Yellow Pages advertising has such great potential because it is so perfectly targeted: When people pick up the Yellow Pages they've practically already spent their money on a given product or service - they just haven't yet decided which company to give it to. Successful Yellow Pages advertisers LOVE this fact and take full advantage of its power.

When putting together your Yellow Pages ad, keep in mind this rule: Make sure your ad gives users what they want and YOU'LL get the calls and the business instead of your competition.

Okay, so what do Yellow Pages users want most? Exactly what are they looking for in your ad? It's simple:

Now that you know this, how does it help you create a killer Yellow Pages ad?

The best thing you can do to make your prospect feel like you really care about him or her is to include a compelling OFFER in your Yellow Pages ad. Ideally, this offer can even be something that has a high perceived value by your prospective customer, but really doesn't cost you much or anything at all (and I don't mean something lame like "Free Estimates" -- that's hardly a "compelling" offer!).

Make sure to take into account the all-important lifetime value of a customer (LCV) when you consider what to offer to help you attract that new customer. Think about a local pizza shop owner who offers a free pizza to every new mover into his neighborhood. Is it worth it to him to put that offer into his Yellow Pages ad in order to attract an eventual $6,000 in business (that new mover could spend $25 per week in his pizza shop for the next five years) to his shop instead of to one of his competitors? Hmmm.... Let's see.... That's one pizza at a cost to the shop owner of about $3.00 in order to get $6,000.00 in business away from his competitors. How many times would you like to make that trade-off? Right - as many times as you could!

And what if even just one out of every four new movers who took advantage of that free pizza offer became loyal customers worth $6,000 over the next five years? That's about $12 in food cost for $6,000 in business - or 500 times the return on your investment. And we're not even counting all the referrals to that pizza shop over the next five years from that one happy customer!

Do you see how important it is to include a compelling offer in your Yellow Pages ad?

So why do so few Yellow Pages ads contain a compelling offer? Who knows? Often small business owners are great at providing a product or service, but they're not the most savvy of marketers. Just be glad when THEY don't follow this simple rule - that means much more opportunity for YOU!

If you want help putting together a compelling offer for your Yellow Pages ad, or any other advice to help turn your Yellow Pages into GOLD, sign up for my free 21-day email course at http://www.YellowPagesGOLD.com. You'll be glad you did!

Steve Sipress is an entrepreneur and expert in how to get more profits from the Yellow Pages and Internet Search Engines. He has helped thousands of small businesses owners increase their profits and improve their lifestyles over the past 20+ years. Get your FREE subscription to his power-packed Newsletter and FREE report "How To Mind GOLD From Your Yellow Pages" at http://www.YellowPagesGOLD.com.

Source: www.articletrader.com