[slendersunfish]

Is it worth placing a Yellow pages advert ?(In my area Guildford Approx £500)

I presently have a free one line listing and get approx 5-10 calls every couple of months but im keen to get more commercial work.

Has anyone got experience of this sort of advertising and can anyone ffer me any advice

[rosskesava]

We found that we ended up with work all over the place. Most of it was in area's we didn't work in.  I can't remember but I'm sure the price we paid was about the same and that was about 2 years ago. I remember thinking it was a waste of money.

I think it depends on where your location is.

Most of the work we had to turn down but we did get a few good jobs out of it.

Personally, I'd try it around this area (Brighton) and find out because you can always say 'sorry but ..........' but for your area?

We had about 5 to 15 phone calls a week to start with which declined to about 3 or 4 or less towards the end of the time before a new yellow pages came out.

Of those about 75% weren't viable right from the outset.

5 to 10 phone calls every couple of months definately is not worth it. £500 worth of leafleting would be more profitable.

[texas girl]

Yellow page advertising is a very good investment over here.

Or course I have been in business for 25 years; so that definately helps also.

My ad costs $77.00 per month. One call per month pays for it.

Weigh the cost versus return; my listing covers a 30 mile radious.

As Ross said, direct marketing is always good based on the law of averages.

Best of luck!

Hugs,

Texas girl.

[dave0123]

iv had lots of work from yellow pages i must say my box is 15mm like a smaill buisness card it must give me around 5 new houses a week but i also get more in the areas etc and build it up. also the advert really has payed for its self its got me some shops schools etc's over the last few weeks.   

dave

[jsm]

hi all ,
I started in the yellow add , many years ago , worked well for private houses but not much commercial  work come in - for that you need to take up golf and take them out for lunch !!
In the end I came out of the yellow and Thompson as I had to much work!!
Tho' both books will list you for free on a linage .
The best way I found at the start   to get the private houses was to knock on doors , that way you can do the areas you want .

john malone
JSM Window & General Cleaning
( Rayleigh , Essex )
giving homes a shine since 1989 

[Terry_Burrows]

 ;)YP is crap we spent ! £1,300 last year not all in the same area,all we got a few calls do we clean houses,we dont,not one comercial call came in,loads of waste calls,will not get a penny from us again,we were going to spend £1500 this year,I cancelled the lot the sales people are good at selling you it,but do not come up with the goods,

[jsm]

Hi Terry, liked your add, thought when I see it - that must have cost you a few pennies LOL

yes they try to sell you stuff you don't want , I hooked up with that yellow dad’s 118-247 - havn't had a single phone call from it  !!

Before i come out of the pages I was getting the same work coming in just from a free linage , but 98% of our work is house's so it worked for us .
If you after the big money stuff - all the big cleaning companies have full time sales people going into firms all the time quoting, you have to be like them I'm afraid 

Got some guys i use for carpet cleaning and they all do half page adverts in the pages - they don't get any more work out of it from when the all did the little boxes , they just feel that it's what they have to do to get noticed now in the pages - one of guys spending on the Yellow/thomson a year would buy me a new van each year !!!!

[slendersunfish]

Great thanks for the help.

 It looks like this post is heading for a resounding NO for YP!!

Its also true apparently that the price on your advert is negotiable so never settle for your first quote.

[maggie67]

slendersunfish

Useful information. I didn't know that and could have saved myself a few pounds. I think this deserves a posting in its own right so that we can all save a little in the future (that is of course if anyone bothers to re-new )

Regards

Maggie

[telboy]

  NOTHING BUT GOOD WORDS FOR YELLOW PAGES
I HAVE GOT A LOT OF COMMERCIAL WORK FROM IT              PROFITS VASTLY OUTWAY COST OF ADDS

TELBOY

ANGEL C/S

[Terry_Burrows]

 ;)you must have trod in som fing Telboy ;Dme old m8 of years ago!

[telboy]

YOU COULD BE RIGHT THERE
TURBO


TELBOY

[stephen d]

used yp a few years ago - not worth it for me- very little work.but if you go ahead with it , the nearer to deadline day you leave it, the cheaper they will offer it to you(just make sure your ads ready)