Do yellow pages pay?

[Jim]

Hi Wally:

You need a Yellow page listing just to establish your identity. Think of
it as a way your own present customers can reach you. They keep losing
your cards and they often do not look in the piano for your records.
Display advertising is too expensive, but a one liner or a 1/2 inch Ad
will help. The gaudy flashy ads sometimes work in reverse.

Jim Coleman, Sr.


On Sat, 26 Apr 1997, wtscherer wrote:

> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> I'm approaching the end of one year in the business full time, and this
> month is when I must get my request in to the phone company if I want to
> change my service to commercial. (I tuned part-time for 17 years, mostly
> overseas.) The basic rate would be about $60 as compared to $15 for private
> residential. I would get a one line, normal typeface listing in the yellow
> pages under "Piano Tuning and Repair".
>
> Some of the local techs have said that their yellow pages ad DOES pay
> because of their rebuilding service. (They have a display ad which costs
> about $200 a month.) Others have said that they USED to have a yellow pages
> ad, but don't now because it didn't really help their business. (Mostly
> people called through the list for price comparison, they said.) I'm not
> yet to the point where I could have a shop, so in-home repairs are all I
> can offer.
>
> At this point I am thinking that paying $10 per customer is about the most
> I would want to pay. That would mean that a simple yellow pages listing
> should bring in five customers a month. (The local phone book covers five
> cities.) Maybe I am being unrealistic on estimating advertising costs.
>
> What have some of you done who mostly work for yourself, especially if you
> don't offer rebuilding? Have you found yellow pages advertising cost
> effective?
>
> Sincerely,
> Wally Scherer
> Norfolk, Virginia
> WallyTS@compuserve.com
>