A creative Yellow Pages media plan makes the advertiser’s phone ring, cementing an existing relationship or creating solid new ones. The converse is also true, an unimaginative plan is a sure fire way to diminish call volume, destroying relationships and will certainly not attract new clients. SEA has been creating YP media plans since 1982.
Over the years we have created thousands of plans for CMRs, advertisers, and even for publishers. Our experience in YP media planning covers consumer and business products and services. Here are 3 tips that may appear obvious but are just as easily overlooked in the planning process. More will follow in the coming weeks.
1. It’s the media planners responsibility to help refine your advertiser’s primary objective for advertising in Yellow Pages. Sounds easy, but helping the advertiser understand the intricacies and trade-offs of YP advertising; the relationships between reach, usage, cost, and competitive position is not as simple as it sounds. Once a cogent YP advertising strategy is formed, everything else follows.
2. Understand your advertiser’s market area. Where does a bricks and mortar advertiser draw customers from? How far is the advertiser willing to travel to provide a service to a customer? An effective plan requires a clear and concise definition of the advertisers trading area and a means of coordinating advertiser geography with Yellow Pages geography.
3. Use current data, avoid embarrassment. Nothing says you don’t know the advertiser’s market like using outdated or incorrect information. As of today publishers are planning to distribute 6,978 directories in 2010, that’s 736 (net) fewer than in 2009. Directory consolidations, terminations, re-scopes, and new publications affect every market across the US. Each year we see new ZIP Codes, metro area changes, updated demographic data. Are you using the most current data available?
More on data, consider the source. All publishers want you to see their directories in the best light. Therefore they may provide data that requires a fine eye to read the fine print. We’ve run into situations where publisher of a directory with extended coverage reports usage for only the core directory area without any indication that the usage data was for only part of the directory’s distribution area. The publisher has high hopes that the user will interpret the usage data as directory-wide. When using publisher provided data view them with a critical eye. Remember, statistics don’t lie; it’s the statisticians who do.
More on data, consider the source. All publishers want you to see their directories in the best light. Therefore they may provide data that requires a fine eye to read the fine print. We’ve run into situations where publisher of a directory with extended coverage reports usage for only the core directory area without any indication that the usage data was for only part of the directory’s distribution area. The publisher has high hopes that the user will interpret the usage data as directory-wide. When using publisher provided data view them with a critical eye. Remember, statistics don’t lie; it’s the statisticians who do.
Even more on data, don’t rely too heavily upon association data. Most users do not have a clue as to where or how the data were collected. Most often it is association members that report data to the association. See the paragraph above.
Sales Evaluation Associates, Inc. and Directory Share Ratings, LLP strongly believe that the key to attracting new business and maintaining existing accounts is providing a level of service that instills trust in the advertiser. Once this level of trust between the advertiser and CMR and the advertiser and the publisher is established it will provide the foundation upon which a long lasting media plan can be built.
