Issue 1 - January 2005

10 tips to improve your yellow pages advertising
By Nick Robinson

The telephone company knew what it was doing when it told people to “let your fingers do the walking.” For consumers, yellow pages are a time-saver. For businesses, they can be an effective tool to bring in customers. Yellow pages advertising works for all types of businesses, including chiropractic practices — but only if it is done right.

Yellow pages advertising isn’t rocket science, but it is keenly competitive by its nature and it is full of pitfalls. If you do it wrong, it can be a disappointment and a costly waste of money. If you do it right, your small ad will help you recruit new patients.

What makes an ad “right”? Here are 10 success tips:

1. Write a compelling headline. One of the worst headlines is your practice’s name — unless you are very well known in the community.

The goal of a headline is to grab the reader’s attention and motivate him or her to read further. Use a headline that’s powerful, concise and interesting — one that emphasizes a benefit that your practice provides.

Some of the benefits that particularly appeal to people include: friendliness, gentle and effective care and convenient location.

Study the headlines other chiropractors use and develop one that is different without being cute or humorous.

2. Use an eye-catching picture or illustration. One second. That’s all the time a yellow pages user gives to each ad, so the ad must include eye-catching information.

A unique, eye-grabbing picture or illustration attracts instant attention and is especially effective if it ties in with your headline. Remember: The first yellow pages ad that the reader notices is usually the one the reader calls.

Select a quality picture or illustration that energizes the ad. It should generate positive emotions and excitement and clearly stand out from competitors’ ads. Use your creativity and good judgment to come up with something different

3. Give the reader information. One of the most frequent complaints of yellow pages readers is that the ads don’t provide enough content (or the right kind of content) to help them make an informed choice. Your content should be persuasive. It should communicate the benefits that you offer and how you can help a prospective patient with his or her problem better than other chiropractors.

Your content should also emphasize how you make visits easy, convenient, enjoyable and even affordable. Fill most of the space in your ad with content. People generally read ads with a lot of content, but only if the content relates to them and their needs.

4. Know your market. If you try to appeal to everyone, then you will probably appeal to no one. Your yellow pages ad should aim to attract a certain type of prospective patient or target market.

5. Buy the right size. Size is certainly an important factor in your ad’s success. But size is not everything. A poorly crafted ad that is large and has good placement is still a poor ad.

An ad is the right size if it’s not larger or smaller than it needs to be. It should be competitively sized with the ads of your most direct competitors — those practices that are similar to yours in terms of location, type of patients sought and benefits and services offered.

6. Use good layout and design. Poor layout and design undermine 95 percent of chiropractic yellow pages ads — allowing the practice that has a professional-looking ad to have an advantage over competitors.

Organize the ad’s layout with a clear starting point. Make the text legible; avoid using fancy fonts or all capital letters. The goal is to make the ad easy to read.

7. Use color only if it makes sense. Color is just one way — an expensive way — to get your ad to stand out and look professional. A no-color ad that uses the success factors mentioned in this article will be more effective than a full-color ad that does not use these tips. Color is appropriate in certain situations, such as when many competitor ads lack color or use color poorly.

8. Never let the publisher create your ad. The yellow pages people are primarily concerned with ad sales and publishing. They offer an ad design service as a customer convenience. However, since you sign a non-cancelable contract, they have little incentive to create a quality ad. Either create the ad yourself or hire professional help.

9. Advertise in the right directory. The right yellow pages directory to advertise in is the one that most people in your area use — or at least the one most of your target market uses. Advertising in these directories is usually more expensive, but remember that you get what you pay for.

10. Track your results. Too many chiropractors have no idea how their yellow pages ads are performing or mistakenly assume they are performing well. On the patient intake form, ask new patients how they heard about you: For example, radio, TV, yellow pages, friend, or “other.”

Monitor the results of your yellow pages effort (and other advertising) to ensure you are getting good results.

You are now armed with the knowledge needed to achieve an effective yellow pages advertising effort. Implement as many of the success factors as you can in your next yellow pages advertising campaign and reap the rewards!