One of the most interesting facets of blogging comes with keyword research of one’s own website. For example, I was going over the different phrases searchers had used during these past 3 weeks to find The Sales Lion and found quite an interesting pattern in terms of small businesses and their concerns regarding Yellow Pages. In fact, I think the following statements/questions are perfectly symbolic of the debate that is raging amongst thousands of small businesses all over the country trying to spend their advertising dollars wisely.
So in an effort to prevent any more business owners from using their hard-earned bucks on dead-end advertising, here are 11 of YOUR most interesting questions/thoughts (only exact search phrases have been used), and my responses:
1. Why so expensive to place verizon yellow page ads in books?
Let me take a gander at this one by giving a short history lesson. At one time, the Verizon Yellow Pages was the evil empire of the advertising world. They managed to set up a paradigm amongst small businesses everywhere that success in life and in businesses ran through that little yellow book of theirs. They also established pricing structures that made it very difficult for business owners to down-size their ads when they realized the costs were too high. Such made for a financially debilitating cycle for many business owners. Luckily for all though, this little thing called ‘The Internet’ was invented and businesses far and wide celebrated cost effective advertising and marketing solutions that actually worked….Yeeee Hawwww!
2. Should I pay for yellow pages?
Uhhm, in a nutshell, NO, unless you’re the type that loves flinging dollar bills off of country bridges…. Listing your company name, number, and domain address is fine. Beyond that though, you’re going to pay ridiculous amounts of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
3. How dead is yellow page books?
Question: What does this guy and the Yellow Pages have in common?
Can you say dead as Elvis?? In fact, I wrote an article about this recently explaining how the advertising model of yellow pages simply doesn’t fit the mind of today’s consumer. Today’s consumer searches online before they do anything else. Their first step towards making a purchasing is essentially the first keys they hit on their computers at work or at home to begin the information gathering process.
Although there are certainly a few that would disagree with my Elvis analogy, it’s safe to say that Yellow Pages, at least the ‘book’ form, won’t be around in a few more years as businesses get smarter and smarter with their advertising dollars
4. Why should big companies advertise in yellow pages?
Because big companies are well-known to waste thousands of adverting dollars freely and if they’re going to do that, then there is no way better than with the Yellow Pages. 
But seriously, if a big company is still heavily investing in Yellow Pages advertising in this day and age then they likely need to fire their head of marketing.
5. Life without yellow pages my business
Life without wasting money is AWESOME. At least, that’s my opinion. Since my company stopped advertising in the Yellow Pages last year (other than our name, number, and website listing) we have saved an average of $2,000 per month. For all math gurus, that $24,000 a year. Do you know how much killer web marketing can be done with $24,000 a year?? Holy cow, the possibilities are through the roof. This is also why I’m always shocked when businesses squawk over spending less than $10,000 a year on a lead generation machine and Content Management System like Hubspot when they’re essentially burning money in the campfire with the crazy amounts they’re paying in YP advertising.
6. Small businesses need to be in the yellow pages.
And I need to saw my ankle off with a spoon….Ouch, OK, maybe that’s not the best analogy, but the idea that a company has to be in the Yellow Pages to be successful is absolutely absurd. Yes, there are a few businesses where phone book listings are still very beneficial, like pizza delivery companies, but even they are now seeing more and more of their phone calls and orders being placed online. So, let’s all say it together:
Small businesses do NOT need to be in the Yellow Pages!!
7. Yellow pages waste of money 2010
And 2011, 2012, 2013…….
8. My business moved do I have to pay my yellow pages ad?
This search phrase gave me a nice snicker. Just think, if this person’s marketing was all internet based, he could make the necessary changes at NO COST. Instead, he’s stuck paying for words on a yellow sheet of paper that are sending customers to the wrong address. OUCH.
9. Why a business should not buy a yellow pages ad?
Boy could I list about 50 reasons for this one, but we’ll just give 4 for the sake of time:
- The majority of consumers in our country won’t even crack the book open in 2010.
- The costs are an utter RIP-OFF and would be much better spent on a content-driven web presence.
- The ROI stinks.
- We are, for all intents and purposes, a global economy. The ideas of companies simply marketing towards one or two towns/cities is going the way of the dinosaur.
10. What if I can’t pay my yellow page ad?
Man, I feel for you. Heck, I feel for all the small business owners out there that have been swooned into thinking the Yellow Pages is still a viable marketing platform. But to answer your question, if I were your accountant I’d just go ahead and put the Yellow Pages at the back of my ‘To-Pay’ list. 
11. Death to yellow pages
Ahhh, I like this phrase. I’m not sure if the person that typed it in was asking a question or if they were making a toast. So if they were asking a question, please refer back to #3. If the person was making a toast, then I’m raising my glass to that!
Questions /comments about Yellow Page advertising? As always, your thoughts are much appreciated.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
While I can see your point on YP Books I do think that YP online can generate some serious business. I worked with numerous YP online branches and got some great results. Again it might not be for every business but if you are able to put together online properties that YP owns and there is lots of them you might be able to buy ads in some very very targeted places. I guess it works like everything else, you need to make you small test everything you do and never commit until you are sure that is the right thing to do.
Marcus –
I work for SuperMedia & we are an advertising agency for small to medium sized businesses. We publish the Verizon Yellow Pages, are home to Superpages.com & have SuperPagesDirect direct mail products.
At SuperMedia, our media consultants develop marketing campaigns that fit each client best & that could be to advertise on Superpages.com, our SuperpagesDirect Direct Mail products &, when it is appropriate, our yellow pages.
We also have a variety of tracking tools to prove the value and ROI of each product and different services to help businesses build their online presence with search engine marketing campaigns, PPC advertising, web site building and hosting, etc.
According to a study this year, 65 percent of consumers surveyed online and by telephone, said they referenced print and/or Internet Yellow Pages within the past month when looking for local business information. Search engines scored second with 58 percent, flyers/coupons were 38 percent, newspapers were 33 percent, and magazines were 14 percent.
The percentage of those surveyed who said they had used print Yellow Pages within the last month increased 12 percent over the course of the year, from 51.5 percent in the first quarter to 57.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
Respondents also turned to print Yellow Pages more frequently as the year progressed. In the first quarter, there was an average of 0.93 references per U.S. adult per week. By the fourth quarter, that had grown 19 percent to 1.11 references per adult per week.
I could give you many more stats, but the bottom line is the print Yellow Pages continues to be a strong & viable media choice when consumers are ready to buy.
Fact is, there is a need for a yellow pages. Unfortunately, for years the YP industry was focused on defending their product instead of differentiating it.
Last year we introduced the SuperGuarantee (www.superguarantee.com) program available in all our products. When a consumer hires a painter, auto mechanic, contractor, plumber or other service provider that is part of our program, we will stand by the work. If there is a problem, we will step in & make it right. If we can’t, we will cut a check for up to $500 to the consumer.
The program is free to both the consumer & eligible client. Since the launch of this program we have seen double digit increases in the possession & usage of our directories — increases that we haven’t seen in years.
For our SMBs, we’ve created the SuperTradeExchange (www.supertradeexchange.com) – a national barter program where our clients can provide goods & services to other clients within the exchange. A great way of doing business in a recession.
I hope you & your readers can see that there are benefits in working with the right company.
Thank you,
Andrew Shane
Gentlemen, thanks to both of you for stopping by. You both make very good points but keep in mind here that when I refer to the ‘Yellow Pages’, I’m referring to the actually book that shows up at the door step, not the online programs, YPs, etc. But again, I thank you both for taking the time to add your thoughts.
Hi Andrew,
Have you looked at the research you cite in depth? I actually wrote about a PYP usage study similar to the one you reference. AT&T’s 2011 study stated that 65% of consumers use the print yellow pages. http://www.emilybinder.com/fifteenthlife/shoddy-market-research-seo-haystack/ “When combining both print and YP.com, 78 percent–or nearly eight out of 10–of those surveyed said they used at least one of the products within the past year compared to 77 percent a year earlier. ” It makes no sense that PYP would actually increase year over year in this day and age. AT&T commissioned a joke of a company to administer the surveys, plus the response and sample biases were clear. I detail it in my post.
You write, “I could give you many more stats, but the bottom line is the print Yellow Pages continues to be a strong & viable media choice when consumers are ready to buy.” I disagree with this, but let’s assume that it is true. What constitutes a viable media choice in light of yellow pages coercive pricing model? As Marcus writes, PYP is a medium where advertisers have to at least maintain spend or risk losing their position. The agencies who sell PYP paint this potential loss as a disaster. The tracking available is mediocre at best, because call tracking numbers find their way online.
The permanence of a directory listing in PYP that Marcus mentioned is a major factor. I can update my listings online anytime. If a phone number changes, a street name changes, or I close a location, I’m stuck with the listing in that book for a year. At least most people only use it as a door stopper or toddler chair booster, though.
Emily Binder´s last [type] ..Exaggerated Growth of Google Plus
Wow Emily, this comment was impressive. You know your stuff lady! And thanks so much for dropping by,
Marcus
With all due respect, your article is loaded with statements that are unsubstantiated and have no basis. For example, to state that nobody used the yellow pages anymore is unfounded and without any supporting facts. Statements need to be supported with proven facts. Here are the facts: print yellow page usage is still very strong. And on a cost-per-call basis, “local” community yellow pages still outperform online forms of advertising. In fact, we have compared yellow pages to online ads (Google & Yahoo pay-per-click). The yellow pages outperformed them by a margin of 14 to 1! Here is the proof: As an agency, our clients include small businesses such as service companies, retailers, and professionals, including attorneys. Every ad we place for our clients, whether print or online (including online video), has a unique “call tracking” phone number. It records every call, including time of day, call length, and caller ID. Our clients receive as much as 140+ calls every month from their yellow pages advertising! The fact is that consumers are still using the yellow pages – and using them a lot! Results vary by category, as professionals receive less calls, yet their average new client is worth much more than a restaurant or beauty salon. Our advertising decisions are based on actual results. Regarding yellow pages, the best yellow pages are the local “community” phone books. As I mentioned, these local yellow pages outperform the online ads by a margin of 14 to 1 (on a cost-per-call basis). They have low rates and high usage. The rates aren’t anywhere near the $24,000 you quote in this article! We would never pay those rates! The problem with yellow pages has been with the utility publishers (i.e. AT&T, Idearc). Their years of abuse of businesses with high rates and poor service have finally caught up to them. As an agency, we demand they lower their rates to match the results – and they do! Businesses have another option these days – local “community” phone books and local online options (i.e. Google Maps). The bottom line is this: advertising decisions should be based on proven results and the return of investment. Place a “tracking number” in your proposed advertising medium (online, print, or video) and let the facts decide.
Small Biz Advisor….love your passion…and it’s OK we don’t agree. That’s what healthy debate is all about. Notwithstanding, my message, as you mention, is mostly directed at companies like Idearc. But in terms of how much businesses spend, I know many that have spent 50k or much more in a year. In fact, 25k ain’t much. Think about it for a second: My company installs pools throughout all of Virginia and Maryland. So in order to do the ‘community’ approach, we’d have to be in a mountain of books…..which ain’t happening. Also, I’m not a huge proponent of cost per click, so your comparison is a mute point. I believe in creating incredible and informative content for the consumer. This leads to organic search results–which is the gift that keeps on giving—for FREE. Community phone books, and all phone books, have a life span of one-year max. And often times, when people look in the books they are essentially looking for domain addresses, not numbers. So if a company has a great Yellow Pages ad, but then the consumer sees they have a crappy website, they will likely not make the cut…..Again, I appreciate your passion but I think your solution, ultimately, is not keeping up with Web 2.0 principles.
Marcus -
Me again. Let me pull the curtain back even more – - Idearc is no more. We are now SuperMedia, and I must say I do take some offense (although I really don’t blame you). As to how we are being portrayed. All I would ask for you and your readers is to go to website @ http://www.supermedia.com and check out programs like the SuperGuarantee that are helping consumers and SMBs while increasing the preference and usage share of the book. Take a look at our SuperTradeExchange – a national network of SMBs who are able to barter with other SMBs within the network – and tell me we don’t care.
We are not your father’s yellow pages and really should not be judged or placed in the same bucket as publishers. We are the advertising agency for the SMBs across the country.
Thanks,
Andrew Shane
Marcus, I would absolutely love to challenge you. I’ll tell ya what, instead of Andrew Shane spewing marketing crap about a bankrupted company (recovered, FOR NOW) that offers some of the WORST yellow pages directories in the US, let’s just do a challenge. I will put up $500 in online marketing vs. $500 in print in one of our local markets and we will see who generates more leads and then who generates more ROI.
What you really need to understand is Yellow Pages are far from dead. Yellow Pages equals “feet on the street”, which to this day offers the BEST, integrable fact finding capabilities, period. The Internet if free and cheap and with many flaws. If you use Google maps I bet 1 out of 5 times it will take you to the WRONG dang place. Local Business Center is being abused with no end in site.
Recently we had an attorney in our area take me up on the challenge I offered to you, except we made it bigger to the tune of 4k. Online we marketed ALL of northern Alabama. We used Google Ad Words, Bing, Yahoo and Ask. We did both PPC, Dynamic banners and static ad positions. In print we just marketed Gadsden, Alabama. Print brought in 287 calls while online brought in 59 hits and 9 calls. His hit statistics were:
Time on Site: :44 seconds
Page Views: 1.27
Bounce Rate: 73%
His call statistics were:
Average Call length: 2:54
Average rings: 1.9
Answered and pertinent: 88%
The online campaign broadcasted over 1.5 million people and the print was 104k people. Print generated 5.5 times as many leads with over 4 times the amount of “customer communication”. The print ROI was over 500% while the online ROI only generated about 3-4 customers, which would equal about NEGATIVE 45%.
Now understand we ARE an online company. We DO sell an internet platform. We just want people to understand that a good mix of print and internet is a GREAT combination. Our print directories are far more affordable than some of the other books. In one of our markets AT&T charges nearly 3-4 times what we do on certain ads. IT IS OUTRAGEOUS what some Yellow Page Companies charge. I fully agree with you there. In our print markets a business can obtain a reasonably sized ad that gives them 4-6 lines of information about their business for about 20$ a month, very reasonable, you agree?
As you may know Google is going through some struggles right now on redefining local search. Quite honestly, I believe they are going down the wrong road. I would be curious to hear your comments on that.
I believe if you can covert a lead to revenue online then online is usually a good benefit, however, most companies use the internet for support and not sales. FYI, our sales people with feet on the street will sell 92% more than web unsolicited leads.
Marcus, again all I beg is before you launch into a speech please do diligent studies on the topic. It is responsible and the “healthy” thing to do. There is a lawsuit right now, I believe in Massachusetts, on someone “qualified” spreading rumors of internet usage over some other media. The plaintiff is accusing the defendant of being “qualified” in their position and having intelligent capabilities, yet the information was biased and unfounded. I believe the charges are Fraud. The interesting was the Flower business in Australia in regards to Google. And don’t get me started on Page Rank and Indexing!!!! Take a look at that one and that is where the internet is today. Far too much junk information that is unchecked and non cleansed. Just my .02 cents. Thanks bud!
Responding to Marcus . . . first of all, the rates you quote are not real world. We have not spent anything near the rates you mention in your article for any book, community or otherwise. If you choose to use a utility book like AT&T or SuperMedia, you need to demand lower print rates from the utility publishers, and they will comply. Secondly, you state that my comparison is a “mute point” because you do not consider “cost per click”. If you read my comment, the comparison between print and online is COST-PER-CALL, not cost-per-click. We placed the call tracking numbers into print ads, as well as the websites that were promoted online. For us, the print outperformed the online ads 14 – 1. Now check Andy’s example above: the print ad scored 287 calls and the online program only scored 9. With actual facts, the real story is told. And the real story here is that the yellow pages are still the best source of business returning the best ROI. Just be sure to select the right book in your market. Andy should be congratulated for “tracking” all sources and making media decisions based on facts. Kudos to you Andy!
Very interesting comments from everyone. I think you’ve stirred up a lot of differing view points and I’m kind of surprised at how much differing opinion exists on this subject. Three years ago we cut back to the very minimum in our yellow page book ads (just name, website, and phone number) and only pay to be listed in one of the 9 zones we work in (our target area closest to our shop). The last several years I’ve actually felt bad for the sales person calling on us to try and get us to go with a larger ad and to add our listing to more books. He would give all kinds of statistics to back up his points, but I knew our own data didn’t agree. I’ve sold 121 swimming pools since we’ve implemented our detailed lead tracking system. One of the questions in our lead tracking system is “How did you first hear about Siganture Pools?” Out of the 121 sales ONLY TWO listed the phonebook and out of those two – one of them said it was the phonebook and website. Maybe in other industries the yellow page print adds are still working, but my days of paying to be in a yellow page print add are done.
@Andy— Well stated Andy in the sense that you seem to recognize flaws on the Yellow Pages end—like everything, there will always be good and bad companies that hurt or help an industry—-but understand that the mission of this blog is to help business owners not to make really dumb mistakes–the mistakes I’ve made–and huge ads in a phonebook that are a set cost of $1500 a month in each book is a bad, bad idea in 2010….and BTW, Pagerank and Index are the most flawed tools on the planet, we certainly agree on that one!
@Small Biz— When I said cost per click, I was referring to cost per call—both of which are good systems when used properly. Fact is though, organic search, when understood and performed properly, beats them both hands-down. Biz owners should always, always focus on organic search and fill in the gaps with any Pay Per campaigns
@Todd— Thanks for stopping in Todd. You speak for thousands and thousands of small biz owners. It’s crazy how many people I’ve talked to just like over the past couple of years, and the number only continues to grow. Congrats on your successes…….
I am rapidly reaching the point where I am about to cancel both Yellow Pages book and Yellow Pages online. The sales rep. today called to boast about the fantastic results another clinic had with “metered calls” (they advertise your ad. with their own unique phone number: =they must have questioned him last year if it was a waste of money….) Turns out their two clinics averaged 5.3 Y.P. calls per month each. At an annual spend, that’s 64 calls per clinic, per year for $1900 per clinic…… That’s over $31 per phone call, and maybe not everyone of these people made an appointment………
We closely track where our new patients come from on their patient history they fill in when they arrive. Google costs around the same and delivers about 40 times as many patients.
Yellow Pages book and online is dead. This Forum has helped me make my final decision- thankyou very much.
Glad you stopped by and found it helpful Andrew B, the stats you’ve shared here are very, very interesting and telling as well.
Wow, Marcus! This is exactly what I’ve been telling folks (clients) for years. The day of overpriced Yellow Page type adds are soon to be over. I hear it over and over from small business owner’s that were talked out of large sums of cash by phone directory reps. Gary Vaynerchuk has been singing the same tune too. It never ceases to amaze me when someone tells me how much they paid for their annual phone directory advert in just ONE directory ($2,500, $5000 and more) crazy!
Wow Gordon, love the avatar man!! And thanks for adding to the conversation. People can say what they want, but the Yellow Pages of a few years ago will not exist within the next 5 years. As you’ve eluded to, you know that…..I know that….and most intelligent businesses are recognizing that now as well. Thanks for stopping by
Greetings,
I realize the last post on this blog was made about 4 1/2 months ago.
However I recently received a call from my AT&T yellow page ad rep so that prompted me to start researching online. Let me say I’ve been in business for 10 years and can tell you the ROI with both print and online yellow pages continues to diminish. With that said at least the cost for the ads continue to decrease. In any event the ROI has been a break even scenario as far as print and online yellowpages go.
My new business comes from organic searches, local searches, angies list, yelp, my websites and most importantly… referals.
If any one has comments or questions I would be happy to answer them or offer feedback. I don’t mind giving more specifics either.
JM
Well put John, sounds like you’ve got a wealth of experience to back up your thoughts on this subject….thanks for commenting.
Cheese O !
Just my two pence worth but for me in the UK the Yp is a dead horse and not worth the flogging. I could give you all manner of data to back it up but in my case (three businesses and one a world renowned franchise) we got almost zero return on our YP adverts.
total waste of money.
Well said Neil, and thank for the cross-Atlantic perspective!
Everybody has some valid opinions, maybe some facts, and probably partly accurate forecasts of the future of the yellow pages of all the books. But, to say without reservation that a business owner SHOULD NOT advertise at all in a phone book is not good advice. I agree you should be careful and limit your expense, but don’t get out altogether. Older people still use the book, and so do a smaller population of younger people.
Obviously, we all know the world is heading more and more into the “internet” to search for things, including business and residential phone numbers. And, I think it is safe to say print media is slowing down, at least with the younger age groups. Print will be around for some time. How long? If you know for sure, then you should invest all your money, including your 401K into internet based advertising with several companies. Rest my case.
Should you, or not, advertise in yellow page phone books? Yes and no, and maybe. It all depends on your geographic location, demographics of the population, type of business, amount of competition in the area, and how many phone books are in your area. Some business should, and need to keep advertising in the yellow pages, even if it is just the “free” line advertisement each book automatically lists for your business. And, then there are some businesses that don’t necessarily, to definitely not, need to advertise. I will say advertising in more than two books is just ludicris. Look at the distribution/circulation of the book, and if the book has residential and business listings. It would make more sense to advertise in book that has the most distribution/circulation, and if possible, has residential as well. If your area has just two books, you may want to advertise in both, but don’t overspend. *If you are in a small town and DO NOT have a lot of competitors, then you only need to advertise just enough to either keep up with the competition, or slightly out size their ad. Otherwise, don’t spend a fortune on a huge display ad, that would be a waste.
CAUTION: Advertisers, all phone books, are trying to bundle their advertising and offer you a package that includes a lot of extras, including a website, video, and listings on their online directory. However, the cost is going to be more, each year for sure, and they will tell you that they can’t give you the package unless it is more than what you already presently are spending. I heard a client tell me that they wanted to go smaller with an advertisement in the print, but the Sales Rep told them that it would be more expensive than the bundle ad, and the cost would be “X”. So, what they did was “put it to the customer” so that they had no choice but to take the bundle to avoid the higher cost to buy the smaller ads separately. Hmmm…so there is no way to reduce costs, right? That can’t be right, but that is what an AT&T sale rep told a customer. Coincidently, AT&T has almost the entire market with telephones, so customers associate that with better exposure, which may be a benefit. AT&T holds it over the clients head and make them feel like if they don’t advertise, or go bigger, then they will lose business because the book is in “every” household. Now, I think you can see this somewhat of a coercion type sales tactic. How do I know, because I’ve talked to quite a few customers.
I suggest, look and see what book(s) have the best circulation/delivery to households and businesses, have very close costs for same ad sizes in other books, and then put most of your money there. Then, if you feel you must, or should, be in another book, put some funds into that book as well. And, then what is left over from doing less with the book(s), put that to work on the Internet (Google & Yahoo). Don’t forget to claim/register your business address etc. with both. Also, if you really have a business that you feel is found more from searches on the internet, then put some of your advertising funds there as well. DON’T LET THE SALES REP MAKE YOU THINK YOU CAN’T REDUCE YOUR COSTS. Don’t be afraid to cut back, especially if your business is well established and known. You can always increase it next year if you notice a decline. In the end, you just have to decide if you think print yellow page advertising is making your phone ring. All phone book companies have “Remote Call Forwarding”, or tracking of calls, that you can use for “free”. It will track the number of calls you get from your ads.
Be smart, do your homework, and think about what you are trying to accomplish with your advertising dollars. What message do you want to send? Are you trying to build an image for your company? Do you have seasonal business? It could be that some radio ads would be more beneficial, at least for special promotions or grand openings. Billboards can be effective at building brand awareness, but it is very expensive and often blurred due to clutter, just as radio can have clutter. TV ads are good, but expensive, and should be used if you are trying to build your brand and image. PRINT(Phone Book Ads) and INTERNET (Google and Yahoo) are where people go when they are ready to buy, or researching information. You may hear a radio ad, see a billboard, or even get a word of mouth referral, but if you don’t have the number, you will have to search in the print book, on the internet, or on in the phone book online directory (YB.com or YP.com or whatever your book has available).
I hope this helps some of you make a better decision. I think too many people or one sided based on their personal experience and somehow think they are an expert and can advise everyone else NOT to advertise a certain way. They are not giving you good advice. That is like listening to your neighbor who invested in mutual funds, or anything in the market, and loss their butts off, then turned around and told you never to invest in the market, but rather put all your money in CD’s and Saving or Money Market accounts. Is that the right advice or action? No. I know this too, because I’ve been a Financial Advisor as well. There are those who should invest in certain things, and not other things.
Good luck! Do your research, know your market, customer, and competition.
i wonder how many people even use the new book they receive at there door. i know people that throw the new book away and keep the old book. this year we are not going in the yp for the first time in 25 years. it seem that the Internet is the place to be , we will see. it has cost us $450.00 per month for the add and that does not include the business phone bill. if you incorporate both bills that is around $1,000.00 per month. most of our calls are previous cutomers and internet users. we have a plumbing and heating business in the same location for the past 26 years.
Hi Mary, and thanks so much for adding your thoughts here. Many of the blue-collar businesses I coach are just like you– they’re dropping antiquated forms of advertising because they realize the internet is really their only answer in this day and age. With a proper inbound marketing campaign, small businesses can now spend way less than they used to to advertise yet get way more results.
Thanks again.
Marcus
Marcus Sheridan´s last [type] ..How To Use Deadlines To Beat Resistance To Writing
Hi Marcus,
We conducted a random survey just to know what people think of Yellow Pages and Google. Here’s one part of the result.
Q1. How often do you use the print version of the Yellow Pages?
* 7.69% use it regularly
* 23.08% once a month
* 15.38% once a year
* 53.85% never use it
YP was useful. But that was before. Gone are the days when people rely on Yellow Pages for information. In fact, I got a pretty cool video on youtube where people just said what’s on their minds regarding yellow pages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cCZ0DHcBQ
Cheers,
Dave
David Jenyns´s last [type] ..By- Stuart
Hi i Just would like to add to this blog, that my business was on the yellow pages and they called me like crazy about putting my business on the their book and the the sales even gave me a check to compensate for the extra cost per month , because she wanted me to get a bigger add and pay more than i can afford… i told her no and she cut me a check and the add ran for a full year i dint get any business after calculating cost and expense on the add… my bill was 900 a month an i would make about 1300 it was totally not worth it they are rip offs
Ah, I advertised in Yellow pages this year after not advertising for 2 years because they stuffed up my phone number. After coming to a resolution on that, I agreed I wanted a one unit advert full colour for $3500 (as I had done before). The sales person was pushy though and convinced me that if I didn’t up grade my advert to 2 unit ($7500) that all the competitors in the book would come before my advert and I could be on the next page. He told me an advert that size would generate approximately 90 phone calls per month. I said I hoped it would increase turnover by about $30grand, he laughed and said it would increase my turnover a substantial amount more than that.
When the book arrived I ripped it open, flicked to where our advert was and I was devastated – all my competitors had pulled their adverts out. This indicated to me that the book went so bad the year before they all pulled out. I didn’t need to spend $3500 over my budget since I was the only one left! …. I tried to stay positive since now I was only one of 3 display adverts…. But we’ve had nothing all year, not even ONE phone call.
When I tried to dispute the charges they claim they never guarantee the advert will product leads in writing, which is fair enough. However, is it fair that their sales person can spin whatever he wants verbally to you and isn’t at all held accountable for his actions?
So sorry to hear that Hope. What a shame. Apparently that sales guy has no conscious. I hope things end up well for you though.
Marcus
I was on this board a couple of years ago maybe but I wanted to update whats happened to us.
We pulled all our adverts form YP and this made no difference at all to our turnover (our business was aimed at the hearing market and the age group you would expect to still use YP)
What I will say is that I have become the biggest schmooze in the UK and spend all day at events or shaking hands and playing golf after lunches. This you may think is fun but its really hard to have a smile every minute of everyday. What I will say is however, Our turnover has gone through the roof. (and profit with it)
Dump the YP and spend the money on SCHMOOOZING! Join a golf club! (Im Scottish so its in my DNA anyway) Facebook,Linkedin and Bloggs. There are many companies who will do all you viral marketing for you so its money far better spent.
Ps dont do the lunches without the golf, you will have to join a gym afterwards!!
Thanks for the update Neil, and good luck with the Schmoozing!!
I have put on a 14lbs in weight!
I am the king of the schmooze
It works though Marcus.
anyone for golf?
No replies since Aug. 2011 so my observation might fall on deaf ears?
Maybe just maybe everyone here has a legitimate position? But just step out of the box and “be” the local consumer who is looking for a product and or service provided by a local merchant/vendor! What, When, Where, Why and How does the consumer go about satisfying their quest? Probably all of the above?
So, no cost to the local consumer, well what about no cost to the local merchant/vendor when use of the WWW/Net is used satisfy both platforms?
Today I received a Phone Book/Yellow Pages delivered to my home and to our office and it was FREE. Today I am replying to this WEB Site and it is FREE. I also searched a local Directory Site looking for a product (which I called) and I purchased to the product the search was FREE. The seller of the product listed the product on the local Directory for FREE. Amazing that the local merchant nor the local consumer new nothing about SEO/SEM/SMB/ORGANIC or the host of other acro’s or Abbrev’s and yet the entire UNION of SATISFACTION was FREE? No one go to the “nothing is FREE” quote, obviously there is always a cost associated with something. There are sites out there in the WWW that offer FREE e.g., http://www.areacodeshopper.com & http://www.uscities.net and a host of other directories.
joe underwood
{ 1 trackback }