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As a marketing consultant and owner of a marketing firm, a big mistake I see businesses make is they do not take into consideration the value of repeat sales when they review if their advertising is profitable. When determining if your advertising is profitable, you need to look at advertising as a long-term investment, just like buying stocks, real estate, or mutual funds.
That is a good question and lots of people have been asking it lately... To begin with, it is important for any online entrepreneur to understand how Alexa ratings work in order that they can understand why they may not be that important to the success of their online business. Too many people make the mistake of concentrating entirely on improving their Alexa ratings but at the end of the day, these rankings are just numbers - they won't put money in the bank.
There are hundreds of people on payrolls who crank out Yellow Page ads for a living. But assembly-lining ads simply turns a designer into a seasoned hack. Being held accountable for results is the experience that counts. You see, Yellow Page ads are a form of direct response advertising. Meaning people either respond to the ad by picking up the phone, or the ad is a failure - there’s no chalking up poor response to “creating awareness” or “building the brand.
In this day and age its often the way that new companies looking to minimise business start up costs turn to the internet in order to advertise their business and products. All very well, but neglecting to promote your company with a traditional printed brochure as well could effectively kill your business before you've had a chance to get going.
No business can reap benefits and expected profits if it doesn’t avail advertising and marketing services. In order to popularize your business and products you need an effective and appealing advertising and marketing campaign. This helps you to capture your target audience. Advertising and marketing services are one of the means by which an organization relates itself to its audience and interacts in the market.
How many times has a humorous radio or TV ad caused you to actually buy the advertised product? While some of the most successful ads have used humor – Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” ads for example - far too many “funny” ads utterly fail to generate increased business or ROI; more than half the ads on any given Super Bowl fall into this category - anyone remember the Petco sock puppet? For radio and TV ads, humor or surprise serve the same purpose as eye-catching graphics in a Yellow Pages ad.
When it comes to successful Yellow Pages advertising, there are sales and marketing theories galore. Witness the recent explosion of Yellow Page consultants hawking CD’s, tapes, manuals, seminars, textbooks ... you name it! My God, you’d think we’re in the midst of a Yellow Pages advertising renaissance! On the surface, this seems like a good thing for the long-neglected Yellow Pages advertiser.
One of the first things our Yellow Page ad design clients like to do is get other opinions on their newly designed Yellow Page ad before committing it to print. They ask employees, friends, their spouse, and even their current customers. They may even seek the opinion of a marketing specialist. Once, a client told me he asked his 14-year old daughter for her input (She hated it).
You want your new Yellow Page ad to reach out and grab as many eyeballs as possible. You want to magically draw prospects into the meaty content of your ad in order to persuade them that YOU offer the very best solution to their problem. Simply put, you want your next Yellow Page ad to generate as many phone calls as possible.
Bullhorn in hand, the man on the downtown street corner screams his message out to whoever can hear. I’m sure you’ve heard one of these guys, but have you ever listened? Neither have I. The fact is, loud and intrusive just doesn’t cut it when it comes to persuading - people just tune that stuff out as “noise.
You’ve signed on the dotted line! You’re now committed to make twelve, hefty monthly payments to your Yellow Pages publisher. So what exactly have you purchased? The chance to present your business to the community in the most favorable light possible? Are you going to try and brand an “image” for your company? Have you bought the right to tell the world that YOUR business is better than the rest? Perhaps you think the Yellow Pages are a great place to showcase your gorgeous new building or fleet of trucks or even a striking photo of YOU! Maybe you’d like to reinforce your prospect’s buying decision and tell them why they really need your services.
Ready to spend several thousand dollars at a local business, I reached for my Yellow Pages directory. I “needed” to upgrade my stereo system and knew I wanted in-town service support – I wanted to buy local. So while in this “Rarin’ To Buy” frame-of-mind, I opened my tattered Yellow Pages directory, gazed upon a handful of Yellow Page ads and.
The more clearly you can define and picture your ideal customer, the better you’ll be able to speak to him. Or her. And that brings up an interesting question: should you target a specific gender in your Yellow Page ad? If the majority of your calls – or at least the majority of your best customers - are a specific gender, then yes, you should craft your Yellow Page ad with an eye toward gender preference.
After thirty years in the ad design business (a dozen of them devoted exclusively to Yellow Pages advertising), I’d say these are the top four complaints I’ve heard: 1) They're far too expensive,” 2) “I get poor return on my investment,” 3) “my directory sales rep is a $#@!%,” and 4) “they made an error in my ad.
I could probably say this more tactfully, but here’s the truth: If you’re spending thousands of dollars for space to be seen and heard, and then run a Yellow Page ad that fails to grab your prospect’s eye and say something compelling, well you’re wasting your darn money! Sounds obvious put into black and white, doesn’t it? But take a look in your Yellow Page directory and see for yourself.
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