Case AGAINST Yellow Pages Advertising
April 23, 2008
This is an open letter to anyone struggling with sorting the truth from the hype about the value of advertising in the Yellow Pages…
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I’m ticked that there’s so much misleading propaganda in this industry…. there’s a lot of ad reps out there making huge promises…and what they do is take people’s money and they don’t deliver… they give everyone who has anything to do with marketing a “black eye” (even those of us who don’t work for Yellow Pages directories)…and I’m tired of it! –Andre Bell |
Smart marketers have learned how to make Yellow Pages Advertising work for them. Predictably. Consistently.
But that’s not the case for most companies. The problem is most consumers and other businesses no longer use the Yellow Pages as actively as ten years ago, or even five years ago for that matter.
Why? Because other media are taking market share away from the Yellow Pages. Larry Small, the Director of Research at the Yellow Pages Association (YPA), admits the internet has adversely affected the effectiveness of advertising in the Yellow Pages.
In a nutshell…
The Internet Has Killed The Power of
Advertising In The Yellow Pages!
Larry knows more than anyone how bad things are for Yellow Pages advertisers.
The YPA’s members account for almost 85 percent of all Yellow Pages revenue generated in the U.S. and Canada alone. They are the ‘Microsoft’ of Yellow Pages. They totally dominate the Yellow Pages market.
Despite the huge migration of shoppers abandoning the Yellow Pages, the directories continue to increase rates each year. That’s like gas companies charging higher and higher rates for gas and at the same time decreasing the amount of gas you’re allowed to buy. Instead of a gallon, you only get half a gallon or a measly pint for more than you used to pay for a gallon.
That’s highway robbery!
Here’s the thing though…
Despite fewer people ‘letting their fingers do the walking’ in the yellow pages, ad agents still say paying for ads created by ad reps is a good value.
After years of tossing money down the drain wondering if it will ever come back, many former Yellow Pages advertising loyalists have chosen to “opt out” of Yellow Pages advertising altogether.
Because of this huge exodus… if you so much as think of canceling your ad, your Yellow Pages ad rep will show up on your doorstep telling “success” stories that get bigger and bigger each time the stories are told.
Do You Make These Mistakes
In Your Yellow Pages Ad?
If shrinking users isn’t bad enough… your potential customers see your ad at the same time they see ads from your competitors — all on the same page.
The competition here is fierce. More fierce than any other kind of advertising or marketing. That’s why advertising incest is the greatest “sin” committed in the Yellow Pages.
Basically all the ads are created ‘cut and paste’ from a common template. There’s very little variation. And just like real incest, these ads get dumber and dumber as they continue to reproduce.
Just look at the ads in any Yellow Pages directory. What should be an highly competitive ad is reduced to nothing more than an over-sized, ineffective business card. Why do all these ads look alike? Because ad reps are required to say ’sameness’ sells.
It doesn’t.
Sameness reduces you to a commodity where the only prospect to give you money are the lowest-profit, tightwad, greedy and unappreciative, price-shopping prospects.
Who Else Wants Profitable And Predictable
Yellow Pages Ad Performance?
Why do ad reps willingly tell these lies?
Usually ad reps are not bad people. They just don’t know any better because their ‘education’ comes from the very company that pays them to take your money. They are forced to either believe (or pretend to believe) the lies themselves…or they won’t get paid.
Second, the directories cannot ethically give one client a competitive advantage over another. Can you imagine how you’d feel if you found out your ad rep liked one of your competitors better than the rep liked you? What kind of ad would you imagine you’d get compared to your competitor? Pretty crappy, huh?You’d drop that ad in a hot second. And so would everyone else.
That’s exactly why Yellow Pages directories shoot for similar, mediocre, sterile ads. The more people they convince into believing sameness is ‘normal’, the fewer ad commissions Yellow Pages directories lose from cancellations.
Get Even And Kick The Teeth Out Of Competitors!
Third, there’s a tremendous amount of effort required to come up with a clear competitive advantage that kicks the teeth out of your competition. An ad writer must research your products and services, your industry, your customers… and your competitors.
The research required to create a powerfully persuasive promotion would tie an ad rep up for weeks - and that’s just for one ad! That’s why YOUR success is not the basis for their compensation. They are compensated strict for ‘productivity’. In other words, volume of renewals and new orders.
So instead of creating better ads, reps focus on catch phrases and ’statistics’ to woo people to buy.
Like possessed snake charmers, the reps to do everything they can to charm your money out of your pockets and into theirs.
Don’t get me wrong. Ad reps have not set themselves up to be your enemy. It’s just that the way they see things… the quicker they can get done with you the quicker they can move on to another advertiser — and another commission — regardless of the outcome for you.
What Excuse Do You Make When Asked
How’s Your Yellow Pages Ad Working…
And You Have No Answer…?
The directories compensate ad reps for quantity of ads sold. There are no incentives to help you actually make money with your ad.
But here’s the deal… I don’t work for any Yellow Pages advertiser and I refuse to accept a single penny in commission from them. That’s why I’m free to tell you like it really is… instead of the way they want you to believe it should be.
Oh, here are a couple other ‘dangers’ to be on the watch for…Lies about branding and ‘top of mind awareness‘. Let me ask you something… when was the last time you received top of mind awareness or branding in the mail and ran off to the bank and deposited it? Never! Those things cannot be measured.
It’s a scam. One big fat lie!
Don’t Renew Your Yellow Pages Ad
Until You Read This Warning…
What you want to receive from your advertising is money you can deposit. That’s it. Nothing less. Not ‘awareness’. And recall isn’t the ‘touchstone’ for judging ad effectiveness either. What matters is generating money into your pockets in predictable and measurable streams.
Here’s proof…
Just imagine, you tell your staff or vendors: “we are not going to give you a check this month. Instead we’ve decided to give you a share of our top of mind awareness. Isn’t that great?!?”.
What do you think would happen?
They’d mob you. Probably cut you into tiny little pieces and feed you to the alligators in your sewer. Why? Because everyone knows top of mind awareness and branding cannot be deposited. Those are just catch phrases used by advertisers and ad reps to mislead and distract… just like pickpockets who work in tandem to get into your wallet or purse.
The difference here is Yellow Pages theft can totally kill a company.
Let’s be honest.
Your market isn’t looking through the Yellow Pages for future use. They are not reading the Yellow Pages for entertainment value. And they are not reading it so they can recall someone later.Your prospect has an itch now and needs that itch scratched now. That’s why your ad must generate money you can deposit now.
How To Increase Yellow Pages
Response By 40% to 400% Overnight
In all my years of researching what works and what doesn’t work, I’ve finally released a Free Yellow Pages Advertising Guide that will help nearly any advertiser turn failing ads into huge money makers. This guide stands heads and tails above most everything out there…and the best part is it’s yours free.
Check out my Free Yellow Page Advertising Guide for the UK and USA markets while it’s still online for free. With so much hype online, I know how hard it is to find information that will truly benefit you.
Well…I’m here to tell you…this Free Yellow Pages Advertising Guide is the real deal. It took me two years of digging to uncover the material and put it all into one place like this. I guess I should be selling it for $97 or so as others are selling Yellow Pages Advertising guides for…but I won’t. My reason why it’s free is explained is on the page.
Take a look and grab a copy. I’m sure it will go on sale for a cost of about $97 to $137 after my marketing test is done.
Yours in Success,
Andre Bell
Freelance Marketing Advisor
Here are a few more Yellow Pages Articles I think you might enjoy reading:
| Yellow Pages Advertising in a Digital Age? - Your ad’s success in the Yellow Pages depends largely on just two main factors…the LOOK and CONTENT of your ad. At the end of the day, these two factors will determine your Yellow Pages advertising ROI. Other factors such as directory …When it comes time set up a budget for your advertising, I have a … - Its just about this time that many new businesses say theyre tapped out and opt to bypass the Yellow Pages. Its just too darned expensive, they moan. But, a smart businessperson would have allowed for this expensive in the original …Yellow Pages Advertising: Will Funny Make You Money? - So does this mean Yellow Page advertisers shouldn’t worry about eye-catching graphics? Of course not! Yellow Pages advertising is one step up over other mediums because rather than tuning the ads out as background noise, prospects are …Old Media Advertising - yellow pages And that brings me to the Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages advertising is the most wasteful old media process that I can think of in the new media age. These yellow pages are sitting on the stoop of the apartment building next to …Yellow Pages Get Aggresive - Another dying form of advertising is trying to re-invent themselves. Here’s the story from Mediapost: Yellowbook Greets The Future With New Set Of Ads by Laurie Sullivan [Telecom] A focus on the future aims to communicate to consumers … New Yellow Pages Advertising Guide Released Local Search Predicted to Be Killer App for Mobile Yellow Page Ad Design: Second Opinions That Will Kill You |
