Joinign local chamber of commerce

[Foleyvideo]

OK I’ll weigh in again —

It does, to some extent, depend on the community and the makeup of the chamber — I’m sure of that. I suppose some chambers are freer of the politics that smother my local group. So — yep — I suppose a business owner should give it a look and see if there is any potential there.

RE: yellow page ads being for wedding and event guys. Well — I do primarily government, corporate and broadcast stuff. No weddings or things of that nature. But what I have found is that MOST of my new clients find me through those big yellow page ads and I’ll tell you why….

First, let me qualify this by stating that I live in a government town. A state capitol. When some department head in one of the govt. buildings decides to do some video, they generally tell somebody else to call around and find qualified vendors. There is a state-run online vendor system (website) that is supposed to be for the purpose of listing everyone qualified to offer services in any given field — but the website is such a mess that whoever has to run the search just automatically turns to the phone book. I’ve heard this first-hand over and over. When they open the phone book — boom — there’s my big ole ad. It explicitly states “government, corporate and broadcast”. I get a call. I bid. Sometimes I get the job, sometimes I don’t — but I certainly stack the odds in my favor by being so visible.

There are a few cool things I have learned about being a long-time phone book advertiser. One is that if you buy a decent size ad and stick with it — you will year by year be promoted to a progressively better spot on the page. Your wedding and event guys will come along and buy a huge ad — within a couple of years they are out of business — you are still there — and you move up the food chain into spaces they previously held. Longevity really counts for a lot with the phone book people — and they reward that with good placement. On the other hand, they will constantly try to upsell you — and if your ad is clean and professional, you don’t need to go to half-page or add color or whatever. Just stay the course and you’ll be fine. I’ve actually seen my competitors go to two extremes — buying a gigantic ad they have trouble paying for — or reducing the size of their ad thinking that “everybody knows them”. Both tactics usually fail in the long run. Get something like a quarter page black and white and stick with it.

Sorry — got way off the beaten path there — I could write a book about this stuff — but it wouldn’t be telling most Cow readers anything they don’t already know.

My last word on this — check out the Chamber — if it doesn’t feel good, plow your money into the yellow pages. Oh, and DON’T fall for their “internet yellow pages” scam — that’s a buncha crap. People still reach for the big thick book.

Well — that’s what works round here. But I do know that every town is different — so keep an open mind and do what seems to produce the best results for ya. It might take a bit of expensive trial and error — but it’s worth the headache overall.

Steve

[Martin]

Your local Chamber is a great resource, IF IF IF you work the mixers, network and get on committees. If you are not prepared to do the above, save your money. Brochures alone are not going to feed the bull dog.

[Foleyvideo]

Ya know — there IS another option — at least in my town. In addition to the Chamber, we have a number of business associations. I am a member of the Northeast Business Assoc. because that’s the side of town where I’m located. This Association is totally made up of business owners and I am “one of them”. So whenever I go to a meeting I’m not viewed as being there just to network and scrounge for work. I HAVE had some success getting new clients from this group — much more so than from the Chamber of Commerce.

Steve