Should you advertise your business in the yellow pages? I guess it depends what your business is. There’s no doubt that people in local services and trades can do very well out of the yellow pages, but it was not my experience.

I spent around 120 quid on an enhanced advert, right at the start of the internet services section. It detailed what I do - web design, search engine optimisation etc. It looked great and I was excited, waiting for all the promised phone calls to roll in.

Months later I was still waiting. Then -briingggbrinnggg. “Hello, may I speak to the proprietor - would you consider outsourcing all your work to our company in India, it’s very cheap”. There is no doubt at all that they got my name from the yellow pages directory as I had altered the name of the company just slightly to be able to identify any calls that came from there. Then, on a weekly basis I would have more sales calls - many from India, but virtually none from customers.

Over the course of the year my ad ran, I believe I had 1 genuine enquiry from my yellow pages ad. It didn’t convert.

So how do I get local custom then? Talk to people in your town. Talk to anyone and everyone about what you do. Don’t do it as a blatant sales pitch but instead just plant the seed that your service might be beneficial to them. If they say yes, let’s talk more, then it’s time to put on your big sales hat. My wife talks to people all the time about what I do and I’ve had 10 times the number of enquiries that my yellow pages ad has brought me that way.

I guess it is going to be a different story for everyone, but from my experience I wouldn’t spend the money on an enhanced ad again - it just didn’t bring me any results.