question for builders: how effective are yellow page ads/listings? are they worth the investment? what are some other ways to “drum up business” ?
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Mike,
My personal experience is a big fat NO!!!! When I first went out on my own I got a "cold call" from one of the local yellow pages. I personally use the yellow pages all the time, so I thought it sounded like a good solid investment. It was a big chunk of change, almost two grand if I remember correctly, but I figured with all the calls it would generate, one decent size job would cover it. I $hit thee not when I tell you I got ONE call....ONE...wanna know who it was? A competing yellow pages that came across my ad...wanted to know if I was interested...did he get an earfull!
Whenever my phone quiets down for a stretch, I rattle the trees. I know several architects and they`re always looking for some "little" job to get done. The guys down at my local lumber yard are more than happy to hand out my card whenever I ask. You got some friends in the biz? Fellow contractors always have a customer they cant get to.(just be sure the client understands the relationship, you`re not looking to steal them away) Previous customers who mentioned they may have another project in the future always get a call. Just let them know you are in the process of scheduling upcoming jobs and you wanted to be sure to leave a spot open for them. One thing I do at all times is make sure the pizza parlor in my town always has plenty of my business cards pinned to its bulletin board. The local foot traffic is extremely heavy and I get more calls from people who grabbed my card there.(Any similar "storefront" in your town may produce similar results)
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
Edited 10/25/2002 8:24:40 AM ET by JAYBIRD
I agree with jaybird, got a big ad in the local yellow pages, cost me about $750. Not one call was for work, but got 5 calls from the yellow page people wanting me to take a survey if the ad really worked. After the fifth call they now know where to put it.
ernie
Not for builders , but for others .
Tim Mooney
A yellow page ad by itself is nothing.
A yellow page ad that directs people to your website is good.Don't bogart the Ghost
Quittin' Time
We now live in an information society.
People want to know EXACTLY what they want to know. Not less, not more, but EXACTLY.
I used to run a large ad in the local paper. It listed almost everything we offered, and at the bottom it said "Plus MUCH MORE!". That part alone got me a lot of calls asking if the specific job the client needed doing was included in that "MUCH MORE" part. They had already scanned my ad, and didn't see what they were looking for. In almost every case, I got the job because I explained to them over the phone that we would be happy to do that particular kind of job.
My competitors kept their ads short and sweet to save money. Their philosophy was to get the potential client's attention, then when they call for more information, sell, sell, sell!
Well, the potential client wasn't calling them because they didn't see anywhere in the ad where Joe Blow's company did drywall repair. The ad just said they did Remodeling. The client felt like the company didn't do the small repair jobs that I specialized in, so they just skipped their ad and started looking elsewhere.
Be specific about the type of work you offer, hours you can be reached, and a phone number where people can actually talk to a real company person (not a machine or answering service)
Phone book ads work in some areas, and not in others. Check with contractors in your area that DO use the phone book ads and see if they are getting any calls from these ads.
Just a thought...James DuHamel
"The Power Zone" http://www.thepowerzone.org
Luka, interesting… Is that what you are doing?
Give some more detail.
Scott R.
I am retired.
It is what I ..would.. do, though.
In the phone book, yer not spending thousands of dollars for one single ad. Just give the website Url, and you can expand, and/or tweak the website in any way that you wish. You can make that website as comprehensive or as minimal as you wish.
By now, most of the population that you are looking to for new customers have at least one computer in the house, and an internet connection of some sort.
People are supposedly showing a preference for browsing on the internet, rather than searching in the phone book or newspaper. Your ad with your url in the phone book gives them the best of both. If they simply do a search on home builders, they will wade through hundreds of thousands of urls. If they know enough to be able to trim the search down, they will still have to search through many many urls just to find a few that might be in their area, or close enough to do business with.
With your url in the phone book, they know that it is local. Or they can see immediately if it's not. They can then quickly compare the info on your website, with any others they find in the phone book.
You can be a lot more enticing with a dynamic website, than you can be with one ad in the phone book for the whole year. Cheaper to boot. Also cheaper than constantly changing newspaper ads.
Don't bogart the Ghost
Quittin' Time