Portsmouth Herald Business News: Phone book advertising big business

Here's an interesting article about a plumber and his experience in the Yellow Pages.

He focuses mostly on Verizon and The Talking Phone Book.

[note: I have the highest respect for White Directories, publishers of The Talking Phone Book because of their devotion to quality. Also, I was VP of Sales and Marketing of one of the companies that became Verizon through a merger. They are a fine outfit as well.]

Here's a cut of the article . . .

"I spend about $9,000 a month on Yellow Page advertising," says Benedict, estimating that up to 80 percent of his advertising budget goes for prominent placement in seven phone books. "But it’s absolutely necessary. In our (local service and repair) industry, we’d be out of business without (Yellow Page ads)."

Still, Benedict admits, it’s not easy keeping track, with the proliferation of such books - put out by traditional telephone companies, such as Verizon, as well as independent publishers.

For example, in the Portsmouth region, there are two major players vying for consumers’ attention. Benedict pays $2,000 monthly for a ¾-page ad in the Verizon SuperPages and $1,000 for a full-page placement in The Talking Phone Book.