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This is the most
frequently encountered form of advertising. It is also one of the
most effective forms of advertising, if done correctly. The trick is
to have the most effective ad in the book, allowing you to enjoy a
disproportionate share of telephone inquiries. This will come at the
expense of your competitors. In order to maximize response rates, we
need to analyze the competition. We'll start by studying the
operating tactics of the people that produce the ads for the vast
majority of your competitors, the Yellow Pages.
The Yellow Pages
is a very successful advertising product that is hard to beat. This
fact allows the different Yellow Page publishers throughout the
country to attract high quality salespeople. The advertising
salesperson when seeking employment, looks for a product that
generates a satisfying return on the investment for the client. This
means the customer will be a repeat customer and the salesperson will
enjoy repeat business.
A good experienced
advertising salesperson knows he or she is in it for the long haul.
This steers them away from high pressure products. The high pressure
products pay the highest commissions, but the burn out rates are
high. The seasoned salesperson looks to compromise earnings with
working conditions. The cream of the crop wind up with the major TV
and radio stations. The next cut goes to the major magazines, then
the lesser broadcast television and radio stations. Then we get to
the Yellow Pages.
The Yellow Pages
like their salespeople to specialize. They give each salesperson
several categories to work. The salesperson calling on you might also
specialize in carpet retailers, or plumbers. The salesperson will
typically be compensated substantially by salary. They don't want any
high pressure tactics used. There are different Yellow Page companies
around the country that will have varying pay plans. Some might have
a salary, some might call it a draw against commissions to be earned,
and some will have other terminology. I expect that the salesperson
receives about 70% of their earnings in the form of a salary, or
other regular stipend. The rest comes from commissions. Here's the
kicker. The salesperson usually only receives a commission on the
advertising that a given customer purchases that is in excess of the
purchases that same advertiser made in the previous year. This means
that they are going to try and sell you and your competitors more
advertising each year, whether or not it makes any kind of sense for
you to do so. These salespeople are going to take as much of your
advertising dollars as you allow. Find a Yellow Pages a few years
old, and compare the amount of ads then and now. Don't listen to the
Yellow Pages salespeople. They have a job to do. They are not your
personal marketing consultants working for you. You need to look at
these salespeople as order takers. They inform you of deadlines,
rates, pick up artwork, bring proofs, etc. Don't counsel with them.
You don't know what they might tell your competition, even if it's
just an accidental slip of the tongue. They are working for the
Yellow Pages, not you.
Never have the
Yellow Pages produce your ad for you. They are not specialists in
your field. They do ads for the butcher, the baker, and the
candlestick maker. You want to have a Yellow Page ad that draws the
consumer to you. You want all the calls for your type of business. If
you got just 35% of the calls, many of your competitors would drop
out of the book next year. What if you got 50% of the calls? The
Yellow Pages does not have this as their goal. Ask yourself why they
don't allow any pricing information in the Yellow Pages? The Yellow
Pages wants all of their advertisers to get a piece of the pie. I
want you to pay for one piece of pie and get all the calls. If I made
a Yellow Pages ad for you and your competitors all dropped out of the
book the next year, I'd consider it a compliment. Now, we'll move
onto specifics.
The Yellow Pages
forces you to buy large ads for front positioning. I recommend buying
a full page ad in full color for some and less expensive ads for
others. You should consider multiple listings in the same book if
your product mix lends itself to it. I don't like using anything
smaller than a ½ page ad unless the book has less than three
competitors in your field. Color makes for the most interesting,
attractive ad. Always use photos in your ad. If your edition allows
you to purchase a white space, instead of yellow, go for it. Try
using a separate telephone line for your Yellow Pages ad. This will
give you a bulletproof system for counting responses. You need to
know how much per call, you're spending. If you are going to use two
large ads, try a different phone number for each. If you disconnect
the phone number in the ad, the yellow pages usually
will stop billing you for the ad. You could try several different
ads, in different geographical books, each with a dedicated telephone
number. If you find that you can't pull customers from a certain
book, disconnect the telephone and end the billing for that Yellow
Page ad. It's always a good idea to push out into the adjacent
communities to see if you can pull from there with the Yellow Pages.
The disconnected telephone tactic gives you a parachute in case your
ad in a particular book isn't cost effective. Never assume you should
continue any advertising just because it is producing business. Look
at the cost per customer and the profit per customer. You'll see as
you become a more accomplished marketeer that there is always a
number of ways to attract new customers, it is a good return on your
advertising investment that you are after.
The ad needs to be
able to grab the attention of the casual browser, very rapidly. The
ad needs to draw the eye to it. It needs to be noticeable,
attractive, and interesting. Most important it needs to quickly
convey to the reader what is in it for them, the benefits. The two
best ways to grab attention are with photos and headlines. Decide
what it is you are going to offer the public in your ad. Next, ask
yourself what benefits the customer will derive from these services
or products. This is what your headline needs to convey. People
respond to ads because of the benefits to them. Merely waving a flag
out there in your ad stating what you sell isn't what I mean. The
consumer can't determine any benefits relating to you over your
competitors from such an ad. Most of the ads in the Yellow Pages are
designed ineffectively in this fashion. A headline that says
"Brown Hardware Center" doesn't cut it. This sort of
headline doesn't convey the benefits of using you. Tell them your
story in the headline. You'll need to be creative. Start out with a
list of what you want to market in terms of services and goods. Then,
add to this list the benefits a customer will derive from such
purchases. Next, form your headline. I like to use one major
headline, and a one or two lesser headlines contained within the ad.
I don't mean a shopping list. Shopping lists don't set you off from
your competition. If your competitors didn't offer the same goods and
services, they wouldn't be your competition. Don't forget that people
can fill a need with different products. Before and after photos are
excellent. A good portrait photo of the staff is always a nice touch.
It helps get attention. Sometimes pictures of inanimate objects such
as buildings, offices, products and equipment can help. If you have a
certain piece of equipment that your competitors don't have, you can
promote yourself effectively using the equipment. The problem begins
when your competition acquires the same equipment. Always, give the
customer reasons for choosing you expressed in the form of benefits
to them.
Stay away from
anything other than the official Yellow Pages unless you need to
target non English speakers. In this case the ethnic Yellow Pages is
a good choice, such as the Spanish Yellow Pages. Keep your ads large
and in full color.
When I design a
Yellow Pages ad for a client, I like to study the competitors' ads.
This enables me to look for a niche, or chinks in the armor of the
competition. I don't think you can effectively design an ad without
doing this. The success of a Yellow Pages ad is directly related to
the competitive ads in the same book. What
works for one business in another city, might not work for you.
The big problem is that you don't know what ads your competitors are
going to run, until the book comes out and then everyone can't change
their ad for a year. The best strategist wins.
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