Thompson Local, THOUGHTS...

Newbie

Hi, I have just signed up for 12 months advertising with thompson local, not had any calls yet, the cost is 1 or 2 tax returns, anyone had any success with these guys or am i wasting my money? thanks guys.

deanshepherd

You live and learn!

paulstafford

Would you use Thompson Local to find a decent Solicitor/Dentist etc etc?

Monsoon

I don't pay for national directories, I've never been tempted. I put in a free line entry and that gets me work. Given how large the adverts are for some accountancy practices, I figure I can't compete with that, so may as well get a free line entry.

I've paid for some duff marketing/ advertising over the years, you do live and learn.

If you get one client from it, it will pay for itself. If you don't then you either live and learn or at least people might remember your business name if they've seen it in there and then see it again in the future. Thing is, there's nowt as queer as folk, and so you never know!

My thoughts on directories now are pretty much everyone uses google, not a paper book, and if you're using google, thomson.com or yell.com are somewhat redundant unless a google search doesn't throw anything up.

T.C.

I just take the free lineage - I think in about 10 years I have got one or two clients from it!

gsauny21

Have you tried your local newpapers? every year from 1st october to 31st January i run an advert in my local paper at a cost of £20 for four weeks, this has never let me down! The new clients i pick up coupled with the referrals i get from them more than covers this outlay. It also raises my profile in my LOCAL area, which in turn allows me to offer a better service as im not driving about all over the region looking after clients.

hope it helps.....

payrollpro

As soon as you start a business all manner of people crawl out of the woodwork extolling the virutes of their marketing route, get you on page one of a google search every time etc, etc, yawn! I don't think any of it works and like the rest I have tried various ones, including Thomson, with no success.

As Monsoon says, no matter where you want to go the big guns have all the advantages and there is little point in competing.

My advice is to stick with local types, local press, village magazines and flyers and get involved with local fetes and events. That and word of mouth works wonders for us small entities.

One way of getting your own back on the flash advertisers is to accept the call, put them on speakerphone and carry on working whilst uttering the occasional platitude. When they realise your wasting their time when they are given just three minutes to land a deal or move on they quickly go away and often put you on their "do not call" list.

Works for me, but then I'm a bit of a sarcastic pain anyway.

Payrollpro

Newbie

Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my query and all very good points, its tricky being small. Merry Xmas guys

LynWest

Hi I don't advertise either, i go to a local networking group in the area that you pay £6 for each meeting you go to and that has paid dividends, it got me my first few clients and now i get clients from word of mouth which i find is the best way to get new clients. I also have a facebook page and a LInkedIn page. I have only had LinkedIn a couple of months and only got one client from that so far and they have been a nightmare, so think i will try and stay with word of mouth! I also do some voluntary work as treasurer for my local FSB I have to pay membership fee but i am allowed to claim a small consultancy fee up within budget limits and also travelling expenses, i am hoping that this is a good source of networking as well as great experience in another field. Hope you do get a few more clients from Thompson but going forward i would ditch it if i were you. Have a good Christmas

Julie2011

I have also just signed up with Thomson, I was in two minds whether to or not, but I have just created a website and I wanted people to see it and for it to come up on Google searched and the Thomson advertising will give to a backlink to your site to help you rise on google (Only 1 I know...!), I have now looked at the ad and other advertisers and no one (in my humble opinion) has made full use of the services that come in the Thomson package. i.e Clients can leave you a review, and as most of us buy something if someone else says its good, I have asked my clients to leave a review for me, and no-one else that comes up on my page has one! Its worth try........

PGM

Can you do similar with the yellow pages?

Julie2011

Not sure about Yellow pages, I would think so as they were owned by Thomson you would think they would offer similar services...

PGM

Julie2011 wrote: »

Not sure about Yellow pages, I would think so as they were owned by Thomson you would think they would offer similar services...

I had a look, seems there is a similar free ad link.

deanshepherd

I have a client who is one of those 'SEO guys' and he said Thomson reviews actually help Thomson more than you as they elevate Thomsons status in google. You in turn can improve within Thomson but not as well externally.

He recommended listing my business on Qype and get clients to write reviews on that. Apparently this rockets you up the geographical listings.

For example, if you type 'accountants worcester park' into google you should see Tax Clarity and Tax By Design at the top of the geographical listings (my businesses). This happened after I got about 3 clients to post a review on Qype and they are still at number 1 and number 2 even though I havn't got anyone to write any further reviews since.

Julie2011

Thats a brilliant tip!

I have been looking into all this back linking and SEO stuff and I cant seem to crack it! Had two quotes to do it for me one was £1399 and the £734 for thousands of directory links to be added. I dont think its the number of listings that get you to the top of google but the quality, so im glad, after signing up, that Thomson actually helps!