How Directory Assistants, Inc Helped Mid Penn Bank Reduce Phone Directory Costs

Enlisting Directory Assistants, Inc. to manage its phone directory advertising helped Mid Penn reduce Yellow Pages costs. The bank had formed a new marketing department, and the small staff had many new projects to tackle and oversee. The eager yet slightly overwhelmed marketing professionals had a conference call with Directory Assistants.

The bank’s newly-formed marketing staff thought what Directory Assistants was offering was too good to be true. Our phone directory consultants told the bank staff that they would not only relieve the burden of having to negotiate and maintain the Yellow Pages advertisements, but they would also reduce costs while doing so. The bank’s marketing team signed a three-year contract and could hardly believe when the term was complete. They started to recommend Directory Assistants, Inc. to other businesses, happy to tell everyone we did in fact reduce costs.

One area Directory Assistants evaluated to help the Pennsylvania bank reduce costs was the listing categories. Because of our insider’s knowledge, Directory Assistants knew which categories performed best for the banking industry. Instead of advertising in each and every category related to the business, the bank was able to target their audience with the most productive categories.

The Directory Assistants suggested that the bank’s marketing team look at the listing’s character details such a bold-face type and italics. An easy cost reduction for the bank was to run regular type for the business name and phone number.

Another way the specialized consultants helped their clients like the Pennsylvania bank save money is by evaluating past success of each phone directory where the bank had been advertising. They used real customer data to determine if the calls and leads from each book justified continuing to advertise. Our specialized phone directory consultants recommended that the bank tally how many calls had turned into sales from each individual book. If the revenue generated from one book was less than the cost to advertise in that book, we suggested dropping ads in that book. A significant amount of saving was generated by this simple evaluation of sales conversions.

Taking the whole task of negotiating with the Yellow Pages off the hands of the new marketing department was another way the consultants were able to help the bank. The phone directory ads were one less thing for newly-formed department to worry about with the assistance of the directory consultants. The Pennsylvania bank trusted that Directory Assistants' recommendations were in line with their marketing plan and budget each year.