[PLUG] The real yellow pages

Chris Schafer xophere at gmail.com
Wed Aug 21 19:06:41 UTC 2013


Spend it on google ad words.

On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 11:14 AM, Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
> 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
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG mailing list
>> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
>> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG mailing list
> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug



More information about the PLUG mailing list