Lesson #5

Are You Still Struggling to Make Your Yellow Page Advertising Highly Profitable?”

If you’re struggling to make your Yellow Pageadvertising highly profitable, here’s your solution that brings your profits right to you.

The 3 Most Common Advertising Myths that Cause Advertising to Fail.

The first myth is that if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door. That myth was perpetuated by Emerson who lived and died a poor preacher. He had no experience in business, and no successes. I don’t think it’s wise to follow the wealth and success advice of someone who had neither.

I like to describe business as a three legged stool. It takes all 3 legs for your business to remain standing.

The first leg is your skills, education and training.The second leg is your office, equipment and vehicles.And the third leg of your stool is your marketing that automatically feeds your business new clients.

Without all 3 legs, you will never have the success you deserve in business. The truth is a guy with excellent marketing and an average product will do better than a guy with an excellent product, and average marketing. Now I’m not saying to not have a good product or service, all I’m saying is that when you dovetail great marketing with the excellent skills and products you already have… that is when you position your business to be most profitable.

The second myth that causes business failure is that if you grow your business at faster than 20% per year, you will go broke due to cash flow problems. Well now that America is more mobile than ever, more people are moving due to job changes and retirement than ever before. The current rate an average business loses customers is now 19.6%

So if you are only growing your business at 20%, you’re only replacing the clients you’re losing. To maintain only 10% growth per year, you need to attract 30% new clients. And to achieve more aggressive growth of 25% per year you would have to attract 45% new clients after you factor in the rate of attrition of your existing clients.

The third myth is that you should be doing Image advertising. Image advertising is like Nike, Coca Cola, and Target where you advertise to build your logo and Image in the consumers mind.

What they forgot to tell you was that it cost these companies about $150 Million dollars and about 5 years to build that image. Then it costs about $5-10 Million per year to maintain that Image. Image advertising is totally unrealistic for any small business person. What small businesses need to be using is Direct Response Marketing in their Yellow Page advertising. Direct Response Marketing is effective, efficient, and professional. Direct Response Marketing is “the quickest path to the sale”.

Why Yellow Pages?

I’ve seen my clients double and triple their profits from their Yellow Page advertising once they’ve included the direct response Yellow Page advertising triggers I teach. And there’s Billions of dollars of goods and services sold every year thru the Yellow Pages. It’s where the High-end BUYERS are. With Yellow Pages, the audience is far more predisposed to buy than any other Media.

Consumers pick up the Yellow Pages to make a purchase a staggering 84% of the time!!! And the largest segment of Yellow Page buyers industry statistics show are the high income earners. The 5 reasons you want to target the high income earners are;

1) They’re least affected by swings in the economy

2) They’re worth 500% more in lifetime customer value than any other market segment

3) They’re loyal to service and convenience not price

4) They’re the fastest growing segment of our economy

5) Targeting them enables you to do less and make more, so it improves your margin on every sale! We’re going to cover more about why it’s imperative that you target this high-end group later in this letter.

Now, here are 4 HUGE reasons the Yellow Pages gives you a competitive advantage:

1) Yellow Pages is the Media of buyers. Industry studies show that an astounding 84% of prospects that pick up a Yellow Pages directory make a purchase!

2) The second HUGE advantage is Yellow Page advertising gives you perfect timing of the delivery of your marketing message and offer. It’s the only Media that does this automatically. Your prospect sees your advertising at the exact moment that they’re ready to buy! PERFECT TIMING OF YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE IS A HUGE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE!

3) The 3rd HUGE advantage is that the biggest group, 38%, of all Yellow Page buyers are the top 20% of income earners that control 47% of ALL the disposable income. While most business owners think that the Yellow Pages is the Media of “price-shoppers and tire-kickers”, savvy marketers are reaping HUGE profits by serving the elite status, expensive tastes, and luxurious wants of this group of high-end, free-spending consumers.

4) The 4th HUGE advantage is that most Yellow Page advertising is interchangeable with their competition. They do nothing to stand out as different in a way that their ideal target prospect would find attractive. This makes Yellow Pages the ideal Media to apply Direct Response Marketing.

The Yellow Pages is a business owners Gold Mine as an Evergreen source of new cash clients. This creates an automatic conveyor belt bringing you qualified, presold new clients to build your business year after year!!!

I teach my clients to use 3 Medias to build your database of ideal clients. The first Media is Direct Mail. The second is Yellow Pages. And the third is Val Pac, Money Mailer, piggyback type mailers. So this applies to both the Yellow Page advertising and Val Pac/Money Mailer piggyback mailers you should be using to build your database of ideal clients.

And once you have dynamite direct response Yellow Page advertising with these 12 response triggers, that does well in the most competitive Media side-by-side with all your competitors, you can easily and quickly remodel it into a newspaper or magazine ad, Free Standing Insert, postcard, flier, door hanger, website, or other promotional piece so there are 7 more ways to leverage this information.

Even if you don’t ever do Yellow Page advertising, you can use these strategies in other Medias very profitably and very successfully.

What are the Problems with Yellow Page Advertising?

You may have already tried Yellow Page advertising and not got the profits you expected. It’s not your fault that you didn’t get the results you thought you would, and here’s why…

· The problem with Yellow Page advertising is it’s the most competitive Media, so you really need to know what you’re doing.

· It’s the only Media where you’re listed side-by-side with all your competitors’ ads.

· It’s expensive. You pay monthly payments all year, even for a bad ad.

· It’s not like regular advertising that you can cancel after a month.

· You have to sign a contract for what’s essentially an annual lease of the space, and you pay every month whether the ad is profitable or not.

· You can’t make changes in your advertising until next year, once it’s gone to press.

· It’s not a good Media to test in. It would take 5 years to do 5 single variable tests.

· You can’t choose where your ad appears on the page.

· If your ad lands in the wrong place on the page, response can plummet by 10 times. I once had a small in-column ad that returned $10 for every dollar I spent on the ad. I was really happy with that, so I placed the exact same ad the next year. I didn’t change a coma or a character. Everything was identical, but the ad landed in a bad spot on the page and my response fell from 10 to 1, to 1 to 1. That was an expensive lesson to learn because I had to wait a whole year to fix the problem. That cost me a lot of money!

· And then there are the Yellow Page reps.

Here Are 7 Things that Make Me Really Mad About Yellow Page Ad Reps.

1) They want to design your advertising, but have no real education about what causes prospects to respond to Yellow Page advertising. They are only trained in upselling you extras that frequently do not increase profits or response.

2) They give you all kinds of horrible advice to steer you in the direction they want you to go.

3) They’ll say, “We’ll just use the information on your business card”.

4) They’ll tell you things like you need more open space to draw the eye. But I’ve never seen a prospect respond to blank space. The truth is, “Blank space never sold anything to anybody”. If blank space worked, you could send out blank postcards with just your phone number, and get response. Of course that doesn’t work in postcards, and it doesn’t work in Yellow Page advertising either. It’s always the ad with the most compelling bait, and the most “reasons why” that wins the most profits and new clients possible.

5) They’ll lie to you and tell you you’ll get “as many proofs as necessary”, but the system is set up to give you your proof at the last minute, frequently without any time to make the necessary changes. And more proofs just mean more trips and work for the rep. So they delay getting you your ad proof, and then a bad ad goes to press. And guess who gets to pay for the bad ad all year. Yea you, that’s right.

6) Your business hemorrhages profits every month because you took their advice. What you didn’t realize is that they are under orders to homogenize all the ads. To make them all look the same. Because Yellow Page publishers feel that it creates a liability issue for them if they design 1 ad better than another. That is why you absolutely have to take over all typesetting and layout to get exactly what will guarantee you the highest profits and the most new clients possible.

7) They’ll give you a list of commonly used words under your Yellow Page heading so that “you can look just as professional as the rest of the ads”. But that is horrible advice because what you want your advertising to do is stand out in a favorable and positive way that highlights your uniqueness. I suggest that if you are ever offered a list of commonly used words under your Yellow Page heading, that you use it as a guide of the words to avoid using in your Yellow Page advertising. Then you’re guaranteed to stand out as different.

With all this misinformation, it’s amazing anyone gets outstanding results from their Yellow Page advertising. It’s no wonder so many business owners have tried Yellow Page advertising and failed. It is really the Yellow Page sales reps. and publishers that I feel are responsible for making none of the ads stand out to the prime target prospect.

The Solution

What’s essential in any business is a consistent supply of new clients. The Yellow Pages is my favorite Evergreen marketing strategy. It allows you to have a continuous flow of prescreened, presold prospects. Once it’s set up, it works automatically 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a whole year!

Here’s 10 Things You Will Want to Include in Your Yellow Page Advertising

1) What you want to do in Yellow Page and all print advertising is to stand out as different in a favorable way, and to offer more than your competition.

2) You want to answer the 2 key questions in your ideal target prospects mind.

3) You want to have your ad 10 times more credible than your competitors.

4) You want to learn what words to never use in your Yellow Page advertising.

5) You want to learn how to expand the profits of your ad without having to pay for a larger, more costly one.

6) You want to take control of the layout, and have it reviewed by an expert before it is published.

7) You want to use the 4 secret words that double Yellow Page advertising response.

8) You want to permanently eliminate the need for referrals.

9) You want to know when is the right time to pay extra for color in your ad or a white knockout background, and when those extras are a total waste of money.

10) You want to give your ideal target prospect the highest number of and most compelling reasons to call you IMMEDIATELY.

You do that by using the 12 Yellow Page Triggers, I’m going to share with you in a minute, or at least use The 6 Essential Triggers, no matter how small your Yellow Page advertising is.

That brings up two common misconceptions about Yellow Page advertising:

1) Misconception number 1 is that the physical Yellow Pages book will be replaced by the Internet. I thought that too in 1998 that there would be no more physical book by the year 2000, but the reality is that the Internet just added another Media. It didn’t replace one. The same thing happened when email was introduced. There were experts who said that postal mail would cease to exist and be replaced by email, but what happened is it just added another Media. Postal mail still thrives today, and so do the Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages just celebrated their 130th year with the highest usage of Yellow Pages ever! The truth is the Yellow Page advertising is more viable than ever today because many businesses are distracted by the Internet and trying to make their websites convert to sales. Customers are still going where they are trained to go, to the printed Yellow Pages to find what they want.

2) Misconception number 2 is that Yellow Page advertising doesn’t work. It isn’t the Media that doesn’t work. It’s your use of the Media that didn’t work. I built 3 businesses on Yellow Page advertising alone, and know of several businesses that generate over $1 Million dollars a year in revenues from their Yellow Page advertising!

Is Advertising Ethical and Professional?

Some business owners feel that advertising is unethical and unprofessional. Let me tell you the story about Dr. Kellogg who invented Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. Dr Kellogg was a Doctor that felt advertising was unethical. And the story goes that Mr. Post came to visit Dr. Kellogg’s health spa as a client. While he was there, he was reported to have stolen some recipes and shortly after his visit came out with “Postem”- a copy of Dr. Kellogg’s health drink. He then came out with “Post Toasties” which was a copy of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

Mr. Post became the first cereal millionaire not because he had the product first, but because he advertised his product first. This happens all the time in business. If you don’t advertise, it’s just a matter of time until you’re beat by a competitor who does. Maybe you’re already getting beat by your competition. I don’t think that operating your business at half its’ capacity increases your professionalism or makes you look more ethical! Every strategy I teach is both ethical and professional. Here’s what you can do to beat your competition every time with your Yellow Page advertising.

Highly Profitable Yellow Page Advertising

The most highly profitable Yellow Page advertising has a good headline with the most compelling reasons to respond, based on the ideal target prospects most cherished wants, and the other 11 Yellow Page Triggers. What you want your ad to do is stand out, not blend in with the other ads. The “design factory” at the publisher has over 20,000 ads to layout to complete the book, and can commit less than 20 minutes total to the planning, content, and physically layout your ad. The layout guy quickly sees that if he can do each ad in only 15 minutes, he looks like a hero to his boss, and he can take a long lunch break. This is not the system you want to do any of the creative part or layout of your Yellow Page advertising.

BUT HERE’S THE MOST SURPRISING THING! The Yellow Page publishers’ goal is to have all the ads look as much alike as possible so that no business can claim another business got preferential treatment or more time spent on their ad. The publishers’ goal is to have the ads all look the same to reduce complaints that one advertiser got more attention or preferential treatment! They feel there’s a liability issue there so they homogenize your ad content. If you have the publishers do ANY of the layout of your Yellow Page advertising, YOU’RE MAKING A HUGE MISTAKE THAT KILLS PROFITS! Your ad will have no chance to stand out from the competition.

Let’s Review the 12 Yellow Page Response Triggers

1) USP- Unique Selling Proposition-Your USP should take into consideration both positioning and targeting. What most Yellow Page advertising targets is the low end, price-shoppers. I suggest that you target the underserved high-end prospect by giving them choices that suit their elite status, expensive tastes and luxurious wants. The highest profits will come from serving the top 20% of income earners that control 47% of the disposable income. That’s why it is essential to the health and profitability of your business that you target this market segment. 38% of Yellow Page buyers are in the top 20% of income earners that have 47% of the disposable income!!! I’ve had Walt Disney’s grandson worth a half a billion dollars call on my Yellow Page ad. Barbara Mandrel the award-winning singer, Tim Salmon of the California Angels baseball fame, professional athletes, famous actors and musicians all called me from my Yellow Page advertising. I can tell you from experience; this is where the high-end shoppers go to make a purchase. Remember these people are avid consumers. It would be impossible for them to get a referral right before they buy everything they’re going to buy. And that’s when they go to the Yellow Pages to make a purchase.Most business owners make the mistake of sending their message to everyone and not defining a narrow target market that would be less expensive to reach, and more profitable to sell to like the high-end consumer. You want to know how to stand out as a specialist, not a generalist. What you want to do in the targeting of your Yellow Page advertising is speak to a specific type of tree, not the forest.

2) A Benefit-laden Headline- The reason you want a great headline is people scan the headlines just like they would if they were reading a newspaper. Then they return to the headlines that were interesting to them to read the rest of the copy under those headlines. If you don’t attract your ideal target prospect with your headline, what’s in the rest of the ad doesn’t matter because they won’t ever read it.

3) Guarantee- Yes, the “G-word”. G-words are so good; they are music to your prospects ears. Your G-word you want to communicate is your GUARANTEE. The reason that you want to put a guarantee in your ad is it reduces the risk of the prospect doing business with you. Your guarantee shows that you take pride in your business, and that you are willing to stand behind what you do. This is also an easy way to separate your business from your competition. A guarantee gives you a competitive advantage over everyone that doesn’t have a guarantee.

4) Testimonials- The reason you want to use testimonials is they are 10 X more believable than anything that you can say about yourself. Testimonials are one of the most potent weapons a business owner has in his arsenal. They can’t be overused. Not only do testimonials provide social proof that you are a good value, but the feedback from your clients is the best market research you can get, at any price. How valuable would it be to you to know what every patient is happy or potentially unhappy about, but not mad enough to complain about in person?

Testimonials as market research tell you 4 very important things.

a) What else you could sell your ideal target prospect.

b) What frustrates your ideal target prospects?

c) What attracted them and what will attract others just like them.

d) It will identify the nut cases that are determined to make sure you never make a penny on them that need to be immediately purged from your business. You just respectfully decline their business and refer them to your competition. Let them get bogged down because they have no system to side step a problem client.

The other thing that testimonials do is they accelerate the “word of mouth” referral process. People can see what others have said without having to be there to hear it themselves. You can use this to dominate the most high-income prospects in your area and your competition will never figure out what you are doing. People look to others behavior to see what would be a good decision for them, and they use others testimonials as a decision making shortcut. That’s why testimonials work so well in Yellow Page advertising.

5) Offer- The reason that you want to have an offer is because it causes the ideal target prospect to call you first. The offer is what causes people to call you right now. Scanners will read the offer first, and be triggered to read the whole ad if they find the offer interesting, and compelling. But the offer must appear in the right place in the ad and in the right sequence. This is critical.

6) Phone Number, Offer for FREE Advice- There are tricks of how to position your phone number in the ad, and how to display multiple phone numbers to increase response. They have to do with the layout, which is too complicated to explain here.

7) Photos and Graphics- The reason that you want to use a good photo or graphic is because studies have shown that this is where the eye is drawn to first in the ad. Ads with a photo or graphic will be more responsive than an ad without a photo or graphic. But putting the photo or graphic in the wrong place in the ad can draw attention to the ad next to yours. This is a mistake I see in a lot of Yellow Page advertising which winds up drawing the attention to their competition’s ad. That’s a costly common mistake. Also using a photo that does not directly relate to your marketing message is another mistake I see in a lot of Yellow Page advertising.

8) Bullets- The reason you want to have bullet points is so that your ideal target prospect can easily scan the list of benefits you offer. The bullets should list all the reasons why a prospect should choose your business over any and all other choices.

9) Secondary Means of Response- A Secondary Means of Response gives your ideal target prospect answers to their questions 24 hours a day, and gives you a big competitive advantage over your competition. Prospects are not all convinced in the same way. Give your prospects multiple reasons to respond. Recorded messages are perceived to be more truthful than a live person, because you can’t change it as you go along. People are more likely to believe and trust a recorded message than someone “live”. So not only is it a waste of time to do it in person and say the same thing every time they call, but you lose some credibility. And after listening to the recorded message, prospects will call you presold and ready to buy now. I transformed my incoming call from, “What do you charge?” to “When can you do it?” That’s the difference in preselling that a FREE recorded message can do robotically for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

10) Call to Action- Having a clear call to action can double your Yellow Page advertising profits. What you want to do is spell out, in words a child could understand, how to order and what to do next.

11) Choose the right size ad and heading selection to maximize exposure and response. You definitely want to avoid ad sizes that get you positioned in a bad spot on the page, because it kills response.

12) Psychological Sequence, Continuity, and Layout- Your Yellow Page advertising format needs to match your target prospects emotional wants and train of thought. Just like selling in person has a sequence, so does ALL print advertising. You want to build as much value and credibility as possible before you ask for them to call you. The eye needs to flow thru the ad and 12 Yellow Page Triggers in an uninterrupted path to gain the most trust and credibility. The layout chapter diagrams exactly how to get the eye flow and the exact locations of all 12 Yellow Page Triggers so you will get the layout perfect every time for the highest possible profits.

Bob Blagg, The HVAC Marketing Guy
http://www.hvacprofitsecrets.com/
bob@hvacprofitsecrets.com