Viewing by month: October 2009
About Our New Referral Program
Marketing and the independently-owned small business
I would like to share a brief look at marketing for the small business owner, and the unbelievable expense this is to a company like ours. Over the years the yellow pages has been the typical source for service companies to advertise for business. Our company, like others, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with yellow pages over the years. We spent this money to help our existing customers find us quickly when they need us, and also to introduce Fox Plumbing to new customers to help grow our business. Most people are unaware of how expensive phone book advertising is.
By buying the largest possible ads, they tell us we will be in the front pages of our appropriate section. Therefore, whoever is in the yellow pages the longest in a particular heading, with the largest ads, will have seniority over all the others. Over the years, this has turned out to be an incredible trap. As the yellow pages have continually increased the size of the ads it has forced advertisers such as us to have to buy larger and larger ads to maintain our position. Several years ago the standard size ad for any heading was a full-page ad, the largest ad offered. These ads were incredibly expensive, to the tune of about $6,000 per month per directory. I know this is staggering, but this is in fact the truth.
Several years ago, the Yellow Page people decided that they wanted more revenue, and they created a three-page ad known as a "Triple Truck". These ads were incredibly excessive and hurtful to companies such as Fox because we had to pay outrageous prices just to maintain our first-place position in the directory. We had advertised with the DEX Yellow Page people since 1964, and had achieved first-place position with the Seattle Directory, the South King County Directory, and the Eastside Directory. This was a very long-term investment.
When the new "Triple Truck" program was implemented, our monthly advertising expense went from $11,000 a month to $37,000 a month! It was impossible for us to pay for this and maintain our position. Consequently we had to drop out of the Eastside and South King County directories and now we advertise in just an in-column ad. Even with that, our advertising budget went from $11,000 a month to $18,000 a month. I know what you are thinking. These prices are shocking and outrageous. This is exactly how all of us have felt. Over the past couple of years, the yellow pages were sold to a different company, and they decided to eliminate the "Triple Truck." The current ownership offers a two-page "Double Truck" ad, which costs approximately $15,000 per month for my company to maintain its advertising position.
This is why I am announcing this new referral program
For several years we've seen a noticeable decrease in yellow pages usage. Most people use the internet 
now to obtain service or get referrals. Therefore, I am constantly trying to find new, less expensive ways to reach new customers, and to give our existing customers easy access to our company when the need arises.
After many hours of discussions and brainstorming we decided to launch this new referral program and reduce our advertising expenses. We at Fox Plumbing are determined to find ways to keep our costs down and maximize our advertising dollars as effectively as possible. We are very conscious of your out-of-pocket costs, too, when it comes to plumbing emergencies or refurbishing, and we also want to help save you money.
Win-win
We think this is a win-win situation: we'll save on our advertising budget and those dollars will be directly transformed into a customer benefit: a terrific prize awarded to a customer who refers business our way. In addition to saving money, we'll be building customer loyalty and generating new business.
To review the referral contest:
Just send us referrals via your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers, in our business area of King County, WA. Have them mention your name at the time they request service. Each referral earns you another entry into the drawing for an outstanding prize. Good luck!