Hi there

I have been approached by the yellow pages regarding placing an advert in my local yellow pages to advertise my website design business. Whilst this is not cheap, I would consider this if I had any belief it would prove beneficial in bringing in leads for new clients and not just hundreds of cold callers. To match the adverts of the other website designers, I am looking at a cost of around ?00 including VAT for a full colour 1/4 column advert. I could go for a one line free listing but I am thinking people are bound to be attracted to the large colour adverts.

I would therefore appreciate any advice on the effectiveness of Yellow Pages adverts especially in relation to web design.

I am thinking that for the same money I may be able to advertise my services nationally through another means. Having never advertised before, this is all new territory to me.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Paul
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My husband's market is House Clearances. This is a market where the majority of customers are female, older, private individuals, etc etc etc. - i.e. prime Yellow Pages users.

We saw referrals from Yellow pages plummet over the past few years, and it is simply because people do not use the yellow pages like they did before. They use the web.

Look at how thick the directory is this year compared with 5 years back. That tells you the story.

If people are not looking in the yellow pages and instead look on the web for a house clearance, where will they look for a web designer.

Spend the money on SEO.

From a business that used to advertise in 5 directories and spend upward of ?k on yellowpages advertising, who now runs only ?00 worth of advertising this year, and am looking to halve that next year.
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Agreed. Don't use Yellow Pages
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How many people search for a web design company in yellow pages?
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Paul,

Firstly, when judging the value of having a yellow pages ad, you need to consider the competition.

For example, if you're going to have the only decent ad in the section, then that's a lot more valuable than being one of many.

Secondly, you need to add the cost of creating the ad to the price of putting it in the book. Doing it yourself or allowing the YP people to do it is probably a false economy.

Thirdly, how many jobs will you need from it to break even?

Fourthly, do you have paid advertising that's bringing in clients for you? If so, how many more would be brought in if you rolled that out using the YP money?

Hope this helps,

Steve
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Thanks for the fantastic advice!

I do not currently advertise and miraculously have survived for 10 years working for myself without doing so. Word of mouth and a couple of good regular clients helped alot. Anyway now things have gone a bit quiet and I am considering my options.

Sounds like yellow pages is a no no!!

Cheers

Paul
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The majority of UKBF users think that Yells offers are poor in the main - interesting to read what the internet people at one of the largest internet forums think.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/local_search/3545734.htm

If you are not a member of WMW it is certainly one of the longest running IT based forums and has its share of very knowledgeable members.

My view is that unless your business name is ###aaa taxi service then their offering (in print) are low/poor performers. I should add they now try to get you to rebook when you cancel due to poor results by saying that they will rename your company so you appear at the start of the listings... Draw your own conclusions.

I have never used their online service so have no experience with it.

I do remember a lovely and well documented thread on a forum where a member caught them auto generating pages just to get high position placement, I assume they got a real slapping for that.
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Careful you will ll get sued:D
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Hi Paul,

We have experimented with YP over the last few years. Started off with a wonderful square advert ( the one they are probably trying to sell you ). We track our marketing so I know that at least 3 pretty big clients came from this during that year. So it paid for itself 9 times over !

The next year we went back down to a normal listing but in bold. This also got clients and paid for itself.

Last year we went for the standard free option and still got clients from it.

Whatever you choose make sure you beat them down on the price. If they ask whats stopping you make sure they know its the price!

Personally, YP is not the first place I would expect people to look for a web design agency unless they are a complete novice to the internet - which can happen.

Ive got plenty of ideas on how you could market yourself and what worked and didnt work for us. So drop me a PM if you need any help.

Cheers

Jacqui
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I've used Yellow Pages, in fact i had a meeting with them today asking if i was going to renew everything i had done with them last year.

I placed a colour ad in two directories, did yell.com and 118 24 7, and i have had nothing just three enquiries since it came out in Oct 07. Needless to say i will not be making that mistake again, and in fact i'm searching for other places and ways i can advertise.

Claire.
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When I was looking for a local web designer I headed straight for google and looked for web designers north wales.

I didn't think to look in the yellow pages.
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I took out a 1/4 column inch ad in the web design section for Northern Ireland. It was a complete waste of money.

Before I took out the ad I spoke at length to a couple of their sales team and the facts and figures that they quoted seemed fairly positive even when I took some exaggeration into account. The reality was a million million miles away from what they promised/suggested.

In the whole year I think I had one request for a proposal.
I had a few other calls about work experience.

I asked for their market research figures (in writing) that they had quoted and I had relied upon and they refused. Needless to say I refused to pay ?00 for one call, and paid ?0 just to get the matter closed.

Unbelievably they kept phoning this year to see if I would go again, even trying to persuade me to take out a ?00 + ad which had more visibility.

My advice would be that you should spend the money on Adwords rather than the Yellow Pages, it works wonders for web design lead generation, especially if you have a fair idea of what you are doing.
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Thanks for the new replies. I am definitely going to stay well clear or Yellow Pages and do some research on the online promotional techniques such as Adwords.

I must say I am really pleased to have found this forum - it is already saving me money and I have only been here a few days:)
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I must say I am really pleased to have found this forum - it is already saving me money and I have only been here a few days:)

It's a great find. There's some very talented and experienced posters who are always willing to help.
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