Yellow Page Advertising 1-2-3

How to Advertise in the Yellow Pages: Costs, Writing Ads, Ad Design and Internet Yellow Pages.

Yellow page advertising has not gone out of style - even with the growth of online advertising. It's a fact: many people don't have home computers. On top of that, lots of people (like me) go to the yellow pages out of habit to look for a plumber or local hair salon. You don't want to miss out on these customers.

Your goal is to grab your reader's attention and get them to act. This is even more essnetial if your business happens to be in a competitive market, where you may be competing against 100's of other organizations just in your community.

Don't think that you have to fork out a lot of cash for a full-page ad. A smaller display ad that explains the benefits you offer will do much better than the basic free listing containing just your company name and phone number.

Key factors your want to include in your yellow page ad:

An Attention-Getting Headline
Go bold and big. State who you are and eaxctly what you offer in a short sentence.

Outline Your Benefits Fast
What benefits do you provide to your customers that your competitors don't offer? List 2-4 benefits, using bullet points. Keep it succint and to-the-point.

Your Incentive
Include any incentives that you offer, like free quotes or estimates, first-time shopper specials or coupons. This acts as a motivator for people trying to decide between different companies to call. Many times, the difficult part of selling is getting people to give your product a test drive and just give you a chance. A great incentive will get customers knocking on your door. Even free samples can be worth their investment - when they get you customers for life.

Business Contact Details
Include a way to contact you like a phone number, website or physical address. A website is a great marketing tool that can help give prospects answers and additional information that they need without having to pick up the phone and call you or visit your store.

See sample yellow page ads online, and don't be afraid to check out what your competition is doing. Ad that are run year after year are a sign of successful ads. See how you can implement similar layout and ad copy strategies into your ads.

Want someone else to design your ad for you? MaxEffect creates yellow page ads for a fee. They list their yellow page ad design costs here.

After your display ad is completed, you are ready to send it to your community yellow page book. For nationwide advertisign opportunities, you can place an ad in a variety of different newspapers and a limited number of high-distribution magazines through Nationwide Classifieds.

You can also place a listing in the online yellow pages for free here.

The annual cost of running your yellow page ad will vary depending on your geographic location and advertisement size. You can often locate a toll-free number to call for advertising rates and details in the front of the phonebook.