Local Rag or Yellow Pages

[Electricalserv]

As above really.

Whats worked best for you in the past and current market?

Local Paper or The yellow book?

 

[telectrix]

yellow pages is a complete waste of money ( except for cutting up and hanging in the bog. ) . thompson local is a bit better.

 

[mayfair]

Yellow pages same here crap! If you got nowt to do park your van outside iceland or similar ....you'd be suprised

yellow pages is a complete waste of money ( except for cutting up and hanging in the bog. ) . thompson local is a bit better.

 

[telectrix]

where i am, there are 4 different yellow pages directories for my local area. i would have to be in all 4.at 4 x the price! and 2 of them cover way outside where i want to work. useless with a capital S.

 

[Amp David]

Local rag here,in a full year with yellow page nothing and load from local rag

 

[Electricalserv]

Excellent Amp! Problem is I'm bartering with these fools as prices are extortionate atm. £38 per week for a black & white box 3cm2. Got it down to £23 so far I want it for less though

 

[Amp David]

I ended up paying around 25 quid a week, for the same. Sounded a lot at first but each week it more than paid for itself.

Could almost guarantee that towards each weekend the phone would start ringing with customers wanting work done. (Paper gets delivered on a Thursday)

I found the good point also is that if you want to take a break with the ad, then they will keep the ad on hold at the same price or if you decided to advertise for a longer period, then wanted to cancel, they would refund the unused weeks. Try that with the yellow pages!

 

[Electricalserv]

I'm hopeful I really am!

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Mate is in Yellow pages in Leeds. Big city with a hell of a lot of potential customers. Cost him over £750 for the duration, it has generated him the princely sum of £25. I am on Yell.com, and get sod all as well.

Gumtree, and other free sites will get you more work. The first time i went on Gumtree back in November i got near on £3000 of work and it cost nothing.

Cheers..........Howard

 

[cbw]

No to yellow pages! As with the other posts, load of pants, Thomson not much better. I spend £40 per week on local paper....................FANTASTIC!

 

[Electricalserv]

No to yellow pages! As with the other posts, load of pants, Thomson not much better. I spend £40 per week on local paper....................FANTASTIC!

High 5!

 

[telectrix]

Mate is in Yellow pages in Leeds. Big city with a hell of a lot of potential customers. Cost him over £750 for the duration, it has generated him the princely sum of £25. I am on Yell.com, and get sod all as well.

Gumtree, and other free sites will get you more work. The first time i went on Gumtree back in November i got near on £3000 of work and it cost nothing.

Cheers..........Howard

howard, how do you get on gumtree?

 

[sparkdog]

Yellow pages useless,I should have known better.

 

[Amp David]

howard, how do you get on gumtree?

Its free Tel, just select post a free add on their webpage. Select whichever area you want it to cover

 

[telectrix]

done it. easy peasy. thanks. listed as cheshire electrician

 

[Octopus]

done it. easy peasy. thanks. listed as cheshire electrician

Next you'll get calls from other "advertising" agencies, who will get your details from Gumtree, saying Gumtree are rubbish and that you need to pay "them" for better online advertising.

Good luck!

 

[Amp David]

done it. easy peasy. thanks. listed as cheshire electrician

Let us know if you get anything from it.

 

[UNG]

IMO yellow pages has had it's day as it's too expensive for the possible return you will achieve and thats not limited to our industry, how many people on here pick up a paper directory to source a local supplier or service so place your advertising where you would look for local supplier or service. As others have said the web is the way forward although the cheapest advertising is still word of mouth from satisfied customers

 

[Big n Daft]

Anything to do with yellow pages is TOO....
old
expensive

Marketing is a potential minefield. Best advice I can give is to go for as much free advertising and marketing you can, it can only be cost effective. Use the local rag to keep public awareness.

 

[ses]

I do yell.com and spent about £2k a year it has always worked for me and generated about £60k not a bad return if you know how to use it properley

 

[Electricalserv]

I do yell.com and spent about £2k a year it has always worked for me and generated about £60k not a bad return if you know how to use it properley

Are you a big firm or a one man band?

 

[miner69er]

yep, same goes for me, yellow pages is a load of c**p. it has returned £0 over 12 months whereas my 2 local rags which costs me £47.50 per week (£2470 per year) generate approximately £28000 every 12 months (no i didn't add an extra '0' by mistake!!). Yell.com brings home approx £3000 per year from a £380 per year advert. as said before advertising is a minfield, the rest of my business comes from my website and all the free listings you can force yourself to log into. the more free listings the better as you direct them to your website from these and my customers tell me when they are going through the listings pages your name just keeps coming up, so i'll call you.
int life briwyant...

 

[ses]

a small ltd company

 

[Electricalserv]

a small ltd company

If your LTD you're turning over alot more than Id expect to this year.

 

[ses]

100k this year

 

[Amp David]

Of course it will work for some, but it seem that for a one man band it doesn't in the vast majority of cases.

 

[Dave Buchan]

If you are open to the concept of guerilla style marketing you can use your local rag (online version) to advertise to your advantage with the only cost on your behalf being your time.

For this to work I'm presuming you have a website or you are registered on a few online business directories so that your potential prospects may find you.

Your location states that you're in merseyside so you can use the online version of the Liverpool Echo and once again I'm presuming the readers of this will probably be within your catchment area.

Just like this forum, create a profile upload your company logo or a picture relevant to what you specialise in.

Same is true with your intended username.

Now all you have to do is basically just start posting comments on the latest news stories and everyone who now reads them in your local area will know who you are, what you do and where to find you should they ever require your services.

And the grand total it has cost you for this?

£0.00 :devil2:

Hope this helps,

Cheers,

Dave