Business Opportunities Weblog

Finding Gold In Abandoned Ads

By on April 16, 2013 in Featured

Mike Michalowicz in an article for The Wall Street Journal reports on a clever way to get advertising for free.

Count the signs listing phone numbers as you drive down the street in a commercial area, or the number of ads you notice as you surf the net or leaf through the Yellow Pages. Signs and ads are often paid in advance for a few months or longer, which is why they stay “open” when a business closes up shop. The same is true for classified ads that run for six months or longer.

To take advantage of the prepaid advertising, call the number listed on your competitor’s signs and ads. If you hear a ring, move on to the next ad. If you hear a recorded message informing you that the phone number has been disconnected, call your local phone company and ask it to redirect the abandoned phone number to your business line. Yes, it is that simple. And it works.

Once you redirect a former competitor’s old phone number, your phone will ring almost immediately. Prospects who are calling on those up-and-running advertisements will now be automatically forwarded to you. When prospects call, don’t be sneaky. Let them know that the company they are looking for is no longer in business, but you will gladly serve them.

After you’ve checked all of the ads, start with the phone listings for your local area. If you want to attract prospects outside of your region, check competitors’ listings in the toll-free directories, which you can also find online. Then, move on to other online directories. Search industry-specific directories for ads, sponsored listings and regular listings. For example, if you are in the party-rental business, you might find competitors in one of the resource directories for event planners.

Photo by legacymarketing.

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Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    I wouldn’t necessarily call that sneaky. The business is now defunct, so there is no actual stealing of customers going on. It is, however, a great way to help people in need of a specific service that didn’t realize the number is no longer any good. Connecting these potential customers with your similar service equals sales and less headache for them.

  • Zulfiqar Ahmed

    Hi
    I am not sure about this approach in UK as the telephone company would ask your personal details (e.g. date of brith etc) to reconnect or redirect the number to your existing number. Secondly, how do you know if that closed telephone number (or business) owe any money in terms of the telephone bills?

    Zulfiqar

  • http://www.highchairbelts.com nancy

    If it sounds too good to be true….. you have a good point Zulfiqar. This is where a pre-paid cell phone number comes in handy ;)
    Nancy

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