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Yellow Page Ad Design Problems? Then Why On Earth Should You Rely On A Salesman? When it comes to successful Yellow Pages advertising, there are sales and marketing theories galore. Witness the recent explosion of Yellow Page consultants hawking CD’s, tapes, manuals, seminars, textbooks ... you name it! My God, you’d think we’re in the midst of a Yellow Pages advertising renaissance! On the surface, this seems like a good thing for the long-neglected Yellow Pages advertise... Yellow Pages Advertising: Are You Wasting Ad Dollars? I could probably say this more tactfully, but here’s the truth: If you’re spending thousands of dollars for space to be seen and heard, and then run a Yellow Page ad that fails to grab your prospect’s eye and say something compelling, well you’re wasting your darn money! Sounds obvious put into black and white, doesn’t it? But take a look in your Yellow Page director... Yellow Pages Advertising in a Digital Age? Do customers still use PRINT Yellow Page directories, or has everything gone digital? Well, physicians, auto repair shops, attorneys, dentists, plumbers, insurance agencies, veterinarians and florists... Just these 8 (out of 300) categories alone were referenced nearly 3 BILLION times in 2005. Now consider that “online Yellow Pages” were referenced a measly 1.8 billion times for AL... Yellow Pages Advertising: Just Define Your Best Customer And He'll Call You There is no shortage of Yellow Pages advertising gurus and their various (and often contradictory) "secrets" for success! Some preach that it's your WORDS (aka copy) that are most important. Others claim that all you need are eye-grabbing IMAGES to suck readers into your ad. Some say that cartoon-type ads are rare in the Yellow Pages so therefore; CARTOONS are most likely to attract attention a... Yellow Pages Advertising: The Awesome Power of Nothingness We all want our moneys worth! Whether it’s a new car purchase or that huge high-def plasma TV you’ve been eyeing for the past year, you want the maximum benefits from every single purchase you make. A perfect example of this is when businesses purchase Yellow Pages advertising. Go ahead, open your directory and thumb through a few pages. What do you see? Lots of ads. Lots of BLOATED ads. ... Yellow Pages Advertising Design: Must You Use That Gargantuan Phone Number? Have you ever noticed that a lot of Yellow Page advertisers like to display gigantic telephone numbers in their Yellow Page ads? Do you happen to be one of them? After 3 decades of designing print ads, I'm still perplexed (and amused) when clients occasionally comment on their Yellow Page ad proof with... "The ad is perfect, just make the phone number 5 times larger". I guess the thinking goes... Yellow Pages Advertising: Your Prospects Don't Buy Woofers and Tweeters Ready to spend several thousand dollars at a local business, I reached for my Yellow Pages directory. I “needed” to upgrade my stereo system and knew I wanted in-town service support – I wanted to buy local. So while in this “Rarin’ To Buy” frame-of-mind, I opened my tattered Yellow Pages directory, gazed upon a handful of Yellow Page ads and... I was utterly un-moved and underwhelmed! Steril... Your Yellow Pages Advertising Contract - What Did I Just Buy? You’ve signed on the dotted line! You’re now committed to make twelve, hefty monthly payments to your Yellow Pages publisher. So what exactly have you purchased? The chance to present your business to the community in the most favorable light possible? Are you going to try and brand an “image” for your company? Have you bought the right to tell the world that YOUR business is better th... Yellow Pages Advertising: An Eye(flow) For Maximum Profits! Bullhorn in hand, the man on the downtown street corner screams his message out to whoever can hear. I’m sure you’ve heard one of these guys, but have you ever listened? Neither have I. The fact is, loud and intrusive just doesn’t cut it when it comes to persuading - people just tune that stuff out as “noise.” The same holds true with your Yellow Page ad design: a noisy or “busy” d... Your Next Yellow Page Ad Could Have Competitors Weeping! You want your new Yellow Page ad to reach out and grab as many eyeballs as possible. You want to magically draw prospects into the meaty content of your ad in order to persuade them that YOU offer the very best solution to their problem. Simply put, you want your next Yellow Page ad to generate as many phone calls as possible. Follow these tips and your competitors may soon be crying the "Y... Yellow Pages Advertising: Will Funny Make You Money? How many times has a humorous radio or TV ad caused you to actually buy the advertised product? While some of the most successful ads have used humor – Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” ads for example - far too many “funny” ads utterly fail to generate increased business or ROI; more than half the ads on any given Super Bowl fall into this category - anyone remember the Petco sock puppet? For radio... Yellow Page Ad Design: Second Opinions That Will Kill You One of the first things our Yellow Page ad design clients like to do is get other opinions on their newly designed Yellow Page ad before committing it to print. They ask employees, friends, their spouse, and even their current customers. They may even seek the opinion of a marketing specialist. Once, a client told me he asked his 14-year old daughter for her input (She hated it). The logic is,... Effective Yellow Pages Ad Design - 8 Steps to Guarantee Your Success If your phone stopped ringing, would your business be in trouble? That’s my usual answer to business owners who ask me if “dishing out money to the Yellow Pages every month" is still a wise investment. If customers don’t normally think of your service or product until they need it, and a lot of your business is done by phone, an effective Yellow Pages ad design still rings in the m... Yellow Page Ad Design Blunders - The 8 Deadly Sins You MUST Avoid! Ok, you realize that print Yellow Page advertising is STILL a very powerful way to reach your local prospects. You've also learned that you can't rely on the publishers' overworked Yellow Page ad designers. Those poor souls have to crank out 20 or so Yellow Page ads a day! How much time can they spend on your Yellow Page ad design? More importantly, how much could they possibly know about ... Yellow Pages Advertising Design: Choose Your Expert With Eyes Wide Open! Even with today's technology, it's nearly impossible to construct a persuasive, phone-ringing Yellow Pages advertisement in under 30 minutes. Where did I get thirty minutes from? In 1975, my first gig was designing Yellow Page ads for a large national Yellow Pages publisher. I considered it my "dream job." Our tight-knit group of creatives would dole out dozens of Yellow Page ads per da... Knockout Yellow Page Ad Design That'll Knock Your Competitors Out Cold! "My Yellow Page ad just isn't bringing in the calls I need!" I've worked with Yellow Pages advertising (in one form or another) for 30 years and of all the complaints I’ve heard about this unique medium, this is by far the curse most often thrown at them. It's no surprise. Flip through your directory and you'll see why. Same dusty ads... telling the same tired story... to the same undef... Yellow Page Ad Design: Does Adding Color Make Sense For You? You know Yellow Page advertising isn’t cheap. But you probably also know that a high-performing Yellow Page ad can pay for itself ten times over. One easy way to both economize and maximize your return on investment is to forget about costly color options such as white knockouts, spot colors and the very expensive "4-color process" option. Your Yellow Page sales rep will eagerly show you multip...

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