ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion New Yellow Book Ad

thank god my ad is only 45 a month

Results of Yellow Book ad: 1 call which I believe was someone using me to gather information for a DIY project... Never again. I have learned my lesson...

Phone book sales people are not copy writers. They hack out dozens of ads per day using standard templates. In fact, it's not to their advantage to create "good" ad because then all their other ads would be inferior.

As it happens, there's a phone book ad contest running right now where you can see and vote on professionally designed ads. By voting, you get to receive a copy of the report telling who won and why. The ads are for a plumbing contractor but the ad ideas apply to anyone in the service business. I suggest that you save all the ads to an "idea folder" for future reference.

go to http://www.ypcommando.com/ (there's good info on ad design there as well)

Randall

There is some great looking yellow pages ads there but I am wondering, this is for a plumber, someone who unplugs turds overflowing from commodes and picks hair from p-traps, looks like their trying to match a grand marketing scheme to get people to go on a carnival cruise...overkill wouldn't you say! I bet the yellowpages salesman loves to sell ads like that.

[This message has been edited by JFLS41 (edited 04-30-2005).]

[This message has been edited by JFLS41 (edited 04-30-2005).]

Jeff said: "There is some great looking yellow pages ads there . . . overkill wouldn't you say! I bet the yellowpages salesman loves to sell ads like that. "

No doubt you're correct -- and I'll take the blame for making it sound like full page was the way to go. My main point of posting the www.ypcommando.com link was to look over the ads, get some ideas and definitely vote on something so you can get the report. That report should/might/maybe give you some clues about the best way to get someone to pick your ad out of a crowd.

Hint: having "Electical Contractor" and/or "Commercial/Residential" in your YP ad is probably a waste of ink since you're already in the EC section.

I think that contest runs till the end of May so don't procrastinate.