at your advertising budget and don’t be fooled by advertisers ‘ad response statistics’, they are totally and unequivocally false projections by someone only desperate for your money! 😉
Re: Yellow Pages
YP and yell.com plus the local phone book as far as I can see is a must. and as for looking up for services YP is my first port of call but like Bryan I’m usuall looking for someone I know so chances are my customers are doing the same thing. I dont use anyone tradeing with just a free phone number or a mobile number in my oppinion this makes a firm look like a hear today gone tomorrow get rich quick outfit.
best ads are word of mouth and silly things like church magazines where the bod in charge of the adverts are known as a mine of information that can usuall point anyone in the direction of any local service.
well thats what I think!wilf
Re: Yellow Pages
We are well into month 2 of the new Y.P. book with no advert except the bare minimum.
To date we have NOT noticed the difference. I do a spread sheet for every Month showing the percentage of income regards my top 6 accounts over the business as a whole, including Cheques, C/cards and Cash. The chart produces a graph of the trend with a comparison relating to the same period the previous year.
When my 1st quarter ends in July, I shall pop in some figures. Year on year the chargeable work has dropped by approximately 4{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} and looking to date, there is nothing that worries me.
So far so good. Alex
Re: Yellow Pages
Had the rep from the yellows out a couple of weeks ago, she seemed ok, was pleased she didnt try to push for a bigger ad as they often do.
However, Her FIRST words when she sat down were “The good news is theres NO increase in prices over last year”, on friday i get the DD schedule in through the post with a 4{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} increase 👿Try calling the mobile number on her business card but it’s constantly on voicemail, eventually leave a message asking her (politely) to please call me back & explain why she lied to me.. no response.
Called yellows HQ today & they were no real help, couldnt comment on a conversation they didnt hear was their line, but they said they would email the rep.. i wont hold my breath :rolls:Im gonna be more vigilant next year, my own fault for not looking more closely at what i was actually signing, i just think a 4{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} increase in these low inflation times is totally taking the p*ss.
Anyone else experienced a similar increase? ❓
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