Yellow page advertising

The power of printed media campaigns has gone through its ups and downs. Some companies swear by it while others prefer to use online marketing to support their business. One area that may have been overlooked by your company is yellow page advertising.

Grab the recent copy of the yellow pages and take a look at the different types of ads in there. Yellow page advertising can be a variety of different types of ads from photos to logos and text; yellow page advertising is still an effective way to reach your target audience.

Companies that are in the service industry typically benefit the most from yellow page advertising. This could be companies like pizza delivery, dry cleaning services, lawn care, etc. When people want a local service, the yellow pages are normally the first place they turn to.

To be effective with yellow page advertising, you don't need to purchase a full page ad. Simply paying for a small ad with your name, logo, and phone number will do the trick. Insurance companies often pay for the full page ad which can run upwards of $2,000 a month.

A good yellow page advertisement will include plenty of white space to draw the customer's attention. Take a look at the current ads in there, why are you drawn to some and not others? Usually you are draw to the ones that have white space because they are clean and easy to see. The ad must be uncluttered if you want to get your customers attention and it must convey your business in a professional manner.

Yellow page ads must do 4 things:

1. Gain attention from your target audience


2. Establish your business from the others


3. Convince the customer of their need to contact you


4. Close the deal

The cleaner you can keep your ads, the more customers you will attract. Try to stay simple with the ads and encourage people to contact you either via telephone or on the internet. Here are some simple tips that may help you create an effective yellow page ad:

• Keep the text to a minimum. Only provide the customer with the basic information they need like your contact information and why you are different from the other companies on this page. Don't add everything, just a web site and your phone number. If the customer wants your email, they can go online to find it. Adding too much information will make the ad look too cluttered and it will be harder to read.


• Try to limit the busyness of your ad. People are naturally drawn to the clean, clutter-free ads. Try to reduce the size of your images or consider removing them altogether so you can increase the amount of white space your ad has.


• Get rid of the ¼ inch black border around your ad, this actually ads to the busyness of the ad and it can become cluttered with all the other things on the page.


• Reduce your font size. While this may seem like the opposite method, it will actually attract more customers to your ad because you have more white space. Make your basic contact information smaller so customers will be encouraged to go to your web site instead.


• Always make sure your number is the biggest thing on your ad. When people use the yellow pages, they are looking for a phone number to call you. Having your web site on there is nice because they can go there for more information, but they usually just need your phone number so they can contact you.