|
Small
Business, BIG Marketing™
by Will
Dylan ©2004
CHAPTER 5 -
DIRECTORY ADVERTISING (Yellow Pages)
What to do, What to do
In
my opinion, there are two ways to handle directory
advertising:
Go
as small as you can – Check your category. For
example, let’s say you’re in the Flower Shop
category in the Yellow Pages.
Your main competition comes from two major flower
shops in town that just about everybody has heard of.
Being a small business, you are not as well known.
Think
about your customers for a minute. Why do they use the
Yellow Pages? Well, probably because they are looking
for a product or service and need to find a business
that offers it. If these two major flower shops are so
well known, why did the customer open the directory to
seek out a business? Didn’t they know about the
“big’ shops in town?
Maybe
they didn’t, and when they see their big impressive
ad, they will call them. Or maybe, they went looking for
an alternative to the big shops. They knew about your
large competitors, but they chose not to deal with them.
They went to the Yellow Pages looking for a local
florist who could help them.
In
cases like this, it’s not always a case of the biggest
ad wins. When a customer is seeking alternatives, they
are looking beyond your larger competitors, and that’s
where a line ad or small display ad does the trick.
If
you are in a business category dominated by a few, well
known businesses, don’t bother trying to outspend them
in the Yellow Pages. Your customers wouldn’t have
opened the Yellow Pages if they were looking for the big
guys. Go small and use the leftover money to fund other
marketing ventures, like generating publicity or
investing in an ad campaign on local radio.
There
are some cases where you will need to spend a little
extra on advertising in the Yellow Pages. Imagine you
are a lawyer just getting your business started. There
are scores of lawyers in your local directory, and some
of them have sizeable ads. In general though, the market
for lawyers is generic. In most cities or towns, 99% of
the lawyers are unknown businesses who people only look
up when they need them.
In
cases like this, where you are in a large generic
category that is not dominated by one or two well known
businesses, a slightly larger ad than the basic listing
will provide additional visibility for your business.
You still don’t need to purchase a full page, but a
small display ad or even a highlighted listing may serve
you well. When people consult the local directory,
uncertain of just who they will call, your more
noticeable ad will help steer more callers to your
business.
Continue Chapter 5 >>
<< Back to Table
of Contents
|
