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Getting hate mail from Yellow Pages ad sales reps

by MichaelHiles
17 replies
Pretty funny. I got a nastygram from a Yellow Pages sales rep posted to my personal blog contact form the other day.

Something about how all us small market guys are alike, how we make their job easier and everytime we open our mouths crap comes out.

I found it particularly amusing because they used a fake address and name, and referred to small market... plus, I am one of the few people who still advocate that Yellow Pages advertising isn't completely dead and buried across the board.

Plus, after the past 2 years of narrowing focus, my business is almost exclusively mid market tech now. I mean, if you're going to snipe at marketing consultants, at least target ones that go after your customer base and not mid market companies that would never be YP candidates in a million years.

It just struck me funny if that's what YP ad sales reps are desperately reaching for these days. Must have a lot of time on their hands.
#hate #mail #pages #reps #sales #yellow
  • Profile picture of the author aaron_nimocks
    I hate YP for small businesses.

    I personally don't think it has brought any visitors into our store and it costs a few hundred a month. Will not renew next year for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author zogman
    Hi Michael, You know you've made it to the big time when you make the YP S**T List. Congradulations.
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    • Profile picture of the author LasseKohau
      Indeed. Congratulations.

      Its not professional attitude, to pick opun your competitors.

      Michael, Happy new year...

      LASSE
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonthewebmaster
    Banned
    LOL They are like drowning rats on a sinking ship... Yellow pages are officially dead...

    I wonder why they keep throwing them at my mailbox??? Can't they see the ones from last year still laying there? LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    Ahh YP suck.. What a bunch of haters I bet most of their client prob turn to internet more that's why they have so much time now.
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  • Profile picture of the author DavidSimpson
    A few hundred a month is cheap for the Yellow Pages, full page ads can go for 6 figures a year!

    You can really use this to show your clients how much you can save them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nathan Alexander
    Not to mention the fact the time invested (however small) in writing to you shows his mindset plain and simple. Rather than caring about servicing his existing clients and getting more work he's heckling.

    And sure, it may not have taken long, but THAT he is concerned reveals WHAT he's concerned with—and it's not maximizing his time.

    Smug butt.
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  • Profile picture of the author LiquidSeo
    Originally Posted by MichaelHiles View Post

    Pretty funny. I got a nastygram from a Yellow Pages sales rep posted to my personal blog contact form the other day.

    Something about how all us small market guys are alike, how we make their job easier and everytime we open our mouths crap comes out.

    I found it particularly amusing because they used a fake address and name, and referred to small market... plus, I am one of the few people who still advocate that Yellow Pages advertising isn't completely dead and buried across the board.

    Plus, after the past 2 years of narrowing focus, my business is almost exclusively mid market tech now. I mean, if you're going to snipe at marketing consultants, at least target ones that go after your customer base and not mid market companies that would never be YP candidates in a million years.

    It just struck me funny if that's what YP ad sales reps are desperately reaching for these days. Must have a lot of time on their hands.
    This had me smile. I had a similar experience with a YP rep trying to tell my brother - owns a heating and air company, that his SEO guy was an idiot, and not giving him good results.

    Fortunately Sean (my brother) knew enough to slam the guy. 45+ #1 rankings, over 20+ Google Places 3-7 Paks --- how can I get better than Letter "A" results?

    Those guys are reaching......it's almost comical.
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  • Profile picture of the author SeverinH
    Yellowpages is just hilarious. After graduating from college I applied for several sales jobs and one of those was at Yellowpages selling online services. Anyways I get a call back and this lady starts asking me questions about my experience, bla bla bla. To make a long story short they were going to offer me 30k a year for 55 hours of work a week which horrible benefits and a very poor commission structure. When I heard they wanted me to work 11 hours a day, 5 days a week minimum, selling crappy service I almost started laughing on the phone. Needless to say I told them "no thank you" and promptly hung up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Hoogasian
    Be happy they're so "busy" (not) that they have time to post hate mail to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author AdBankPro
    This reminds me of a meeting I had with a client...she asked me to come to a meeting with AT&T reps and their "SEO" guy. I was her "SEO consultant"! They friggin' did their homework ahead of time and saw things I was doing for her...so the ported the 'site' they set up for her to a .org domain. When I started ranking her site in the natural results, they went ballistic, calling me all kinds of names and trying to explain I was "black-hat", etc. Wow! They will stop at nothing to promote what they do...which is all hurting her rankings, now. They even hijacked her citysearch listing!
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    Phil Benham

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    • Profile picture of the author Dan Williams
      I'd disagree that YP are totally dead...Our ROI for "insurance" last year was slightly over 1:1 Sadly enough I did write them a check for 2300 the other day....on ad space they quoted for 6400...we'll see if even 2/3's off retail gets me a positive ROI ???
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      • Profile picture of the author MichaelHiles
        Originally Posted by Dan Williams View Post

        I'd disagree that YP are totally dead...Our ROI for "insurance" last year was slightly over 1:1 Sadly enough I did write them a check for 2300 the other day....on ad space they quoted for 6400...we'll see if even 2/3's off retail gets me a positive ROI ???

        You can't speak that sort of heresy around here Dan. Why, the only marketing that has any meaning whatsoever to the bulk of the people on the Warrior Forum is SEO.

        That's why you get hammered relentlessly by people every single day claiming Google this or Google that.
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      • Profile picture of the author AdBankPro
        Originally Posted by Dan Williams View Post

        I'd disagree that YP are totally dead...Our ROI for "insurance" last year was slightly over 1:1 Sadly enough I did write them a check for 2300 the other day....on ad space they quoted for 6400...we'll see if even 2/3's off retail gets me a positive ROI ???
        You are right! In fact they are hiring professional SEOs as we speak. They just know that with the recent changes in Google, directory sites do not hold as much water as they used to. They are starting to understand that SEO of the client site is imperative to get their client's site in the blended 'local' results. They have a checklist they send to clients which tells them how to 'optimize' their Google Place page and they are outsourcing client website development. They are outrageously priced, though. I think they have to be in order to support their business model.
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        Phil Benham

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