Yell.Com question

[Dukesy 0]

Here is a comment from a rep at Yell.com who is really keen on DJ views towards the Yell.com service:

 

 

Following on from our tel.con regarding Yell.com, here is a quick email outlining our conversation.

 

People use Yell.com when they are looking for local businesses, they use Yell for ease and to get contact details such as phone numbers and addresses.

 

Some interesting facts about Yell.com

71% of internet users are aware of Yell.com

almost 1 in 4 recent web users have used Yell.com to find a web address

3 in 4 for searches for customers are at a local level

83% of Yell.com users turn to it first to find information about businesses.

 

The above is all fine, but you need to know that stats that are relevant for what you do (mobile discos).

 

In your area of Essex, last month, discodirect would have been veiwed 128 times by people looking for a mobile disco business.

The average veiws nationally is 87 views.

 

The biggest difference with search engines and Yell.com is that with search engines, you have to click through to websites to get further info such as phone number,addresses etc, where as with Yell.com, everything is listed on the on the advert so the website click throughs won't be as high.

 

 

Thank you for your time

 

 

What are your views?

Can we give the Yell.com rep some individual feedback?!

 

[spinner 0]

The facts and figures quoted by the Yell.com rep. are a mixture of internet users and Yell.com users. Not necessarly the same audience.

 

71% of internet users may well be aware of Yell.com. Doesn't mean they use it. And it certainly doesn't mean they use it to look for your service in your area.

 

83% of Yell.com users may well turn to it first but without knowing the universe this figure is meaningless. It's a bit like saying"95% of Sunday Times readers always read it". Well, you'd think they would if they're readers.

 

What you need to know is how many Yell.com users there are and how many would turn to it first when looking for the service you provide in your locality.

 

My local Yellow Pages rep. gave me a laptop presentation on Yell.com some time ago. I tried it for a year and it pulled hardly any enquiries.

 

In my opinion it may be worthwhile as an add-on if you have money to spare in your promotional budget. But that's all.

Edited August 15, 2005 by spinner

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi

 

Here's my take on Yell.com

 

It works for me, I get approximately 15 to 20 unique visitors a month to my site directly from Yell.com, some will turn into solid bookings, some won't.

 

It paid for itself many times over last year and is well on the way to doing the same for this year.

 

An even better reason for being listed in Yell.com these days is that Google will give results for businesses and there search terms based on location and guess where they're pulling their results? yup, you guessed it, yell.com

 

So if you did a search for mobile discos northampton, or any other area you wish to mention, Google will return a set of localised results based on yell.com's database, followed by the usual plethora of normal Google results.

 

Try it.

 

However, Yellow Pages is a different beast altogether, I've gotten vitually no work from yellow Pages despite increasing add size and adding colour. next time I'll just have a small box ad for the sake of being found and spend my cash on smarter advertising.

 

Darren

[spinner 0]

Echo Hugmaster's comments on Yellow Pages.

 

I increased size and added colour. Still no increase in quality enquiries. Have now gone for a small box.

[ChrisPointon 0]

Ask yourself this question. If you are looking for something do you personally use:-

 

(i) Yell.com

 

(ii) Google

 

And which do you use the most frequently?

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi

 

Regarding the question on whether I'd use Yell.com or Google, it very much depends what I'm looking for.

 

If I wanted to find, erm, say an electrician, I'd use Yell.com, I use google for information based results, i.e. reviews of products etc.

 

Yell.com could be a good alternative to either paid advertising on Google or trying to play the search engine optimising game.

 

The problem for mobile DJ's, and I can see this just by doing a quick search for mobile DJ's in my area, is the sponsored links bring back very nationalised results, probably because the advertiser is using the term mobile disco or mobile DJ etc.

 

Now that Google are pulling localised results from Yell.com you get a result based on how many miles from your location the company is, provided of course you've included the town or similar location in your search term.

 

Now I'm starting to get confused.

 

Darren

[CK`s 0]

I use Yell all the time at work and as a result of that do at home too.

 

I certainly wouldnt pay to advertise on it as you can get listed for free!

 

 

[Jason v G 0]

Quote "The biggest difference with search engines and Yell.com is that with search engines, you have to click through to websites to get further info such as phone number,addresses etc, where as with Yell.com, everything is listed on the on the advert so the website click throughs won't be as high."

 

But I want people to go to my website to see the service I provide, experience I have, my explanations on why PLI and PAT are important when choosing a DJ etc...

 

Also I put a minimum price on the website to stop those who allready have a silly quote calling me. You know the ones " Oh that much, but ABCD said he'd do it for £80 " followed by long silence when your expected to match the price.

 

In a similar way I've removed my e-mail address from the UK Disco listing as all I was getting was "how much for a wedding?" no details at all.

The whole idea for the website is for it to act like a big advert for you and to convey all the info to your prospects you need them to have to sell your service.

 

[Dukesy 0]

Current update...

I had a reply from the rep who I advanced a copy of the comments to (from this thread).

Here is his reply.

 

All very interesting reading. But the hard facts are that users, in there thousands, are using yell.com to search for mobile discos across the u.k.

 

All of our stats are collated on our behalf by our marketing company, Saville Rossiter, and our accurate as you would expect.

 

Finally, people have the choice were they search for info, they choose yell.com ,google, msn, thompson etc, but the fact is yell.com is the number

1 on line directory which is used by local people looking for local businesses.

 

Many thanks

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi

 

I don't think the Yell.com rep has factored in those marketing companies and others that use Yell to collect addresses, both web and postal, to bombard you with advertising.

 

The difference between a free listing and a paid for listing on Yell.com is the live link to your website, which is vital for me as I get 80% of my work through my site as I'm a crap telesales person, lol.

 

Darren

[YourBigEvent 0]

Anyone use ufindus.com ?

[MadGutts 0]

When i started out some 15 years ago, there was less than 1 page of discos in the yellow pages.

 

Now there are 6 whole pages of discos and all colour, or white on black to make them stand out.

 

I used to advertise in the yellow pages but at nearly £1000 a year for my advert, when the queries started to decline, i stopped advertising with them.

 

I now get over 50% of work from the Internet, about 35% from existing customers, contract and word of mouth, and the rest from Thompson directory, local advertising, and a free listing on yell.com

 

 

So for me its not worth going in the Yellow pages in my area.

 

 

[Paul Smith 0]

I have noticed recently that if you do a search on Google and include a specific location then the number one slot will be taken from Yell.com (called google Local).

 

eg if I put into the search 'Mobile Disco Northern Ireland' I get the number 1 spot because Google Local doesn't apply however if I put in 'Mobile Disco Belfast' I lose that number 1 slot to the Yell.com listings and I appear further down the page.

 

Remedy - get myself listed in Yell.com and hopefully stay at number 1 http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif

 

Darren do you have the full enhanced listing which gives a link to your site?

 

Paul http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/cowboy.gif

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi

 

Paul, yes I've got a full listing and it's paid for itself many many times over.

 

In fact next year I'm considering ditching the yellow pages and pay for better coverage in yell.com, eg, to cover a wider geographical area or to get listing for Wedding Services.

 

Darren

[damo1023 0]

i've just had yell.com on the phone making some enquiry's about my free listing so i took the oppotunity to get a quote.

 

for a years lsiting starting in feb both on yell.com and also in the pages it would be 500 a year excluding vat.

plus they will throw in yell.com until feb for free.

what do you guys reckon, is it worth the chance ?.

[ChrisPointon 0]

QUOTE

what do you guys reckon, is it worth the chance

 

Well, at the end of the day it is your decision. The Success of Yellow Pages does depend largely on your demographic area. Some people may get plenty of enquiries, others may get few http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/533.gif , nothing can be guaranteed.

 

However, I believe that advertising in Yellow pages *can* get cheaper as deadlines for sales get closer, so if you are prepared for a little bit of negotiating and bluff, and register your interest now, the chances are that Yellow Pages will call you later in the year if you haven't yet taken out an ad and offer you a 'deal'. Again this may only be in certain areas where quotas remain unfilled, but may be worth a gamble?.

[damo1023 0]

was thinking that myself chris although they are already offering me 6 months worth of free listings on yell.com which doesnt seem to bad to me.

i have to get my name pushed out a bit more and it doesnt seem a bad way to do it.

the costing of local paper adverts etc can easily add up to this over a year.

 

 

[CK`s 0]

Hi all,

 

You can definatley get cheaper ads with Yellow Pages if you take it to the wire, especially if yo are in a smaller area with fewer DJs advertiseing.

 

Same applies to Thompson, possibly more so as Thompson are the underdog, and we found that they are desperate to get advertisers, definatley take them as close to the deadline as you can, they dropped our price by 75% beacuse we turned em down stone dead and then kept saying no until we thought we darnt push it anymore, then I kep pusing them to drop the price or improve the ad,, although it did work in our favour as another local DJ who had a half page ad dropped them so I think they were deperate to fill the space. I must say that we do get a load of enquiries from it too, some times it outperforms yellow pages, but theres only a few DJs in our Thompson, and it does seem to be popular round here.

 

As far as ufindus is concerned, we haev had loads of calls of late from their marketing team, sometimes three calls a day. All I would sday here is go onto their site and search for mobile disco in your area, I did, and I came up with were a couple fo dj supplies shops and some night clubs and discos, I widened the search and tried a few other wordings, but not one mobile dj ad came up.

 

We like yellow pages, its giving us more enquiries than we can cope with, but we are not full time, we are more than happy with it.

 

 

[brianmole 0]

Having registered with yell.com, the marketing team machine started rolling. A yp rep left a 3 minute message on my answerphone yesterday apparently reading from a script telling me how much business increase an ad in YP would be expected to provide!