Thomson Local v Yellow Pages - General Cleaning Issues

General Cleaning Issues - Floorcare, car valeting, buying and selling businesses, pricing, staffing, market research, etc.

Thomson Local v Yellow Pages

Posted by woodman (woodman), 14 October 2003

Whats the feed back from you guys regarding advertising in the Thompson Local as opposed to YP.

The reason I am asking is because I have advertised in both Thomson & YP with very poor results and all the local cleaners I talk to all say the same.

What has cropped up is the amount of ad's that are very similar in both publications after cleaners have attended the Joe Polish marketing courses.I mean how many consumer information lines can the customer ring, only to find they all say the same, after all what distinquishes Harry's cleaning service from Bob's if the ad's are an exact copy? .

I'ts making the job easy for Thompson Local & YP reps .

Posted by DP (DP), 14 October 2003

I visited a company last week, who had taken out the whole back page of the Thompson. One year on and they were extremely disappointed, "knout" (Lancashire I think, loads of green stuff and weird fat sheep type thingy’s everywhere) Undecided

YP use a lot of standard formats and graphics throughout the book, so if you are not absolutely specific, they will use what’s easy and cheap.

People often rely on these books as a sole source of work, and for some trades that’s ok, but it seems unless you have a large add in the same place for years, you are more then likely gonna be disappointed. Although a lot can influence the results like placing, wording, dodgy company names and even the type of address you use.

On the other side of this, I continue to have a number of people say that they got us from the yellow pages, yet I have never advertised my current company there ever.

Posted by Fox (Fox), 14 October 2003

I have advertised in both in the past - now I wouldn't bother with either, you get a standard posting for free in your local phone book and yp anyway. Spend your marketing money on good brochures and stamps!

Posted by petra (petra), 14 October 2003

Here in Kent I have had a reasonable response from YP, Thompson, has hit the domestic side with aroud 10 calls a month on average. But word of mouth is the most popular.
Petra

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