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Each year there is a Yellow Pages arms race where competitors in each category are encouraged to out spend each other. There is only one winner in this arms race, and it is not you! Too many advertisers waste their money on Yellow Pages advertising without first considering their marketing strategy. Here are seven ways you can waste your money.

1. Attempting to outspend your competitor

As soon as Yellow Pages has convinced you to increase the prominence of your ad, they get your competitors to match or outbid you. This becomes an annual auction, with some categories containing pages of half and full page ads. A buyer can be overwhelmed with choice and may make their decision before they even get to your ad. Priority in listing is given to those who have advertised the longest in a category for a given ad size. You can only get closer to the front by upsizing your ad or if someone else closer to the front ceases advertising.

2. Putting all your eggs in the Yellow Pages basket

An advertising decision is something you should only make after you have developed a marketing strategy. Many businesses rush into advertising in the Yellow Pages, just because that’s what everyone else does. You don’t become a leader by following the herd. You need to consider your payback for your investment in this marketing channel. Ask your Yellow Pages consultant how many leads a particular size ad generates in your category. Then ask yourself how many of these leads will you convert into sales, and then decide whether this is a good investment.

3. Engaging in destructive Head to Head Competition

When you advertise in the Yellow Pages, not only can potential customers see your ad and your offer, so can your competitors. This can result in price competition that can turn your product or service into a commodity. Yellow Pages make comparison shopping easy for buyers and market research easy for competitors.

4. Spending too much on prominence

When spending on a Yellow Pages ad, you can invest in size and colour. Size is important, but what you put in the ad, your copy, is far more important. It is better to go down a size and spend the money you save on a copywriter. Good copy can generate up to 20 times the response as poor copy. Colour is also important, but not as important as size, so go up a size rather than go to colour, which is expensive for its return. If your category is cluttered with large ads, investing in your copy is essential.

5. Relying on Yellow Pages free design service

Ad design is important. Yellow Pages do offer a free design service, but its worth what you pay. The typical design is done in 15 minutes. As they are designing tens of thousands of ads you can’t really expect any special attention- especially as there is no charge for the service! When they design your ad, they will appeal to your vanity rather than to your customers. So they will put “Joe’s Plumbing” in the headline. But buyers don’t care who Joe is, and are far more interested in why they should use Joe. This requires some marketing analysis of your points of difference and ultimate service benefits, which won’t happen in 15 minutes!

6. Putting your ad in the wrong category

If you are a plumber, the decision of where to place your ad is easy. But if your business is in a fairly specialised market such as oil refinery plumbing, there probably isn’t a good category for you. In fact, for many B2B businesses Yellow Pages is a poor marketing tool. Ask yourself the question, where would a buyer look to find out about your business- it might not even be in the Yellow Pages.

7. Depending on old technology advertising

Every year internet advertising increases, with less being spent on print advertising. Yellow Pages is now available online and for certain businesses this is a better option, particularly with a link to their website. When being sold paper Yellow Pages ads, you may be offered complimentary online advertising. However, unless your ad is near the front, you will be invisible to buyers who rarely will browse further than three pages. It is also worth paying for a link to your website.

The Yellow Pages consultants are on commission to sell you advertising. They only interested in getting you to spend as much as possible, not on providing the best marketing solution for your business. Advertising is not the same as marketing! Good marketing advice on whether and how you should advertise is money well spent. Not only can this increase sales, but it can save you thousands of dollars in advertising.

Before making a decision on Yellow Pages advertising, you should consider all your marketing channels, and make decisions on how much you invest in each dependent on their ability to attract leads. Having determined how much you will invest in Yellow Pages, do some market analysis and invest in your ad copy. This is particularly important for larger ad sizes. Yellow Pages advertising can be rewarding, but should only be considered as just one part of your overall marketing strategy.

Copyright 2005 Empower Business Solutions

Dr Greg Chapman assists small to medium sized businesses with business planning, business systems and marketing strategy. To find out how you can Multiply Your Profits & Make Your Business Run without You, and to find out How Good Your Business Really Is with a Free Online Business Medical, go to Empower Business Solutions website at: http://www.empowersolutions.com.au

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An easy way for a small business to expand its marketing budget is through cooperative advertising. Cooperative advertising, or as sometimes abbreviated Co-op, is when a producer of goods, for use by service providers or for resale, reimburses the advertising business in part or in full for advertising expenditures that involves its products. These programs are widely available because quite simply they save the producers of goods money. Bottom line is that local advertising rates available to the advertising business are at least 20% lower than national advertising rates. Therefore, the benefit for the producers of goods is increased brand recognition within that market at the lower local advertising rates, enhanced reseller relations, and much more.

However, cooperative advertising programs are an integral part of the producers own strategic marketing plan and for this reason they may not only vary from producer to producer but from product to product. Also, because these programs are an integral part of the producers strategic marketing plan, stringent rules and regulations are often placed on cooperative advertising dollars. These rules and regulations may cover media channels chosen, product placement, ad positioning and size, and much more. Additionally, there may be a separate set of guidelines that the advertising business must follow for financial reimbursement of advertising expenditures.

Because of the perceived complexity of cooperative advertising; businesses may feel intimated by the rules and regulations, not ask about cooperative advertising opportunities, or for help. A business owner or manager should ask every vendor that supplies the business with goods about what cooperative programs are available to the business and how the business can take advantage of these programs. Once the advertising business has established its cooperative advertising programs with its vendors all necessary information should be shared with the representatives of the chosen media channels to ensure proper execution of the advertising to meet the producer’s rules and regulations.

Cooperative advertising is a win/win proposition for the producer and advertising business. These programs allow producers to increase brand recognition in the market at the much lower local advertising rates and allow the advertising business to increase its marketing budget at no additional cost to the business. All small businesses should actively pursue these valuable cooperative advertising opportunities.

Amy Dube has over sixteen years of sales experience and currently works in advertising for a major publishing company. Amy Dube is a graduate of Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business with a Marketing and Management focus. For more free articles and marketing tips go to http://www.adube.info.

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Is fear of failure an issue when you commit valuable money in advertising?

Well how about if I showed you a way to remove this fear and you know that you would be able to spend money advertising KNOWING you would get a return?

Is that a valuable lesson?

Course it is!

So, how do you do it?

The answer is testing!

It’s simple really.. Instead of sending out 1000 sales letters for example. Send out 500. In these 500 have 5 different headlines so 5 x 100 = 500

Why?

Well what we are trying to establish here is what headline or sales offer pulls best. Once we know which one works then we do a mass mailing, but not before then!

You see I have seen so many companies waste hundreds even thousands of pounds on non result direct mail… all because they didn’t test!

So save yourself time and money by testing EVERTHING you do.

If it’s an advert in the local press, sign up for 5 small inserts over 5 weeks rather than 1 big page as a one off. This will be cheaper but will also allow you to test different offers.

About The Author

Mark Vurnum is a leader in small business marketing. Regulary putting on marketing seminars, his 13 proven steps seminar has allowed businesses to grow 50% in a matter of weeks. www.smartmarketingconsultants.co.uk

mark@smartmarketingconsultants.co.uk

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