Often times small business owners (chiropractors) receive solicitations by mail that appear to be bills for advertising. Directory listings for “Yellow Pages” types of companies have for years been notorious for sending these mailings. Business owners beware, nearly 100% of these are not bills but rather a solicitation for goods or services. I feel they are a huge waste of money but I imagine the practice could be extremely lucrative for a directory company.
I scanned one I recently received at my ADIO Chiropractic office and wanted to share it with you. I divided into 4 sections below. Here is the top of page.
A Yellow Pages Directory Order Form
Looks official eh? Mailed in December to ADIO Chiropractic in Los Angeles, and it looks like a bill. It has the familiar “fingers walking” in the logo, along with an address. There’s a tracking number and options to edit the listing and even include a logo.
Section 2 shows listing and classification as CHIROPRACTORS DC, followed by a classification code and a yearly amount of $312.55. I wonder how many businesses mail those checks in? If it were an internet paid link directory, I still wouldn’t advise mailing a check (or making payment via credit card), paid link directories are a no-no for Google.
The section above does state that this is not a bill, but an offer (solicitation) for goods or services. It also states that you are under no obligation to make a payment unless you accept (want) the offer. My guess is many don’t see or read the info and they mail in payment, otherwise I would not have been receiving mailings like this one several times per year for the past decade plus.
The last section is what gets mailed in (should you accept the offer). The company accepts credit cards, checks and 30 Days Net payment. They do include their mailing address and Tax ID on the section that gets mailed in, and I suppose if a business owner wanted to they could make payment and have a tax write-off for advertising.
I don’t know about you but I’d say there are far better ways to advertise.
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