Tips for Designing Your Yellow Pages Ad

The Yellow Pages is a standby for most businesses to advertise as well as to list their phone number and address for potential clients. Whether you have a large business or a small one advertising in this directory is an effective way to reach a large pool of consumers on a daily basis.

When you create your ad you have several options available. You can either opt to merely list your business, name, address and phone number without any special advertising or you can opt to include an ad.

Businesses that stand out generally have an ad in the Yellow Pages that gives more than the basic information about their company. To create a successful ad can be tricky. You don't necessarily need to have the biggest spot in the phone book to be successful, but you do need to have an ad that is eye-catching and relevant.

To achieve this do what the experts in marketing do: capture the consumer's attention with a visual ad that speaks to their emotions. A few more tricks that can help you design an ad include prioritizing how you design your ad. It can be tempting to throw in a lot of color to draw attention but this can be very expensive and if it's not done right is a waste of money and color.

Start by designing an ad with a good design and then work on positioning your ad in an effective location in the Yellow Pages. Color is your final consideration and if your ad is done correctly you can probably avoid it and the added expense.

It's a good idea if you have a specialty for your business to focus on. For example, if you own a flower shop and your specialty is wedding bouquets, emphasize the wedding aspect in your ad. Marketing directors will tell you it's better to make your ad tight and draw in a small niche of consumers than to attempt to be very broad in your ad with the idea of drawing everybody. Most consumers see hundreds of ads every day and probably remember very few of them unless they are actually relevant to their personal needs.

The headline of your ad is the key to drawing in consumers. Think of your headline like a worm on a fishing pole. If there's nothing dangling in front of your target audience's line of vision there's nothing to draw them into your ad. Your headline should convey your most important point of your ad. Don't fall back on using your business name or motto. Research has shown these are not successful ways to drawing consumers into your ad. Spend more time on your headline than you spend on the rest of your ad and it should be successful.

Finally try to keep your ad clutter free and clean and convey only your most important message to potential consumers. If you follow these tips in your advertising your yellow pages ad should be successful in its goal.