My mother owns a small business. She is a great business owner and her clients love her. The one problem she has is not shopping around to make sure she gets a good price and she takes everyone’s word. Well, she has been advertising for years all over the place. When I stepped in to help her business out due to this economy thing, I noticed that she was spending way too much on advertising. So I started to investigate all my advertising to see what was paying off to see what we were going to cut and what we were going to keep.
I always thought that the prices for a little box ad was high. So I started to check around to see what there competition was charging. Well the competition was charging a lot less. I do understand that the Verizon book in our area was a lot better so I didn’t pay any attention to that. What happened net really got me mad.
I was having a few happy hour drinks and I was catching up with an old friend and the conversation came up about how my family was and how my mothers business was doing. I told him about how I was starting to get involved with reducing operational costs to make sure we can weather out this roller coasted ride that we call the economy. So I told him that I can believe how much the phone book ads were. He laughed and told me that amount I told him was a yearly amount and not a monthly amount. Well I knew the billing and how much I was paying per month. So now it became a bet on who was right.
So we went back to my office and I showed him the bill so I can win a free steak dinner. It turns out that he was paying about 15% of the price for a larger ad. It never occurred to me to check out the pricing. So I called Idearc, big joke there and ill save you the story on that debacle, and found out that they have different pricing for all there ads. I would think that the more you buy would get you a better price, right? Wrong!!! I called up to pose as a new business in the area and wanted to check on the prices. What I got was an answer that was like 80% cheaper then was we were paying for years. The prices were for the same ad size in color in the same book.
What I found out was they have different discounts for new and existing customers. WTF? So in conclusion if you are a paying customer for years you have to pay more than a new customer signing up for ad’s. Go threw your local phone book and call the companies up that have the same ad in the same book and compare prices. You will be shocked to see what you find. Remember, buyer beware of this company!!!
I canceled all my phone book ad’s with all the major companies. I found a company called chesapeake marketing solutions on the east coast. They do internet marketing like everyone else but they have month to month contracts and if you work at it they will wave the set up fee. For the fee that they charge it beets me doing the listings on adwords. If you do any yellow page ad’s you should look into national companies that negotiate the prices for you. I guess its like having a realestate agent when buying a home or something like that. Good luck to all and remember that good business is remembered and bad business will never be forgotten!