yellow pages

[haldor]

Hi ,
I've been reading the forum for a while. This is my first post. I saw a few pages back something on the subject of yellow pages advertising.

I'm trying to get out of the grip of the parasitic national companies so this year decided to upgrade my yellow pages ad to full colour and a larger size ( 4 grands worth)

I'm fuming! The ad came out recently and I'm on the last but one page of the book even though my trading name starts with ACC ! I know that the nationals get priority because some of them spend a million quid a year but I've now discovered that the reason a business can get to the front is because they put several dots or zero zero aaaa etc in front of their names.

I contacted customer services and complained. I was told that they don't promote this fact and that the businesses concerned have to prove that they really trade with those dots and zeros in the name. That's bull as I have reactfast and absolute paperwork and no dots anywhere. I think the rep should have told me the reality . ie I had little chance of a decent listing . This is surely deception?

I'm going to take this up with trading standards as I really think that the ad will never pay for itself and I can't afford to lose that much! Also i'm querying the validity of the phone number scam ie local numbers all going through to the call centre in Birmingham!

Has anyone else been to Trading standards about this?

[toomush2drink]

Welcome to cut throat world of locksmithing. Yellow pages is potluck unless as you say you spend 100's of thousands with them. The only way the nationals will go is if we dont work for them but everyone has to make a living. I for one dont sub for any of them and only sub for other proper lockies as i feel im helping to put myself out of business if i work for them.I had loads ringing me recently and now its timpsons getting in on the act so another big boy competing with the others, great.Work for them by all means if you have to but dont complain if they end up putting you out of business by dominating your area in the advertising stakes.People are slowly wising up to them judging by the calls i get but its a slow process and wont happen overnight.

[SteveW]

As yet i am not going to be able to run a Yellow Pages add till much later this year. But from what i have been reading on site i really dont think i am going to bother.

I just cant see any YP add for the small lockie paying off and from what ive heard Thompsons are just as bad.

I wish you all the best with trading standerds, if more small locksmiths who have YP adds complain they may actually investigate the matter and may do something about the problem, but as it stands i dont think a YP add is a worthwhile investment.

There are many cheaper alternatives

[Manz_Moe]

hey guys
firstly I'm not a lock smith or anything close, i just enjoy picking locks and so on. It seems from the talk you guys need a marketing plan, try looking over some cheap alternatives online, "guerilla marketing" or other low cost alternatives. Do you guys offer free security assessments for your clients it might be a way of building a market profile.
just my thoughts guys,

[ELC]

YP are rotten to deal with. My rep told me the dots,zeros thing was being cut out. I believed it, fact is there are still the same people using them...when I phoned to complain "customer service" (and I use that term loosely) told me it takes effect from April 06. But don't trust them ...

[Tattoo Guy]

I spoke to the yellow pages rep this week to review my ad in the book for this year and was told that they are definately stopping the use of ................... before the company names and are only going to be using the first 3 letters of the company name.

Anyone using ............a1 blaa blaa blaa will have all the c*#p removed and only the first 3 digits used although this wont stop anyone from using aaalocksmiths but that should get you in front of a1locksmiths as numerics will be placed after anything with only letters.

Still the only problem then is everyone will use aaa before there name and it will just become a lottery as to where you end up in your section but you should have as much chance of being before the big boys as behind them.

That was how it was explained to me by the rep, Im not totally convinced as I have heard it before that they wont use the ........##11 c*#p but Im hoping for a pleasant surprise this year

[acl]

Oh gawd here i go again.
Haldor,the ....000aaas thing has been going on for years and a fair few of us that have been around a while have adopted this tactic too but it doesnt help too much. You do initially have to prove that your company name is .....0000aaa locks but all you need to do is provide a letterhead with your "new " company name and youre away.How easy is it to knock up a letterhead on your pc(even i could do it!)
Tattoo guy,yes i think your right about them getting rid of the dots etc,youre also right about everyone using the aaas but unfortunatly youre wrong about it now being a lottery and you having as much chance of being infront of the likes of RF etc because you havent. Take it from me they will all still have 3 or 4 ads each all positoned before yours (and mine)Id love to be proved wrong but yrs of experince in dealing with these tossers tells me i wont be
Andy

[SteveW]

I am in the process of sorting out my first lot of adverts at the moment and alot of other methods seem a much better and cheaper prospect than the Yellow pages.

So far all i have had is a simple line listing on Yell.com, and i have already picked up a fare few jobs from that, there is also services like the 118's, how do people find they work for them?

Does the Yellowpages ever pay for itself? I think the phonebook is probably a better alternative.

[prim]

So far all i have had is a simple line listing on Yell.com, and i have already picked up a fare few jobs from that, there is also services like the 118's, how do people find they work for them?

118 cost me about £300
one job from it in 12 months
Its rubbish

[Tattoo Guy]

Like I said Im hoping for a pleasant surprise but I really know Im gonna be dissapointed but for anyone thinking of getting listed with the 118 247 number I would seriously recommend you dont as when the rep was here from yellow pages he brought my stats around for the previous 21 months (got nearly 2 years for the price of 1 when I first signed up) and my number had only been given out 20 times and I would say of those times only about a third of them have turned into jobs so I didn't break even on that area of advertisment in in nearly 2 years.How pi$$£d off would I have been if I had paid for 1 year and only got about 3 jobs from it

Anyway heres hoping to not being too dissapointed come april

[SteveW]

Ive been told 118 can be worthehile depending on where in the country you live, crap out in the sticks but more worthwhile in london?

But in london there is more competition, and if they dont list your no. very often there seems to be no point. Any London lockies find it worthwhile?

[toomush2drink]

You cannot go on what people say on certain adverts as it is very area specific. The only way to find out what works in your area is to spend the money, there is no other way.Only after trying certain adverts and keeping a log of how people get your number is the only way to work out whats worth repeating.Im not going to say what works for me as too many of my direct competition visit this site and that would be a foolish move.

[SteveW]

Aww go on Toomush you can tell me

[NKT]

I've yet to get listed in the YP, but I've stumped up £400 for the advert! It hits the printers soon, so I'm hoping my nice advert does the trick.

[Tattoo Guy]

Dont hold your breath mate the first year I advertised (Im guessing 1/4 column for that price) I ended up 9 pages in and you dont get a lot of calls when your that far back.