Do you still rely on the Yellow Pages for advertising? Why or why not? What forms of advertising do you use?

We have just changed our yellow pages ad to 1/4 page. We now have a web site, we use the chamber to help direct people to our site and us, we mail on chamber leads, and talk to everyone we can. Other than that, nothing at this time.

Bob (Astro)

Some interesting tidbits from an impartial third party:

The 25.5 million references last year to the self storage heading are within 99% of the 5 year average. (References means people going to the heading looking for self storage)

Self Storage is the 86th most referenced heading out of the 4,000+ headings in print directories.

Prior to opening the Yellow Pages, 66% of those needing self storage had a decision to make. That is, they didn’t have a particular self storage company already in mind and on average looked at 5 different ads. And after looking at the 5 ads, on average, they contacted 2 locations.

Of course, a well rounded lead generation solutions program will also include a blend of IYP (Internet Yellow Pages) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

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David Rose
Operations Director - Yellow Pages
Michaels Wilder
www.yellowpageexperts.com
800-423-6468

First, we're trying to get away from yp and move more towards google/seo etc.

This main issue we have is cost effectiveness it is getting cost prohibitive for a single store to advertise in the yp in our metro area. We have a regional att directory that has been out for a month with a nice 1/4 page ad, biggest in heading with "zero" calls for the first 3 weeks that is a real eye opener not sure it will stay that way and shame on me for not keeping a tracking number on it 5 years ago we got 20-30 calls a month from it.

Any thoughts welcome.

Peten,

If you would post here or email to me the directory # you reference, I will be happy to give you the usage data for it. We might learn that there is a more suitable directory for your 3-5 miles radius.

My email = drose@michaelswilder.com

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David Rose
Operations Director - Yellow Pages
Michaels Wilder
www.yellowpageexperts.com
800-423-6468

Suggestion - DON'T gum up the works with too much information. My former employer put his location and at the top put the different 'neighborhoods' around his facility. This made the ad too busy and difficult to read. He put in truck rental at least four times as if this was his main income versus the storage. He had 12 points of interest on a 6" ad. The print was too smal to be legible and, again, it was too much information. You get an average view of 3-5 seconds of your YP ad, IF that much, for someone to get the idea of your location, what you are selling versus their needs. Keep It Simple.

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Tall Terri

Integrity - it's what you do when no one is looking!

We are seeing less and less business from YP and more from our internet page. Think about how your own usage of the YP has changed in the last few years. I don't disagree with YP expert that self storage is still a highly referenced heading, however the numbers of people actually going to the YP is decreasing annually

I think it takes a good 2-3 months before people trash the previous years book and start using the new one.
Julie
PS-- that would be "recycle" the previous years directory!