The Printed Directory Ad That Renews Every Year

The ad that renews itself

Every autumn the directory's sales representative calls about next year's book. The price is close to last year's, with an upgrade on offer: colour, a bigger box, an online listing bundled in.

The owner renews, because it has always been renewed, and cancelling feels like disappearing from a book some customers might still open.

Nobody can say whether it brings calls. The ad carries the main number, so a call from the ad sounds exactly like a call from anywhere else.

It is a recurring cost with no evidence either way.

Why nobody knows

• One phone number on everything, from the van to the website.
• Callers who say they found you in the book, meaning anywhere.
• Past customers using the book to look up your number.
• A contract that renews before anyone reviews it.
• No record of where last year's calls came from.

The third flatters the ad most. Someone who already knows your business and looks up the number in the directory would have called anyway, and the ad takes credit for a customer it did not win.

A number of its own

The fix is a tracking number: a separate local number, printed only in the directory ad, that rings through to your normal line.

Call tracking services provide local numbers with a log of every call. Some phone companies can also add a second number to an existing line with its own ring, so whoever answers knows which number was called.

Use a local number rather than a toll-free one. A local number looks like a local business, which is what the ad is selling.

Every call to it came from the ad. Nothing else needs guessing.

Keep it out of everything online

Directory publishers also run online listings, and data from those can spread into other directories and map listings.

If the tracking number travels with it, your business ends up with two numbers online, which can muddle local search listings that rely on consistent details. Ask for the online listing to keep your main number.

And when the count is finished, keep the tracking number working for as long as that printed book sits in kitchens and offices, which is often longer than a year.

Count, then sort

Run the number for at least a season, ideally the whole directory year. A printed book is used unevenly, and one busy month proves little.

Log each call: new or existing customer, what they wanted, and whether it became paid work.

The new customers who booked are the ad's real result. Divide the ad's cost by that number, and you have what each new customer cost.

A worked example

A fossil and rock shop in an old storefront in a small town sells fossils, minerals, polished stones and lapidary supplies, and cuts and polishes stones that customers find on beaches and riverbanks.

It had renewed a display ad under rock shops in the regional directory for more than ten years. The owner suspected it did little, but worried about collectors and visitors who might still look there.

At last autumn's renewal she asked for the ad to carry a second number on the shop's line, with its own ring, and staff noted every call to it for a year.

Most were regular customers checking the hours or asking whether a tumbling order was ready. A few were new: someone with a late relative's collection to sell, a teacher booking a class visit.

Her regulars kept the book by the phone. New customers, including visitors passing through, mostly found the shop on their phones.

This autumn she renewed only a basic listing and moved the difference into the website, with clear hours, directions and what the shop buys.

A small AdWords campaign now runs with its own tracked number, so next year's decision will rest on a count from both.

Make the log easy to keep

A count only works if someone keeps it. With a distinctive ring, put a sheet by the phone with four columns: date, new or existing, what they wanted, booked or not.

A call tracking service keeps the log for you, with times and callers' numbers, but someone still has to mark which calls became work.

Look at the sheet monthly. A gap of several weeks usually means the sheet was forgotten, not that the calls stopped.

What the same money would do

Put the directory's cost beside the alternatives, measured the same way.

A website that states the services, the area and the phone number on every page. A Google My Business listing kept up to date, with hours and photographs, which costs nothing but time.

AdWords with call extensions, which add your number to the ad, or call-only ads, both of which report the calls they produce.

Each of those can carry its own number too. Compare cost per new customer, not cost per call, and not a feeling.

Read the contract before the call

Find last year's agreement before the representative phones. Many renew automatically unless cancelled in writing by a set date, often well before the book is printed.

Note the deadline for changes to the ad, and what the bundled online products actually are, including whether they renew separately. Then decide with the count in front of you, not on the phone.

The counter-case

Some trades in some places still get real work from the book: areas with older customers, rural districts, emergency work where people grab whatever is nearest.

The tracking number exists to find out whether yours is one of them, not to prove the ad worthless. Some businesses will keep it, perhaps smaller.

Either way, the renewal should rest on a count. Give the ad its own number, sort the calls, and compare.

Before you sign the renewal

1. Find last year's contract and its renewal terms.
2. Ask for a tracking number in the new ad.
3. Keep that number out of online listings.
4. Log every call to it for a season.
5. Separate new customers from existing ones.
6. Work out the cost per new customer.
7. Track online spending the same way.

Step five is what keeps the count honest. Without it, every regular who looked up your number in the book counts as the ad's work, and the renewal looks better than it is.

Older ads still circulating with your details are covered in old classified ads still carrying your name.

Frequently asked questions

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