Again, Cancel Your Yellow Pages Ad
"If you are not getting a solid ROI from your Yellow Page spend, cut back! If you’re not investing in search engine optimization for your law firm, you need to wake up! It’s the year 2007, Rip Van Winkle. People use the Internet to find lawyers," says the ilawyermarketing blog.
I totally agree. I've been telling lawyers to cancel their yellow pages ad all year. Google is the only directory to bother with.
The ilawyermarketing blog is written by Internet Lawyer Marketing, an Internet marketing company.
"If you’re advertising on the Yellow Pages, the Internet, TV or Radio (or any other form of avertising), do you know what sources are generating leads for your law firm? If you’re like most law firms the answer is “NO," the blog states. The solution is to put a unique phone number in your advertising and track the calls made to it.
"Many attorneys are still heavy believers in the yellow pages but the amount of people that use the yellow pages has steadily declined over the past few years. Today, over 70% of Americans use the Internet. When it comes to making important decisions (like choosing a lawyer), you can bet that most people will use the Internet to help them choose which lawyer to call."
The web is where it's at. Also how can you stand locking yourself into a 12 month contract. Yuch We hated that. You know that the YPages can extend that contract a month or two as well. Happened to us at one point.
Thanks for the content.
How do you cancel????? They say that they will send it to collections if I cancel. I think this company is dishonest. I only received calls for more advertising and no calls for my service...what a ripoff.
Laurie,
The only way to cancel is to do it before your ad comes up for renewal. Be careful! Many contracts state that if you do not cancel in writing via Certified Mail at such and such an address, your ad will automatically renew! You will be liable for the year you signed up for, but if you follow the cancellation proceedures you'll be fine.
One of the more significant issues with advertising in the Yellow Pages is if you do not consistently answer your phone calls. There have been studies that show only 7 out of 10 companies will answer the phone when you call them out of the Yellow Pages.
And a rule of thumb for most consumers searching the phone book (including yourself) is, 'if you don't get a response, move onto the next company in line!'
I only wish more YP advertisers could see the stacks and stacks of disused, plastic-wrapped Yellow pages that can be found languishing in any apartment building hallway (at least in Atlanta). They remain there until finally thrown away by the building maintenance people. It's wasteful for the environment and wholly ineffective* from a business perspective.
*PI Practices excepted.