Hi All I have really enjoyed reading these posts over the last few months,



Its that time of year again and I will be upgrading my Ad in the yellow pages.



I am wondering what would i use for wording to promote the service part of our business. I am a one man resi shop and do not work for general contractors.



Any help on the wording would be great the ad size will 4 3/4 h x6 w

4 3/4 X 6 Ad brought in 6 calls, for the entire year, out of which we got one job and he was a dead beat.
We went to 1/4 page, and got about 6 calls a month, of which 1 or 2 would develop into a job. and we tried every method of wording you could think of, small ad just dosen't seem to work.
While we were playing with small ad our competor took out a full page, and his phone rings off the hook almost daily, so i guess size does matter, not wording, because he used the same wording in his full page that we used in the small ad.
Area also makes a differance, Metro or Rural
GOOD LUCK


[This message has been edited by LK (edited 09-25-2004).]

Great. I'm just about to place my first ever yellow book ad, and now you've got me all depressed.

We just went back into the yellow pages after a few years off to build our service division up more. We went with a full page. It's been our experience in the past that the smaller ads don't get many calls and the calls they do get are bottom feeders looking for a bargain, not quality. In your area a full page may not be needed if nobody else is doing big ads, but you want to be one of the larger, more colorfull ads. If there are several books in your area, go with the major phone company or most popular book first, the other will be cheaper, but they are cheaper for a reason.

That said, don't buy more than you can afford. Just keep in mind the cheap ad may not pay for itself. Clear as mud.

Eagle,

quote
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"That said, don't buy more than you can afford. Just keep in mind the cheap ad may not pay for itself. Clear as mud."

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I agree did not pay for itself.

Good point on checking in his area to see who has the largest ad, and yes the phone company yellow is the way to go.

[This message has been edited by LK (edited 09-26-2004).]

Thanks for your replies, Hopefully I can get the service portion worded properly in the next two days

Also, don't expect calls the first month the new book comes out. I placed my first yellow pages ad with SBC, our local carrier. I got a smokin' deal on a 1/4 page full color ad at $200/month. This normally goes for $691/month. The full page color ads are in excess of $2000/month.The book came out at the beginning of September, and I have one confirmed call so far.

I can only attribute the lack of calls because people haven't thrown away their old book yet. I've also been advertising the Pennysaver. I get calls from that, but only a small percentage actually care about quality over price. It's a shame.