Why You Should Not Advertise in the Yellow Pages in a Small Business
By Lance Winslow

Many people cannot believe that I will not endorse yellow page advertising, however over my 27 years in business I have found yellow page advertising to be the most expensive and the least effective. Many small businesses just starting out will advertise in the Yellow Pages because they believe this will help their business and bring in new customers.

Sure, it will bring in some new customers but generally not the kind the customers you are looking for and not the customers, which are in a 10-mile radius of your business. Those customers within a 10-mile radius will become your regular customers because you are close to their residence.

If you are in a metro area there will be other competition in the area and chances are your customers who call you from the Yellow Pages and stop in and will eventually find them and no longer use your business as it is too far away from them to partake in your products or services.

The larger phone books cost even more than the smaller neighborhood phone books and we have found that most people do not use the smaller neighborhood phone books anyway. It would be best to save your money and use alternative means of advertising to promote your business and I do not recommend yellow page advertising for anyone who is new in business.

In fact as a Franchisor we put franchisees in 400 plus markets and we specifically told our franchisees and not to advertise in the Yellow Pages in our confidential operations manual. Does that sound like a harsh statement? Well, that is how serious I am about yellow page ads and dismal results. Do not trust anyone who recommends yellow page advertising.

Lance Winslow, a retired entrepreneur, adventurer, modern day philosopher and perpetual tourist.

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