Yellow Pages Advertising

I was thinking of dropping my VERY EXPENSIVE Yellow Pages ad. I think it is mostly used to pick up new moves into the area. Since we are well established I think we can get a better more trackable response for much less money. I was thinking of using one of the new mover targeting programs that are out there. Any opinions on this would be appreciated.

I’ve cut WAY back on the Yellow pps, mainly because of the proliferation of different books, as well as the fact that more & more people are using the internet to look up information these days. In addition to new movers programs, I’d also get a website (unless you already have one).

F#$& yellow pages they got me last year with there menu in the book and put me in the wrong county!
I paid half down and they call every month for the next payment and I tell them good luck

QUESTION: Why are yellow pages like nursing homes?

ANSWER: They’re shockingly expensive, few people under 70 use them, and many who do are a little out of it.

Years ago Yellow Page ads worked well for getting hotel and motel business…However, these days operators are lookign for anyway possible to raise cash…So quite often you find the phone books in rooms “sanitized”…Pizza, chinese food, etc. pages are removed so they can charge for TV channel guides, key cards, menus in the directory, etc…

See if you can find a phone book you can barter with. We trade for food and get a full page add in pizza and restaurant plus 2 pages of coupons. The sales people give out a couple $5 paper “dough” to customers who purchase ads. They also have their meetings in the dining room. Has worked out awesome for us for several years.

Thanks all for your insight. You just confirmed what I was already thinking. Porkys,that was a good one. It cracked me up.
Thanks again.

Pizza Tony

A lot changes in a year. If you’re in a huge growth area, I’m sure you’ve seen big box stores go from dirt to open in 3 months or less. I hope I’m normal in saying I use the internet for these type of searches and NOT the Yellow Pages. The exception would be if I’m from out of town and in a hotel. Even then, I’m more likely to ask the front desk for opinions.

I never use the phone book, to be honest, I don’t think I even have one. I always use the internet to look things up. Just my opinion as a consumer (not creator) of pizza.

I’m not renewing any of my phone book ads this year. I could spend that significant amount of money on something that yields a much higher ROI.

I can see the point if you’re in a tourist area and need to get your name out to hotel guests. That said, I don’t use them even when traveling. If I need to find a place to eat I check with the front desk for recommendations.

The other problem, like NY Pizza pointed out, is proliferation. We have two “major” books and several smaller regional books. Of the two major books, one comes out in March and the other in September. Most people don’t know the difference between the two at all. All the know is that they get a new book on their doorstep and throw away the old one. If you advertise in one book you’re really only getting 6 months worth of advertising. That makes it VERY expensive and probably yields a negative ROI.

Just cancelled all of my Yellow Pages ads. Boy that felt GREAT!!! I will use the extra cash for other promotions that will get me MUCH more ROI. Thanks again all.

Has anyone put a magnet on the front cover of the phone book?..How has it worked?..What kind of costs were involved?..

With the money I have saved from dropping the Yellow pages ads I have bought memo boards, credit card covers , 30,000 menu/door hangers, and car toppers and still had money for sponsering a ball team. These will get more responce that the yellow pages because the yellow pages come out once a year and not every house in the neighborhood gets one (only those who have land lines).

http://www.memoboards.ca/memoboardgallery.html

A preview of Daddio’s brand new memo boards are in my gallery…

And what would the unit cost be for a unit like Daddio got? Call it 200 of them . . . or 500.

100 or 200 are U$1.49 each
300 to 2,500 are U$0.99 each (multiples of 100)
Prices go down as low as U$0.65 in quantities and location changes (more or less the same art) are available for multi store purchases…Please ask for quote…FOB MS…