If the majority of your calls – or at least the majority of your best customers - are a specific gender, then yes, you should craft your Yellow Page ad with an eye toward gender preference. Here’s why:

A prospect simply cannot look at a few pages worth of Yellow Page ads and tell, objectively, which company is the best choice. There simply is not enough information, not enough ways to verify claims, and not enough time. So instead, prospects are drawn to the ad (and company) that they “feel” the best about. And that’s who’ll they’ll call. Period.

The more any particular prospect senses that an ad is “speaking” to them, the more likely they are to “feel” the best about that ad/company. Making your Yellow Page ad speak to your ideal customer means credibly addressing their felt emotional needs. And gender plays an important role in:

1. Shaping felt needs, and
2. Determining what information will be judged as the most “credible” and persuasive.

Now, the incredulous among you may be asking, are there objectively verifiable differences in the things that the different genders find persuasive and emotionally compelling in an ad? And the answer is, yes, statistically speaking, those differences do exist. For instance, women are more likely to be concerned about:

• Not making the “wrong” decision
• The time cost of doing business – will this be easy/convenient or difficult.
• How their decision will affect the people closest to them.
• The trust, integrity, and honesty of the business. No one wants to be “taken,” but women are more likely to realize that this is better accomplished by doing business with honest people than by “hard nosed” negotiation. There is a reason 63% of Saturn buyers are women.
• Whether other customers say good things about you, and who those customers are. Think testimonials, referrals, and endorsements.

Addressing these things in your Yellow Page ad will dramatically increase your emotional appeal to women. Now this isn’t to say that men would not find these things important, but the majority of men would be less likely to be emotionally persuaded on these factors alone. Finding this information in an ad is less likely to make a man “feel the best” about a company.

So what persuades men? A majority of men think hierarchally. This means:

• They generally want to ensure that they are working with “real professionals” or getting “the best” stuff or “professional grade” items.
• Formal signs of competency, proficiency, or status. Think professional credentials, certificates, awards, association memberships, etc.
• Size of the business (employees, equipment, selection, etc.)
• Men are generally more concerned with getting the best deal or at least a good deal. This is not the same as not wanting to make a wrong choice, it means men are more quickly persuaded by “beating the market” or getting a better dea
  The Devastation of Over Regulation
  Small, medium and large businesses across America have been burdened almost to the point of extinction due to the miss management of our regulatory bodies. I have been to every city in the country over 10,000 population and I have seen the destruction that regulatory agency regulations cause through unintended and unanticipated consequences, what is wrong with reducing your regulations and helping the common good, the rural towns in America, the people who care most about this great nation? The Federal Trade Commission although a small agency is one of the culprits as they regulate the franchising industry a
  h time. So instead, prospects are drawn to the ad (and company) that they “feel” the best about. And that’s who’ll they’ll call. Period.

  The more any particular prospect senses that an ad is “speaking” to them, the more likely they are to “feel” the best about that ad/company. Making your Yellow Page ad speak to your ideal customer means credibly addressing their felt emotional needs. And gender plays an important role in:

  1. Shaping felt needs, and
  2. Determining what information will be judged as the most “credible” and persuasive.

  Now, the incredulous among you may be asking, are there objectively verifiable differences in the things that the different genders find persuasive and emotionally compelling in an ad? And the answer is, yes, statistically speaking, those differences do exist. For instance, women are more likely to be concerned about:

  • Not making the “wrong” decision
  • The time cost of doing business – will this be easy/convenient or difficult.
  • How their decision will affect the people closest to them.
  • The trust, integrity, and honesty of the business. No one wants to be “taken,” but women are more likely to realize that this is better accomplished by doing business with honest people than by “hard nosed” negotiation. There is a reason 63% of Saturn buyers are women.
  • Whether other customers say good things about you, and who those customers are. Think testimonials, referrals, and endorsements.

  Addressing these things in your Yellow Page ad will dramatically increase your emotional appeal to women. Now this isn’t to say that men would not find these things important, but the majority of men would be less likely to be emotionally persuaded on these factors alone. Finding this information in an ad is less likely to make a man “feel the best” about a company.

  So what persuades men? A majority of men think hierarchally. This means:

  • They generally want to ensure that they are working with “real professionals” or getting “the best” stuff or “professional grade” items.
  • Formal signs of competency, proficiency, or status. Think professional credentials, certificates, awards, association memberships, etc.
  • Size of the business (employees, equipment, selection, etc.)
  • Men are generally more concerned with getting the best deal or at least a good deal. This is not the same as not wanting to make a wrong choice, it means men are more quickly persuaded by “beating the market” or getting a better de
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    vely verifiable differences in the things that the different genders find persuasive and emotionally compelling in an ad? And the answer is, yes, statistically speaking, those differences do exist. For instance, women are more likely to be concerned about:
    • Not making the “wrong” decision
    • The time cost of doing business – will this be easy/convenient or difficult.
    • How their decision will affect the people closest to them.
    • The trust, integrity, and honesty of the business. No one wants to be “taken,” but women are more likely to realize that this is better accomplished by doing business with honest people than by “hard nosed” negotiation. There is a reason 63% of Saturn buyers are women.
    • Whether other customers say good things about you, and who those customers are. Think testimonials, referrals, and endorsements.

    Addressing these things in your Yellow Page ad will dramatically increase your emotional appeal to women. Now this isn’t to say that men would not find these things important, but the majority of men would be less likely to be emotionally persuaded on these factors alone. Finding this information in an ad is less likely to make a man “feel the best” about a company.

    So what persuades men? A majority of men think hierarchally. This means:

    • They generally want to ensure that they are working with “real professionals” or getting “the best” stuff or “professional grade” items.
    • Formal signs of competency, proficiency, or status. Think professional credentials, certificates, awards, association memberships, etc.
    • Size of the business (employees, equipment, selection, etc.)
    • Men are generally more concerned with getting the best deal or at least a good deal. This is not the same as not wanting to make a wrong choice, it means men are more quickly persuaded by “beating the market” or getting a better de
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      t people than by “hard nosed” negotiation. There is a reason 63% of Saturn buyers are women.
    • Whether other customers say good things about you, and who those customers are. Think testimonials, referrals, and endorsements.

    Addressing these things in your Yellow Page ad will dramatically increase your emotional appeal to women. Now this isn’t to say that men would not find these things important, but the majority of men would be less likely to be emotionally persuaded on these factors alone. Finding this information in an ad is less likely to make a man “feel the best” about a company.

    So what persuades men? A majority of men think hierarchally. This means:

    • They generally want to ensure that they are working with “real professionals” or getting “the best” stuff or “professional grade” items.
    • Formal signs of competency, proficiency, or status. Think professional credentials, certificates, awards, association memberships, etc.
    • Size of the business (employees, equipment, selection, etc.)
    • Men are generally more concerned with getting the best deal or at least a good deal. This is not the same as not wanting to make a wrong choice, it means men are more quickly persuaded by “beating the market” or getting a better de
      Getting That Frame Of Mind To Make Extra Money
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      majority of men think hierarchally. This means:
      • They generally want to ensure that they are working with “real professionals” or getting “the best” stuff or “professional grade” items.
      • Formal signs of competency, proficiency, or status. Think professional credentials, certificates, awards, association memberships, etc.
      • Size of the business (employees, equipment, selection, etc.)
      • Men are generally more concerned with getting the best deal or at least a good deal. This is not the same as not wanting to make a wrong choice, it means men are more quickly persuaded by “beating the market” or getting a better deal than the other guy.

      And again, this does not mean that women will not find these things important, but that they are less likely to be emotionally persuaded by them.

      Let me be clear, I am not suggesting you write to stereotypes; I am suggesting that you see your customer as real as possible – gender and all. If your customers skew toward one gender or another, then in my 30+ years of experience, designing your Yellow Pages ad with an eye towards the felt emotional needs of that gender produces better results.

      In fact, if your target market is gender-neutral, zeroing in on one gender could give you an opportunity to dominate the heading. Also, if you're planning one full-page ad consider running 2 half-page ads, one for each class of reader. This could be a smart strategy if the pricing's right AND doing so will not position your Yellow Page ad too far back into the heading. How far is too far? Generally speaking, appearing in the first third of the heading is considered good positioning, as long as your ad is properly developed.

      Targeting your most important prospects will help differentiate your business from all the rest, will help you to write more compelling ad copy that speaks honestly to the felt needs and desires of your target audience. All of these things will help you reap astonishingly better returns from your next Yellow Pages advertising investment and any one of them might be improved by looking at gender preferences for your business. If you'd like to learn more, call me at 800-726-7006 and I'll be happy to fill you in.