How To Get Endless Leads From Your Yellow Page Ads

Yellow Pages are great advertising media. Just about every household has one and, although many people now a days performing their search online, many still use them to find services.

The challenge with advertising in the Yellow Pages is the year long commitment you must do at hefty prices. Unless you are an already successful Real Estate Agent or Investor, the $500 to $2000 Yellow Page ad is probably all your allocated marketing budget. Dedicating this amount for a year is a big decision since you cannot cancel, or most importantly test it. Or could you test?

I know this has nothing to do with Real Estate, but the other day I had an appointment with a seller at 1:00PM. I was home, and I figured I would head there little early and check out the neighborhood. Well. When I got into my car, I realized the battery was dead.I got my Yellow Pages and flipped the pages to the towing service section to find some company that provides jump start service.

All the ads in the Yellow Pages for towing services were similar. They all had the company name in big letters at the top. Some has a picture of their Tow Truck. Some had their hours of operation and their location. But none of them listed the services they provide.

You see, when I wanted a jump start, I really did not care what the company’s name was or what their truck looks like. I just wanted someone to come over in a beat up truck for all I care to give me a jump start. I had to call on ads one by one till I found one that provided the service to come over. Imagine if one of the ones I did not call had listed their services in the ad, would I have bothered calling any of the other ads? They would have gotten all the business for the services listed.

This problem is not exclusive to tow service companies nor is it to Yellow Pages. I see this mistake in all forms of marketing where marketers repeat the same mistake others are doing as if they are all trying to conform to a standard. If you look at the ads in the graphic above, you will notice that they are all for Windows cleaning companies, but what would compel you to call one over the other? which one specializes in something unique?

Prospects do not care what your company’s name is or what your logo looks like. They want some kind of service and they are looking for someone who provides a service for their specific needs. That is all.

So when you are designing your Yellow Pages Ad, you need to find out what do prospects need? What makes them tick? then find a way to convince them that you are the solution and you offer exactly what they are looking for. You must have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that makes you stand out. Remember, they do not care what your company’s name is. Just that you can solve their problems.

The other challenge is still with the year commitment and you do not have the luxury go test different messages to see which works best. If you screw it up, you will be stuck with it for a year!

The way I would recommend and would try is by testing the ad using post cards first. If it pulls good response, then use it in your Yellow Pages ads.

As far as the cost goes. If you design the right ad, you should get much better response over your competitors. As a matter of fact, probably more than all of them combined. Your aim is to get enough customers to make profit and the ad should pay for itself.

 

• Finally! a Yellow Page Ad Done Right!
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• The 10 Minute Sales Letter Formula Guaranteed To Generate Leads!
• The Elevator Pitch And How To Use It To Generate Leads For The Real Estate Agent!
• The Power Of Positioning, Instant Credibility using Association
• How To Overcome Real Estate Marketing challenges For The New Agent And Investor

© 2008 Fadi Zeidan's Articles.