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Small
Business, BIG Marketing™
by Will
Dylan ©2004
CHAPTER 5 -
DIRECTORY ADVERTISING (Yellow Pages)
Directory
Advertising, commonly referred to as “Yellow Pages”
advertising, is often a major tool employed by small
businesses in an effort to generate sales. Most small
business people believe you MUST be in the Yellow Pages
to keep up with your competitors, and they are right.
A basic line ad in the Directory for your area
ensures that your name will be seen by every potential
customer looking for your product or service.
But
how big should your ad be? Is a line ad enough? Should
you dump all of your money into a massive Directory ad,
hoping that every person who looks up your category will
be blown away by your huge ad and will call you first?
The answer depends on what type of business you’re in.
Don’t worry, I’ll give you all the guidelines in a
minute, but first, a quick story.
I
once attended a focus group for small businesses. A
focus group is essentially a market research session
paid for by a big company, in this case, the local phone
company responsible for the Yellow Pages in my area.
They assembled a group of small business people and
asked them what they thought about advertising in the
local Yellow Pages, including topics such as after sale
service, value of the ads, results, etc. As the
Marketing Manager for my company (one of their
advertisers), I was invited as well.
The
differing views on Directory advertising from around the
table were quite interesting. Some people, like the
appliance salesperson, were convinced that they needed
the biggest ad in their category to be noticed at all.
Others said that the Yellow Pages was their only form of
advertising, including the plumber, the bicycle shop
owner, and the flower shop. Still others lamented that
fact that although they did get business from the Yellow
Pages, they found that it was “low quality”
business. (He was a lawyer, but a really nice guy).
Why
the differing viewpoints from small business people?
Simple…they are in different businesses. Some
categories in the Yellow Pages are very crowded, some
are not so crowded. Some have one or two identifiable
companies in them while others are comprised mainly of
small businesses without significant brand recognition.
Continue Chapter 5 >>
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