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Hey everyone
First I want to thank all of you for all your help. It really is great especially the big 4 Ferris, Sutton, Scriba and Hollingsworth. Iam a yankee fan so I guess you guys are murders row.
My question is this. There are 2 yellow pages in my area yellow book which comes out in september and verizon yellow pages which comes out in January I am in both #1 in yellow book half page $700 a month. I am #3 in verizon quarter page $450 a month.
Now a new book calls me Ambassador yellow pages it comes out in ugust
they tell me a dollar bill size add will cost me $350 a month and will keep me in the top 3My Question is does any one advertise with these people and do you like it ? And do you think that people throw the old books away when a new one comes to their home ? . If this book comes out in August and yellow book comes out in Sept I am paying for 1 year and only getting 1 month
Thanks Again
Joe Martingano
Hi Joe,
Good to see you on the board. I would ask a few questions. What do you currently advertise in? Is it Yellow Book and Verizon? Has this been successful for you? What book do you see in most of your customers homes? Do you track where your business comes from? I think there are some books out there that are an absolute waste of money. In my area, it’s Yellow Book. This, of course varies from area to area.
I would say this, don’t sign up just because they approached you. Many of these sound great when they give you the pitch and really don’t care once your name is on the dotted line. Learn what’s used most in your area. That extra $350 per month may be more effective somewhere else. That kind of maoney may buy you a couple rounds of the Franchis Express in a year, for example.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth . . . be cautious. Good luck. Yankees huh. . . that’s not all bad. I’d rather be a New York fan than a Blue Jay fan. What do you think Mr. Bag?
YP’s will differ from operator to operator. In one of my area Yellow Book is good as is Dex. In my other area Dex is horrible. I spend $680 a month and am lucky if I get $400 a month in sales. This will change next year when the new book comes out. I’m my area Verizon is about as worthless as any Yankee player (jk).
I would call around to other service related business (i.e. house cleaners, yard maintenance, window washers) and ask them which phone book they get most calls from and then go with that one. You didn’t mention if you were going with color or not. I would rather go with no color and a bigger ad, but that is just me.
Track ALL advertising. When a customer calls you, part of your “speech” should entail the question, “How did you hear about us”. I write this down in my schedule book and transfer this to the HB software when filling it in at night. Tracking advertising is probably one of the most important things you can do as a business owner.
Thanks guys
To answer some of you questions. I track as best I can which book my customers call from. Sometimes they dont understand there are 2 books I than ask for a page # and I get a page # that is totaly off so I let it go. But I get about 60% YB I am #1 in that book half page with color the other 40% Verizon I am #3 with quarter page no color.Almost all my advertising are these books. I am happy so far I just feel with a new book people might throw away the older one
Bryan you gave me a Idea My son and a helper work on the truck I can tell him to ask to see the book when he is at the house maybe those wrong page #s are from the previous years books.
Ron your right about my team at least this year losing two of three to the mets makes me crave football
Bryan, Roe and I both like the clean shaven look!
no offense but we both married up. Thank for the Fax It took 6 Italians to work the machineJoe
Hi Joe,
Married up . . . Ya, I know. I get told that all the time. Been married 25 years . . . lucky to find someone to put up with me that long.
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