(1)   Contests—i.e. a cookware store sponsoring a cooking contest, a dentist hosting a smile contest, a video rental store sponsoring a movie trivia quiz

(2)   Newsletters

(3)   Demonstrations—you can attract people to your place of business, show them how to best use your product, and establish your credibility

Dennis Rosen, an associate professor of Business at the University of Kansas who teaches courses in marketing, advertising, and consumer behavior, said that planning Yellow Pages advertising should be an ongoing process.  Rosen also labels three critical aspects where you should gain information which they can use to improve their yellow pages advertising: your business, your competitors, and your customers.  First, with your business, you should always know what you want to accomplish.  Secondly, with competitors, it is important to figure out who your competitors are specifically so you can know how to compete with them when it comes to advertising.  Third, you want to know your customer demographics to figure out what your customers want to see in a Yellow Pages ad, what will make them choose your business.

The first thing to do in planning your advertising campaign is to get familiar with the basics of marketing.  Next, you should determine who your existing customers are so that you can figure out your target market.  You should also make sure that you understand all of your selling points—not just what your product or service offers, but your status, reputation, and self-enhancement.  You should also set up a realistic advertising budget which is generally three to five percent of your annual revenues, but can vary up or down depending on your business, your competitors, and your industry.  Make sure that your budget covers every type of marketing tool that your company may choose to use, including community sponsorships, newspaper, magazine, radio, and television marketing, Yellow Pages, direct mail, etc.