Names and Numbers:
A Natural for local businesses wanting to score local salesBy Janie Pritchett-Clark
Your new 2010 Names and Numbers phone book has just arrived throughout 
Washington and Benton Counties – complete with the game schedule for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. And, as with thousands of business decision makers, it’s probably now tucked into your important reference book shelf where you can grab it when you need it.
“There’s only one reason someone opens a phone book,” say Mark Ponkey, District Sales Manager for Names and Numbers. “They are looking to spend money and they are looking for a business to spend it with. We can’t make sales for our advertisers, but we can deliver sales opportunities.”
Directory or yellow page advertising is one of the prominent forms of advertising local companies budget every year, especially small businesses. Deciding how to proportion that budget can seem overwhelming.
Expand your advertising with Media Co-op
“Business owners need to advertise everywhere their potential customers may look for them,” says Ponkey. “When customers say ‘I’m going to pull all of my budget out of theirs and put it in yours’ – that’s not necessarily a good decision. Even though we feel the majority of folks use our book, that we have the best reference value, and that business owners get a better return on their investment through our book, if someone picks up another phone book looking for a specific business and can’t find it, they’ve lost that sales opportunity.”
Using other forms of advertising in the local marketplace is an important relationship-building tool and part of building a product story. The “Media Co-op” program with Names and Numbers helps businesses pay for other forms of advertising that expand their exposure in the market.
“We realize that yellow page advertising is not the only form of advertising that is successful. Let people know they can find you in the Names and Numbers phone book by using our logo or tag line in your ad and we reimburse up to 30% of what you spend with us.”
A company must spend a minimum of $2,000 a year with Names and Numbers to participate in the co-op program, and eligible media include radio, TV, print, direct mail, and billboards. It also includes advertising such as doormats, car and truck signage, and community advertising at ball fields and churches. It’s best to discuss eligibility details first.
Reaching your Customer
“When a consumer can find information about the community and reference the information easily, that’s probably the book they are going to pick up more often when looking for a product or service,” says Ponkey. To gain that reference value in the marketplace, a lot of thinking goes on behind the scenes to categorize search and navigation ease.
Between bleed bars– those solid colors on the edge of the pages– and multiple file formats, accessing Names and Numbers is easy and accurate. The book is available in the standard large print format, a mini-book, on CD, and online at NamesandNumbers.com. Now you can even access a mobile platform at NamesandNumbers.mobi.
Getting in the Book
“Our sales representatives go to businesses armed with as much marketing data as we can provide without overwhelming them,” says Ponkey. “They can share community data and demographics, the footprint of where our book is distributed and the coverage area, information about test lines and testimonials. As sales consultants, our goal is to uncover the needs of each business and provide ideas on how those goals can be achieved.”
While they can’t guarantee results or recommend it for everyone, test lines are one way businesses can gauge response. A unique number is included in the directory ad, and while it forwards flawlessly to the company’s main number, it allows accurate call tracking. Using test lines, John Holland, DDS was able to track more than 708 calls from his ad, and New Hope Veterinary Center more than 2500. “It’s those success stories that show we really do help local businesses drive local sales.”
Building Community is a Natural
Helping to build community and drive those local sales is what Names and Numbers is all about. They partner with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals baseball team and have featured them on the phone book cover for the past two years. “We are a local phone book,” says Ponkey. “We’re not here to take dollars and make promises and then take off. We have a presence in and a commitment to Northwest Arkansas. We have over a dozen sales representatives who live here, participate in the community, spend money in the area and send their children to school. We’re a lot more than a phone book company, we’re a local company.”
