It's that time again when I have to consider an ad in the local Yellow Pages. Now, I know many of you do not have ads and do not reccomend them, however I am a fairly new shop (starting into my 3rd year). I am in a city of 500,000 people and probably 100 shops and individuals who cut vinyl. But the competition dosn't scare me at all. (I used to be in the fast food business.) My first year, I was forgotten completly and left out of the Yellow Pages. I was in the white. It was a long year hunting down new coustomers. I survived and learned alot. This past year, I had a small 3/4in. column ad and I get about one call per day from that. of those I get about one job a week. Yes, many are calling just to shop prices, but at least I get a chance to maybe educate the customer as to my quality of materials and work and possibly get the job. I am considering enlarging my column to 2 or maybe 2-1/2in. Cost is about $250/month.. I figure that if I get 2 calls a day, it should pay for itself. So have at it all! Don't hold back. Thanks in advance.
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
I quit display ads in the yellow pages. 2 things happened. 1. My phone calls now had meaning (no more "pricing"). 2. My bottom line substantially improved.
This proved to me that the yellow pages are GREAT if you're the cheapest shop in town.
Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
Last month a dude came in wanting some work down.. he had a YP book in hand opened to the sign section. Nearly every ad had figures written upon it. Whats those mean i asked. Oh those are the prices they gave me when i called for bids" he says.... ARE you going to beat this one? (lowest) No way. I don't poach for bids,,sorry. here is my price..
thats the usual story with calls from the YP. I now use direct mail flyers and get so much more response
Posted by Tony Lucero (Member # 1470) on :
Advertising in the Yellow Pages WORKS! Yes you will get pricing calls. Some sign shop owners feel these are next to worthless....they are often the same individuals who summarily generalize that franchise shops are no-talent, desperate amateurs who do litte more than lower pricing. We have had display ads that were among the top 10 percent of adverisers (in terms of ad size). These ads helped us grow our business. We picked up one particular account that made us a substantial amount of money. The biggest drawback, in my opinion, is that the Yellow Page pricing policies are unrealistic. Ads are marketed to increase each year, or....you can upgrade to a larger and/or more colorful ad for just a bit more than a renewal. Our ad was heading up to around $800 a month. We downsized to an ad that costs $270 and accept the fact that we will get fewer calls, but we're more established in this market and fortunately have a stronger base to balance things out. Bottom Line: If the Ads were priced more reasonably and would be somewhat stable from year-to-year, I would happily "waste" time speaking to potential customers "price inquiries" BTW were you in the ice cream biz? If so, I'd like to talk to you about that...seems like a good business, but I'm sure there is more to it than taking in money as fast as you can he he
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
$250/month???? that's $3000/year!!!! For what? To be "low bider?"
For less than $100/month, you can make up some very nice mailers, and mail out 200 of them, to bring in the type of work you want to specialise in, and get some REAL customers!
A 'one liner' will get you almost as many calls since you are near the top, alphabetically!
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
GO GET 'EM, SI......YOU DA MAN!
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Bob and Si..I like the way you guys think!! Older and SMARTER!!!! I know Si is OLDER than me but I dunno about Bob???
I DO know Bob has some of the same attitudes about business that I have..SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE...it goes a whole long way to satisfying customers! And they keep caling back! Posted by Joey Madden (Member # 1192) on :
Buy a Sabre Jet leftover from the Korean war and mount it on top of your sign shop, thats sure to get attention!
Posted by Bob Burns (Member # 268) on :
Stuff Joey and put him on top of your sign shop...........
DAVE....I'm 62 and almost as cranky as Si!
[ August 23, 2002, 12:17 AM: Message edited by: Bob Burns ]
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
I have to agree with Tony on this one. I am never afraid to be too expensive for a prospect, but often I have gotten the job, along with a comment that I was NOT the lowest. People shop prices, but most people know that there are more factors to consider besides price. If we were all selling cans of One Shot, or some other known product it would come down to price a lot more then it does in our business. Like Dave says Service, Service, Service!!! & your first chance to offer that is often when you pick up the phone.
Customers like Myra's "painful" post today could sometimes be weeded out before they even arrive at my door. I would much rather be bothered with phone calls then walk-ins. Then clients walking in already know something about my prices, policies & current schedule.
I worked my way up to a $400 a month Ad in my third year. After that I peaked in amount of work I could handle alone, so I backed down to $115, & used the savings to pay my new monthly lease payment on The Gerber Edge. It was a great move, but so was the big ad the previous year. I picked up some real good clients that are still with me. Maui has about 30 sign shops for a population of about 125,000 people. To me that is a lot of competition, so I want to get some of the phone inquiries. I can handle the weeding out process from there & I find much more positive then negative consequences to the cost of my yellow page ads. I also list many services offered so people know some of what I do.
[ August 23, 2002, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: Doug Allan ]
Posted by David Otero (Member # 1645) on :
Tony, I was in the Dairy Queen business before this. I would never reccomend it to anyone who didn't want to work less than 75 hours a week, put up with 15 teenager additudes and 4 adults with a poor work ethic. I love my job now even I not making as much money. I went to school with a Tony Lucero. You're not from around here are you?
Posted by John Thompson (Member # 2750) on :
I am trying them this year BUT in my area an 8th page two color is only $41 a month so I figured I can't go wrong at least trying once. Just about all of my business now is repeat and refferal and I have had several folks say "SO and so told me to try you but,I just couldn't find your number anywhere and they didn't have it so I had to use the othere guy last time" so I figure the first place somebody like that will go to find my no. is in the yellow pages. One job off of mine a month will pay for it. I doubt I'd pay over $65 or $70 a month though.
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