subject: How Directory Assistants Helped A Pennsylvania Bank Reduce Phone Directory Costs [print this page] Enlisting some directory assistants o manage its phone directory advertising helped a Pennsylvania bank reduce Yellow Pages costs. The bank had newly formed a marketing department. The small staff had many projects to tackle and oversee. The eager yet slightly overwhelmed marketing professionals had a conference call with the directory assistants phone directory advertising consultants to see how they could manage the growing financial burden.
The bank's newly-formed marketing staff thought what the directory assistants were offering was too good to be true. The phone directory consultants told the bank staff that they would not only relieve the burden of having to negotiate and maintain the Yellow Pages advertisements that they would also reduce costs while doing so. The bank's marketing team signed a three-year contract and were very happy with the results. They started to recommend these directory assistants to other businesses, more than happy to do so.
The directory assistants had extensive experience with Yellow Pages advertising and offered an insider's perspective on the complex ads. The Yellow Pages sales representatives often recommend ads based on what will be most expensive or yield the largest profits for the phone directories, not what will help the advertiser. The high-pressure sales tactics often leave customers thinking the only way their ads will perform is if they have the biggest, most expensive ads, when in most cases, smaller ads will do the trick. The consulting directory assistants offered their experience with strategies that actually do work for phone directories, at lower costs.
One area the directory assistants evaluated to help the Pennsylvania bank reduce costs was the listing categories. Because of their insider's knowledge, the directory assistants knew which categories performed best for the banking industry. Instead of advertising in each and every category related to the business, the bank was able to target their audience with the most productive categories.
Selecting a smaller ad size can reduce costs in phone directories without necessarily reducing an ad's effectiveness. Directory assistants shared their experience in choosing the appropriate ad sizes for the bank to have optimal audience reach. The directory assistants suggested that the bank's marketing team look at the listing's character details such a bold-face type and italics. An easy cost reduction for the bank was to run regular type for the business name and phone number.
Another way the specialized consultants helped their clients like the Pennsylvania bank save money is by evaluating past success of each phone directory where the bank had been advertising. They used real customer data to determine if the calls and leads from each book justified continuing to advertise. The specialized phone directory consultants recommended that the bank tally how many calls had turned into sales from each individual book. If the revenue generated from one book was less than the cost to advertise in that book, the assistants suggested dropping ads in that book. A significant amount of saving was generated by this simple evaluation of sales conversions.
Taking the whole task of negotiating with the Yellow Pages off the hands of the new marketing department was another way the consultants were able to help the bank. The phone directory ads were one less thing for newly-formed department to worry about with the assistance of the directory consultants. The Pennsylvania bank trusted that the recommendations of the directory assistants were in line with their marketing plan and budget each year.
The directory assistants were able to reduce advertising costs for the bank and relieved them the stress of managing each ad. Reducing phone directory costs was a successful start for the new marketing team. The department was pleased enough with the efforts of the consultants that they would recommend them to any organization.
