Re: Yellow Pages Listings

A couple of points on this issue:
Many years ago, I worked for the small business consulting program between
first and second years of my MBA. We only had four months in which to find
business and do it. We had three marketing efforts: a Yellow pages ad,
a direct mail letter campaign, and an interview on the local radio 
station. The Yellow pages ad produced many calls, but they were the lowest
quality leads you could imagine, and I can't recall any of them leading 
to business. The direct mail campaign yielded fewer leads, but most were 
high quality, and many led to engagements. The radio interview may have
helped (it couldn't hurt) but we couldn't identify any business coming
from it.

This is not to say that Yellow pages ads are bad; simply that they work 
better for some businesses than others.

That said, Roy Williams, aka the Wizard of Ads, said in his newsletter
two weeks ago, "My strong advice to business owners is that they cut 
their Yellow Page spending by 50 percent and begin investing those 
dollars in a meaningful web presence. ... The Internet is rapidly 
replacing the Yellow Pages. It has become the ultimate product catalog, 
information encyclopedia, sales brochure and travel guide."

He also notes that this is a recent view, and not the one he held two
years ago, when Internet hype peaked.

As for marketing your photography business, it really depends on what
type of photography you wish to do. To a certain extent, your work
can speak for itself. That is, find ways to get your best work visible
to your market. Get it published in the paper, rent a display space 
in a high end mall, or arrange for a gallery showing. You also need to
develop word-of-mouth marketing from satisfied clients. (Be sure to ask
permission before putting someone's face on display.) A referral is far 
more valuable than any ad. Apart from someone like Karsh, most 
photographers need consummate people skills. Don't just take pictures,
but take the time to understand your subjects. Then read some of the 
books on word-of-mouth marketing (my library has two) and be guided
accordingly.

Dan

Note: This account is not used for email. Reply to
      dan dot beaton at sympatico dot ca

[Bottom-quoting deleted.  Please do this, folks, so us moderators don't have
to.  Thanks.  stj]