Making the most of your Yellow Pages adverts

Derek Williams looks at how to get he most from Yellow Pages and other advertising

Many of you will know that my background is in accounting. It may not come as much of a surprise when I tell you about a typical conversation with one of my customers.

I was looking at the accounts for this particular business and my attention was drawn to the expense line called advertising. When I looked at how much had been spent in the year it was a lot of money for such a small business. I asked my customer what this money had been spent on and he told me that this was the cost of advertising in Yellow Pages and in local papers.

The conversation developed as I began to ask him more about how many responses he had got from the advertisements. The truth was that he simply did not know how many responses had been received. I tried not to be too hard on him but had to say that I thought he was wasting his money.

He felt that my reaction was simply because I was an accountant and that my only way of helping him to make more profit was by reducing his expenses. In fact, he couldn't have been more wrong. I would be in favour of increasing the amount of advertising spend if I knew that it was going to produce the right result. Any expense has to be looked at as a form of investment. It does not matter how big or small the investment is so long as it produces the right return.

So often I hear advertising sales people say that the only way of improving the response is to increase the size of the ad and to increase the frequency. This is absolute garbage! This is what I call the "bath-tub" approach - you turn on the tap to fill up the bath. Trouble is, most people forget to put the plug in and all of the water simply runs out the other end.

What you need are advertisements that really work and a system for keeping all those leads and enquiries. That way, you can keep going back to the "bath" and following up on those valuable leads you have already generated.

Let's just go back to basics and think about the purpose of any advertisement and the key elements of that advertisement. Only then can you work on how to improve the return for your investment.

Purpose

The purpose of any advertisement is to get a response.

Sometimes businesses say that their reason for advertising is to get their name known but if all you are trying to do is improve your PR, advertising is not the way to do it.

Having established that the purpose is to get a response, every element of the advertisement has to focus on that objective and most importantly of all you have to be able to measure the response. In one of my earlier articles I talked about "what you can measure you can manage". You have to measure how many responses you get to each advertisement and how much business results from those responses. To do this may involve setting up a separate phone number, using a P O Box or having a system for collecting information from new customers. If you can measure the results then you can test different ideas to find out what works best for your business.

If it ain't broke don't try to fix it! If you find that a particular advertisement works extremely well for your business then carry on using it. The marketing people may try to convince you that you should be changing your ad on a regular basis but remember they are trying to sell you their services.

The key elements

There are four key elements to any advertisement. They are copy, graphics, offer and list. Think about these every time you construct an advertisement.

Copy

Copy is what you say. It is the words that you use.

You want the reader to read your ad. There are a few simple rules to remember.

Always write the advertisement if as if you were writing to just one individual. Make it personal. Use words like "you" and "your" as much as possible.
Try to avoid complex descriptions or jargon unless you know that the people reading your advertisement will understand what you are saying.
Use simple language with short words and short sentences. You have to create interest in what you say and encourage the reader to read the whole advertisement. There are a number of power words that you can use to keep the reader interested.
Always remember that as a person reads your ad they are asking themselves "What's in it for me?" Write the advertisement to answer theses questions:-
- What problem will you solve for them?
- What service can you provide that they cannot get elsewhere?
- How much money can you save them?
- How much more profit can you make for them?
- What's in it for them?
- Why should they deal with you compared to your competitor?
Most important of all is the headline that you use. The headline is the "ad for the ad". Many people will scan a page of advertisements looking at headlines and will only read those which attract their attention. So remember the principle of writing as if you were dealing with just one person. Use power words and construct a headline that really grabs people's attention. The chances are that if the headline has attracted them, they will read the rest of the ad.

Graphics

Graphics can be a great way of attracting attention to your ad.

The problem is that you don't always know how other ads on the same page as yours are going to look. A fancy border, reverse imaging or a picture of your product may all sound great but if everyone else on the page has the same idea, your ad is just one of many.

The one thing that you can do which is unique to you is to include a picture of yourself. This is a powerful way of reinforcing your very personal message to the reader; remember, you are trying to make the reader feel as if you are talking to them as an individual.

Be careful about how much money you spend advertising your logo. Look through Yellow Pages and see all the advertisements that concentrate on the name of the firm or their logo. They are really wasting their money. The reader wants to know "What's in it for me?" and the name or logo really is of secondary importance.

Offer

Every ad has to include an offer.

If we want a response then we have to give the reader a reason for responding.

There is so much that you could offer in your ad that really wouldn't cost you very much. For example you might say "Call this number now to get a FREE guide to planning a successful party." You have a tremendous knowledge of organising events for other people. It wouldn't cost very much or take very long to produce a very simple guide on how to do it.

Sometimes, offers may be to get a special discount or to buy the last remaining stock. Whatever it is give the customer a reason to call. You may even make part of the ad into a cut-off response slip. This helps the customer to respond and gives you a way of measuring how good the ad was.

And of course you must give them your phone number or address.

List

List simply means the people that you want to target with your ad.

Think about this carefully. If your target market is people aged 18 or 21 who want to have a birthday party, there is little point in advertising in a gardening magazine. I know that this sounds absurd but I see all sorts of crazy examples. One of the most common is businesses sponsoring football clubs. If you want to support your football club, this is a great way of doing it but don't expect any increase in business from your name being on the shirts. After all, where is the response device? Is anyone going to rush home and get your number from directory enquiries, just because they saw your name - only if they want sponsorship as well!

Power words

Here's a list of those power words for your advertisement:-

You
How
Why
Money
People
You're
New
Who
Now
What
Save
Easy
Discovery
Results
Proven
Guarantee
Free
Love
Help

Advertising critique service

Good luck with your advertising. Don't be talked into spending money that you know will be wasted. If you would like me to critique an advertisement for you, simply fax it to me (01438 791018) and I will respond by the end of the next working day. I do make a small charge for this service but I guarantee the results.