Why Would any Business Skip Yellow Page Advertising

August 10, 2008

Did you know there are some businesses who should not advertise in the Yellow Pages or if they do then they need to do so in a very limited way? It is true and surely if you are in a small or medium sized business then you know the value that Yellow Page Advertising can be. In our company, I forbid my franchisees from advertising in the yellow pages.

Why would a franchising company do that you ask? After all, franchise companies make a percentage off the sales of their franchisees and so the more money they make they more the Franchisor makes right? Yes, this is true, however we had another reason. Our reasoning was due to the fact they had to stay on customized clustered routes to stay efficient, as our franchisees were in the business of mobile truck and car washing. (Carwashguys.com).

When our franchisees advertised in the Phone Book, well those calls use to come from all over the place, due to the circulations of the phone books. And our franchisees would try to cram in additional customers across town who called in. This would cause them to go out of their way, get off scheduled routes and cause them to actually burn up more fuel, labor costs during travel and therefore they would actually make less money in the end.

Of course for our fleet truck washing services we always had Red or Bold one to three line listings in the yellow pages. You see unless you have a really good reason not to, then for I know other industry sub-sectors and businesses it makes sense. In fact, sometimes due to the costs, I think it is great to nail the lawyers for full-page ads and make them pay thru the nose (Viking Ancestry?), even though Caesar might have had a better idea for lawyers?

Let the lawyers pay for the bigger ads and find someone who can write you a really nice ad for your company, so that it pulls all year around. Perhaps you might consider all this in 2006.

\”Lance Winslow\” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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