4 top tips for directory advertising
Directory Advertising
There are literally thousands of different directory publications, both print and digital. These include local and national general directories along with specialist trade publications.
With the decline in print advertising, directory advertising has become a relatively low cost method of marketing your business. And most online directories offer a free listing. Research the better ones and get yourself listed.
How to choose which directory to use
One of the best ways to decide which online directories to get listed in is to do an online search for your keywords and see which show up in the results. These are the ones in which you want to have your business listed. Also have a look at where your competitors are advertising and ask your customers which ones they use.
Free or paid?
Thomson Local, Yell.com, BT and 192.com tend to appear frequently in results. Don’t get hooked into paying for these directories. Try them out for free. A word of warning now though, once you sign up for a free listing, you may start to get frequent sales calls.
If you decide to go for a paid for option, negotiate for a good price. The advertising rates shown are rarely set in stone. By finding out the print deadline for a publication and then calling as close to this as possible may get you a considerable discount.
What to include
When placing your advert, you need to try and make your ad stand out from the numerous ones that will be alongside you. Remember that all important company strapline? Include it. Use that one short statement that will grab the reader’s attention and encourage them to find out more about you.
But most importantly ensure your contact details are clear and stand out. There is no point placing an advert and then having the phone number so small that no one can read it.
Measure if it is working
As with any marketing, you need to be able to determine if this type of advertising is working for your business or not. To be able to measure the effectiveness of your efforts include a different email address for customers to contact you or ask them to quote a code when calling.
