AT&T Yellow pages questions

[coffee]

Im a one man show and looking to get into the yellow pages. I have tried before and had a terrible time with YP on setting up the ad. I always left conversations with them not having a clear idea of what the whole page would look like with my ad placement in it.

Id like to ask other single person shops advice on how to do it right. Also, I would like to get an idea about what it costs you. You can PM me that if you wish. No specific dollar amount but just round off? My biggest fear is that I will get into the YPs and actually not make enough to clear the ads! - I know, Probably an unfounded fear but money is tight right now.

Any advice and help is certainly appreciated.

coffee

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

Just yesterday we had the Yellow Pages guy show up and we dropped $1700 for full color ads in three phone books that are distributed in this area. We already have several ad campaigns that have been working for us as far as how the ad is designed, so we just modify those for what we need. In the phone books, we are using color, which costs more, to differentiate us from those that use the cheapest box listing. They key is standing out.

We were hesitant to spend a ton of money on phone books, but earlier this year we started with one that seemed like a good fit. I think that cost us somewhere in the neighborhood or $700 bucks, and just uses color text. It has been very effective because I live in an area that is surrounded by rural villages, which use phone books before they use the internet. This has held true for businesses too. If I were operating a business in say NYC or LA, I wouldn't give a single thought to a phone book. It all depends on the area you are in.

Standing out is key, and we are finally making headway because we are being as consistent as possible across all our ads. At the beginning, we just let the ad people do their magic, though their creativity lasts as long as it takes to take a check to the bank. We are constantly on them to get what we want and are fairly difficult, because its our money. Threatening to stop payments because of a lack of response is useful, though they all lie and say that they already emailed you proofs when they didn't. I insist on them being mailed now.

 

[coffee]

Just yesterday we had the Yellow Pages guy show up and we dropped $1700 for full color ads in three phone books that are distributed in this area. We already have several ad campaigns that have been working for us as far as how the ad is designed, so we just modify those for what we need. In the phone books, we are using color, which costs more, to differentiate us from those that use the cheapest box listing. They key is standing out.

We were hesitant to spend a ton of money on phone books, but earlier this year we started with one that seemed like a good fit. I think that cost us somewhere in the neighborhood or $700 bucks, and just uses color text. It has been very effective because I live in an area that is surrounded by rural villages, which use phone books before they use the internet. This has held true for businesses too. If I were operating a business in say NYC or LA, I wouldn't give a single thought to a phone book. It all depends on the area you are in.

Standing out is key, and we are finally making headway because we are being as consistent as possible across all our ads. At the beginning, we just let the ad people do their magic, though their creativity lasts as long as it takes to take a check to the bank. We are constantly on them to get what we want and are fairly difficult, because its our money. Threatening to stop payments because of a lack of response is useful, though they all lie and say that they already emailed you proofs when they didn't. I insist on them being mailed now.

Thank you for replying. I too found the YP sales reps not too trustworthy. Everytime I talked to them in the past they always left me with more questions than answers.

BTW - are your figures yearly?

 

[stro]

Just watch for the auto renewing contracts. Had one that did that to me and re-printed the same ad, without contacting me to see if I wanted any changes made.

In this case, you had to cancel, in writing 3 months prior to the renewal date.

 

[mr m]

I had a small display ad in the Yellow Book. In my area there are maybe 3 or 4phone book publishers. It was about 1/16 of a page. Tiny little ad that cost about $450 a year and yields 5-10 calls per year.

I just downgraded the dispaly ad to a text ad with a large title in bold print. They also gave me a Web presence for a little less money...I think it was about $420 yearly.

The over 50 crowd use phone books, not the young. It does give you some legitimacy plus a few people told me they like the fact they see a local phone number instead of a cell phone number. I don't publish my address since I work out of a home office.

My sales reps are always helpful. Like any sales job with impossible quotas these folks change jobs yearly. I have them come to my house with samples so you can see exactly what you are buying. Plus they send a proof and when you're satisfied you pay them before the publishing date.

I don't have an auto renewing contract but a good heads up by stro. Your rep also has some wiggle room in the price. I saved about 10% when I mentioned another vendor!

 

[FoolishTech]

My last yellow pages ad they misprinted my phone number. I still had to pay the bill...... bitter......

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

Thank you for replying. I too found the YP sales reps not too trustworthy. Everytime I talked to them in the past they always left me with more questions than answers.

BTW - are your figures yearly?

I made it clear to the rep that I worked with that I expected everything to be approved by me before anything happens. Luckily, there are several months before this actually gets printed and distributed. I find it is best to work with them when they are not constrained by publishing deadlines.

My figures are yearly, but we broke it up to where half is broken up into 12 monthly payments. July was a bit lean, plus it will be better to absorb the cost over a year, rather than at once.

 

[Tony_Scarpelli]

After 12 years of doing network computing I decided to go retail in about 2004 or 2005. We never advertised before. We put $500 permonth in a penny saver that we knew worked for us and a $65 per month ad in AT&T;s YP. We started with what is called Inline ads with bold and red letters using an A listing A.C.T. for advanced computer technologies. No display ad.

We started to get 1-2 calls every day. So in 6 months when the alternation phone book came out to see us we put a $130 ad in it with full color display. I think we did a business card sized ad and put the inline ad in as well and our calls went to about 3-4 customers a day (we were averaging $150 per call). So 6 months later the phone book renewed and we doubled our last ad upgrading to $450 in YP and $300 in alternate YP and our calls went to 5-6 a day. Then we doubled again and again untl we reached $24-30k per month nearly all of it from yellow pages. Over all we spent about 20% of gross sales on all forms of advertising but at least 10% of ours sales were in YP and alternate YP ads. We also had full wrap on our two vans which were very prominent.

Our sales stayed flat the next two years as we continued to increase our advertising to about $3000 per month in both books. We then cut our YP advertising in half as we found most calls coming from repeat or Online sources.

Today I think we get the smallest amount of calls from our yellow pages and we just went through the renewals and we pulled 100% of our YP advertising.

Over the same time we went from 43 companies in display ads to about 180 or so companies advertising in YP and Alternate YP books.

My advise it to use YP very sparingly and if there are already a stifling amount of competition in there what can you expect to get out of the crowd?

I think 60's year olds still use yp or online yp but 50's and younger seldom use YP.

How often do you go to the yellow page? I dont think I touched it in over a year. Last time I used it was to search every plumber in the city. I'm 55 yrs old.

 

[ElementalWindX]

I stay away from YP like the plague. They have screwed up my account multiple times.


2 years they charged me something completely different than they said they would

year after I stopped using them they made my competitors ad look exactly the same as my ad I last used.

They also are horrible at record keeping on payments. They still continue to say I owe them when I have paid them twice for the same bill. It is disgusting how they operate. RUN AWAY!


Their sales guys are pushy, and they up sell too much and they think because they charged you one thing in year 1 that they can charge you more the next year, and the next, then the next. It's disgusting.


P.S. I never had these problems with the smaller phone book companies.

 

[coffee]

I stay away from YP like the plague. They have screwed up my account multiple times.


2 years they charged me something completely different than they said they would

year after I stopped using them they made my competitors ad look exactly the same as my ad I last used.

They also are horrible at record keeping on payments. They still continue to say I owe them when I have paid them twice for the same bill. It is disgusting how they operate. RUN AWAY!


Their sales guys are pushy, and they up sell too much and they think because they charged you one thing in year 1 that they can charge you more the next year, and the next, then the next. It's disgusting.


P.S. I never had these problems with the smaller phone book companies.

Had this problem with them before. I kinda hate doing it but it seems to work in my area more than an online presence.

You know, As I sit and think about it - I tried AT&T before but they couldnt get their act together and I got mad at them and decided no. Then I started a "Google Places" ad worked on that (kinda frustrating and not too business friendly IMO) and then one day my whole page was gone! They were doing that switch to google+ and as I understand I was not the only one. So, Advertising is becoming a headache. I have to learn about SEO or whatever to get my ad up there in the rankings too. Seems like when you start a business there should be two departments repairs and advertising. Someone just to handle all this advertising as it can drive you crazy!

Thanks for the replies,

coffee