Hi all

Its prob already been covered but::::::

Does anyone advertise in the yellow pages or Thompson local?

Am thinking about it.

Does much work come out of them?

Is it expensive?

Does anybody work through an agent?

Tried Yellow Pages and wasn't happy with the results, most of the calls I got from the Ad were not clients but other advertising companies thinking you had money to burn and canvassing for business . I tried it for 3 years and doubt I raised enough from work to pay for 1 years worth in that time!.

That said, it does depend on area to area, some members here have reported very good results, so ask around and read the comments. You probably could do a search for "Yellow Pages" on the forum to see past comments as well.

Thompson Local, tried it for 1 year and didn't even create a phone call from the cold callers!. However I think they do free basic listings anyway!.

The best advertising I have after word of mouth is the Website, and almost 100% of new, un-recommended business comes from that .

I started with Yellow Pages, then Yell and now Thomson from next year. Yellow Pages gets me 75% of my work, Yell is about 15%. The remaining 10% comes from previous clients, word of mouth, recommendations and this forum (especially Scotty!!).

I don't have the time to use the best marketing tool available - the InterWeb thingy - but I believe a number of DJ's on here get loads of work from their sites.

I am in two YP's, and one Thompson, doesn't get me any work, but you need to be in there to keep your name about, the last time I counted there were 92 other DJ's in the Exeter area

Without doubt the most cost effective method of advertising ( when done thoroughly ) is via the Internet. We had been spending around £1500 a year for a 2 colour ad with YP and were considering cutting it right down. The area rep came in with the usual sales ploy "if this could get you X number of extra gigs it would be worth it, wouldn't it?" etc.

Together we designed a slightly smaller ad, but in 4 colours, that conveyed an impression of quality and emphasised that we specialise in weddings. It cost the same. Yet still we received calls asking if we could do a 2 hour childrens' party or from people expecting to pay £100!

Although we did get some decent enquiries the fact remains that, at best, the ad paid for itself.

Very often the first question from enquirers would be "how much do you charge for a disco?" 9 times out of 10 enquirers asking that question will ring round looking for the cheapest. That's not the market we're aiming for.

A while ago we did a wedding reception in a local hotel. At the end the bride's father came up to us and said "if we'd known you were this good we'd have booked you for our wedding anniversary party". In fact they had booked another local disco, run by a team with less experience and with equipment not as good as ours. They booked after responding to a small panel ad in Yellow Pages.

We've now cut ours to the same size.

ive advertised in yellow pages for years and have seen the enquiries decline in recent years. Yellow pages and yell.com arnt as good as they used to be and are exremelly expensive for website building and the result is not good

alan

(Strobe Disco Show)

im in two yellow pages directories for this forthcoming year, and have reserved stands at a couple of wedding fairs, also in my day job there are a lot of lodge members and that is becoming a good source of work, but thomsons is a waste of time get a lot of unwanted calls trying to sell me everything under the sun, seem to have a bigger product range than ads

I target mainly Wedding work and find attending Wedding fairs and advertising on Wedding websites brings me the best results and the best quality work.

I just have a free listing in the Yellow Pages, I don't believe it offers me value for money.

Hi

the quality of Yellow Pages enquiries is in sharp decline, not that it was ever that good. However, I think a simple listing in your local one is a must, just in case some saw you but can't quite remember your company name, it'll probably be a little memory jogger.

Yell.com has proven to be pretty good in the quality of enquiries, but even that is dropping off a little.

We starting to specialise in Weddings more and more now and having ads in dedicated Wedding publications I feel will prove to yield better results.

The website probably gets us 80% of our work right now, mostly from search engine traffic.

We've just redesigned the thing to include dedicated pages for Weddings, Kids parties, and birthdays.

We'll see what happens.

Darren

I've gone in the Thompson Local for the first time this year.
Not a box add or flashy colour thing, just a basic three liner:
Name
Address and phone number
Website address

Turns out I'm the only one in there that has a website address without being in a box add.
I've had five calls from it (only came out in march), and converted all five to bookings.
Most people that called off the entry said that the box style adds put them off as they presumed they were larger companies or agencies and felt they wouldn't get the personal service they wanted. They disregarded the colour/box adds without even reading them, and as I am the only other one with a website address in there they looked at the site and decided that I provided the personal service they wanted and called to book. Makes selling the price a lot easier if they want you before they've even spoken to you about price.
So I would say that the £50 I spent on the entry was well worth it, and it may be worth considering not having a box add on your first time. Suck it and see.

Cheers all,

We advertise in Yellow Pages and Thomson.

We have found them bothe very productive, three books with a box ad in Bham area for £200 for the year, thats only one booking and its paid for itself.

Thomson cover smaller areas, but you get a much bigger ad for your money and fewer advertisers so hit rate is higher, again £200 a year isnt bad.

You also get listed free on their web sites with options to enhance the listing but to be honest a basic listing is enough.

We get more enquiries than we know what to do with, so you can afford to lose a few without worrying about it. I have howver spoken to a few people who have been not so convinced about it, so I am not sure what we are doing that is any different, it could be down to area.

If you are dealing with the sales people dont go for the firts price they quote, they have a lot of room to discount, if you play it carefully and take it right up to the deadline before publishing you can get some very good deals as they try an sell those last few spaces, but make sure you know the deadlines or you could lose out and not gety in the book, you then mis out for 12 months.

We get around 50% of our work through repeats and recomendations now with a steady stream of enquiries from the YP and Thomson, we also list with a few DJ sites, all for free and dont bother with our own website as we dont need it.

We also advertise with a number of wedding shops who take our cards, we do the sound for some of their fashion shows and get exclusive advertising in their shops.

Finally we get a fair number of recomendations from venues that we have worked.

I turn enough work away to employ another DJ, and am thinking of putting another road show on, but the only thing that puts me off is not being sure how to ensure same quality from the other DJ.

PS, They do result in a lot of sales calls, but these are easily dealt with.....

You answer the phone with your normal " hello xxx disco"

they start their spiel and you ask " what date were you looking to book your disco for?"

stops them in their tracks, becuase then they have to say that they do not want to book a disco.....you then hang up.....

I started to use YP in March of this year and it has definately paid for itself. OK, you do get a lot of price shoppers, but then we all do that for other purchases (don't we?!). I find the key thing is to quote a realistic price for the level of service that you provide and usually a bit more for a wedding.

My other area of promotion is wedding fayres - my local ones are far cheaper than a year's standard YP advertising. The last one I did, I got 7 bookings from, which I was very pleased with. I think it is one of the only ways that you are able to sell yourself directly to the public and showing what you have to offer.

I haven't bothered with the Internet, despite loads of offers to do a free website, for £99! (not sure how that works). Also had a few enquiries and one booking from listings on forum sites.

Word of mouth does get some bookings, but not that many - I think I need to get one of those vinyl banner things to go across the top of my goalpost.

Cheers, Ian