Window Cleaning Success

Tips 5-8 For Maximizing Your Window Cleaning Yellow Page Ad

Tip#5 – Test Your Ad In Other Places First

You’ve got to live with your ad for one full year so it pays to make sure your ad really works. The best way to find out is run it as a newspaper ad first. This is usually cheap and easy. Once you have a good idea of which appeals are working you can incorporate them into your yellow page ad.

Tip #6 – Know Which Directory to Advertise In

It’s really not that uncommon to have 4 or 5 different directories in your area these days. How do you know where to run your ad? Did you know the walking fingers logo is in public domain in the U.S.?

Yep, that means any directory can use them (sometimes this can result in a fake bill being sent to the office – so beware). There are lots of directories for any given area – you might encounter the “main book”, “the red book”, the “one book” the “Hispanic yellow pages”, the “community directory”, on and on and on…

The array of choices can be confusing – so which one do you pick?

Well, I’ve got an easy method for solving this problem. First, there is usually a “main” book. Down here it’s put out by At&T, usually it’s the main telephone monopoly for the area. If you’re only advertising in one book – this is the one to be in.

However, if your budget is a little more robust then let’s consider the other directories. Do a little test in your office for 2 weeks – rip off the covers of every directory you have and place them in a plastic binder sheet. Then when you get a chance, take the covers out to a job and ask your existing clients which yellow pages directory they use most.

Most people will be able to tell you if they see the covers.

That way you’re spending your money on advertising your target market will see!

Tip #7 – Protect Your Ad

If your competitors realize your new and improved ad is working — they may try to rip-off your work. Don’t let them.

Protect your ad by simply placing a copyright notice on it. You don’t need to register it with any government agency. It’s a common law copyright.

Just use the copyright notice like: ©2008 Your company Name

If you follow these guidelines your yellow pages ad rep will fight you tooth and nail. Don’t let them change your mind. Stick to your guns. They only know how 99% of yellow page ads are supposed to look. They think you should look just like everyone else in the directory. They think you should only include your name, address, hours of operation, and phone number.

Everything they know is about traditional advertising. They don’t understand direct response like you do. That’s yet another reason why you should never, never let the yellow page publisher set your ad. (After setting Pizza Shop Ads and Auto Repair Shops all day do you really think they’ll try to make your ad stand-out and get the attention it deserves?) Don’t make that mistake. Hire a professional graphic artist unless you have some layout skills.

Tip #8 – Don’t Forget Your Tracking!

Another thing you must be aware of is tracking each ad. If you put ads in 3 different sections you want to know where your prospects are coming from.

So by putting a different 800 voice mail number on each ad or putting in, “ask for extension YP1,” you’ll know how well each ad is doing. In this example, extension “YP1″ stands for the first yellow pages category you are in. (YP1 could be ‘construction contractors’ and then “YP2″ might be the ‘window cleaning’ category, etc.)