HB Internet Advertising

not so good It slips alittle more each year I have been working on the mini web site and I just need to finish up more of the questions. Hope this will help to get my name out there alittle better. I ask all my new customers where they found out about us most are referrals but thought the internet would help some.

Thats great. Learn as much as you can as the internet is an excellent low cost way to build your business.

After telling my rep that Iwas going to drop my display ad, and listenining to him whine about how bad a thing to to do that was,He finally gave me the same ad size for half the price i was paying before!!!

Rich, What phone book are you dealing with? Yellow Book or Dex?
Bryan Ferris
Charles City, Ia

My advice (for what it’s worth):
Don’t be afraid to decrease or drop the phone books, IF your return is not worth it. Don’t think about the phone books as the only way to get customers, think of it as just another way to advertise. Let’s say you paid for a Bulletin Board and didn’t get a good return. You wouldn’t advertise there anymore. Think of the phone books like that, too.

Don’t be afraid to try other avenues of advertising, especially the internet. Don’t try just any internet advertising company, though. Call other types of service companies or talk to other businesses to see who they used for different things. (look through the bulletin board) In my opinion, with some advertising you will see a return right away but with others types you will not see a return for a couple months. So give it some time.

FYI:
One way advertising companies track advertising is they use a different phone number for each media they advertise in for the company they are advertising for. So for yellow book they use phone #1, for dex phone #2, for newspaper phone #3, etc. That can get expensive and confusing, but that is one way to track the return. The free way to do it, is just ask where did you hear about Heaven’s Best before you ask about the job details.

this year i had my pages companies do a call traking number. they offer the service free, and one of them records the calls for later review. the new ads don’t break for another couple of months, but i am interested to see what type of return i am really getting.

After being in business for 8 years, I reduced my yellow ads by $795/month starting at the end of the contract and I will still have a nice sized ad. The most interesting thing I found was the free tracking # that was mentioned by AKcleaner. My rep. tried to re-sell the DEXKNOWS internet listing by presenting the call results of the previous month/months. His sell tactics backfired when I studied the incoming call #’s and the duration of the call. Of the approx. 100 listed calls, only 3 were actual customers. The other 97 were sales calls from around the country. I told him that I didn’t care if I had to pay for this service through the end of the contract but I needed the service to be deleted imediately!!!! I told him that I was spending money for a service that was creating an expense. Even though this was only a $20-25 per month service, it was costing me far more in lost time, phone charges and STRESS!! I think they must sell the #’s or it is a great source for call centers. The yellow page reps know that their books are fading fast. If they are trying hard to keep you from reducing your ad by giving you the song and dance that a smaller ad will end up costing close to the same amount, tell them what you are willing to pay for that smaller ad or you don’t want one at all. I bet they will cater to you. (mine did)

LOL What do you mean they said they would get back with you? You are the customer and they should honor your request. You can only be “sold” if you allow yourself to be sold regardless of their salesmanship.