Website ???

[kustom.printing]

Do you guys advertise in the yellow pages and have a website, if so do you get more leads through the website or the yellow pages ad.

I am in 2 minds at the min spend £3200 ($4800) on 2 big ads in the yellow pages and a basic website or spend it on getting my website further up the search engines and making my site better.

 

[Jon Aston]

Hey Kustom...

Before you decide how to spend that hard-earned £3200, please do yourself a favour: Ask yourself each of the questions below. Ask your customers. Ask anyone you want.

In the last 1-2 months, privately or professionally, in order to research a product or service you might want to buy, did you...

1. Answer, or respond to a direct mail advertisement?
2. Use or consult mainstream media (magazines, TV, radio, or newspaper)?
3. Use or consult (printed) Yellow Pages?
4. Search Google or another search engine?
5. Tap your peer-to-peer network (family, friends, colleagues) through some kind of electronic network (email, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Signs101.com, etc)...the result of which was a URL to a website you visited?

Here's how most people respond:

1. 3% of people had answered a direct mail ad in the last 1-2 months.
2. 22% used or consulted mainstream mass media (magazines, TV, radio, or newspaper)
3. 3% consulted the (print) Yellow Pages
4. 97% used Google or another search engine
5. 80% tapped their peer-to-peer network (family, friends, colleagues) through some kind of electronic network (email, instant messaging, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Signs101.com, etc)...the result of which was a URL to a website they visited.

If I had £3200 to spend, I know how I would be spending it ...and it wouldn't be on Yellow Pages. But before you blow the whole budget on the website itself, think hard about how people will find your website, and how you will continue to engage and nurture the people who aren't ready to buy just yet, along toward purchase.

Footnote: If you have 53mins, watch this "Unlearn" Keynote, by David Meerman Scott. It's brilliant. And (as you will note) the questions and current research cited above came from the presentation.

 

[Techman]

Yellow pages has a "brand new" Pay per view (usage) deal
You pay a fixed amount for a phone call from a valid lead.

You do not pay for spammers.
you do not pay for multiple calls from the same person.
You only pay for valid leads.
The call comes from a dedicated number on their page.
you can track the usage your self.

You mileage may vary.

 

[thesignexpert]

Jon, as always, good info and great link.

We very rarely ever get a call from the YP. Much better response via Google and referrals.

 

[briankb]

a few years ago we took out yellow page ads in 7 categories. the only calls we received were for truck lettering. not wraps. not design. not signage. just lettering. it was a waste of money. and the following year the bastages claimed they called and reminded me about the AUTOMATIC renewal and I'm now stuck with a few in 2 categories for the rest of this year.

yellow pages suck and they are worse than a NEW car sales person. put out a great sign, rent a billboard, or better yet join your chamber and have a ribbon cutting with free food.

my $.02

 

[TheSnowman]

I totally canned yellow pages other than like a $7 listing because we have Vonage, and they don't get published in the white pages all the time. The only person I've ever said had trouble finding me in there, was the guy that does my installations for me. Never heard a word from anyone else.

 

[Dan Antonelli]

I'm surprised yellow pages are still in business. Their online ads also are relatively worthless.

A web site is infinitely more valuable - just make sure you get a properly designed AND optimized web site - otherwise - it's almost just as worthless. Most sign sites I've seen are not optimized properly, and are usually ineffective for bringing in web leads. So as on online portfolio for people, perhaps they are fine. As a marketing tool for new business - usually not so much.

Between our 3 core sites, we get approx. 10-15 inquiries per week. Aesthetics aside, they also rank top 3 for nearly every search term we want.

Here's a few examples of our successes for other shops. Most have said the sites are paid for within a few months. http://signshopmarketing.com/seo_rankings.htm

 

[astro8]

I'm surprised yellow pages are still in business. Their online ads also are relatively worthless.

A web site is infinitely more valuable - just make sure you get a properly designed AND optimized web site - otherwise - it's almost just as worthless. Most sign sites I've seen are not optimized properly, and are usually ineffective for bringing in web leads. So as on online portfolio for people, perhaps they are fine. As a marketing tool for new business - usually not so much.

Between our 3 core sites, we get approx. 10-15 inquiries per week. Aesthetics aside, they also rank top 3 for nearly every search term we want.

Here's a few examples of our successes for other shops. Most have said the sites are paid for within a few months. http://signshopmarketing.com/seo_rankings.htm

I've blabbed on about how important an well optimised site is on here before, but it didn't get much response.

I have 1 website (I plan on setting up more) and I get 10-15 new enquiries through it for signage per day.

So to answer Kustom.Printing...Put your time and money into your website.

I have to add that if you're spending money and want results, consult with someone like Dan Antonelli for your site....beautiful sites that are seo optimised...it's a balancing act and hard work blending design and seo together to make your site look as you want and perform as you want..( My site has a lot of room for improvement in the design department...but it performs the way I want.)

If you get someone that knows the industry, terms, niche words etc you'll achieve much better results than someone who has no clue...and waste your money.

 

[dman0427]

*Watching*

yellow pages online advertising is a rip off.
The print ad usually gets tire kickers.

This is a good thread.

 

[kustom.printing]

My next question is, sell online or just have the website as a brochure site.

Which way would you go ??

 

[astro8]

No online sales, no instant online pricing, no instant online design-a-sign thing.

All that stuff is just confusion and frustration to most customers and all it does is leave them with a bad feeling about your site.

Make it easy for them to contact you and the one's that are serious will.

Just straight, solid information and plenty of it, easy navigation, proper links to more useful information and plenty of examples is what customers want. Make it easy on the brain and on the eye. They don't want to see all the marketing hype, crap, flash movies, skulls, daggers, 'mission statements', pictures of your dog, fancy photo albums...they get bored real quick, they're not interested.

And think about it...what do you do when you open a page and you see 'loading'???

I'm usually gone before I see the first frame....they're the same.

 

[speedmedia]

Yellow pages has a "brand new" Pay per view (usage) deal
You pay a fixed amount for a phone call from a valid lead.

You do not pay for spammers.
you do not pay for multiple calls from the same person.
You only pay for valid leads.
The call comes from a dedicated number on their page.
you can track the usage your self.

You mileage may vary.

I got the whole sales pitch on this deal the other day. It is $31 per call that comes in. So if I get 100 calls in a month and potentially no work out of it or just a bunch of tire kickers I still have to pay $3,100.00 per month. No thanks, I will take my free listing and use my website which I get more leads from than anything besides word of mouth.

Am I understanding this right? If it was pay for each job you land I would maybe do it...lol

Call Dan and have him build you a site, him and his team do a really nice job.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[Jon Aston]

Just stumbled on this article: How to Make Your Website Really Sell

 

[Edserv]

Website is the way to go if you know how to get listed in Organic and (maybe) pay-per-clicks.
Our website out-performs our yellow-page ads on a factor I can't even describe.

 

[BigfishDM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHqgyuXE_I

This is one of my new ventures.