Tag Archives: marketing

How to Save Money on Your Yellow Page Advertising

Do you own or run a small business that still utilizes the offline physical directories that have yellow pages in them? Do you still place ads or listings in these physical books.

If so, this article will most likely be of interest to you.

Here’s a recent story that hit home…

Just recently when I was getting my haircut – I happened to pick up a local magazine focused and aimed towards women.

This particular magazine happened to be built mostly of quarter page ads, like the one that said, ‘we are honest and fair’  – Coming from a used car dealer, this was quite the interesting sub-headline.

So I asked the gal who cuts my hair what she thought of this ad and another one and this led to the topic of the yellow pages.

Well, all of a sudden we were going back and forth and I started to share how I had at one time put the ole’ offline directory companies to the test and did a lot of testing, surveying and tracking.

Why – because I couldn’t stand paying the prices they charged us to be listed right next to my #1 competitor! After all, we were a small business and at that time all the physical books were still a big part of our marketing and outreach to bring in new business, or so we thought.

Our conversation continued and then I asked her if she would be open to a test and she said yes. So for a full week she conducted a survey to see how many people used the paper dinosaur directory and you want to know something – the number was low. More about this in a future article- so stay tuned.

So how does this story pertain to you and your business?

Here are a few steps you might consider taking if the physical directory books (and print for that matter) are still a part of your offline marketing mix.

1. Survey your prospects and clients to see where they came from and how they found you.

2. Ask your physical directory book(yellow pages) account rep to provide substantial, documented research that states what kind of response and return on investment businesses receive from their physical books.

3. Use the survey information to better position your business to find targeted, quality traffic and leads.

4. Create Ads that are response oriented and use the web to capture to the lead.

In closing…

Most small business owners don’t understand how easy it is to research.

Or it’s just not important enough that they can be bothered to do the work.

I believe this is a tragedy because physical directories and print advertising are not what they used to be in years past.

With most small businesses placing ‘image ads’ instead of ‘response driven’ ads, money is being wasted which could otherwise be put to good use bringing in new leads and clients.

Oh and by the way – have you checked out Secrets of the Tiny Store ?

Marketing Gurus – Step Right Up!

In this day and age of online and offline marketing, many small business owners don’t understand how to market themselves online let alone offline with traditional media.

Marketing agencies seem to be popping up everywhere, with copywriters and graphic designers even, hanging out shingles saying that thou art a marketing or advertising agency.

It’s quite the tragedy and yet more and more freelancers continue to make this transition, thinking that they can offer a soup-to-nuts service and contract out the work that they themselves are not able to do.

Now before you get your blood pressure up, let me say that this process works for a lot of great freelancers who have years of experience in all aspects of advertising and marketing. There’s a ton of talent available on the market right now. Just check out any of the freelance sites and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I thought it would be interesting to compile a short list of the various combinations that I’ve run across over the years. See which category you fall into and are you really satisfied with the results you are getting from your advertising and marketing efforts?

Here goes….

1.)  You do all your marketing and advertising yourself.
2.)  You don’t do any outside advertising and maybe just have signage or minimal internal marketing.
3.)  You have an in-house agency, maybe just one person who creates and places your advertising and marketing.
4.)  You have an advertising and or marketing agency that you pay to create and place your advertising.
5.)  You create your own ads but have an outside media buyer place them for you.
6.)  You work with a graphic designer who thinks they know it all and is attempting to service your business on all fronts.

You see how many possible combinations there are to this mix? If you have one I missed, feel free to contact us and I’ll add it on the end.

Now, here’s some commentary about the agency side of the coin….

I’ve seen more outside agencies blow it with accounts. One ad agent I had contact with referred to himself as ‘a media pimp.’ Another ad firm figured they had it made with their branding strategy. Little did they know that the door was open and they would soon be asked to leave! What a tragedy. They could have made huge inroads and helped this small business grow by leaps and bounds. Did they really understand the business? No. Did they ever work on online marketing for this business? None that I ever saw. Did they attempt to come up with anything creative and out of the box to drive traffic? Not! They stayed with traditional methods thinking everything was just fine.

Do you see a pattern here? I hope you do, because many businesses go through similar scenarios with their agencies; and freelancers for that matter. You know, they fire one and go in house. Hire another then fire them and contract pieces of the pie. And then fire them and go back to another agency thus the vicious cycle repeats itself.

The funny thing is that I don’t even work at or with an agency anymore. If anything, I’ve taken an unbiased approach as I travel and come across small businesses, freelancers, agencies and those that think of themselves as sharp marketing tools in the shed.

By the way, are you looking for that extra edge and want to develop new business and increase your sales? Then I suggest you: Check out my New Guide .

Stay tuned – we’ll be right back…

Dave Krygier
Publisher