Why Yellow Pages ads DO work for salons & spas…IF you do ‘em right.

by Greg Milner on 17/02/09 at 7:49 pm

by Peter Butler, author “Salon & Spa Yellow Pages Advertising Secrets”

Here’s What You Said Last Year About Yellow Pages Ads!

I was just going through a pile of YP ads we critiqued last year and to see a “boring bland dead ad” turned into a “smack you in the face money pulling ad” that WILL get ALL the phone calls is an absolute buzz.

Think about it. A person opens the Yellow Pages to “Your Page”… You’ve got about 30 seconds to make sure they see your ad and it’s so well done that they just have to call you over all the other salons. You’ve only got one chance to get this right.

Speaking of opening the YP… Not sure if you remember but we did a survey last year and here’s some of the results that came in…

“I think the Yellow Pages is a dead potato”

Thanks for the comment but the facts show otherwise.

Just using the figures for Australia, there are 7 million people use the YP directories a month. That’s over 30% of the population who use the YP on a monthly basis. That’s a lot of people. For the US with 304 million that’s 91 million users every month. So for your country you do the sums, about 30% of your population. In Ireland that’s about 1.3 million shoppers.

And don’t forget, these people aren’t browsers; they’re shoppers, they’re in the market to buy with cash in hand all ready to go…

That leads me to the next few comments which we hear all the time…

“Checking our database over the years we don’t get many clients from Yellow Pages so we have decreased the size of our ad to suit our needs.”
“I have never had any response from YP and believe most people use the internet to find phone #’s. I hesitate to buy another expensive ad.”
“We don’t advertise in the Yellow Pages as our experience has been that it is expensive in relation to the business we actually get out of it.”

And guess what? They’re all right.

But it has nothing to do with the Yellow Pages and everything to do with Your Ad!

I’m going to give you three tips straight out of the manual. If you say yes to any of these then that’s why you’ve done your money

Here’s the first Check List Tip:

Is your business name anywhere near the top of the ad?
Did you include a powerful guarantee?
Did you actually make them an offer or did you just bullet point your services?

How did you go? Any yes’s?

I can guarantee the ads weren’t based on the Direct Response Marketing model we advocate. If you keep running ads that don’t work then guess what… you’re an advertising victim and one of two things will happen.

You’ll stop your YP ad and lose out on a heap of new clients with cash in hand.
You’ll keep doing your money, year after year.

BUT if you change just these three elements you’re ad will actually make you money… a lot of money!!!

Here are another couple of comments from the survey…

I did order it!!! It’s great. (I wish this survey wasn’t anonymous, thanks for that comment)
I did purchase it…. have a great day Greg… and Jill… WWSM team… (Thanks, it is a great team)

It’s nice to know we’re making a difference in people’s lives.

Here’s what some salon owners said and a common trap that many business owners fall into.

“Info too late for me to use. Have already signed off on our yellow pages ad.”
“Just completed yellow pages ad.”
“My ads already been done and paid for.”

Although your ad is done and already in you still need to know what you got right and what can be done better for next year. Hoping that your ad works is not a marketing strategy. You need to be constantly learning, improving and tweaking.

When it comes time to place your ad do you feel under pressure?
Does it seem too hard to know what the ‘right’ thing to do is?
Do you take the advice of the YP rep?

Here’s what Jennifer Coleman of Snipz Hair Salon in Edge Hill said.

“When the yellow pages rep came to see me he started to tell me what I needed. I then told him what I wanted and showed him my ad. He then tried to change most of the ad. I suggested that he change nothing and that I was confident that what I had would work. To cut a long story short the ad was left as is and he gave me a $600 discount on the original price.

The best part was that he booked for a cut and colour the next day. I guess the ad worked before it even went to print.”

That’s the sort of difference having this information will make for you and here’s why Jennifer was in front. She got it early and had a handle on it so she knew exactly what she was wanted and how to do it. That’s what you need… to be in control.

You know what’s going to happen don’t you?

If you don’t get it now it’ll get closer to the deadline; you’ll not have the clarity you need; there’ll be that uncertainty about what size, what position, colour – no colour, what headline… all that.

Don’t put yourself through that again. Get a head start so you can start testing your ads early. Did I mention that? Here’s more of what you’ll learn from the system.

Do you want to know how to test and refine your ad dirt cheap?
Do you want to know how to measure your ad results the easy way?

And there are some brilliant bonuses included with the entire “Salon & Spa Yellow Pages Ad Secrets” System that you won’t want to miss out on too so go straight there NOW to look at the Entire Package! Look for yourself if you missed out last year!

Best regards,

Peter Butler

Click here to find out more about Yellow Pages

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A post by Greg Milner

The odd idea, a bit of prodding, a nudge here and there, a little fun, and the occasional dose of brutal reality. Greg is co-founder and CEO of Worldwide Salon Marketing, a writer, direct response marketing consultant, specialist marketing systems adviser and coach. He (sometimes) accepts private consulting clients.