Yellow Book Advertising

The Cleaner

The Cleaner

Vetran Washer 30 Years Plus
Has anyone had any luck with the Yellow Book or similar publications?My son is starting a small detail business soon and was wondering what kind of leads he can expect from this type of advertising.I only ask because they want alot of money for 1 year.I never used them with my company,mostly local papers and word of mouth. ;)
 
I would start by going to business and passing out flyers.
 
Use the book that your local phone service publishes to start. Here we have BellSouth phone and book. Some of the others are good, some are not. User Friendly has been nearly as good as BellSouth's book, but several years ago, I signed up with TransWestern Publishing. I was in 8 regional books (east Louisville, south Lou & Bullitt County, southern Indiana...you get the idea) and not 1 call out of ANY of the books. BellSouth ad costs $395.00 a month. Usef Friendly (4 books) $185.00 a month. Got to be where your competition is to be seen.
 
what you can do is go through the phone book and see which numbers have been disconnected and call the phone company and see if you can take over that number and you will not have to pay for the publication. you will already be in the book. save money where you can... ;)
 
#4 IP: 68.93.103.222 Today, 12:01 PM
bholcombe
Member Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Watauga, Texas
Posts: 27

what you can do is go through the phone book and see which numbers have been disconnected and call the phone company and see if you can take over that number and you will not have to pay for the publication. you will already be in the book. save money where you can...


Aww man, that's GREAT!! LOL

The only problem is, what if they did crappy work? Are you going to say you bought out the company or something?
 
all you can do if asked tell the truth. i started out my business and as far as advertising i took over the number. you can say what ever you want to comfort the customer and once they see you do the best work you can in a costly manor then you have a new customer and it all goes from there. this is just a way to keep cost for advertising down.
 
I found the best bang for the buck was to mail flyers out offering a $25 coupon for their first cleaning. (I do Hood cleaning, some pressure washing, chimney sweeping) Paid 5,000 for a ad in the bellsouth yellow pages and never got a single call. Mailed out flyers to a targeted audience got about a 3% response, a couple thousand flyers later and I have more business than I care for. Now the only advertising I do is from my customers refering other people to me. Drop the a-holes and take on better paying customers.

Bellsouth is a sorry excuse for a phone company. If you choose to put a add in the yellow pages you better have you ducts in a row and dont believe a word the saleman tells you!!! you sign and wants something changed your screwed!! Make add bigger they call right back, want to down size add and spend less money they will nerver call you back!!! Salesmans been paid! in short "Bellsouth sucks"
 
i am going to put an ad in the local yellowpages for 65 a month. good deal. i have an ad pennysaver and i got 1 and it was for a driveway that had rust oil antifreez, etc. it was about a 2 car driveway, nothing to big, i told her around 200 she said that was to much. then another ad coming out at the end of this month going out to 8,000 people. hopefully that will hit.
 
pivster29 said:
i am going to put an ad in the local yellowpages for 65 a month. good deal. i have an ad pennysaver and i got 1 and it was for a driveway that had rust oil antifreez, etc. it was about a 2 car driveway, nothing to big, i told her around 200 she said that was to much. then another ad coming out at the end of this month going out to 8,000 people. hopefully that will hit.
Click to expand...

Maybe prices are a lot higher in your neck of the woods...$200.00 for a typical 2 car driveway is about twice what I could hope to get here. We're talking 45 minutes work.

I pay close to $1000.00 in yellow page advertising each month. I'm the largest ad in two out of three books in the area, and I can stay busy as hell with no other advertising.

The effectiveness of yellow page advertising varies from market to market. What works great for me won't work at all for someone else. If there are 80 other significant ads in your phone books, paying for a significant ad won't likely net you a lot of business.

The problem I have with Bellsouth is that they jack the rates up on you the 2nd year. I increased my ad size and got close to the same price as last year, which was about $200.00/month cheaper than my last year's ad at this year's prices. I agree, Bellsouth sucks, but in this area, they're a popular book.
 
The best advertising is word of mouth.. I went out when I first started cleaning hoods etc.. and put out over 1000 business cards and 1500 flyers.. I never offered discounts.. Once I got my first couple of accounts they told there buddies and there buddies told thier buddies and now 201 accounts and growing monthly.. ( Fire accounts , Hood Cleaning Accounts, Interior Floor Cleaning Accounts.. on and on.. What is really cool is when people call the office and I say B&R they automatically say I want to talk to John .. Then They say (so&so) told me to call you to come clean my hood , they say you do a great job... Remember when you go out on sales calls use your exsisting customers as references. I always do..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top