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Other Added - Are You Making These Nine Fatal Mistakes in Your Yellow Pages Ads?
$350 million in bad checks are written each and every week. That fact alone makes bad checks a serious problem for American businesses. It is almost inevitable that, if your business accepts checks, you have been affected by this. As well as being stuck with bank fees for depositing a bad check - and the very real possibility that the bad check could impact your bottom line - there is the time, aggravation and cost associated with recovering the funds. It is often the case that recovering the check can incur more in costs than the value of the original debt. Inevitably, many smaller businesses write off bad checks, believing that they cannot afford to pursue the debt. However, there are a number of ways your business can fight back and minimize the pain of bad check recovery.IT'S AN INNOCENT MISTAKE...For small and mid-sized businesses, the first recourse is to call the customer and explain the problem. Don't immediately assume that the customer intended to defraud your business. It is often true that an innocent mistake has been made and a calm, reasoned telephone call will recover your funds and keep what may be a valuable customer. Please be aware that threatening a debtor with publicizing their name or notifying their employer is illegal, so speak only to the person owing the funds and stay cool !PURSUING THE DEBTIn most States, you are required to send a certified letter to the check writer before you can institute court proceedings. You may request that the debtor also repays the bad check fee you have incurred. The check writer is usually required respond within 10 or 30 days. This varies by state, so please check with your State Attorney General's office. Again, a calm and reasonable tone often works well and will ensure you stay within the law. Reviewing the Fair Debt Collection Practi
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and tracka
Have you ever heard of an ultramarathon? A standard marathon is just over 26 miles. An ultramarathon is usually on the order of 50 or 100 miles, though there are some that span one thousand! Imagine the endurance required to run such a race.Running a business requires the kind of devotion and stamina that ultramarathoners can only dream about. Like the 100-mile runner, the successful business leader must maintain focus, keeping an eye on the path...on the mileposts that mark progress...and on the long-range goal.Unlike an ultramarathoner, your long-distance business run ends only when you leave the business by choice or when it dies an unnatural death. For in business the real success lies in creating something you can live with for the long haul, a crucible into which you can mix your creative vision and talents to build something unique and useful.Keeping Stakeholders FocusedIt's critical to your success to help your stakeholders stay focused, too. A good business delivers value to employees, customers, investors, and the community in roughly equal measure. Lose focus in any of those areas and you can find yourself headed for a business train wreck.What happens when a business and its stakeholders lose focus? I recently observed a group of people at one company meeting to discuss the project manager's dissatisfaction with pink bubble wrap.Eight people spent one hour in a meeting to talk about why bubble wrap had to be pink. Was that meeting necessary? Of course not. The focusing question to ask is: Does this meeting deliver real value to business stakeholders? Is it lined up with the business' principles and what it does consistently well?Best intentions aside, such meetings are indicative of deeper problems that have gone ignored for a long
The good news is that people who look you up in the Yellow Pages are very serious buyers. They need what you sell right now. So, when they contact you, you are in for a very short buying cycle. And that is a great advantage. However, this advantage comes at a price tag and a pretty high level of commitment from your end. The good news is that...
Some 97% of the Yellow Pages Ads Are Duds
Just look up the YP in any category. All the ads look exactly the same. No difference. Not a sausage. You can shift the company names between ads and you see that they all do the same thing the same way. There is no differentiation. They are like teenagers: They so desperately try to be different from everyone else that they end up looking and behaving exactly the same way as everyone else. Hm.
So, where is the problem with all those YP ads? The Book of Boredom, Yawn and Drab: Are You Making These Nine Fatal Mistakes in Your Yellow Pages Ads?
Apart from the major downside of the Yellow Pages, that it is nipplepiercingly expensive, it is still a bottomachingly brilliant vehicle to take your marketing message to your target audience. Well, some people think, the YP is on its way out, and I totally agree, but I believe it has a few more years of marching to do until it completely vanishes into thin air or even into a puff of smoke.
The good news is that people who look you up in the Yellow Pages are very serious buyers. They need what you sell right now. So, when they contact you, you are in for a very short buying cycle. And that is a great advantage. However, this advantage comes at a price tag and a pretty high level of commitment from your end. The good news is that...
Some 97% of the Yellow Pages Ads Are Duds
Just look up the YP in any category. All the ads look exactly the same. No difference. Not a sausage. You can shift the company names between ads and you see that they all do the same thing the same way. There is no differentiation. They are like teenagers: They so desperately try to be different from everyone else that they end up looking and behaving exactly the same way as everyone else. Hm.
So, where is the problem with all those YP ads?
First Let's Look at Some YP Stats
The Yellow Pages reach 76% of the population in the average month, 57% in the average week, and 17% daily. Adults refer to the Yellow Pages almost twice per week, or approximately 19 billion times per year.
88% of these references result in contact with a purchase or an intent to purchase.
Because the Yellow Pages is a reference medium, like classified ads in newspapers, providing over 50% of new clients.
52% of potential clients either have no service provider in mind, or have multiple names in mind when they see your Yellow Pages ad. Your ad can clarify one name for them: Yours.
The average business gets $6 in profit for every $1 invested in Yellow Pages advertising. With a good ad you can even beat that. But be aware of average. When the average temperature in a hospital is normal, it can also mean that half of the patients suffer from high fever and the other half are dead. The YP is the same. Some people make huge profits on their ads, and some curse the name of the person who invented the Yellow Pages. The interesting thing is that the idiots volunteer to lose on their ads rather than hiring a Yellow Pages specialist.
The average cost of half page Yellow Pages display ad for one full year is over $15,000, so you had better know what you are doing.
81% of YP readers (potential clients) start at the beginning of the heading when they don't have a business name in mind.
66% of readers believe that a larger display ad indicates a more established, more realizable business. 70% look at the larger ads when they are not sure where to buy.
20% of readers want to see more information. Can you see why you need a website?
81% of readers make contact with the advertising business.
34% will contact a company they had never contacted before. How good are you at handling first contacts? Is your receptionist a minimum-wage bimbo from the bottom of the unemployment scum barrel or a true professional with the necessary communications skills? Also, I sincerely hope that you have something better than a "corporate voice mail labyrinth".
42% of people will contact two or more businesses. Remember the receptionist syndrome. Your receptionist brings you business. I don't care how good of a lawyer, engineer or gravedigger you are. Everything hinges on your receptionist. So, start appreciating and paying her properly. Believe it or not, she carries major "bankrupting power" over your business.
For readers with both small and large directories in their homes, 38% will use the small book, 62% will use the large book, and 8% will reference multiple books. Maybe the lower cost of the small, local book is a good deal after all. There are over 4200 active headings in the yellow pages, and YP can create your own heading for you if needed. So, let's look at...
Ten Typical Yellow Pages Mistakes and They Can Be Avoided
1. Failing to do the necessary pre-placement planning: Typically when do business owners plan their Yellow Pages ads? Actually never, until they get a call from the YP rep, and they hand over their money to the rep and say they blindly trust the Yellow Pages' ad specialists to create the ad. Keep something in mind. The Yellow Pages doesn't care whether or not you make any business from your ad. With this in mind, what is the logic for the YP company to hire expensive ad specialists? Increasing overhead costs? No.
They will create an ad that looks exactly the same as all your competitors', so but your chance of being selected when potential buyers peruse your category is not much. So, what to include in your pre-placement planning?
Some are... What results do you want to achieve from your ad?
What is your Most Wanted Action? (Action you want your prospects to take?
What proportion of your business do you expect to come from YP?
Who is your target market?
What is your biggest primary and secondary benefit?
Do you have an offer both for "Ready to Buy" prospects and for prospects who are looking for more information?
Which directories do you put your ad in?
2. Imitating the competition: Most YP advertisers are like teenagers: In their efforts of looking unique, they look exactly the same. Again, what happens when a business' YP ad comes up for renewal? The ad must be in within ten minutes, so the job gets dumped on a people who have never done advertising in their lives. They look up YP, copy one of the competitors' ads and place them. And retarded business owners all over the world fork out their hard-earned money for some braindead "me too" type ads. Here are the typical ways businesses imitate each other:
The headline is replaced with the company name or logo.
Benefits are replaced with product description. Hint: If you sell drills, advertise amazing holes, not drills. If you are a realtor, advertise quality of life not houses.
Hours of business and location
Company's slogan or mission
"We take all credit cards"
And the normal reaction to all this rubbish is: "So what!?"
3. Failing to place ads under multiple categories: Most YP advertisers try to save money by placing their ads into one category only. The poor creatures spend a small fortune on their ads, but refuse to spend the extra few dollars to make sure they get maximum results.
4. Writing an ad that pleases you, while ignoring the buyer's self-interest: Most ads are "me" based: "Look what I want to sell you". They don't care about what buyers want to buy. Which only proves that so many companies totally don't understand their target markets and what they want. Just think of the hole and drill example. Don't get me wrong. I don't suggest extensive and expensive market research, but there are some cost-effective ways of testing the marketplace.
Just think about it. If you want to jump into the swimming pool, you just have to check it for water and temperature, and you are ready to swim at your heart's content. But you don't need to hire a team of experts to launch a full-blown research project on swimming pools, the science of concrete pouring and fluid dynamics. That's retarded but that what most companies do under the aegis of market research. Hint: How many people do you know who "research" their spouses before marrying them?
Don't waste your time and money researching the market. You will never get the true answers to your research. Instead of research, just keep testing the market. Then you find the true answer. You see Edison didn't research the light bulb. He tested his ideas over and over again, and then it worked out.
Before you place your YP, use some small ads in the local paper, or even better, use Google AdWords. Google can be your most trusted friend when it comes to testing your headlines and call for action.
5. Failing to consider the five main components of the ad.
1) A kick-butt compelling headline: The headline is the ad for the ad. The headline alone can increase or reduce response rate by as much as 2100%. When you write your ad, you have to spend at least 80% of your time on the headline.
2) Attractive benefits: No one cares what kind of cleaning agents you use in your carpet cleaning business. To succeed, you must promote cleanliness. Without this, even if your headline catches their attention, the ad itself fails to keep their interest.
3) A sexy offer: After the benefits, you must offer a very specific offer. Personally I prefer to direct YP reader to the website where a free Special Report or some other free offer waits for them. But they have to put in their names and email addresses. This approach has never failed.
4) Call for action: This is a huge problem. Most ads are lame and don't ask readers to take any kind of action. Make sure you ask for a very specific action. Remember, your ad's job is to generate sales leads and sales. If your ad doesn't generate new business, it is dead, and you have just lost your money.
5) Appropriate contact information: Put in all the appropriate contact points where you can be reached.
6. Failing to position your company as a trusted resource: You have two options here: Either you compete with other advertisers by peddling your stuff, or position yourself as helpful resource and offer relevant information to aid your buyer's decision. Yes, most prospects who look you up in YP are "Ready to Buy" buyers, but it is still a nice and unique touch to offer some relevant information - and I am not talking about brochures or this kind of nonsense. I mean some valuable stuff, like a Special Report or Consumer's Guide. Imagine. Every ad in your section is screaming, "Give me your money". But you say, "We have valuable information for you that can save you time or money. For a free report, "Ten Deadly Mistakes Accountants Make When Handling Their Own Taxes" call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx or visit our website at www.xxxx.com." Now this is an attractive proposition.
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and trackab
As a Career Consultant, I work with clients on all the tools and techniques that are needed to succeed in the job search – including interviewing skills. One thing I have noticed over the years is that candidates often get “trapped” in certain interview questions that are designed to make them say something negative or self-defeating (which generally leads to rejection). Indeed, job-seekers are not even aware of how negative many of their answers sound at interviews! So, I instruct all my clients to “never say anything negative, or anything that could possibly be construed as negative!” Candidates can avoid being disqualified by stating all their answers in positive (or, at least, neutral) terms.The following are some of the most commonly-asked interview questions,t is important that job candidates practice these responses until they are able to handle all the questions effectively. along with suggested approaches for answers. IWhy do you want to work here? How can you help our company? Why should we be interested in you? Answer is always based on information you’ve researched in advance about the company and their needs.If you were choosing someone for this job, what kind of person would you select? Answer is to generally state your own general qualifications, without being too “obvious.” Leave out the details.If you could have any job which one would you want at this company? Answer has to do with the most general description of the job – NOT A SPECIFIC TITLE.What weaknesses do you have for this job? TRAP QUESTION. Never state anything negative! Answer is to ponder for a while and then state that you can’t think of any weaknesses that would compromise your performance at this job; or negatively impact your performance of the job’s responsibilities.What do you expect to g
88% of these references result in contact with a purchase or an intent to purchase.
Because the Yellow Pages is a reference medium, like classified ads in newspapers, providing over 50% of new clients.
52% of potential clients either have no service provider in mind, or have multiple names in mind when they see your Yellow Pages ad. Your ad can clarify one name for them: Yours.
The average business gets $6 in profit for every $1 invested in Yellow Pages advertising. With a good ad you can even beat that. But be aware of average. When the average temperature in a hospital is normal, it can also mean that half of the patients suffer from high fever and the other half are dead. The YP is the same. Some people make huge profits on their ads, and some curse the name of the person who invented the Yellow Pages. The interesting thing is that the idiots volunteer to lose on their ads rather than hiring a Yellow Pages specialist.
The average cost of half page Yellow Pages display ad for one full year is over $15,000, so you had better know what you are doing.
81% of YP readers (potential clients) start at the beginning of the heading when they don't have a business name in mind.
66% of readers believe that a larger display ad indicates a more established, more realizable business. 70% look at the larger ads when they are not sure where to buy.
20% of readers want to see more information. Can you see why you need a website?
81% of readers make contact with the advertising business.
34% will contact a company they had never contacted before. How good are you at handling first contacts? Is your receptionist a minimum-wage bimbo from the bottom of the unemployment scum barrel or a true professional with the necessary communications skills? Also, I sincerely hope that you have something better than a "corporate voice mail labyrinth".
42% of people will contact two or more businesses. Remember the receptionist syndrome. Your receptionist brings you business. I don't care how good of a lawyer, engineer or gravedigger you are. Everything hinges on your receptionist. So, start appreciating and paying her properly. Believe it or not, she carries major "bankrupting power" over your business.
For readers with both small and large directories in their homes, 38% will use the small book, 62% will use the large book, and 8% will reference multiple books. Maybe the lower cost of the small, local book is a good deal after all. There are over 4200 active headings in the yellow pages, and YP can create your own heading for you if needed. So, let's look at...
Ten Typical Yellow Pages Mistakes and They Can Be Avoided
1. Failing to do the necessary pre-placement planning: Typically when do business owners plan their Yellow Pages ads? Actually never, until they get a call from the YP rep, and they hand over their money to the rep and say they blindly trust the Yellow Pages' ad specialists to create the ad. Keep something in mind. The Yellow Pages doesn't care whether or not you make any business from your ad. With this in mind, what is the logic for the YP company to hire expensive ad specialists? Increasing overhead costs? No.
They will create an ad that looks exactly the same as all your competitors', so but your chance of being selected when potential buyers peruse your category is not much. So, what to include in your pre-placement planning?
Some are... What results do you want to achieve from your ad?
What is your Most Wanted Action? (Action you want your prospects to take?
What proportion of your business do you expect to come from YP?
Who is your target market?
What is your biggest primary and secondary benefit?
Do you have an offer both for "Ready to Buy" prospects and for prospects who are looking for more information?
Which directories do you put your ad in?
2. Imitating the competition: Most YP advertisers are like teenagers: In their efforts of looking unique, they look exactly the same. Again, what happens when a business' YP ad comes up for renewal? The ad must be in within ten minutes, so the job gets dumped on a people who have never done advertising in their lives. They look up YP, copy one of the competitors' ads and place them. And retarded business owners all over the world fork out their hard-earned money for some braindead "me too" type ads. Here are the typical ways businesses imitate each other:
The headline is replaced with the company name or logo.
Benefits are replaced with product description. Hint: If you sell drills, advertise amazing holes, not drills. If you are a realtor, advertise quality of life not houses.
Hours of business and location
Company's slogan or mission
"We take all credit cards"
And the normal reaction to all this rubbish is: "So what!?"
3. Failing to place ads under multiple categories: Most YP advertisers try to save money by placing their ads into one category only. The poor creatures spend a small fortune on their ads, but refuse to spend the extra few dollars to make sure they get maximum results.
4. Writing an ad that pleases you, while ignoring the buyer's self-interest: Most ads are "me" based: "Look what I want to sell you". They don't care about what buyers want to buy. Which only proves that so many companies totally don't understand their target markets and what they want. Just think of the hole and drill example. Don't get me wrong. I don't suggest extensive and expensive market research, but there are some cost-effective ways of testing the marketplace.
Just think about it. If you want to jump into the swimming pool, you just have to check it for water and temperature, and you are ready to swim at your heart's content. But you don't need to hire a team of experts to launch a full-blown research project on swimming pools, the science of concrete pouring and fluid dynamics. That's retarded but that what most companies do under the aegis of market research. Hint: How many people do you know who "research" their spouses before marrying them?
Don't waste your time and money researching the market. You will never get the true answers to your research. Instead of research, just keep testing the market. Then you find the true answer. You see Edison didn't research the light bulb. He tested his ideas over and over again, and then it worked out.
Before you place your YP, use some small ads in the local paper, or even better, use Google AdWords. Google can be your most trusted friend when it comes to testing your headlines and call for action.
5. Failing to consider the five main components of the ad.
1) A kick-butt compelling headline: The headline is the ad for the ad. The headline alone can increase or reduce response rate by as much as 2100%. When you write your ad, you have to spend at least 80% of your time on the headline.
2) Attractive benefits: No one cares what kind of cleaning agents you use in your carpet cleaning business. To succeed, you must promote cleanliness. Without this, even if your headline catches their attention, the ad itself fails to keep their interest.
3) A sexy offer: After the benefits, you must offer a very specific offer. Personally I prefer to direct YP reader to the website where a free Special Report or some other free offer waits for them. But they have to put in their names and email addresses. This approach has never failed.
4) Call for action: This is a huge problem. Most ads are lame and don't ask readers to take any kind of action. Make sure you ask for a very specific action. Remember, your ad's job is to generate sales leads and sales. If your ad doesn't generate new business, it is dead, and you have just lost your money.
5) Appropriate contact information: Put in all the appropriate contact points where you can be reached.
6. Failing to position your company as a trusted resource: You have two options here: Either you compete with other advertisers by peddling your stuff, or position yourself as helpful resource and offer relevant information to aid your buyer's decision. Yes, most prospects who look you up in YP are "Ready to Buy" buyers, but it is still a nice and unique touch to offer some relevant information - and I am not talking about brochures or this kind of nonsense. I mean some valuable stuff, like a Special Report or Consumer's Guide. Imagine. Every ad in your section is screaming, "Give me your money". But you say, "We have valuable information for you that can save you time or money. For a free report, "Ten Deadly Mistakes Accountants Make When Handling Their Own Taxes" call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx or visit our website at www.xxxx.com." Now this is an attractive proposition.
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and tracka
If you’re like most people, you’ve never written a press release to call attention to a success you’ve had.And rightly so.But some of you should be sending out press releases or encouraging your company to promote things that you and your group are doing because they are significant.And most of you can be doing the next best thing to a press release:The periodic noteAn old friend of mine would mail a note to all of her friends bring them up-to-date on the things that were going on in her life, her professional successes, accomplishments and, occasionally, the frustrations. It allowed her to stay in contact with lot of people who would offer her advice, suggestions and jobs.Today, with email, it is much easier than before.Every 6 months, send an email to all of your friends, acquaintances and former colleagues to bring them up-to-date. Skip the complaints about your boss. Former colleagues may be in contact with them and you don’t want to generate problems.It’s easy to add people to Outlook and other products like it; you can also use services like Plaxo (www.plaxo.com) that host your rolodex online and allow others to connect with you, too.Any way you look at it, since only 22% of positions are filled by recruiters and fewer than 6% via job boards, your connects and their ability to think of you will go a long way to helping jobs land in your lap.
1. Failing to do the necessary pre-placement planning: Typically when do business owners plan their Yellow Pages ads? Actually never, until they get a call from the YP rep, and they hand over their money to the rep and say they blindly trust the Yellow Pages' ad specialists to create the ad. Keep something in mind. The Yellow Pages doesn't care whether or not you make any business from your ad. With this in mind, what is the logic for the YP company to hire expensive ad specialists? Increasing overhead costs? No.
They will create an ad that looks exactly the same as all your competitors', so but your chance of being selected when potential buyers peruse your category is not much. So, what to include in your pre-placement planning?
Some are... What results do you want to achieve from your ad?
What is your Most Wanted Action? (Action you want your prospects to take?
What proportion of your business do you expect to come from YP?
Who is your target market?
What is your biggest primary and secondary benefit?
Do you have an offer both for "Ready to Buy" prospects and for prospects who are looking for more information?
Which directories do you put your ad in?
2. Imitating the competition: Most YP advertisers are like teenagers: In their efforts of looking unique, they look exactly the same. Again, what happens when a business' YP ad comes up for renewal? The ad must be in within ten minutes, so the job gets dumped on a people who have never done advertising in their lives. They look up YP, copy one of the competitors' ads and place them. And retarded business owners all over the world fork out their hard-earned money for some braindead "me too" type ads. Here are the typical ways businesses imitate each other:
The headline is replaced with the company name or logo.
Benefits are replaced with product description. Hint: If you sell drills, advertise amazing holes, not drills. If you are a realtor, advertise quality of life not houses.
Hours of business and location
Company's slogan or mission
"We take all credit cards"
And the normal reaction to all this rubbish is: "So what!?"
3. Failing to place ads under multiple categories: Most YP advertisers try to save money by placing their ads into one category only. The poor creatures spend a small fortune on their ads, but refuse to spend the extra few dollars to make sure they get maximum results.
4. Writing an ad that pleases you, while ignoring the buyer's self-interest: Most ads are "me" based: "Look what I want to sell you". They don't care about what buyers want to buy. Which only proves that so many companies totally don't understand their target markets and what they want. Just think of the hole and drill example. Don't get me wrong. I don't suggest extensive and expensive market research, but there are some cost-effective ways of testing the marketplace.
Just think about it. If you want to jump into the swimming pool, you just have to check it for water and temperature, and you are ready to swim at your heart's content. But you don't need to hire a team of experts to launch a full-blown research project on swimming pools, the science of concrete pouring and fluid dynamics. That's retarded but that what most companies do under the aegis of market research. Hint: How many people do you know who "research" their spouses before marrying them?
Don't waste your time and money researching the market. You will never get the true answers to your research. Instead of research, just keep testing the market. Then you find the true answer. You see Edison didn't research the light bulb. He tested his ideas over and over again, and then it worked out.
Before you place your YP, use some small ads in the local paper, or even better, use Google AdWords. Google can be your most trusted friend when it comes to testing your headlines and call for action.
5. Failing to consider the five main components of the ad.
1) A kick-butt compelling headline: The headline is the ad for the ad. The headline alone can increase or reduce response rate by as much as 2100%. When you write your ad, you have to spend at least 80% of your time on the headline.
2) Attractive benefits: No one cares what kind of cleaning agents you use in your carpet cleaning business. To succeed, you must promote cleanliness. Without this, even if your headline catches their attention, the ad itself fails to keep their interest.
3) A sexy offer: After the benefits, you must offer a very specific offer. Personally I prefer to direct YP reader to the website where a free Special Report or some other free offer waits for them. But they have to put in their names and email addresses. This approach has never failed.
4) Call for action: This is a huge problem. Most ads are lame and don't ask readers to take any kind of action. Make sure you ask for a very specific action. Remember, your ad's job is to generate sales leads and sales. If your ad doesn't generate new business, it is dead, and you have just lost your money.
5) Appropriate contact information: Put in all the appropriate contact points where you can be reached.
6. Failing to position your company as a trusted resource: You have two options here: Either you compete with other advertisers by peddling your stuff, or position yourself as helpful resource and offer relevant information to aid your buyer's decision. Yes, most prospects who look you up in YP are "Ready to Buy" buyers, but it is still a nice and unique touch to offer some relevant information - and I am not talking about brochures or this kind of nonsense. I mean some valuable stuff, like a Special Report or Consumer's Guide. Imagine. Every ad in your section is screaming, "Give me your money". But you say, "We have valuable information for you that can save you time or money. For a free report, "Ten Deadly Mistakes Accountants Make When Handling Their Own Taxes" call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx or visit our website at www.xxxx.com." Now this is an attractive proposition.
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and tracka
What if there was a way to make money sitting in traffic jams?How this for a free idea for you....Recently I was talking to a gentlemen about advertising, and finding 'other ways' to generate leads for our own small businesses. One technique that we both overlooked, is putting basic signage on your car (with a twist).After thinking about the upsides and the downsides of advertising on our cars... we worked out that permanent signage can be a major problem down the track. EG Potentially going out of business, once it's on your car it costs alot of money if you want to change it around etc. So if you're going to go down the path of doing a 'full car body advertising wrap', make sure you have a damn good design team to get it right the first time!One idea lead to another, and to cut a long story short, the 'least risky' way to advertise on your car is using magnets! It only works out to be about $60 for two high quality magnets, and that includes the design and delivery! (PS. We don't make magnets, i'm just sharing our research with you). The best part is, you can remove them in about 3 seconds when you don't want to use them, and it's a nice cheap way to generate leads.Here's the part that you will really like...We got fairly excited when we thought about all of this. You know how most people have to drive to work each day? Well based on that, we came up with an idea that anyone with a car could make money from....If you don't own a business yourself, why not rent your car door as advertising space to other businesses? Imagine how many sets of eyes would see the message each day???EG. If your gas bill is $20 per week, simply 'rent out' your car door as advertising space using car door magnets for $20p/week, and your costs will be covered...simpl
Just think about it. If you want to jump into the swimming pool, you just have to check it for water and temperature, and you are ready to swim at your heart's content. But you don't need to hire a team of experts to launch a full-blown research project on swimming pools, the science of concrete pouring and fluid dynamics. That's retarded but that what most companies do under the aegis of market research. Hint: How many people do you know who "research" their spouses before marrying them?
Don't waste your time and money researching the market. You will never get the true answers to your research. Instead of research, just keep testing the market. Then you find the true answer. You see Edison didn't research the light bulb. He tested his ideas over and over again, and then it worked out.
Before you place your YP, use some small ads in the local paper, or even better, use Google AdWords. Google can be your most trusted friend when it comes to testing your headlines and call for action.
5. Failing to consider the five main components of the ad.
1) A kick-butt compelling headline: The headline is the ad for the ad. The headline alone can increase or reduce response rate by as much as 2100%. When you write your ad, you have to spend at least 80% of your time on the headline.
2) Attractive benefits: No one cares what kind of cleaning agents you use in your carpet cleaning business. To succeed, you must promote cleanliness. Without this, even if your headline catches their attention, the ad itself fails to keep their interest.
3) A sexy offer: After the benefits, you must offer a very specific offer. Personally I prefer to direct YP reader to the website where a free Special Report or some other free offer waits for them. But they have to put in their names and email addresses. This approach has never failed.
4) Call for action: This is a huge problem. Most ads are lame and don't ask readers to take any kind of action. Make sure you ask for a very specific action. Remember, your ad's job is to generate sales leads and sales. If your ad doesn't generate new business, it is dead, and you have just lost your money.
5) Appropriate contact information: Put in all the appropriate contact points where you can be reached.
6. Failing to position your company as a trusted resource: You have two options here: Either you compete with other advertisers by peddling your stuff, or position yourself as helpful resource and offer relevant information to aid your buyer's decision. Yes, most prospects who look you up in YP are "Ready to Buy" buyers, but it is still a nice and unique touch to offer some relevant information - and I am not talking about brochures or this kind of nonsense. I mean some valuable stuff, like a Special Report or Consumer's Guide. Imagine. Every ad in your section is screaming, "Give me your money". But you say, "We have valuable information for you that can save you time or money. For a free report, "Ten Deadly Mistakes Accountants Make When Handling Their Own Taxes" call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx or visit our website at www.xxxx.com." Now this is an attractive proposition.
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and tracka
I spend a great deal of my time dealing with highly sensitive, highly confidential information. Over the years I have noticed that many of the institutions I have worked with have gone to great pains and considerable expense to make certain their computer systems have state of the art firewalls and "hacker-proof" encoding systems. Nonetheless, they continue to leak data like a sieve!How can this be? Simple, they are guarding the air conditioner duct instead of the front door.So, what do I know about it? My knowledge of the field is pretty backdoor in nature.First of all, I work a lot with people who love nothing more than to stir up hate and discontent wherever they go. They will intentionally uncover and publish sensitive information. It is fun for them. In order to find out why they do these things I do a lot of debriefing with them when an incident occurs.Second, I have two brothers who made carriers out of law enforcement. One of my brothers served many years as a state trooper and another as a sheriff’s deputy. They were both extremely successful in the investigation facet of the job and I am about to tell you why. Then you can see if you are vulnerable to the same kind of attack.The sources of data loss, in no particular order, are as follows.1. Waste Archeology. Simply speaking, someone who really wants to know your secrets will go through your trash. And guess what? It is completely legal. Buy a $20.00 shredder, and use it.2. Taps. Seriously, if you have a wireless system it is pretty simple to eaves drop via laptop from the coffee shop next door.3. Pop-ins. Be extremely wary of maintenance crews and repair staff you haven't called in. Check ID's. Also, be aware of someone who comes in asking a lot of questions. You may be surprised what the reception staf
With this approach your ad stands out like a trombonist in a heavy metal band. You make your ad different. You create a predisposition towards your company. You position yourself as the expert of the category. It makes you unique for you alone are doing it.
7. Failing to use other lead generation channels: The biggest problem is that you peg your future on one single channel of lead generation. It is like a one-legged table. While standing, it is fine, but when it collapses, then years and years of hard work can go down the toilet.
In order to get a steady stream of qualified sales leads, you need at least four channels of lead generation. One is your YP ad, but you need more, and I suggest that one channel is a properly structured website. I say properly structure because some 98% of all websites out there are total failures as lead generation channels.
All right. Some people say they have no intention to use their websites to bring in business. Then what is the point in having an expense in your business that is not producing? Would you have employees in your company who openly brag about their unwillingness to do any work? That is plain retarded.
8. Telling prospects they can find you in YP: Why would you direct your prospects to a competitive minefield that is riddled with ads (many of them are much better than yours) from your competitors who are desperate to see you out of business and starve to death, knowing that will give them more business? This may sound drastic, and it is. But this is the reality. Yes, your ad is in YP but you lose all of your advantages because all your competitors are promoting the same advantages. Your ad just blends into the competitive environment. Instead of guiding prospects to the Yellow Pages, guide them to your website. That is your home turf with no competition.
9. Failing to track responses. Over the years of writing Yellow Pages ads and organising campaigns for clients I have seen this over and over again. And do you know where this logic comes from. From large ad agencies that try to convince their clients that ads can't be traced and tracked, and that clients just have to fork out the dough and then fly blind. Originally I studied engineering, so for me everything must be traceable and trackable, and this habit has served me nicely over the years. Just figure out how to track your responses and don't believe the ad agencies. Hey, have you thought why most ad agencies use door-to-door peddlers to sell their services? Maybe because they are pretty lousy at advertising their own stuff and they have to resort to traditional prospecting grunt work. Just a thought really...
So, we have covered some ground here. Make sure you implement these nine points in your Yellow Pages ads, and you will see a big difference.
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