Yellow pages- your thoughts

[Thermo]

Im after some people views on the value of advertising in the yellow pages. i've recently set up my own company and im getting a lot of work in from word of mouth (always a nice compliment!) I did set up some adverts with yellow pages which is going to cost me 500. They have frankly been absolutley appaling the way they have treated me in sorting things out and now say thieve got the price wrong and want to charge even more money. Anyway i digress. Does anybody else advertise with them and think its value for money? Does anybody else immediatley pick up the yellow pages to look for a company they need?
I would be interested to hear peoples views as i feel i may be better spending the money on other forms of advertising, linking it all back to my website.

Cheers

Thermo

 

[AdamW]

A cartoon strip in Viz got it right, people pick up YP, find the trade they are looking for and ring "A1 Aardvaak Plumbers", because that is the first one there.

So, if you are listed as "Thermo" then I would consider either getting a noticeable ad or changing your company name to AAAAA11111 Thermo"

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Depends on the nature of the business I guess???

So, what is the... etc

 

[david and julie]

I advertised there years ago and they were dreadful people to deal with. I would compare it to double glazing etc, that is, all commission based. I wouldn't trust anything they say, get everything in writing before you sign.

That said many customers use it as a first point of call. One of the problems I found is that living in a large area(Manchester) you get calls for quotes etc, which entail far to much travelling. We also got calls in the middle of the night etc by cranks.

Depending what you are doing I think the Thompson local is better, It is also cheaper, perhaps the Thompson and local papers occasionally will be a similar cost and suit your needs. You can also target your adverts away from rough area's this way too.

I was in business for a long time and believe me with the cost of fuel and traffic, it pays to stay as local as possible.

Best of luck.

 

[Thermo]

The name is sorted so it comes up pretty near the front, but i think you are right david they are awful to deal with. I signed up for the ad on 5th october and despite numerous chasing i still havnt got the proofs back with the deadline at the end of the week! On top of this theyve turned around and said it will be an extra £30 for the adverts. Not much, but when youve got a tight budget and youve been treated like crap it is! Im at the point of saying poke it and using smaller papers like the friday-ad and thompson, but with a decent advert in it. i've also got a decent website done and flyers etc. i just cant believe they treat a new customer like this.
Im just intrested to see peoples point of view and its making intresting reading already

 

[Thermo]

oh and by the way it was all in writing as well when i signed up to it! im 99% sure im going to tell them to poke it! i think they operate on the weve got you over a barrel principle

 

[Igorian]

Just give them plenty of stick. They will bring the price down, especially if they have mucked it up. You have to haggle hard tho.

 

[matz]

I've advertised in yellow pages but my trade is specialised so there are few entries under the title and I'm one of two in my local area and it works for me. BUT I do advertise there on the basis of gaining a local presence only, so a very small ad does the job. One advantage of Yell is that they do installments so its "a cost per month". Its still the reference that most people use. IMPORTANT double check right before printing date that they have the ad right, the phone number right and the classification right. Its a yearly ad and is useless if any of this is wrong (and it often is)

Local papers are too expensive and a waste of time. IMHO

PS If I was a plumber, I wouldnt bother going up against the big ads and would just put in a cheapo ad just for local presence.

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

I would imagine that for trades such as plumbing, electrical, decorating etc. you cant go far wrong with a dirty great van with high quality signwriting and a freephone number. Especially if it is a catchy name, people spread the word of the name and then will see the van. This is one of the fantastic things about the web, (good) web site url's are easier to remember than a telephone number, so can look you up.

With the numbers, I always remember 0 8 hundred to 15 thousand (lombard direct) fantastic piece of PR.

Also, the 28 28 too oh... What was that for again??? Anyone?

 

[breezer]

but lombard will loan more than 15 k now

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

but lombard will loan more than 15 k now

Yes, quite correct Breezer my old chum (as always !), but the number remains. 0800 to 25 thousand just doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

 

[breezer]

0800 to 25 thousand just doesn't quite have the same ring to it!

it would if that is what they had start out with, it is what you "get used to"

 

[planenut]

I did do some research into the Yellow Pages advertising when I was trying to launch a local trades list. Certainly if you specialize and there's only a few trades in the column then it's worth it, but if you do specialize, then you spend more time travelling. If there's more than fifteen, look elsewhere. People do start from the top and work down, it's not very helpful for local trades and 95% of their customers are unhappy with the treatment. Persons looking for tradesmen find it difficult to pin down a local body now due to freephone and cheap rate numbers.
Stick to local publications or the library, though the signwritten van is great.

 

[Diyisfun]

If its not to late use an 0800 number in your add. You only pay for calls received & you can tell by the montly report how many hits you have had. If you want more info contact me. (my company uses about 50 freefone numbers & we can advertise depending on hits).
Remember you will also be on their web site & I think more results come from there than the actual directory.
Thomsons pages are better if you are looking for a more local service.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Hi
We advertise in 2 Yellow Pages areas and get good results from them (small ad). Because our name starts with W we always have the risk to end on the lefthand corner of the last page of the category. On advice from the lady of yellow pages we put a . in fornt of our ad-name= .Wood and we come up front ), together with other 'smart' companies starting their ad-name with 1 or 1st.
We also have a (enhanced) listing on the yell.com, since more and more people use the internet to find companies. Perhaps that's also an idea (and is less expansive then an ad in the books).