Does Yellow Page Advertising Work?
Photo credit by How Can I Recycle This
Today Comscore Media Metrix released a report on the “Top 50 Web Rankings for March.” One highlight of the report was the list of the top gaining sites, which included the Yellow Book Network with 54 percent increase and an overall rank at #75.
Yellow Book hasn’t caught up to its two big competitors, Superpages.com (#26) and Yellowpages.com (#31), but it is gaining on them.
What does this mean to you as a small business owner? Well, the fact that all of the phone book directories are doing a huge push for their online services tells us that people don’t use phone books anymore to find service providers, they just Google it.
Even industries that historically have been heavy yellow page advertisers are now cutting back on expenditures because they aren’t getting the return they once did.
In an article for the World Chiropractic Organization titled “Quit Wasting Money on Yellow Page Advertising”, Peter Fernandez, D.C., author of “Yellow Page Advertising that Works for Chiropractic” and a business consultant for chiropractic offices, has completely changed his opinion on the medium:
Because of the poor performance of the Yellow Pages over the last 24 months, I have downsized the ads of over 90% of my clients. The low numbers of new patients generated didn’t warrant the cost of the ad(s).
In “When Yellow Pages Ads are NOT Worth the Price” Roger Eshaghian, DDS, provides a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of Yellow Page advertising for the dental practitioner. He is a strong advocate of developing a marketing plan with a mix of mediums.
From my own experience, the flakiest inquiry calls I have received have been from people who have found my business through the phone book. While working with clients who track their customer sources, the consensus is that while the phone book ads do generate calls, for the most part there are a high percentage of tire-kickers and prospects are very price sensitive. There are always exceptions to this, but in general that is the case.
Should I Still Advertise in the Yellow Pages?
Here’s the thing, I can’t give you a blanket statement on whether or not yellow page advertising will work for your business. It really depends on your market niche, how effective your ad is, and the quality of the online presence of your competitors. As with any marketing effort, it is important to track incoming business to determine if you are getting enough return on your advertising dollar.
If you are in an area where very few of your competitors have a web site presence (for those of you who breathe blogs I know this is hard to believe, but it is true), you probably need to focus on your phone book ad.
However, if someone does a local search for a service provider and finds a few good options online, that three pound phone book probably won’t even be cracked open.
The Yellow Pages used to be what the internet is today, a compilation of information delivered to our door. However, the phone book is quickly becoming obsolete in an age of online directories, cell phones and 411, and PDA browsing.
What Not to Do
Don’t just get an ad because your competitor is doing it. Just because they’re doing it, it doesn’t mean that it is working for them.
Don’t just slap an ad together haphazardly. Make sure that it ties in with your other marketing efforts.
Don’t forget to include your web site domain.
Directory Ads That Work
Directory ads are much more effective if they are presented in the context of an existing relationship.
Location: One thing that annoys the heck out of me about the big online directory services is that the top results aren’t necessarily local, but who has paid the most to be listed. Also, if there are only two service providers in the area, they may be listed along with those in a completely different market area.
If there is an online business directory for your area, make sure that your business is listed.
Affiliation: I don’t use the phone book, but I do carry around the business directory for the Chamber of Commerce as well as a couple of other groups I am a member of. Sports leagues, civic groups, and neighborhood associations are also great places to promote your business. While they won’t all have actual directories, many have programs or some form of member listing available.
Google Business Center: Add your listing to the Google Business Center to be included in results on Google Search and Google Maps.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:00 am
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The interesting thing about the yellow page companies is that once people do pick up the phone book then the user intent is there and the conversion rate is high…the issue is becoming, how many folks are picking up that book and not using the internet…
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Phone Books,
While I agree that if someone is looking through a phone book that they are most likely to make a purchase, the issue for many businesses is the quality of the prospect.
Prior to the web, the yellow pages were the only place to get a directory of businesses. You either opened the phone book or asked a friend to find a service provider.
That is not true today. People go to the internet to do their due diligence. While I think that it may still be effective for certain types of businesses, this is becoming increasingly less common.
For myself, if someone is using the phone book to price shop, that really isn’t my ideal customer.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I have over 15 years of advertising sales experience and yellow pages is half of that. Yellow pages is not want it use to be. First, consider how much money you spend with these yellow page companies, thousands and thousands of dollar annually and you are luckly to break even sometimes depending on your goods and or services. If you turned around and took that same money and put it into search (internet marketing) you would make more money from the internet. Its all in how you market yourself and of course the company you chose. These are the facts: 1) Yellow page usage is declining rapidly, look at the companies sell off their yellow pages sections of the business or filing Chapter 11 or 12. 2) Opt-Out clause that is coming for many directories across the nation meaning customer/ indivduals can opt out of getting the directory entirely meaning less distribution at the same cost. 3) Congress is about to put the smack down on a lot of these publishers due to the landfills being congested with these unused and unwanted directories. 4) Why do you think all of these yellow page publishers are trying so hard to get a reliable internet product? Everything is going to the internet including newspaper, magazines, and of course yellow pages. Brady the cost per call is based on what you are spending on your advertising but what do you have to compare it with. There are thousands of successful internet marketing programs out there, don’t be brain-washed in thinking that this is your only advertising solution. It is actually costing advertisers more money with the ROI in question.