Yellow Pages Tips - What Not To Do In Your Ad

If you want to join the ranks of unsuccessful Yellow Pages advertisers who make excuses like "No one uses the Yellow Pages anymore", make sure to follow these two key steps when you design your ad:

1. Make it small.

Your "penny-wise, pound-foolish" ad won't be large enough to get noticed by most people who turn to your heading. It won't portray a solid, dependable, trustworthy image for your company. And it won't give you enough room to include many of the proven elements of successful Yellow Pages ads.

Therefore, you won't get a lot of calls -- except maybe from price-shoppers looking for a 3rd or 4th estimate and figuring that your small ad means you're desperate for any work you can get. It won't bring you a large number of new customers. And it certainly won't get you the highest-priced, most-profitable and enjoyable jobs in your area.

2. Put your company name at or near the top of your ad.

Open any Yellow Pages anywhere in the country, and you'll be assaulted with page after page of these type of ads. For some reason (ego?), most local small business owners must somehow think that a Yellow Pages ad isn't really an ad. It's extremely rare that someone creates a flyer or places an ad in a newspaper and simply plasters their company name at the top instead of using an effective headline.

And speaking of newspapers, would anyone read any of the articles if they just had the authors' names big and bold at the top of them instead of effective headlines? Maybe they would -- but only if the authors are extremely well-known and well-respected. Which is why big national companies like Roto Rooter and Lawn Doctor can get away with putting their company names near the top of their ads. But if you're a local small businesses owner, not crafting an effective headline for your Yellow Pages ad is a HUGE mistake.

Sometimes a local small business owner will disagree with this proven rule of Yellow Pages success, explaining that they feature their company name because they want to make it easy for people to find their ad. HELLO!! Yellow Pages display ads are for the sole purpose of attracting NEW business from people who DON'T know the name of your company -- or any other in your heading. Quite frankly, they could care less that you call yourself "Joe's Plumbing" or "AAA-OK Heating" or "Harvey Smith, Attorney At Law". First, Yellow Pages users want to know what you can do for them. Then and only then will they care what the name of your company is.

And besides: If someone knows your company name and opens their Yellow Pages specifically to find you, they'll look you up alphabetically. They'll see your free "anchor listing" that says "See Our Ad On Page ___". THAT's how they'll find your ad, even if you use the prime real estate at the top of your ad (the one you're paying dearly for) to tell ready-to-buy, open-to-using-any-company shoppers why you are their best option over your competitors. That way, you can actually attempt to profit from your Yellow Pages instead of always being frustrated.

There are a lot of other rules of successful Yellow Pages advertising that you can violate. But just ignoring these two can cause you to see your bill as just another monthly expense that you'll want to keep as low as possible.

On the other hand, successful Yellow Pages advertisers are always looking for ways to increase their investment so they can increase their return. Yes, they're actually excited to place their well-designed ad into more headings and books year after year. Once they get all the work they can handle, they simply raise their rates and earn more profits while working less.

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