Yellow Book Ad or not?

[Tombigbee]

I was inquiring about if anybody had an ad in the yellow book...I never had one...I had always good clients thru world of mouth but some folks had told me they really increased there business with an ad in the yellow book....Any advice is appreciated!

[cleancutccl]

I've always heard that it is a waste of money, unless you need the extra write off expense I would not do it. I hear that it is good for getting lots of price shoppers.

[Pro-lawns]

I was inquiring about if anybody had an ad in the yellow book...I never had one...I had always good clients thru world of mouth but some folks had told me they really increased there business with an ad in the yellow book....Any advice is appreciated!

I Have one its $49.00 a month just one mow a month pays for it
the local news paper wants over 200 a month

[Team Gopher]

Hi Tombigbee,

Here are a couple of older posts that will give you more insight.

Advertising in the yellow pages ??? (http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=98946)

Commercial Accounts = yellow page ad? (http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=98558)

[daveintoledo]

they cost hundreds and even thousands here, business studies have shown very low return from these ads..... many companies do surveys and ask where the customer hears of them, very few ever came from the yellow pages

[Tombigbee]

Thanks for the insight!

[cochino12]

I love my yellow page ad, worth every penny. I'm investing 2 times as much next year. Remember its all about the ad!! make sure it draws attention and dont forget a "call to action" and you'll do great. Why do you think you see the same companies year after year in the book? It's not because they loose money. There are better ways to find tax writeoffs.

Sure, not all of your customers will hear about you from the phone book BUT how many got your phone number there? Everyone here spends a lot of money on lettering etc.. which is great everyone knows your name when your truck drives by, how many of those people wrote down your number?

[Toy2]

Around here it appears if you don't have a phone book ad....then your a nobody.....the newspaper has been a joke, as well as inserts in the paper.....my yellow page ad should be out in August....it's gotta work...

[MMLawn]

Yellow Pages = The biggest waste of money on the planet over all. I have everything from just a Bold Listing to a Full Page Full Color ad at $1200 a month and they NEVER paid off so I dropped the Yellow Pages totally and went to door hangers and targeted mailers and have gained far more new clients each year that way.

[LightningLawns]

I have one out and it hasn't got me a bunch of calls but it has generated a few and I guess at 75.00/month its not that bad.

[cclllc]

It worked for me.I had to remove it to stop the calls..

[2k1yzfr1]

Around here it appears if you don't have a phone book ad....then your a nobody.....the newspaper has been a joke, as well as inserts in the paper.....my yellow page ad should be out in August....it's gotta work...


Don't hold your breath! I paid $900 last year for a yellow page ad and got maybe 2 calls off it and that was a 3"x3" ad.

[cochino12]

Don't hold your breath! I paid $900 last year for a yellow page ad and got maybe 2 calls off it and that was a 3"x3" ad.

Did you ask every person who called where they got your number?

[2k1yzfr1]

Every single one of them.........that's how I know where to spend money on advertising. My enclosed trailer is the best advertising I have ever spent money on.

[lawnman_scott]

I was inquiring about if anybody had an ad in the yellow book...I never had one...I had always good clients thru world of mouth but some folks had told me they really increased there business with an ad in the yellow book....Any advice is appreciated!
Are you talking about the "yellow book", not to be confused with "verizon (or whoever you have in your area) yellow pages"? If so, the yellow pages is well worth it, the yellow book, not affiliated with the yellow pages in any way is a total waste of money.

[cclllc]

Get the real yellow pages.

[Coumbe]

not worth $2 a month in my opinion.

[Dodgemania]

I run a grading and excavation buisness.
There are four phone books in my general area that do the Yellow page advertising. Two of the I wouldn't spend a penny on, but the other two are valuable. I'm in year three and needed more work to stay busy 5 days a week all year. I'm in both the top two phone books and I work 6 to 7 days a week and turn down more work than I do.
I think the major thing about the yellow page advertising is that your ad needs to be competitive to generate alot of calls. I advertise in the excavating column and there's three quarter page display ads and mine is one of them. So there's not much competition. You look under lawn services and you have 5 to 6 pages of display ads. So if your wanting to get calls there you better have one of the biggest and first ads or your wasting your money. In the lawn service column it is so competitve that if you spend money on a smaller ad and there's 20 ads biggere than yours and comes before yours you have wasted your money.

If your going to put an ad into a competitive section of the phone book you better spend the money to have a large ad and for it to be one of the first. If you've got the largest ad in our phone books then yours is the the first ad the public see's and that in my opinion is the best thing you can do. Last thing don't go with the phone book that's the cheapest price because that will be the phone book that nobody looks at. Hope that helps!

[Dodgemania]

Cochino said he paid $900 a year for an ad, that's your problem. I paid around 7K for the year for nice display ads and I'm going to elimanate one of the phone books I was in. If I had another machine and a few more guys it would be great, but just me and a helper we couldn't get to all the work. I was nervous as hell spending 7K for the year, but it exceeded my expectations. I know there's guys out there that spends more but for my third year it was alot for me, but I would and am going to do it again.

[orionkf]

Personally, for mowing, I wouldn't bother. Landscape and outdoor construction are definitely worth it though. We have displays in 3 headings (fences, retaining walls, and landscaping). Fences far and away has the best response rate, and the other 2 bring us bigger projects than we could ever hope to get by fllyering. Around $200 per month for all 3 display ads. It will pay for itself many times over by the end of the year.

[drsogr]

I put a small ad in one of the local phone books. Its a 1/2" column. I spent $200 on it, and I get a call about once a week with it. Most are for jobs that I am really not interested in. I have only gotten one job that I wanted. It was sodding a soccer field for an elementry school. That right there was enough to make it worth wild. I still have the rest of the year with that advertisement too.

One thing I have noticed, if you don't have the manpower to have someone answering your phones full-time then you are wasting your money. People will go right down the list if they get an answer machine. Next year I hope to go full-time and I am putting a 2" column ad in both of the major phone books. I expect that they will pay for themselves. They probably won't be a big money maker, but its nice to have a presence in the phonebook. Most people view you as a "real" company if your in it. I defintely would not advertise if I was mowing for a living. That is not the way to build a tight-route. I do mostly landscaping. So I can travel a little around town and still make good money.

[dmc337]

It costs me $50 per month. I have gained a significant amount of business from it.

[toac]

I find it funny when people say that they asked every customer where they got the number from. If it's true, then great. But I'll guarantee that your customers might have seen your truck, or had seen a flyer but didn't remember the phone number. So where did that customer go???? The phone book. Then when you ask the customer where they got your number....they don't say phone book, they say "I saw it on your truck", when what they should've said is, "I saw it on your truck but didn't have time to write your number down, so I looked you up in the phone book."

So I guess the next point to be made would be, 'then i guess i should just have my free listing in the yellow pages.' Again, that is not so true. Let's put ourselves back in the same situation. Customer see's your truck but couldn't remember your phone number. The customer then goes to the phone book. The customer finds the heading, but sees this beautiful display ad of your competition and decides to call them.

Now I'm not saying that the yellow pages are the best type of advertising in the world, but I do think that you should be represented by more than just a listing.

Just my 2 cents.

[topsites]

Around here, the yellow pages and the yellow book are two different publications, different prices, etc, etc.

[Sprinkler Doc]

So I guess the next point to be made would be, 'then i guess i should just have my free listing in the yellow pages.' Again, that is not so true.

When my friend told me to take over the 'repair' portion of his landscaping business, I reasoned that having a logical business name would help people find me.
If people are looking for sprinkler repairs they might look in the phonebook under Sprinklers.

So that's how I came up with my name: Sprinkler Doc. (I make house calls)

I only have the free listings in the white and yellow pages but it seems to work just fine. I finally quit asking how people found me because they all said the same thing, phone book or referral.

I have my Domain Name listed on my truck but I doubt that it brings in any serious business.
In addition, I always give the customer two business cards, one for him and one for a friend.

I'm glad I found this forum, there is a wealth of information here from some very experienced technicians.

[topsites]

It worked for me.I had to remove it to stop the calls..

how do you remove a yellow book ad once it's out?

[ArizPestWeed]

It's different through out the US .
Here , where I'm at , there are only about 15 pest control companies and last year I had a small inline add , very few calls .
This year I've a 2/3 page add and it's paid for it's self in 3 months .
I'm very gald I went big .
Cost , $400.00 a month

[LawnProfits]

One of the problems with a yellow page ad is that the yellow pages stay closed 99.9% of the time. Lawn care is not a critical service such as locksmiths, plumbers, towing service, etc. that do much better with yellow page ads. You should get a free listing as long as your phone is listed as a business phone.

Direct mail targeting specific residential areas and commercial properties is a better return on investment. Lawn care and its associated services are very seasonal, therefore your flexibility with other types of advertising can be much more profitable.