Yellow Pages - No more free listings

[Not your average framer]

I had a phone call today from Yellow Pages to tell me that I can no longer have my usual free single line entry in the next issue of Yellow pages.

Now it will cost me £91 + VAT per year for the minimum possible Yellow pages entry and in future it will be a smaller A5 size publication.

They also told me that there will no longer be any free business listing in the local BT directory or the Thompson Local Directory.

When I phoned BT and Thompson, I found that this was not exactly true. BT informed me that they will still provide free business listings in the alphabetical section, but any listing in the classified section will cost a minimum of £34 + VAT per year. Also Thompson informed me that their free single line classified entry remains as before and that there are no plans to change this.

I am not much impressed with Yellow Pages doing this, in my own opinion this amounts to turning the main business telephone directory into an inferior and no longer comprehensive directory, which will have less clasified entries than the Thompson local directory and also probably less than the local BT directory as well.

What sort of message is this giving to their regular advertisers, then they realise that Yellow Pages is no longer a fully comprehesive directory and that their two main competitors will probably have more entries.

Could this be the end of their position as the market leader. I think they might not have thought about the implications of what they are doing.

[stcstc]

i dont know about anyone else but if i am looking for a number i always look on the internet, i dont even know where my copy of the golden pages (yellow pages in ireland) is.

so i am not suprised, i think directories like the yellow pages are a dying breed and dont think they will survive that much longer

[Gesso&Bole]

Does anyone still look at the Yellow Pages?

I would not bother advertising with them

[Roboframer]

I'm not a fan of YP at all but I wouldn't say it does not work.

If you had an extra/dedicated phone line that was only advertised in YP then maybe you could monitor its effectiveness, but even then, after a while repeat custom and word of mouth may account for a lot of calls.

We started from home and changed to a business line to get the free entry, and then we paid for a display ad. Then when we opened a shop we had a new business line but kept the home phone as a business line and used call diversion.

On the new line we had the free listing and two paid-for ads, one bold and one display and we changed the free listing on the home phone to come under art galleries; at the shop our three listings came under general crafts, haberdashery and needlecraft, (I think) so we were covered in 5 different sections. But we rarely knew when phone enquiries came from any of them, or Thompsons - but until we had more advertising I'd guess a lot did and as our phone number is not given on our radio ad I'd guess a lot of calls still come from YP - hear the ad; look the number up in YP/Thompsons, or online, which would also include YP/Thompsons.

Anyway, a couple of years ago my ancient Mother-in-law moved in with us (don't go there!) and as she cannot handle a mobile phone, we stopped diverting the calls to the home phone to the shop. She gets quite a few business enquiries every day, and because she says 'This is the home phone, I'll give you the shop number" a lot of times she hears 'Oh, but this is the number in Yellow Pages'

I know it's not an ideal situation, (can you get mobiles with REALLY big buttons?) but it's a unique one and does tell us YP is actually working for us - and we're down to just the free listings now too - we actually would not have dropped the other paid-for ads if they had heeded our warnings to stop pestering us to upgrade, get on their website etc etc - they became really annoying.

[Jonny2morsos]

I almost put up a similar post yesterday having received the new yellow pages and telephone directory both at work and at home.

We are no longer listed in yellow pages and only have a listing inthe telephone directory (one line) in the business section.

Both of these are almost a pocket book now and I think it emphasises the way t'internet is taking over. At first I was a bit miffed at being left out but having seen it is obviously not a true representation of the business community and the general public must realise the same.

Interestingly I browsed through the listings beginning with "P" as in Picture Framers, Picture Galleries etc. and came across Plarliament, Members of; for this it listed our member of parliament who lost her seat at the general election of 2005! So if the telephone directory is 5 years out of date don't care if we are not in it BUT and I do think this applies to all of us I will be checking my Google listing is up at the top.

[Roboframer]

Another thing that p'd me off about YP and the phone book was when they decided to charge for 192 calls.

What happened then was that the areas that these books covered got vastly reduced to make you dial 192 and pay, rather than use your phone/YP book. That p'd me off as a YP customer as well as a consumer.

Then BT lost the monopoly on 192 - and 118 .... blah blah evolved, so now they are trying to get more or the same, for even less whilst trying to hold you over a barrel.

I wouldn't be surprised, if straws have to be grabbed in years to come, if they actually made it 'illegal' to show/state your phone number in any advertising unless you pay for a BT ad - IOW you'd be using your phone No, which THEY allocated to you to be used under their terms and conditions, under licence.

[WelshFramer]

Are the Yellow Pages still in business?

They used to deliver it but the latest copy I have is dated 2006/7 - and it's still in its pristine, unopened state.

[TabbyAnn]

(can you get mobiles with REALLY big buttons?)

Try www.bigbuttonmobile.co.uk

[Roboframer]

Thanks for that - call diversion will soon be active again!

[Bill Henry]

I have mixed feelings about the Yellow Pages.

It may be true that many people (especially the younger crowd) use their iPhones and laptops to do searches for a particular business or service, or to look up phone numbers, Yellow Page directories are still in every home and office.

If I’m at home and need to find a plumber, for example, I’m not likely to boot up our computer, wait for a browser to load, type in “plumber Londonderry New Hampshire” when I can just grab the phone book from the top of the microwave and dial a number.

We have downsized our display ads in the YP, but I am very reluctant to go to a simple line listing, or drop the listing altogether.

[mikeysaling]

i can't remember the last time i used YP - certainly would never put an advert in it - not even a free one.

[WelshFramer]

If I’m at home and need to find a plumber, for example, I’m not likely to boot up our computer, wait for a browser to load, type in “plumber Londonderry New Hampshire” when I can just grab the phone book from the top of the microwave and dial a number.

I'd rather phone a friend and ask for a recommendation. Finding a plumber in the YP is just asking for some cowboy to come round and denude your bank account!

Everyone knows someone who can recommend or warn against a plumber/painter/builder/tax advisor/etc.

Our local YP used to have the entry:

Boring, see Civil Engineers.

[Nickz1971]

We used to advertise with the yellow pages for many years and this is the first year we wont be having a big advert with them at all. Even the salesman who comes round knew he was fighting a losing battle and basically said he did not blame us at all. We have been in business for 25 years now and you cant beat word of mouth

[John]

Welcome to the forum Nikz1971.

We reached the same conclusion, however we maintain a small presence in the Yellow Pages, though this year may be our last.

[Manson Framers]

Just Say No to the Yellow Pages

As search engines like Google and Yahoo become the place for people to search for products, services and information, smart businesses are investing their money into search engine optimization to make their web sites more visible to searchers

M. Manson
http://www.mansonframers.com.au/

[Dan]

It sounds like your YP is almost as bad as ours in the states. We get what looks like an invoice in the mail for advertisement and many people pay it and then find out they just signed up to advertise in a YP on the other side of the country. We stopped asvertising in the YP last year. Also we have more than one YP book, their are regional YP and yellow book and local telephone companies have their own. So instead of trying to descide which one to advertise in we just say NO

[JamesC]

One thing to think about - if half the people read the yellow pages that used to but there are half as many picture framer listings - you should be no worse off given equal billing.

The more businesses pull out and take away large ads the better it is to stay, more so if it is free of course. Just as Google adwords and the like are getting unviably expensive and competitive.

Personally we've never bothered listing in the YP as we've concentrated online and probably never realised we could get a free listing as the people that phoned us only ever wanted to sell us something. Seems we're a bit late now but we're still growing so no worries.

One of the most easy ways to get ripped off is to spend money on search engine optimization by the way so be wary.

[JamesC]

I wanted to add one more point.

Type of person who uses Yellow Pages is more likely to be poor with computers, and more likely to like to shop locally and be grateful to ahve found somebody who can help. So may be a better target than the online person who will click on your site before/after clicking on 5 others to see if they can get it 50p cheaper elsewhere. When the person who rung comes in you have a chance to show them your high quality which you can't very well online because people don't have enough attention span to read anything and can't see/feel. These things can make a difference, especially in the art world.

Don't know why I'm sticking up for the YP. Maybe because a lot of it is edited and printed near me in Scarborough and the printing is suffering over there.