Why has advertising in the Yellow Pages changed from one of the best ways to advertise to one of the worst in just a few years?

As author of the book "Yellow Page Advertising That Works For Chiropractic" -- the book the telephone companies use to sell D.C.s on advertising in the Yellow Pages -- I'm embarrassed when a doctors me their Yellow Page ad doesn't attract many new patients and they're stuck with a monthly expense in the thousands. When I wrote the book in 1983, the Yellow Pages was one of the best places to advertise. Today, it's almost a total waste of money.

Because of the poor performance of the Yellow Pages over the last 24 months, I have downsized the ads of over 90% of my clients. The low numbers of new patients generated didn't warrant the cost of the ad(s).

Why the change in the attracting power of the Yellow Pages? The answer is simple ... fewer people are using the Yellow Pages to find a doctor!

In the past, Yellow Page ads attracted major medical, Medicare, cash, Workers' Compensation and PI patients. Then along came the HMOs and PPOs which took over the major medical market.

Today, 70% of prospective patients look in their HMO and PPO directories to determine which doctors to go to. They don't look in the phone book!

At the same time, the attorneys started advertising heavily attracting Workers' Compensation and PI patients which they refer to their friends. Now when a doctor runs a Yellow Page ad, he or she only attracts cash and Medicare patients who characteristically spend very little money in a doctor's office.

Yellow Page advertising facts

Yellow Page companies thrive because their advertisers never bother to put a pencil to their expenditures to see if they are getting their money's worth.

Advertising in the Yellow Pages is too expensive and attracts too few new patients for the expenditure. The doctor's Return On Investment (ROI) is usually too small to continue advertising in this media.

There are too many telephone books. Advertising in multiple books is too expensive. If advertising in one book returns a very poor ROI, advertising in three books will compound your loss three times. Neighborhood books are ineffective and are a waste of money.

If doctors reduce their Yellow Page ad in the main Yellow Page book to place one in a neighborhood book, they will reduce their ROI from the main book and get an even lower ROI in the neighborhood book -- a double loss.

The books are too cluttered. There are too many divisions within the same telephone book, i.e., clinics, chiropractic physicians, etc. This confuses the prospective patients and lessens your chances of attracting these patients.

Is your Yellow Pages ad working?

The first thing an advertiser has to consider is whether or not his or her Yellow Pages ad is working. Yellow Page representatives (salespersons) are going to say the Yellow Page ads are working. What else are they going to say? They are salespeople and their job is to sell you advertising in their book.

Don't depend on the Yellow Page representatives to design your ads for you. They are sales reps, not marketers or copywriters (a science in itself). They'll design ads to boost your ego instead of an ad your community will respond to. The bigger your ego, the bigger your ad, the more profit they will make.

On the other hand, my job as a consultant is not to boost your ego but to talk to you about net profit. Anything that reduces your ROI reduces your net profit. And, net profit is what doesn't occur when most D.C.s advertise in the Yellow Pages. Remember, Yellow Page ad representatives have one thing in mind -- selling you big, expensive ads.

Don't let them talk you into spending extra money for red, the color of blood. Red is absolutely the wrong color to advertise health care. Besides, red is gaudy, turns patients off and makes your ad look like a McDonald's coupon. Red and colored ads are considered tacky and unprofessional by the very patients you're trying to attract. Plus, the addition of color increases the cost of the ad and reduces your ROI.

Don't advertise under clinics. Chiropractic patients will look you up in the "Chiropractic Section" of the phone book, not the "Clinic Section." Advertising under Clinics produces almost no ROI.

Don't believe everything they say. They'll tell you the doctor down the street is going to run a bigger ad than yours. Then, they'll tell the doctor down the street that you are the one who is going to run the bigger ad. Both doctors will take out bigger ads. Both doctors will lose money, while the telephone company makes more money. Pretty good deal for the telephone company.

Don't expect fairness

Never mind that you've paid for a bigger ad for 10 years, when you decide to downsize to a smaller ad, they'll reward you by putting you at the END of the smaller ones -- even though you may have been first in the bigger ads. That's the punishment you will receive for being a loyal customer all those years.

If the Yellow Pages company messes up your ad, you won't be adequately compensated for the damage you sustained. They'll tell you to get a lawyer and sue. They know it will cost you too much money to hire an attorney to sue them to be compensated for their mistakes. Then, if you don't pay for the ad that they've messed up, they'll shut your phone off. You are in a no-win situation when you have a problem with the Yellow Pages.

Is my criticism of the Yellow Pages companies too severe? Let me relate a few Yellow Page incidents I know have occurred and then you can decide for yourself.

I know of a doctor who was going to open a new practice when another D.C. transferred the new D.C.'s phone number to his office. The new doctor didn't get a new patient from the Yellow Pages that year. Compensation? Not a dime.

Another D.C.'s ad was printed so lightly no one could see who the ad was about. Compensation? Nothing.

I've also seen Yellow Page companies fail to list a D.C. in the Yellow Pages for an entire year because the doctor was late paying for the Yellow Page ad from the previous year.

ROI

The ACA has reported that the mean number of patient visits per doctor per week has dropped dramatically from 129 to 109, and new patients have dropped 25%, the lowest numbers in more than 10 years. My clients haven't experienced this "down" because I am monitoring all aspects of their marketing programs. If a media, such as the Yellow Pages, loses its effectiveness, I'll shift my client's advertising dollars to a more that is more effective.

For all doctors not utilizing a consultant, it's time you took a closer look at the money you're spending on Yellow Page ads to determine whether you're getting your money's worth.

I'm a consultant. I've consulted with over 5,000 chiropractors. I've designed thousands of Yellow Page ads. Let me give you my criteria as to whether or not a Yellow Page ad is working.

Look for a three-to-one ratio -- or higher. Every dollar you spend on a Yellow Page ad should make you $3.00 or more. One dollar goes towards your overhead, one dollar pays for the ad and the third dollar is your profit for your work. There are no exceptions to this rule.

To determine if you are achieving a minimum three-to-one ratio, use the following three-step method:

1. Total up the number of new patients that were attracted to your office by your Yellow Page ad over the previous 12 months and the services rendered to these patients.

2. Determine how much you paid for the ad for the prior 12 months.

3. Divide the amount of money you spent for your Yellow Page ad into the number of services you rendered to these patients and see whether you have a three-to-one ratio or higher. (Your services should be three times higher, or more, than the cost of your ad.) If your Yellow Page ad produces less than a three-to-one ratio, it's a dog. Don't repeat it.

Note: Don't skip the above step. While it entails a bit of work, it's the only way to determine your ROI. When you don't know your advertisement's ROI, you will be wasting most of your advertising dollars.

My recommendation is that all doctors reading this column do the research described above and if you're not getting a three-to-one response (or better), downsize your ads or hire a consultant like myself to design your ad. Otherwise the "flushing sound" you will hear will be your money going down the drain.

Perhaps your ad can be redesigned so it will pull three-to-one or better, or perhaps it can be downsized and attract higher than a three-to-one ratio. I recently reduced a client's half-page ad to an eighth of a page and greatly increased the numbers of new patients it attracted per month. It can be done.

The advantage of using someone like myself is that I have to produce to retain my clients. If I design an ad that doesn't work, my clients won't hire me again. The Yellow Page company doesn't have to produce. They have you locked into a strictly enforced 12-month contract whether or you attract new patients or not.

Do you like to design your own ads? I don't recommend it. Ads designed by amateurs usually don't work. You are always better off hiring a pro. However, if you want to design your own ad, it would be wise to learn the right way to do it. During my April and May 1997 "Generate an endless supply of new patients" seminars, I will teach doctors the necessary elements that make a Yellow Page ad attract new patients.

Finally, consider eliminating your advertisement in the Yellow Pages and placing your money in a more effective advertising media. My clients get a higher ROI when they use my professionally designed direct mail, Val Pak and newspaper ads than they do when they advertise in the Yellow Pages. I'm sure you'll find the same is true in your practice.