O/t Yellow Pages Advertising - Worth It?

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

as many of you will know I sell workwear, safety gear etc

I have always advertised in yellow pages - in the paper section and more recently in the online clicks

last year I reduced the size of the book adverts and increased the budget on the online side of things

my usual spend is between 5-7k

so the question is: is it worth it - my gut tells me just get a "line add" in the book and ditch the online - then spend my budget on advertising with google or on other advertising such as brochures for my sales team

-----------------------------

please share your knowledge

[Dibby]

Surely yell.com is far more popular than the paper variety.

Office admin generally order the PPE and they're sat at the computer all day. Our lot have to order from the approved suppliers so the money could be spent on getting on the road and getting onto approved supplier lists?

[peterg]

As a consumer I used to used Yellow Pages a fair bit to find suppliers of stuff but since the dawn of the internet I just Google it so personally I think you're best forgetting YP and concentrating on that.

[Lurksalot]

I think the days of the Yellow pages are gone , we used to spend 2-3K but have pulled out completely , we were really racked off with the fact in Chester , we have 2 books , Chester & Nwales and also Chester and wirral . and as I am sure most people weren't aware or bothered so only keep the latest and sling the other , so effectively 2K got 6 months in the book and it cost extra to do both books

anyway, have you seen the size of the books recently I think a lot of peeps are spending elsewhere.

[Captain Colonial]

Yell.com - Yes.

Yellow Pages - No. The only people who use Yellow Pages these days are people who don't own a computer or have access to the Internet. If you were a hairdresser or knitting shop for the blue rinse brigade, fine and dandy, but for what you do Cleggy, use the budget for marketing in other areas.

[bhouse]

If you're looking to find a new supplier what's the first resource you turn to? At a rough guess, Google.

And that's probably true of your customers too. The tricky bit is finding a web company to give you good advice of how to get the max from your online spend - there are many web charlatans out there promising the earth and delivering a (virtual) shovelful of manure.

[dombanks]

we would be encouraged to use a "prefered supplier" at the university for anything like this unless i could justify going elsewhere,

one things for sure google is the first stop in mostcases.

[Dibby]

If you're looking to find a new supplier what's the first resource you turn to? At a rough guess, Google.

There's always industry guides like Pentec but they're becoming less book based and more web based now

[Mid life crisis]

My Wife has been running a mobile cattery for about 7 years now and dropped YP completely last year. She just uses yell.com and Google to find her web site, where 90% of her bookings come from. She did spend some time on the search words behind her site though.

I would say your budget would be spent better by concentrating on framework agreements.

Just tried it and she is still at the top of Google search "Cool4Cats"

[XTR2Turbo]

I think Yellow pages and Thomson only make any sense if your business is offering services locally. e.g local builder, plumber etc.

[Doug Dastardly]

Google would be my first port of call too.

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

I think Yellow pages and Thomson only make any sense if your business is offering services locally. e.g local builder, plumber etc.

always been my view

anyway the yellow pages rep has just left - i have cancelled all paper advertising and she is coming back to me ref quotes for different forms of online advertising

thanks for the feedback folks

[FILFAN]

last time i used yellow pages was to stand on or prop a door open. google is usually my first port of call or yell.com if its something local

[D7PNY]

We've come out of the pages altogether for the reasons mentioned above.

Still use yell.com though as even if not used directly, it can bump you up the google rankings for certain searches so has its uses.

I remember the salesman was amazed when we binned the book, you honestly would have thought we'd punched his wife in the face by his reaction when we said the book is a dead duck.

Cheers,

Dave

[Mooch]

PM sent