Do you get many calls for your business from Yellow pages?

Question

I'm in the UK and am making a Yellow pages ad to be produced next year. I had one before and despite paying £700 i had not a single call from it at all. I just want to know if any of you run a business that gets many calls from the printed version of Yellow Pages. I already advertise online, not on yell, and thats works well, i'm wondering whether printed directories are going out of fashion or if i just did something wrong last time.

Answer 1

As a potential customer I can tell you I ONLY use YP when I need to locate a local business that I want to visit 'in person' (or want them to visit me in person) .... at all other times I use the web...

(why not use the web for local business ? because I have to sort through thousands of 'hits' to find one with a real physical address ..)

Answer 2

It depends on what kind of business you run and the kind of ad you have, too.  Yellow Pages is the traditional place for people to look for certain businesses - taxis and plumbers, for example.  For other businesses, people need to know other things that you can't find in an ad.  For example, if someone is looking for bed and breakfast accommodation or a complementary therapist, there's a lot more they'd need to know before making a booking.

Many ads in Yellow Pages fall into the 'institutional' ad category, that is, they just say what the company is, list some of its products and give contact details.  The ones that have a better response are the ones that talk directly to their prospective customers.  For example, a professional photographer may put in his/her ad that they provide photographs for year books, annual reports, press releases and web sites.  That way, anyone looking for a photographer knows that they're the one to contact because the company does what they're looking for.

We used to pay for display ads in Yellow Pages but gave up after YP messed up our ads two years running.  Once there's an error in there, you're stuck with it for the life of the book and some more.  Now, we use only yell.com, where we can change the bullets to suit what's happening in the business.

We find that many people prefer to search on-line for products and services.  When they do approach us, they've usually been to our website, had most of their questions answered and are ready to buy.

The other thing against spending out on YP ads is that you're putting it in a publication that is read by thousands of people who have no interest in what you're selling.  Think about how much more effective a campaign you could run for £700, targeted directly at your market.  For example, one of our targets is the B&B industry.  We spend our advertising budget on approaching them directly through mailshots and in publications that they read.  We do similar things for our other target markets.

Good luck with your business!  YP may not be the place for you.