dazzaTypeR

Just a quick question as to see if anybody has used Yellow Pages and or Yell.com to advertise a small business.

I had a 20 min conversation with a very nice sales person today trying to persuade me to advertise in either or both of their products.

Then they told me the price... MY GOD HOW MUCH.

Has anyone used this and what kind of response did it bring. They did reel off a laod of statistics but then they would, wouldn't they.

Thanks for your response.

dazzaTypeR

AudiLover

Depends on what the business is.

The Zohan

Exactly, if you are a tradesman, dentist, takeaway, etc, etc then it is probably worth it but if you run a business making specialist widgets or provide intellectual property/services then i would look elsewhere like the internet or trade mags interactive promo and target your true potential clients.

dazzaTypeR

I'm a graphic designer, been self employed for 5 years and never needed to advertise, just word of mouth. Never even thought about it.

Got a phone call today and they were really nice and polite which makes a nice change to a cold caller and it just got me wondering how much more I could potentialy earn and so wondered how effective it would be.

It's certainly not the cheapest.

cheers.

mart360

but it does go to every home with a bt line

Mart

The Zohan

I find yellow pages less and less relevant these days other than looking for trades and such like. If i was a graphic designer i would have a website/web
presense over some B+Y ad in a local yellow pages and do a mail out to local businesses if i felt that was appropriate.

The likes of google and a pc on each desk and at home have really hit them hard.

Dazza - Is a lot of your business local, if so, do you want to keep it that way?

I would produce something nice i could mail out to targetted new business over yellow pages any day.

POC

My Advert will come out in next weeks edition, I shall let you know

Not expecting big things, but even a small job should yeild enough dosh to cover the cost of the advertising, we shall see.

P

C_B_B

I was discussing the cost of this advertising with my solicitor at a dinner the other evening. He said they place a full page advert in a couple of editions, with different coverage rates. One costs £18000, the other £23000!

He's unsure if the costs are really worth it and they'll be monitoring it this year. It'll be interesting to see the results.

dazzaTypeR

Most of my work comes thru EMAP at the mo. Although it's very good work I would like to expand my horizons so to say.

I do have web site already although I done it a few years ago now so I'm currently updating it. A prob I have had is that people see some of my clients and are put off because they think I'll be too expensive...

Answered a request for a designer needed on here a few weeks ago, I sent the guy a link to my portfolio and he replied "Sorry you look to expensive". I even replied let me give you a quote and jugde yourself... and I've heard no more. Oh well.

I'd only need 1 job a month for it to pay for itself so I don't know why I'm grumbling on the price really.

Think I'll mull over it a tad and see if I can find any stats on the net that aren't produced by Yellow Pages themselves.

Cheers.

bettyboo

Yell.Com advertises you free so dont go paying loads of money for what is free advertising. You do not need a big advert, your clients just need to know your name then they can find you. DONT DO IT

walkpau873

If you have a telephone number with BT you will get automatic inclusion as a lineage advert in Yelow Pages, and then free search in www.yell.com

Dont pay the sharks sh1it loads of dosh, for something you dont need

Paul

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

i advertised with yello pages for years and its not really worth it, you might get a few jobs fro it but most people are just ringing around trying to find out who is the cheapest!!! in the finish i never had time to do the work from the yellow pages so i just stopped advertising

lucylastic

As others have said, I guess it somewhat depends on your business, and how competative you are as to whether it's worth it. The only marketing my dad does for his business is in the local Yellow Pages, and he regularly has to sub-contract jobs out, as he just gets too much! (Obviously not only from that, a lot of his customers come via recommendation, but to get that, you have to have customers in the first place!) His business is selling and servicing fire-fighting equipment btw.

scoobyjimbo

I pay around 150 a year for my advert which allows people to view my website etc and gives a few extra details. In my opinion it is worth it..

J

Karl 227

Dazz, you need to ask yourself a simple question;

If you were a potential customer looking for a graphic designer, where would you look? I would look on the internet, personally, and not in the phone book, that's where you look if you need a plumber.

You mention that the cost is also very high. What would you get if, instead of putting the money into the yellow pages, you spent it on optimising not only your website, but also your "findability" on the web. When someone types "Graphic Designer" into Google, you need to be on the first page, at least for about five days per month. IMO