$550 in Yellow Pages or direct mail?
Golomb Group member forwarded an
e-mail letter on the drycleaner’s forum that read as
follows: “Does anyone have any ‘stats’ on
yellow pages effectiveness? I have a hard time believing I am
getting my money back out of this advertising investment.”
To answer this question, you must
understand who uses Yellow Pages advertising. It is the people
who are looking for a particular source of a product or
service. Usually this is something they use
infrequently, such as a specialist in
wedding gown restoration or a restaurant in a specific
location.
 | ||
Carpet cleaners are also big for Yellow
Page advertising, but if you look up the category, you will see
a whole army of carpet cleaners offering their services.
Once you have many competitors advertising
the same product or service, the results are mitigated as it is
hard to stand out in a group.
If a small carpet cleaner, or drycleaner
for that matter, were to run a huge ad, the cost would be way
out of line for their budget. They would probably get slightly
better results but it would take a lot better results to make
up for the expensive ad.
Advertising in the Yellow Pages is sort of
a shotgun approach where the advertiser is covering a much
larger area than he covers physically.
Let’s say a business decides to run
one huge ad for $550 a month in one Yellow Page area or spread
the $550 in smaller ads covering a much larger area.
When I look up a service in the Yellow
Pages, like garage door repair, first I look up the category
and then select one close to me.
If the company placing the ad runs it in
multiple publications, they have to reduce the size of the ad
to get attention at a reasonable price. If there is another
garage door company closer, they will not get the call.
Now let’s look at what a business
can get with a well-designed direct mail piece.
To get attention, the piece should be on
card stock in full color with a succinct message to grab the
reader’s attention.
 | ||
As important as this is, the mailing area
should be targeted for traffic flow to the site and should be
done on a repetitive basis. One mailing to a targeted area may
not get all the prospects you would get over time. But repeated
mailings to the same area will be far more effective.
How often should the mailings hit the
designated target on a cost effective basis?
After many studies, it appears that
hitting the same home four times a year will produce the best
results and can be budgeted with a reasonable amount of funds.
What can a person get for $550 a month
compared with $550 a month in Yellow Page advertising?
Today, a first-rate mailing piece in color
with a good offer and a great layout will cost 60 cents per
contact.
This means that 917 households can be
contacted in the privacy of their own home without a lot of
competitive ads vying for the prospect’s attention.
If this market is contacted four times a
year, it could eventually produce as much as a 10 percent
return. This means that each time this market is contacted, the
advertiser can expect about 90 orders.
Your customer is actually a prospect for
your competitor.
Obviously some of the orders will be from
regular customers but it is important to understand that what
you consider to be your customer is actually a prospect for
your competitor.
Many of the orders will be from your
competitor’s customers who, for any number of reasons,
may not be totally happy with their present source.
In the course of a year, a market of this
size will result in some 20 percent turnover, so the mailing
will be hitting 500 new prospects who are folks who just moved
into the area and have not yet established a supplier.
The best part of this type of privacy
marketing is that it’s a great way to build larger sales
by offering the right kind of deals to motivate the consumer.
By targeting a market area of about 3,000
homes in your immediate area, you will be providing convenience
for your prospects as these people will live within a mile of
your site.
The experts claim that dollar for dollar,
there is no better way to promote a small business in a fixed
location than direct mail.
Stan Golomb is president of The Golomb
Group Inc., a firm that designs marketing programs for
drycleaners. Contact him at The Golomb Group Inc., 7664 Plaza
Ct., Willowbrook, IL 60521; phone (800) 679-5856. His e-mail
address is: stangolomb@golombgroup.com