Why Your Yellow Page Ad is Failing

It’s probably not even your fault. You are great at insurance or plumbing, but clueless when it comes to creating effective marketing in the local directory. So you rely on gut instinct and input from friends, relatives, and finally the Yellow Page rep. You piece together an ad and hope and pray it works. After all, isn’t that how everyone does it? How do you know that there isn’t a better way? So, how can I criticize you without even seeing your ad? That’s a fair question.

To begin with, I’ve been designing Yellow Page ads for the past 25 years. During that time, I was a YP rep and consultant and, prior to that, had my own advertising agency. I also have a degree in marketing. So I have expertise in YP creation and have advised almost 7000 companies on how to put together the most effective YP ads. If you have a display or in-column ad, regardless of size, color or position, I can guarantee you that it is failing, to varying degrees. It might be in the headline, artwork, body text, placement, book, or heading (category). So, how can I be so certain? Because you are in the majority.

Most YP advertisers are not advertising geniuses or have marketing degrees. So they do their ads without any real experience or planning. The sad truth is that in most cases, a simple adjustment to any element, from that headline, copy, artwork, colors, or size, could make a measurable difference. Your ad is failing because you don’t know which one of those items is not doing it’s job. And that’s because of lousy or non-existent, test-marketing or tracking.

It would take a book to explain all the various ways to improve your program and make it more profitable. So that’s exactly what I did. I wrote the definitive book on YP advertising. It’s called, “Inside the Yellow Pages” and can be seen on my website, poweradbook.com. It’s published by the largest publisher in the world because they have faith in me and the manuscript they read. Go there now and learn how to redesign your Yellow Pages to get them working harder and better for you. It’s a small investment to make in your business’s future.

Jeffrey Hausers latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages, which can be viewed at http://www.poweradbook.com

He was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.

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