Little business exercise i learned.

[RJR7110]

I went to this small business program last week and i learned this little exercise that might be useful to some of you guys. They were talking about how a lot of service businesses need the phone book for a large chunk of their advertising seeing as how most people don't know the name of a plumber , landscaper, or roofing company off the top of their heads. So a lot of people use the phone book. So they told us to look in the phone book and act as if we were just clients looking for a service business. We then picked the ad that most appealed to us. After that we wrote down reasons why we picked this ad and then took those attributes and put them in our own ads. I thought this was a good idea and I think this can be helpful to a lot of people on here trying to get over the hump and get more clients.

[Az Gardener]

Just a point for debate. If you are your typical decision maker in your client relationship that would be a good strategy. If you are a 27 year old man and your typical client is a 52 year old woman... well your opinion and hers are likely to be very different. So the adds that appeal to you may vary greatly from what will appeal to your target market.

Many times we follow our own tastes when making marketing decisions for our company. I would suggest using a typical existing client to help you with these kinds of decisions.

Lastly when attending seminars don't hesitate to question the presenter, their background and experience. I have found you usually get what you pay for. Not to say you can't learn something but you should not blindly follow all advice.

Kudos to you for going to the seminar and trying to educate yourself, you just may need to tweek the tactics a bit.

[RJR7110]

I hope i didn't get what i paid for because it was free...:laugh:

[LB1234]

So the adds that appeal to you may vary greatly from what will appeal to your target market.

great point

[MarkintheGarden]

It sounds like a good idea to look at the other advertisement that is being used.

I think that your company has to have it's own image. The logo, colors, images and fonts, all are part of the overall image, and if it is consistent, appealing, and brings across an image, this will set you apart.

I do not use phone book advertisement, I think door to door advertisement brings a better return on investment. Door fliers or doorhangers get the work where you want it.

In my area there are frequent contractor scam artists. They use generic advertisement, take down payments for work, and then skip town. It always gets covered in the local news and creates a buyer beware atmosphere.

So, when I developed advertisement, logo, etc., I have always made an effort to make my advertisement (and other paper work) represent a particular company image. In some businesses a startup company would do well to mirror the images used by the big companies, but for me in this market that does not seem like the way to go.

So, I am suggesting you develop advertisement that represents you!

[LouisianaLawnboy]

When I look in the phonebook for anything I go down the list of companies calling each one. Big ads have a minimal affect on me.
Posted via Mobile Device

[THC]

I look for what I'm looking for..

Recently I looked for a store that sold chain link fences because Home Depots products were pathetic. Most ads were contractor this, contractor that, found one that said sales for the do-it-yourselfer. I bought from them.

If I'm looking for Pizza, the ad with a menu and price list in the phone book appeals to me.

Celluar numbers do not appeal, one line ads do not appeal... I used to be in the yellow pages and the worst thing was that I got call from all over the city when I only work in my area. I never got any calls for half the year because its a long winter. and the New Book comes out after the spring rush so...