I had a question for you. I am new to the sign business and was wondering what opinions you veterans had on yellow page advertising. Is it worth spending the money or are there much better ways to generate business? Thanks for your help
-------------------- Richard Miller A Sign Design Bartlett, Tn
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Richard I always believe there is much better ways to spend your money then the Yellow Pages as they always want you to spend more then you have and at monthly rates too. Maybe a shop truck with your work and logo would do nice things for your business and direct marketing through mail out flyer companies.
Hope this helps for a starter
-------------------- HotLines Joey Madden - pinstriping since 1952 'Perfection, its what I look for and what I live for'
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Richard..Joey is speaking the truth..In my humble opinion. This topic has been discussed many times in the past and the general concensus is that Yellow page advertising is the most costly and least effective way to advertise (for most shops). It seems that most folks that have used Yellow Pages have dropped it because it only generated "tire kicking" price shoppers.
Word of mouth is, of course, the best advertising. Shop vehicle signage is very good. Many folks join the Chamber of Commerce or various service clubs like the Lions, Optimists etc. as a way of getting their name out there.
I would only say...as Joey mentioned, don't spend too much on things like yellow pages that require a monthly payment. You never know if you will be paying them that payment instead of visiting the grocery store six months down the road.
All that said..I did, today, invest a whopping, one time per year $65 in a 1/4 page ad in a local business directory that comes out annually and has a circulation of only 4000. I figure if I get one job out of the ad then the investment was worth it.
Call me the last of the BIG TIME SPENDERS!
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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Hiya Richard, Since you said that you're new to the business, you might find the yellow pages a necessary evil. Like the others mentioned, search the previous posts. This topic has been visited many times. Good luck & welcome aboard. Havin' fun, Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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If you plan to be a one person operation, you may be able to make a go of it without an ad like many of the members of this site. If you want to grow into a three or more person shop, I think you will find that it is much easier with a yellow page ad. Yes it is true that yellow page ads draw tire kickers. You can control that to some degree by what you say in your ad. We don't even mention banners in our ad - we don't want banner price shoppers. We do mention dimensional letters and architectural signs, and the calls we get confirm that people are seeing the ad and calling as a result of it.
One of those little two inchers will do the job if you lay it our right. Vic G
-------------------- Victor Georgiou Danville, CA , USA
Posts: 1746 | From: Danville, CA , USA | Registered: Dec 1998
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Hi Richard, for what it's worth... My Yellow pages history;
First year in business - Small display ad (I managed to make the payments)
Second year - Bigger ad (I wanted more business)
Third year - Still bigger (people are coming in the door, but God this is expensive)
Fourth year - Huge ad (five employees now, no time to think or plan, just react to emergencies as they erupt and pay, pay, pay)
Fifth year - Back the truck up...hold the damm horses. $600/month for a friggin ad? I could have two more plotter leases for that much money. Oh, they didn't like me after that. In column logo ad, no display at all. $65/month. Never skipped a beat.
Sixth through 13th year - bold listing only. When I sold that business in 1993 we had a rock solid client base of repeat accounts. We were essentially a closed shop taking in new accounts only rarely. And those few were always by referral, not by yellow pages.
Looking back at it now, it may appear that the Yellow pages played an important role in getting the business established. I suppose it did, but only for one reason - because I had no clue in the beginning of where I was headed with the business, what our market segment was, what type of client I wanted or how to pursue them. Yellow pages enabled me to stumble through some growing up...as haphazard and expensive as it was.
So if you're completely lost and don't have a clue, the Yellow Pages will certainly help you get into some jams. I don't do it anymore. Thank the Lord. In my opinion if you know who your clients are you can contact them directly for a whole lot less money. And if you don't know what clientelle you're looking for you need a business planner more than a yellow pages ad.
[ September 26, 2001: Message edited by: Joe Rees ]
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Ya don't get a chance if you don't play the game. First couple of years until Word of Mouth kicks in you may need it. You really need every trick in the book to get your name out there. Then it is up to you to provide quality work.
Our yellow page ad has brought in $1000 worth of work in the past couple of months. About 10 or 15 tire kickers but so what. The ad has paid for itself.
By the way when we had no ads we had no tire kickers.
i started out 15 years ago with a small display ad, then in a few years i paid big bucks for a larger add including my logo.(got a lot more phone calls but most were just "tire kickers")
now that my business is well established i only have a bold listing under signs. as a matter of fact this next year i am going to have a bold listing with just... markfair.com and the tele number. i figure if it is under the heading of signs they know that markfair.com does signs and it gives them a chance to take a look at my work on the web.
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I am in my 5th year now. My ad history is similar to Joe's & Marks. First through 4th year: Small, Medium, Large, Medium. I am a one man shop & building the word of mouth reputation is key. Some weeks being the low bid to get the tire-kickers is what paid the bills. Last year my reduced ad savings paid over half the monthly lease on my new Gerber Edge. I did, however, notice a slight drop in calls. I still expect to have my best year in sales.
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