Listing in the Yellow Pages

[Lawn Wizard]

Friday I am to meet with the local Yellow Pages to place my listing. The book will come out in October 2001 and be current until Oct 2002.

So I was wondering if it was worth it to place the bigger ad? All the listing will be alphebetical so I would be mid way down the list if I went with the standard listing. I guess I just want to hear everyones input on the subject of Yellow Pages listings.

[Avery]

Best money you will ever spend! A large amount of our jobs come from yellow page calls. Fliers are a waste of money and time. When someone calls you from a yellow page ad they are looking for a service and pretty much know what they want.

[HOMER]

Don't spend the money on a high dollar ad. I had one and it cost me nearly $400.00 a month. I made it through that year and downsized it to a one liner with just the name and number.............same amount of calls for $13.70 a month.

A lot of people are going to tell you that yellow page callers are just price shopping.................sure they are. It's your job after you make contact with them to "sell" your company and explain why you are better than the competition. Flyers never worked and were just a waste of good trees to me. I get calls every day/week and some turn out to be pretty good accounts. It has worked for me and I will continue to advertise with them.

[bubble boy]

i've never tried the yellow pages, so the two above responses are interesting.

thinking like a consumer, i would and do call the bigger, color ads when i'm looking for something in the yellow pages. but the price can be quite harsh.

definatley looking forward to more responses on the yellow pages success or failure.

[gogetter]

[i]. Fliers are a waste of money and time. [/B]


Perhaps if your speaking about pure Landscaping or tree work, you might be right. But as far as Lawn Maintenance, I'd say flyers are the way to go in order to keep a tight work range.

[lawnman_scott]

My ad costs about $400 a month, and its worth every penny, then some.

[KirbysLawn]

I just priced a 2x3" size ad in our local book, $430.00 a month.

No way, just think about how much work you will have to do each month extra just to pay for the ad, no thanks. If you make a 20% profit you will have to do $2150.00 a month in sales just to pay for that one ad, NO WAY am I going to do that much work just to give away to the phone company.

[dhicks]

I can't vote: No yellow page ad and no experience either. I would not mind taking out a small YB ad but I understand that you also have to have a business phoneline. Business lines are very expensive in Maryland so Verison gets into your pocket even before the YB ad appears.

[Avery]

All depends on you market area. 90% of home owners here don't live here. Houses are 1 million plus jobs that are rented out so fliers are a BIG waste of money unless you want to give the renter some interesting reading. As far as 400 a month...not a bad deal when you consider our yellow page ad generates appx. 250,000.00 a year in revenue. At double the amount it would still be a bargin! If you are a full service company I don't see how you could be without a yellow page ad.

[Lawn Wizard]

Thanks for the replies Avery and Homer. I think I am going to go with just the line listing Name , phone # to start out with its only $30 a month here. Maybe if the price is right I will go one bigger and get a display type ad.

[Lawn Wizard]

Oh I forgot to add this: In my Area (Chicago) they have 2 prices one for those with a business line and one for those with just their home number. They give ya a lot more lee way if you get a business line so I went out and got a cell phone today! I figure for $30 a month for the ad if I get one new customer from it it is paid for so Im going for it!

[Avery]

Good luck Wiz...Let us know how it works. I am betting you will be pleasantly suprised.

[Lawn Wizard]

Yeah I think it will work out good nut we wont know until next year i dont think as the issue isnt out until October! Planning ahead.

[Eric ELM]

Lawn Wizzard, I'll check out the new phone book when it comes out and look up your ad. Maybe I can get you to do my lawn since I'm usually to tired to do it when I get home. :D

[andyslawns]

I have been getting good results with flyers. I think with flyers you can pick your market a lot better. You dont have to use as much travel time either. just my 2 cents worth

[TLS]

My major problem with Yellow Page Ads is that they target a very large area. All of my accounts are within a 3 mile radius. 80% are withen a 1 mile radius. Our local Phone book is distributed to a 15 mile radius. I dont need any more customers anyway, but for just mowing, flyers worked the best next to word of mouth.

I was just on a trip down to Richmond, VA, and was traveling up I-95. You wouldn't believe how many LCO's I saw traveling "MANY" miles/exits up I-95. Not the best/safest trucks/trailers to be running 65-70 mph with mowers bouncing around either. I guess I'm just fortunate with all mine so close, but traveling long distances is not cost effective.

[jay]

Go with the white background and bolder lettering bigger isn't always better. open a few pages in the book and take a fast glance see which ones catch your eyes first. The yellow pages have worked pretty well for me but I upset that they keep increasing the price on me every year pretty dramatically. One time almost thirty percent. The thing with the phone book is to you get a lot of shoppers(people looking around for the cheapist service).

[AVRECON]

Pricing is the trick for the YP add folks. Every year your add will go up until it caps. I'm not sure how long it takes, but you will want to ask the sales person about it. I had an add for a year, and all I got were telemarketers trying to sell me something!

[Lawn Wizard]

I hear ya Dixie with keeping it close to home. This YP is the local version just my town and the surrounding area about 7 miles so its pretty tight. I like to keep the route as close to home as possible myself. As for the flyers I have found them to work well but I just dont seem to have the time to do as many as I would like so I figure the YP listing will ad to the power of the flyers! LOL! :) Well Im going for it tomorrow morning at 9 Ill let you guys know how it turns out.


PS: Eric I can be by tomorrow for that lawn have it looking real nice for ya :p

[Lawn Wizard]

Ok Went with the slightly larger display ad in color costs $54.00 a month going up 5% for the next 6 years if I choose to continue running it. There were about 150 LCOs listed in the current book but only 5 or 6 of em had the bigger ad so I figures Id have a good chance of sticking out. I listed all my services and from using the book I know that these are the first ones I look at so I hope it all goes according to plan! We shall see next season!

[CommercialCuts]

Yellow pages is the only place i advertise. $116.00 a month best money i spend. but if you have different phone companies check out their pages and see where the most lawn companies are advertising. If you have southwestern bell yellow pages in your area thats the one to use. i tries GTE my first year in business and recieved no more than a dozen calls all year. SWYBPS i have probably 30 to 40 calls per month. by the way all i service is commercial accounts. Go for it and try it for a year.
GOOD LUCK!!!!

[LAWNGODFATHER]

fortunately Imade a contact that is going to put out a gold page book that only goes to homes worth a certain amount and in certain areas all of which I service in

the biggest benefit for me is I will be the ONLY lawn care and landscaper in it

now that is clealy worth the money (or in this case labor/I will be exchanging sevices for the add)

However I can not vote becaus I am not in the book. I do think a big add is not worth the money when you take in account there are over 250 lawn and landscape companies in it
and I have friend that have adds. they get some biz out of it but not enough to justify the expence

in your area it may be differnt so try a small add and if it works you can go bigger or small

[MATTHEW]

Just bought my first yellow page ad. All the other lawncare buddies of mine say the get 1 or 2 calls a year (price shoppers) and they just do it for their customers if the # is lost. I, myself have had 2 calls all year. It is a 1/2 inch ad and is at the top of the list. Flyers worked best for me (if you call 1 out of 500 good)
Word of mouth is the ticket-but it takes time. I have heard that you should not hire any company if they do not have a listing in the phone book. Supposedly, it is a real red flag.

[DaveK]

Fliers are a waste of money and time.


This past Saturday I just targeted two new subs (homes are in various stages of completion and some are even totally landscaped) with 100 flyers offering a mid-summer special on paver patios and walkways that cost me $8 at Kinkos and about an hour to drive through and place them. By the time I got home, I had a message on the machine. Within another hour, I got a second call. I sold both jobs and together they will total approx. $6100 with a net of about $4000. This just goes to show that targeting the right area makes all the difference in the world. Well, that and being good at closing the sale.

My cost to get each customer in this case was $4 each.



My ad costs about $400 a month, and its worth every penny, then some.

To equal that $4 cost per customer with a $400 per month ad, I would have to get (and sell) 100 cals per month. That's about 3 calls per day 7 days a week. Not likely.

I realize that I may have just been very fortunate with this particluar flyer but I don't think that the yellow pages would give me a very good ROI.

This is what I have done. Pick one of your competitors. One that is larger than you, maybe the one that you are trying gain on or that you would really like to become larger than. Open the yellow pages and see if they have an ad, or a one liner, or none of the above. Keep in mind that the very big boys may have an ad because they are making more money than they know what to do with. Not because they actually need a large ad anymore.

That's my 2 cents.

Dave

[Groundlevel]

Placed an ad in YP last year, brought in some bussiness but did better on snow removal,which kinda shocked me since I was going for the mowing ( be sure to list all of your services). Was going to cancel this year but didn't do it in time. Name has alot to do with it, I'm the first one in the book. Quality sells your bussiness, don't care how big your ad is, do bad work get the job once and no word of mouth, do good job get the customer back and they spread the word for you.Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death / Give Them Quality and Give Me The Money