Definition: line or display ads in the Yellow Pages section of your local phone
book(s)
Don't think twice about this: You need to be in the Yellow Pages
just to let people know you're a legitimate business and to make
them more "comfortable" about calling you, especially if they
haven't done business with you before. People who are "flimflam
artists" don't list themselves in the phone book where they can be
tracked down. So you must be listed in the Yellow Pages just to
help prove your legitimacy.
The unfortunate part of advertising there is that when a
customer looks up a topic, rather than your specific business name,
they're treated to a display of the listings and ads of all your
competitors, some of whom will provide a larger range of products
or services or who are in a more convenient location than you.
When it comes to the Yellow Pages, size does matter! Accurate or
not, the size of your Yellow Pages display ad may directly impact
the perception of your business--and its size--in the mind of your
customers. A competitor's half- or full-page ad that runs next to
your business-card-size ad gives a subconscious impression that the
business with the larger ad is the better--and more established--of
the two.
Like a lot of other advertising mediums, the cost of your ad
depends on where you advertise, the ad size, and under how many
headings you want the ad to be listed. In the United States, there
are more than 8,000 Yellow Pages directories published by such
companies as Verizon, SBC, Bell South, Yellow Book, RH Donnelley
and Sprint, all with different rates.
If you can afford to spend the many thousands of dollars it
costs to purchase a Yellow Pages display ad, by all means, do so.
And if you're going to be in that arena with a display ad, you'll
hopefully be able to afford something substantial to avoid being
seen as a peanut. Like politicians who need to be the biggest,
strongest personality in any room, your ad needs to be one of the
big ones if that's how you want your business perceived and if you
want to beat your competitors out of the call.
If you can't afford to run a decent-sized Yellow Pages ad in
whatever book you choose (look at your competitors' ads and see if
you can match or come close to matching the sizes they have), it's
best to use a simple line-ad listing in that section to legitimize
your business. And these are free--though for a few more dollars,
you can put it in bold rather than regular typeface, which will
help it stand out. Then, in your radio, TV or print ads, you can
say, "See our listing in the white pages," where you'll also be
listed, to keep customers from seeing your competitors' ads in the
Yellow Pages.
Your Yellow Pages display ads can be paid for monthly, rather
than all at once for your one-year contract, but that can still be
cost prohibitive, often wiping out the advertising budget of a
small or even midsized business, leaving no funds to pay for
promoting your business in any other medium.
In some parts of the country, there's another choice now when it
comes to telephone directories: Yellow Book has popped up in some
areas with better advertising rates than the standard Yellow Pages
directories, and although some people don't care for the size and
weight (they're often larger and heavier books because they include
smaller towns that, with Yellow Pages, are published separately in
their own little directories), they offer a viable alternative.
No matter what other forms of advertising you choose to employ,
Yellow Pages ads are still practically mandatory for most
businesses, even with more and more people going to their computers
to look up information about--and directions to--local businesses.
They remain one of the best ways to provide your business phone
number and location(s) to the public.