© Michael Woodhouse. This article was originally published to coincide with Yellow Pages advertising closing dates.

This month everyone is rushing to finalise their Yellow Pages advertising. For many businesses this is their most important single piece of promotion. YP ads are very different in function from general ads, so your normal approach may not be the best.

• Your potential customer is in the act of choosing usually one to three companies to call. It's a selection process not (immediately) a purchase process. Your objective is to get on the call list, not to make a sale (you get your chance at that when they phone). This is important: it dictates different creative, a different proposition. "To get the lowest possible comparison price, phone ...." rather than "For the best value for money..." Talk to the choice of who to call, not what to buy.
• Unlike general advertising, you don't have to sell the concept. If someone is looking at your section of the YP, they have already qualified themselves as a buyer. Yet many YP ads waste space selling the idea, as though they were in a newspaper.
• Those three potential suppliers people look for often include one big ad, one medium ad and one small (usually local) ad. This gives them a maximum range of comparison to help their selection process. Your ad has to compete mainly with the other ads of similar size, less than with the bigger and smaller ads. So concentrate your design and copy on being distinct from similar sized ads.
• Consider your ad size carefully. Your ad size says something about you and it affects the nature of your phone traffic. Increasingly if you use the largest ad size it creates an expectation that you will be a large operation catering to all aspects of the market and a price leader. If you intend to deliver on these expectations that's great, but if not you'll be paying for a shot in the foot.
• If your market is targeted, target your ad. Why attract price shoppers if your real point of difference is quality? Why attract (and waste time dealing with) general inquiries if you only do specialist work? Speaking direct to your market will help your ad to stand out, too. The more targeted your ad, the smaller it can be, because specialist shoppers will seek you out.
• Many people expect larger operations (judged from ad size) to be less personal to deal with. If this could work against you, a smaller ad will be more cost-effective.
• Some products sell strongly via the YP. These include services and other occasional purchases where the shopper may not have a regular supplier. In these cases a larger ad will, all things being equal, pull more calls. But some products people will not go to the YP for. Consider a computer purchase: you'll probably go to the newspaper, where the latest desperate specials are paraded, rather than an out of date, general ad in the YP. Do you know how your new customers found you?
• Context is critical. You are not placing an ad by itself on a blank sheet: you are floating it on a sea of competing demands. Your ad must stand out from the other specific ads, both visually and in its message
• Study your section of the current Yellow Pages. Next year will be different but this is your best guide. Think about how your ad will look floating in those pages.
• Don't make your ad look like everyone else's. Search for design options that aren't much used in your section. If half the ads include product shots, why do you need to? Consider a welcoming proprietor, a satisfied customer using the product, a pic of the results of using the product..
• Think about white space (or yellow space) because most YP ads try to crowd everything in to that costly space. Blank space may get the attention you want..
• If you are using a display ad but a high proportion of your business is local, consider a supplementary small ad emphasising your location.
• Don't headline the same promises as everyone else. If everyone promises a wide range then shoppers will assume that is standard. If everyone promises superior service, the promise is meaningless. Headline one (or at most two) important considerations others are not focusing on.
• Turn your headline into a testimonial. If you can find a recognised product user or even a celebrity to endorse you, better still, but just recasting the headline even as an anonymous quote will make it more believable, interesting and noticeable.

Finally, YP advertising is a front end activity. No matter how effective your ad, your cost per new client will be high. What are you going to do to encourage that new client to phone you direct next time they buy, rather than going back to the competitive jungle of the Yellow Pages? This is where fridge magnets, notepads, service contracts and direct mail follow up take over.