[PLUG] The real yellow pages

Mark Phillips mark at phillipsmarketing.biz
Wed Aug 21 18:14:21 UTC 2013


I don't know what business you are in, but if you are looking for certain
types of consumers you might consider Angie's List. I don't know how much
it costs, but I find it much more useful than the yellow pages. BTW, lots
of doctors advertise on Angie's List since it has all the personal
recommendations on that list. You can coupon through Angie's List, so you
will now exactly how many customers the list brings in. You can link the
listing to your web site.

Kieth has a great idea, but you may meet some resistance. The computer
stores may not want potential liability of "recommending" someone they do
not know. Home Depot use to do exactly what you suggest - they had a board
where handymen and handywomen could advertise their services. The employees
knew a lot of these folks so they were a good source of personal
recommendations. Home Depot took out the board and stopped all the
recommendations from the employees. There was too much potential liability
for Home Depot to recommend a local handyman.


Just my 2 cents.

Mark


On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 10:58 AM, Keith Lofstrom <keithl at gate.kl-ic.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Aug 20, 2013 at 11:29:58AM -0700, Brian Martin wrote:
> > I'm soliciting opinions here.
> >
> > My annual contract for a yellow pages listing is up for renewal. It's
> > costing me over $400/year for some additional classifications and such.
> > I also get a listing in their on-line yellow pages as part of the
> > package.  I don't know that I've ever gotten work from any of it, and
> > I'm inclined to drop it altogether.  What do you think?  If you are a
> > business owner today, do you still find value in phone book listings?
>
> These listings not only don't bring work, they are used by others to
> call you to sell you stuff.  When the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce
> published the Oregon High Tech Directory, I was in there (for free),
> and all I got was calls from office supply stores and temp agencies.
> I had to jump through hoops to get OUT of the directory.
>
> A $400/y listing demonstrates to vendors that you have excess money,
> a problem they would be glad to help you with.
>
> Instead of spending the money that way, consider going to your ten
> favorite customers, and offer a free hour of your time in return
> for 20 minutes of their time, so they can tell you how they found
> you and why they picked you instead of somebody else.  Then invest
> in the channels they used, and look for more customers like them.
>
> Wild idea:  Imagine finding some 20 pocket wall brochure racks,
> and some other consultants who offer other kinds of computer
> services.  Populate the rack with brochures, then go to independent
> computer stores and ask for wall space.  The sell?  Store owners
> can concentrate on selling stuff, not answering complicated
> questions for free.  People coming into the store looking for
> brochures may also buy something.  etc.  If you do this right,
> it will increase their sales and save them time.  Don't pay for
> the space, but offer some quid pro quo (time or money) for the
> pamplets that turn into paying gigs.
>
> You and your colleagues will spend time going to the stores and
> replenishing the racks - but that is your chance to learn about
> opportunities from the store owners.  People are more likely to
> trust the people they see a lot.
>
> Keith
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
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