Advertising Design Services with Yellow Pages

M

mrleesimpson

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Are any of you currently advertising in the Yellow Pages?

If so what is your referal and conversion rate?
 
I havent ever tried it, Do people actually look for things like web design work in the paper?
 
Not tried Yellow Pages either Lee, I know a number of local companies in my area do advertise through it, but don't know any of them well enough to ask how they do from it!

Back at my old job working for a signmaker I know their referral/conversion rate from their regular Yellow Pages ad was dropping year-to-year, so can only guess it's still heading the same way? Hence why they seem to be pushing Yell.com a lot more these days?

I have considered trying an advert in the local business supplement from our local paper but never had chance to look further into the costs, etc.
 
mike said:
I havent ever tried it, Do people actually look for things like web design work in the paper?

It funny you should say that becuase what prompted me to post this was a 30 minute arugment with a sales rep from Yell Direct.

I would say of course they don't.
 
Do many local web companies advertise where you are Lee?
What were his arguments for it? Bet that was a great 'debate' you had!
 
I have this conversation every year with yellow pages and I've never done it because I refuse to beleive that any serious company will look in yellow pages for a web designer/developer. I suspect most of our (yours and mine) clients have come through referals or networking. The rest may have stumbled across your website.

It's just not worth the money to go in it. Better off spending that money on PPC
 
flinthosts.co.uk said:
I suspect most of our (yours and mine) clients have come through referals or networking. The rest may have stumbled across your website

Spot on the money.

There major argument is that the Yellow Pages goes out to ever business in the UK and that to 'compete' with you competition its a must have piece of advertising.

I did advertise in last years directory, mainly due to the fact that we had some marketing money left over and got the ad at a really really good price. Their pitch to me this year mainly consisted of telling me what other local companies where doing (which I could give two sh*ts about) and that the advert MUST have been designed wrong and that why I didn't get any leads from it.
 
mrleesimpson said:
Spot on the money.

There major argument is that the Yellow Pages goes out to ever business in the UK and that to 'compete' with you competition its a must have piece of advertising.

and most business, like me, either use it as a door stop, monitor stand or put it on the shelf somewhere never to be moved

mrleesimpson said:
Spot on the money.


I did advertise in last years directory, mainly due to the fact that we had some marketing money left over and got the ad at a really really good price. Their pitch to me this year mainly consisted of telling me what other local companies where doing (which I could give two sh*ts about) and that the advert MUST have been designed wrong and that why I didn't get any leads from it.

Thats quite funny - I'd love to see real figures from other web companies as to the actual success of their adverts
 
mrleesimpson said:
and that the advert MUST have been designed wrong and that why I didn't get any leads from it.

That's probably not the best sales technique to use with a designer!!
 
Greg said:
That's probably not the best sales technique to use with a designer!!

Yer.

"You know the reason your ad didn't work?.... Your crap at what you do...."
 
I advertised for a year (last year), I didn't renew this year.

I make a point of asking all my new clients where they heard about me and none of them said "Yell".

I also too found the advertising sales staff very pushy!
 
Dot Design said:
I advertised for a year (last year), I didn't renew this year.

I make a point of asking all my new clients where they heard about me and none of them said "Yell".

I also too found the advertising sales staff very pushy!

exactly the same here.
 
I advertise part of my business with them - and I do get a fair amount of leads from them. However I had to think really hard this year when it came to renewal, as they have increased their prices for me by, an inflation-making, 17% !!!!
 
Yellow Pages are great if you want a Plumber or a Taxi.

But anybody who is looking for a designer, agency or web guys in Yellow Pages is not the type of client anyone needs. No serious company would do YP. Waste of money. I don't think my company is in YP, if it is it's a cheap linage ad. Better to spend your money on more effective advertising solutions. We did a YP ad the first year in business and the stupid sods printed the wrong web address. Got the ad for nothing eventually, but a complete waste of a whole years ad.
 
Hi. I had an advert with Yellow Pages (at a reduced rate) and never had any contact from it.
I too had a similar discussion with the rep and insisted that most people looking for designers don't look in the Yellow Pages in the same way that you'd look for a plumber or a plasterer.
They also offered to design the ad for me and when I said that that was my profession(!) they still charged me for their 'artwork' department to check that the file was suitable! Grrr!

In fact I've tried most of the online pay per click type services and they generally rubbish and don't really suit the taste and feel that you get from a referral or recommendation. Most of the clickthroughs came from people looking to sell you print services or otherwise they were from students looking for placements - all of which used up your monthly allocation of money.

Steer clear of all of these kind of things and just sign up for every free listing you can. DON'T be tempted by the 'upgrade' option and the assurance that you'll be in the top 3 listings (blah blah..). They'll always show you some company called 'Professional cleaners in Nottingham' that strangely enough always comes up when you Google 'professional cleaners nottingham'.

Anyway, just my point of view.
 
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