Testing Your Yellow Page Ad Is Easy

How would you like to guarantee the absolute highest profits possible
from your Yellow Page ad? Think about that for second. What if, before
you commit to a one year long, unbreakable contract with your phone
company, that you have an ad that will flood you with new business?

Would you be quivering with the excitement of anticipation? Would you
be making consolation phone calls to your competitors? Apologizing in
advance for the customers you will be stealing from them. I can't
really blame you. Because in your hands you will have a proven, tested
ad, to publish in your Yellow Pages.

And that leads us to a very big question?

Just How do you test a Yellow Page ad, when your are stuck with it for
a year?

Simple. Print your ad on yellow post cards, and distribute them. Any
mailing service, flyer distribution service or newspaper will distribute
them for you. The great thing about doing this is that you find out before
you commit thousands of dollars to an advertising contract, if you have a
winner or not.

Here is your step by step Yellow Page ad testing campaign.

Pick your sample market: Your market may be very small (a few hundred people)
to very large (hundreds of thousands). But try to make your sample size at
least 2000 people up to 20 000 people. The purpose is to get an accurate
reflection of your market place. This can be done using list brokers for
targeted mailing lists, or just selecting the neighborhood your ideal client
would live in.

Arrange your distribution: How will your get your test ad post card out to
your target market? Will you use a mailing service, bulk ad mail with your
postal service, flyer distribution service or will you use a newspaper insert? In order
for this test to be successful, your need to get your test ad post cards in your
target markets hands.

Print your ad on post cards and split test: Print out your ad on post cards
using yellow card stock. Why yellow stock? You want a test that will resemble
your inserted ad as closely as possible. So use yellow stock.

Split testing is testing one ad against another. So half of your post card
printing order should be Test Ad A, and the other half should be Test Ad B.

Get the ads out: Regardless of the distribution method you choose, arrange
delivery as soon as your post cards get printed. Here is a time saving tip.
Arrange with your post card printer to deliver your post cards to your
distributor directly.

Track your results: Now that your post cards are out in your test market,
you should start getting response. Determine which of the two test ads pulls
the most response. Discard the poor performer, and make the better one your
new control ad.

Tweak the control ad: Now that you have an ad that works (it does work right?
Other wise it is back to the drawing board), make a single change to tweak
this ad. Hopefully to improve response. Test the headline, the call to action,
the offer, the layout and design. But test one factor at a time.

Repeat all of the above steps: Get your next split test run of post cards
printed and delivered to your target market. Track your results, pick your
winner, and repeat. This time use the winner as a control and change another
part of the post card ad.

The beauty of this system is that you will generate business, during your
testing campaign. Who doesn't love additional revenues? You may even generate
a profit. That means you get paid to test an ad that will increase your bottom
line next year. You really can not lose with this simple strategy unless you
fail to implement it.

Here is the most important part of this whole process. Start now. Most Yellow
Page books have submission deadlines running from November 30th to January 31st,
give or take a week. That means you are running short of time to test next years
winning Yellow Page ad. So I urge you to start testing now.

Ó 2006 Paul RR Douglas

Paul RR Douglas is a retired carpet cleaner. In the ten years he ran his carpet cleaning business, Paul became a student of Direct Response Marketing. In doing so, Paul cracked the code to making the phone ring off the hook, cramming his voice mailbox to overflowing, and generating more customers begging to do business with him, than he could handle. One ad created by Paul, resulted in over 250 phone calls in one day. One sales letter that Paul wrote pulled in a whopping $30 in revenue for every letter mailed.

Since retiring from carpet cleaning, Paul has dedicated himself to sharing his knowledge with other business owners. It has become his mission to help you become more successful by providing you the education, jealously guarded marketing secrets and tools on his website [http://www.canada-printing.com]www.canada-printing.com to grow your business.

Paul also provides copywriting and marketing consulting as well for select and qualifying clients.

Paul currently resides in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada with his wife Debbie, and their three dogs, Delilah, Mitzie, and Robbie.