An unbelievable number of businesses and professionals are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars every year on Yellow Pages advertising. This advertising approach is rapidly becoming a thing of the past as it drops out of more and more marketing plans. Yellow Pages advertising has been a staple of small business and professional marketing plans for decades. It has always been considered effective and cost-efficient. But the Internet has displaced it (at least in use) very quickly.
What Happened?
The Yellow Pages book endured for decades, but we are suddenly seeing a proliferation of Yellow Pages books by various phone service providers. Now businesses and professionals are being asked to pay to have their Yellow Pages advertising included in each provider's version of the book. I have so many versions deposited outside my door that I just gather them up and put them in the garbage can.
It is an interesting study when traveling to note that the books just are not shrinking anywhere. More and more often, even in hotels, those books look new all year long. If Yellow Pages advertising is still in your budget, you need to do some cost-analysis.
One company here in Tucson relied on the Yellow Pages almost exclusively for new customers for more than 10 years. This company analyzes all spending. They found that the monthly cost of three thousand dollars is not even close to paying for itself. I can almost guarantee that most other companies still spending precious marketing dollars on Yellow Pages advertising are not seeing better results.
Yellow Pages advertising was a very effective means of presenting information about your business, your products or services, your location, and your involvement in the community. One ad could tell a prospective customer everything they could need to know at the precise moment that they were deciding which business to call. But today, it does not matter how much information you can include if nobody uses the book.
Everything Changed with the Internet
In truth, it is much faster to use online directories and local search. The information is also more likely to be accurate. Just think how many times you have called the number in the Yellow Pages only to be given a new number you need to call?
Statistically, today 82% of people go online and do a search rather than pick up the Yellow Pages advertising book to peruse the ads. When you consider the ease of Internet access we all have now with smart phones and the iPad, why would you bother with a cheaply printed book on the cheapest paper produced only to have your hands smeared with ink when you finish?
It's time to move embrace the Internet agenda. Yellow Pages advertising is a waste of money. Let's focus our marketing dollars on Internet options, where people will actually see our ads. Then, let's show some care for the environment and recycle all that paper.
More Information:
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