How Much Do You Pay For Yellow Page Listings?

Nathan

How much do you pay for Yellow Page Listings?

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Spectatorz

I was offered a 1"x2" listing for a year in print at a rate of $1.00 a day.
$365.00 for the year with a discount of $35.00 for payment in full.
Total charge was $330.00 paid. This book is going to print soon and will hit the streets in September. It seemed like a reasonable cost, we will wait and see if it brings any paying customers.

Grumpy

That's fairly cheap Spec. Nate yellow page advertising costs vary GREATLY. Big book (whole city) or local (just neighborhoods and/or suburbs)? The neighborhoods are cheaper to advertise in usually. We were paying $285 a month for an add slightly larger than a credit card in full color in our local book.

Yellow pages are dyeing. Everyone I know who advertises in them is complaining except the one company that spends over $100,000 per year just on yellow pages. They are doing ok because they get really really really cheap rates for buying such bulk. They have adds in just about every book, most full pages and always on the first or second page.

Spectatorz

Here in So. Cal. there are 3 major yellow page books and they are provided by SBC, Verizon, and The Yellowbook serving the large area listings. One of the pitches we got was about the 30 million dollars they are spending on the new tv ad promoting their book. Thats pretty good advertising.
I agree the price we paid is fairly cheap for the ad, especially when you consider it is in one of "The Big Books" since the little guys dont have that kind of money for advertising on TV !!
At the same time there is much truth in the statement Grumpy made about these being a dyeing source of information. Lucky enough for us the ad we paid for will also be online at their website as well. Many people hold on to these big books for alot longer than the 1 year they are printed for so who knows what will happen. I only hope for the best with our small cash investment for this being the first yellow ad on our company.If it gets us some work then it was worth every penny, if not... well we tried.

jrr

Edit

No free ads thank you!
- Nathan

Tom R

About 6 or 7 years ago, I paid $1200 for the year for a 1/16 of a page sized ad. I got 3 calls the first week, then not 1 call for the whole rest of the year. By the way, on the 3 calls I got, I kept checking, - - the work never got done. You figure it out. What a waste.

Spectatorz

That is alot of money to spend with no return. I agree it is a waste at that rate.
As far as the ad we placed, all we can do is hope for the best.
When I find myself using the phone book as a source, generally if I can avoid using the services of the businesses with the larger more costly ads, I do.
That is not always the case mostly due to the fact that I try and support the smaller business if possible. Sometimes they have better prices on the same products or services I am looking for. It just depends on what I need and who can supply it for the best price.Probably the same as everyone else looking for the best deal possible.

Grumpy

I go right to google if I need to find something. Office space is at a premium and LOL there is no room for phone books

Spectatorz

I agree. Google Rocks ! We are "Name Searchable" at Google Too. Are You?

Our main reason for advertising in a major phone book is because
" Not Everyone uses the Internet " as a source of supplies and services. Not to mention the fact that the listing will be posted on the web as well.
There is the percentage of prospective customers that will always resort to the tried and true resources that were used by our parents and their parents.Some people do not now or ever intend to have a home computer,thats ok. These may well be the same group of people that will never own a cell phone too.
For these people, we are taking a small financial risk and placing an ad in the new book. At the rate we got it will only take one paying customer to get our money back, so it is a minimized risk.

Grumpy

I agree a small add is a good idea. I don't think you should rely on the phoen book as your only form of advertising. Most of our phoen book calls are people looking for repairs. We hardly ever get requests from the phone book for large jobs like replacements. Repairs are fine, we are happy to do them but the profit for us is in replacements.

Also some customers check for you in the phone book. They seem to think that you are legitimate if you have an add. LOL

Nathan

Living in a town with almost 50% retired people... I'm thinking I need to get an ad and I'm probably going to get a big one. Luckly there is a more 'local' phone book around here so I don't have to buy an ad in the big Orlando book... that would send me into the poor house!

__________________
Nathan

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

Grumpy

Definetly get an add if your marketing to the retired folk.