ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Advertising

Does anyone here use the company Blue Book? Any luck with them? Is it worh the $$$ to be listed in their book or what ever other services? Does it generate smaller job leads? Were not geared for public jobs of huge projects. A sales rep. from them wants to meet me next week.

Also I got both the phone book guys wanting to come around again. Really did not notice much with my small ads. They all want their min. $120+ a month.

Anyone have luck with direct mailings? Glossy postcards from your co. sent out to thousands. OR those copon mailings that have all sorts of things from different companies.

Tom

(Direct Mailing)
I have heard, results are around 2%.
Not very good in my opinion.
I did my own research callling plumbers, pavers and landscapers who did this type of advertising. The consensus I got was that I had better know exactly who my target was and not just a mass mailing of who I wanted as my customers.

May be different in different areas.


Good luck

[This message has been edited by Dnkldorf (edited 01-13-2005).]

The only direct mail I do is to my own customers. It's a lot easier to get more business from someone you've already worked for than a stranger. I'm trying to focus on them, & let them pass my name around.

I am thinking about a small phone book listing this year, but I don't think there's a magic bullet to get your phone ringing (except with salespeople for advertisers).

I have an A-name, but have dropped down to 8th or 9th in the listing. I really liked being in the top 3 or 4 in the early years. I want to do a little to draw people's eye without going to a display.

Dave

Here are some links to some sites about yellow page advertising.
One of the biggest mistakes people do in there yellow page ads is to put their company name and logo at the top of their ad where the headline should be. The headline should have something that gets the customer's attention and draws them to your ad instead of the competitions. Most ads look pretty much the same. Your want your ad to be different from the rest and stand out. http://www.businessknowhow.com/marketing/yellow-pages.htm http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2379,135036,00.html http://yellowpagesprofit.com/ http://www.greatyellowpageads.com/ http://www.max-effect.com/

Great Links!

Thanks

Dave

Along this same line, does anyone advertize in the local newspaper?

I've been reading about Yellow Page ads & it mentioned testing different ads in the local paper where you can change them. Then you can go in the Yellow Pages with the one that brings the most calls.

Dave

I've tried the local paper with no luck at all. Had two people call. One wanted to sell me something, the other wanted to know if I was hiring. I check the papers regularly and see a few of the same ads, but most switch in and out.

Yellow page adds only work for residential work, if they work at all.

If you look back at the last 3 years of the books, look at how many people dropped their adds for smaller ones, look at how many don't even advertise in them anymore.

I am not talking just about our trade, look at other trades as well.

A lot of them probably went out of business.
I've heard 80% of contractors fail. Most within the first 5 years.

After meeting with the P book rep I showed him the the phone bills with a different number linked to last years add with very few calls.

Of coarse he said I need bigger, multable adds, and colors.

He was tring to show some crazy estomate numbers from some polling company. I should have been offended it was so far out there. It was something like I'll get 50,000 calls a year. I said what's the circulation? 175,000. I said so out of all the other ads in their book, another book out there, and hundeds of other EC not advertising I'll get a little less then 1 in 3 residences to call me once in the year. I said no way, show me some kind of results. Below is a list of some test results they got by using a different number for the ad.

1/2 page 25 calls & $580 / mo ($23.20 per call)
1/3 page 20 calls & 430 / mo (21.50 per call)
1/4 page 15 calls & $368 / mo ($24.53 per mo)

The call numbers are approximate because each one had several examples. Granted each examples were in unrelated catigories and they seemed to have a limited amount of competion. It did not take in account sales calls, or repeat customer calls.

I'm just saying how many sales and non-sence calls do you get off a phone number before you get 1 lead. How many leads do you need before you close before you make a sale. Now what did that sale cost you.

The week before I talked to the other p book guy. It was 1/4 page $550+ per month. He said "But you guys only need to sell 1 panel change every month to pay for it cause I know you get a lot of money for them." What do I have to sell to make up for the money I lost on the service?

I'm starting to hate them all now.

Tom