“Thought about advertising in Yellow Pages (YELL). I have a free add but was considering paying for an add in the booklet and on the web page. Is this good value for money? Has anyone had any dealings with this type of advertising and if so did you have a positive outcome?
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Hi Janet, I'm a little late to the thread, but could smell a Yell comment
If you're new to marketing, think long and hard before blowing any marketing budget (I'm assuming you do have one!).
There have been some great suggestions, and it sounds like you are well on the road to getting approval from your local council so that will be plenty of free marketing.
Website wise, work out what it is you are trying to achieve. What keywords or phrases are you aiming for? ie what would people type into google to find your services?
If you don't know, find out. There are plenty of tools out there (ask another question and we'll tell you
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Until you know this, then hold off spending any money on things like directories, as you may have the opportunity to incorporate your keywords into adverts or anchor text that will potentially help your website.
Yell and similar have very aggressive/affective sales forces that will fill your head with facts and figures making any proposition sound reasonable. Take a step back and do some google research. Weigh up costs. It could well be the route to go, but how much budget will it absorb? What is your expected return for it to be viable?
Online marketing is a hornets nest for the unwary. I'd stick with free options until you have a clear marketing plan and strategy in place.
You may even end up going down the Google Adwords route, or have a tinker with social media.
Cost effective marketing is all about planning and testing.
