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YELLOW PAGE ADVERTISING FOR FREELANCERS, HOME-BASED SMALL BUSINESSES: A Guide to Yellow Pages Advertising that will help you learn how to post your Yellow Pages Ad for your freelance or small business.

Proving a return on your Yellow Pages advertising investment

Whether your business is large or small, you probably don't have a huge advertising budget. But, since in most cases, you have to advertise in order to succeed and grow, you probably rely heavily on two old standbys: word-of-mouth and Yellow Pages advertising.

Note About the Yellow Pages Ads: Getting Your Customers to Pass Along a Good Review of Your Small Business with Word-of-Mouth is Difficult ... However, Advertising with Yellow Pages is Easy!

While you can certainly encourage your customers to pass along a good word about your business, ensuring that they do so and quantifying the results of word-of-mouth advertising is difficult at best. On the other hand, proving the value of your Yellow Pages investment can be quite easy. It's also invaluable, especially when nearly 18 billion references are made to the Yellow Pages directories each year-that's 11.7 times every week for the average American. And, especially when every year 56.8 million references are made to the "Office Supplies" listing in the Yellow Pages, making it the 57th most-referenced heading out of 4, 200!

Return on investment (ROI) can be more simply described as a measurement of how well your advertising is working. But, how do you determine your ROI and turn your advertising dollars into customers and profits?

Yellow Pages Advertising Tip: How Do You Determine the Effectiveness of your Ads. You Have to Find Out Your Return on Investment (ROI)

The best way to determine your ROI is to follow this simple sevenstep process, a process that will show you exactly how to measure the effectiveness of your advertising:

How Many Calls Do you Receive from The Yellow Pages Ads

1. Determine ROI on Ads: Begin by determining the number of calls you receive from your Yellow Pages ad each month. This is easy if you have Caller ID capability. If not, ask each caller where they found your number (note that if you live in an area that has two directories, be sure to ask which one and on which page).

What Percentage of Customer Calls Turn into Sales?

2. Determine ROI on Ads: What's your conversion rate? What percentage of your calls turn into sales?

You should already have a good idea of what your conversion rate actually is, but if not, take a look at your yearly sales figures.

3. Determine ROI on Ads: Determine the number of sales made by those customers that found your business in the Yellow Pages by dividing the number of calls by your conversion rate.

4. Determine ROI on Ads: Plug in your average gross profit per item sold.

5. Determine ROI on Ads: To determine your total gross profit produced by Yellow Pages ads, multiply the number of converted calls from Yellow Pages ads by your average gross margin.

6. Determine ROI on Ads: Your overall net profit gain from Yellow Pages advertising is calculated by subtracting your Yellow Pages monthly investment from the total gross profit produced each month (sales minus costs).

Let's use an example with some figures. Say your business receives 100 calls in a month's time and that your conversion rate is two. Take 100 and divide by your conversion rate (two) to get 50 (the number of sales attributed to Yellow Pages customers). If your average gross profit per item sold is $50 and you multiply that figure by the number of sales made to Yellow Pages customers (50), you arrive at a total gross profit of $2,500.

If you determine that you spend $600 per month on your Yellow Pages ad and subtract that number from your total gross profit, you will arrive at your net profit gain. If these were your numbers, you would have received $1,900 per month in gross profit over and above the $600 investment you made in your Yellow Pages ad. Following this formula aids in the marketing planning process and enables you to see how your advertising dollars are working and if they're being spent wisely.

Also, keep in mind that your advertising investment is impacted by other crucial factors. One of those factors is your service team. The bottom line goal-the actual return-of a successful Yellow Pages ad is to get your phone to ring. If the person answering the phone at your place of business isn't knowledgeable, prompt and courteous, your business will suffer no matter how good your Yellow Pages ad is.

The other important component is indeed the ad itself. Naturally, potential customers look at numerous ads in Yellow Pages directories; helping them choose you over the competition is the name of the game. To help stand out from the other Yellow Pages ads and drive business through your door, remember these four elements to an effective Yellow Pages ad.

Yellow Pages Advertising Tip: The Design of a Yellow Pages Ad is very important. Use this Guide for designing an effective Ad with a High Conversion Rate. Your ad should:

• Your Yellow Pages Ad should
• break through the clutter;
• be relevant to your services, business and audience;
• be believable and factual;
• involve the reader.

Yellow Pages Advertising Tip: Yellow Pages a major source for finding potential customers. Learn how to advertise within it and it could make or break your freelance or small business.

Advertising-no matter what the medium-can literally make or break a business. What does this mean to the office supply and equipment industry? It means that Yellow Pages is one of the most powerful mediums to reach potential customers. According to a recent study, the Yellow Pages are considered the most informative and credible of the advertising mediums available to small business people. They are complete, comprehensive and easy to use. Through the Yellow Pages, office supply and equipment retailers can reach a broad range of consumers quickly and effectively without spending too much of their hardearned money. And, put simply, it means that as advertisers, these retailers can actually quantify the return on Yellow Pages ad dollars.

Good Luck with your Yellow Pages Advertising. I know that you can get an effective return on your advertising dollars if you utilize the ad copy in your yellow pages the right way. Good luck.

Here are a few more articles about Yellow Pages Design:

How to Increase Response Rate in Your Yellow Pages Ads - Tips for Successful Yellow Pages Advertising that will bring in a better response for your freelance or small business.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Yellow Pages Advertising Rates - Is Your Yellow Pages Advertising Putting Cash in Your Pocket ... Or Sucking Cash Out?

Designing a Yellow Pages Ad that Works - Designing a Yellow Pages Ad that Works

Design Tips for Yellow Page Advertising Design - Five crucial pointers to help you squeeze every possible phone call when you're advertising in the Yellow Pages!

Seven Powerful Tips to Dominate Your Yellow Page Advertising Competition - People turn to the Yellow Pages when they're ready to buy. This is exactly why Yellow Page Advertising is so unique.

10 Ways to Design Yellow Pages Ads -
Here is some common sense advice for those "unchangeable for a whole year" Yellow Pages ads

Yellow Pages Advertising Design Tips - Five crucial pointers to help you squeeze every possible phone call when you're advertising in the Yellow Pages!

Maximize Your Investment in the Yellow Pages - Place your business under the Yellow Page advertising spotlight and listen to your phone and cash register sing!

Streetwise Tips on Yellow Pages Advertising - Yellow Pages advertising salespeople are among the best in the industry and among the best paid. Usually a large portion of their pay package is incentive-based; the larger the ad they sell you, the more money they pocket.

Tips for Advertising in The Yellow Pages - Tips for Advertising in The Yellow Pages

Tips on Advertising in the Yellow Pages - In general, an ad has good flow if you can place your finger where your attention is drawn first and then move through all of the information in the ad without lifting a finger.

Which Yellow Page Design is the Better Value - The Golden Rule of Yellow Page Advertising: Successful ads always make a customer feel, “This company really cares about serving me.”