Simpedia

Joanne J., Australia

Here in Western Australia the Yellow Pages has been used for some years now. Since last November we have had a substantially larger ad than previously, and have had the number of calls almost double. There have been 271 calls in the past 8 months. The nature of the calls varies:people looking for a particular teacher’s number, people looking for a teacher in their area, general enquiries about the program, enquiry about teaching the program (which are referred to Neil).

Actual students generated have been substantial – several per month which are spread over the teaching base. This spread is uneven over a short period but seems to work out over time. It also needs to be said that the value is not only for generating new students but extremely important as a ‘shop window’ – a point of contact the public can identify with and easily locate having remembered the Simply Music name.

As a teaching body we have decided to have an even larger ad in the next edition (84.5mm x 125mm) and to list the individual phone numbers for each area rather than just have the main number, which will remain for general enquiries. The cost of this ad is $10,364 (AUS) and with the majority of our 42 teachers in WA participating, we only need to have generated one student each from the ad for it to have returned our individual investments. Individual contributions will be $375.00 (this includes $40.00 for a general advertising fund for copy in 3 or 4 proven medium. 

A further comment I would make is that areas where there is additional advertising taking place either in local newspapers or with other promotional activities, there is a noticeable increase in the enquiry in that general locale. This would seem to indicate (1) that the Yellow Pages is an accepted source (here at least) for finding phone numbers and (2) other advertising is backed up by the Yellow Pages listing.

Hope this has been of some help 

Kerry V., Australia

Here in Melbourne the five teachers who advertise in the Yellow Pages do so each year because of the success of enquiries and subsequent enrollments. 

Our ad is nowhere near as big or great as the one Neil just showed us for the Perth people, however I receive the majority of enquiries from the Yellow Pages. We have a tiny blurb on top with the logo, then a list of the areas and teachers’ phone numbers. It has been a very worthwhile exercise and expense.