Comments on: Is It Time to Abandon Your Yellow Pages Advertising? http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/ How to turn prospects into buyers with content marketing Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:51:02 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Paul http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-28964 Paul Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:19:25 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-28964 I agree the phone book advertising is a waste of money for my company. 20 years sevice company in Washington DC Metro market. I cover 11 markets here and had 1/4 to whole page adds running. Spending 8000.00 per month. I'm getting 90% of my business from the web page I built which took me 2 years of studing to understand how to provide content and SEO. I have drop my ad's to a bold line ad phone number and wwww adress, my monthly cost are now 300.00 for those 11 markets. I was spending more then I brought in, I cannot afford the business the phonebook was bringing in and just assume to lose it. In large urban markets with highspeed internet I'm guessing less then 10% of folks use the book. With it high cost I can't image them being in business much longer. Yes it does make a nice child booster seat. I agree the phone book advertising is a waste of money for my company. 20 years sevice company in Washington DC Metro market. I cover 11 markets here and had 1/4 to whole page adds running. Spending 8000.00 per month. I’m getting 90% of my business from the web page I built which took me 2 years of studing to understand how to provide content and SEO. I have drop my ad’s to a bold line ad phone number and wwww adress, my monthly cost are now 300.00 for those 11 markets. I was spending more then I brought in, I cannot afford the business the phonebook was bringing in and just assume to lose it. In large urban markets with highspeed internet I’m guessing less then 10% of folks use the book. With it high cost I can’t image them being in business much longer. Yes it does make a nice child booster seat.

]]> By: Newt Barrett http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-28783 Newt Barrett Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:05:06 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-28783 Dave, thanks for your 3 related comments. Following David Meerman Scott's example, I always ask attendees at talks I give how many have used the YP in the last 30 days to buy a product. Typical of the results was a talk I gave recently to SCORE, an audience of retired execs, almost all over 60. Only 10% raised their hands to say they had used the YP. Conversely, 90+% had used Google or another search engine. Of course, you do need to do something to stand out on the web; that's what content marketing is all about--provide great content that gets great search engine results. For example, my site comes up at the top of Google search for 'content marketing' because I have provided lots of relevant content on the topic. I haven't paid Google anything for that. Finally, if you talk to small business owners as I do all the time, you'll find that they are moving $$ away from the YP because they just don't work very well anymore and because an effective website does work very well. Dave, thanks for your 3 related comments. Following David Meerman Scott’s example, I always ask attendees at talks I give how many have used the YP in the last 30 days to buy a product. Typical of the results was a talk I gave recently to SCORE, an audience of retired execs, almost all over 60. Only 10% raised their hands to say they had used the YP. Conversely, 90+% had used Google or another search engine.
Of course, you do need to do something to stand out on the web; that’s what content marketing is all about–provide great content that gets great search engine results. For example, my site comes up at the top of Google search for ‘content marketing’ because I have provided lots of relevant content on the topic. I haven’t paid Google anything for that.
Finally, if you talk to small business owners as I do all the time, you’ll find that they are moving $$ away from the YP because they just don’t work very well anymore and because an effective website does work very well.

]]> By: David http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-28781 David Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:51:44 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-28781 Mike, where do you think that they got your phone number? Do you think that they will remember what website they saw it on? I guarantee you are not giving the credit to the phone book that is due. Chew on that Mike, where do you think that they got your phone number? Do you think that they will remember what website they saw it on? I guarantee you are not giving the credit to the phone book that is due. Chew on that

]]> By: Dave http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-28779 Dave Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:47:20 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-28779 One more thing to ad... People that are ready to buy turn to the yellow pages. Imagine one hand on your wallet and the other on the book. They dont go to the yellow pages to read, they are there because the already know that they need and want and are ready to buy. One more thing to ad…
People that are ready to buy turn to the yellow pages. Imagine one hand on your wallet and the other on the book. They dont go to the yellow pages to read, they are there because the already know that they need and want and are ready to buy.

]]> By: Dave http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-28778 Dave Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:43:52 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-28778 This is so UNTRUE! There are so many websites out there, who is to know which one to do your advertising? (not to mention, you have to pay per click.)Google? no. Advertising on Google is horrible. Your listing could be several pages down where no one goes. I know I dont. Also, google brings up so much needless info, it gets frustrating trying to find anything. The phone book hasn't gone anywhere and wont be for many many years to come. Everyone returns to the yellow pages. That is a statistical fact. Internet advertising is something to consider more maybe 10 years from now and is definately not for small business. This is so UNTRUE! There are so many websites out there, who is to know which one to do your advertising? (not to mention, you have to pay per click.)Google? no. Advertising on Google is horrible. Your listing could be several pages down where no one goes. I know I dont. Also, google brings up so much needless info, it gets frustrating trying to find anything. The phone book hasn’t gone anywhere and wont be for many many years to come. Everyone returns to the yellow pages. That is a statistical fact. Internet advertising is something to consider more maybe 10 years from now and is definately not for small business.

]]> By: Mike Peterson http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-23486 Mike Peterson Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:05:33 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-23486 YP ads in urban areas are a complete waste of money. We had a 1/4 page ad in the Yellow Books that cost us $600/month. We also have a web site that costs us $5/month. For FY2006-2008 the breakdown of new business is as follows... Google: 90% Yahoo: 5% Newspaper: 5% Yellowpages: 0% That's right. Not one darn customer from the YP. The people at the Yellow Book also boast "our web site is as popular as google". Oh yea...zero clicks from the YB web site for the past 2 years. YP ads in urban areas are a complete waste of money. We had a 1/4 page ad in the Yellow Books that cost us $600/month. We also have a web site that costs us $5/month. For FY2006-2008 the breakdown of new business is as follows…
Google: 90%
Yahoo: 5%
Newspaper: 5%
Yellowpages: 0%

That’s right. Not one darn customer from the YP.

The people at the Yellow Book also boast “our web site is as popular as google”. Oh yea…zero clicks from the YB web site for the past 2 years.

]]> By: Baby Boomer Newt Barret Illustrates Online Marketing Benefits « Tucson Web Design – CS Design Studios http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-19065 Baby Boomer Newt Barret Illustrates Online Marketing Benefits « Tucson Web Design – CS Design Studios Mon, 25 May 2009 23:19:13 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-19065 [...] looming dermatologist visit resurrected the directory issue. Since I had written so critically about the Yellow Pages in a recent post, I thought it only fair that I try a real-world experiment to test their [...] [...] looming dermatologist visit resurrected the directory issue. Since I had written so critically about the Yellow Pages in a recent post, I thought it only fair that I try a real-world experiment to test their [...]

]]> By: Pannos-Winzeler Marketing News » Blog Archive » ? of the Day to Tara http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-11396 Pannos-Winzeler Marketing News » Blog Archive » ? of the Day to Tara Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:30:35 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-11396 [...] Is It Time to Abandon Your Yellow Pages Advertising? [...] [...] Is It Time to Abandon Your Yellow Pages Advertising? [...]

]]> By: John http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-8735 John Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:50:05 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-8735 Here are two different (and recent) studies that discuss how consumers use both online and print media to search for local businesses. While the studies disagree as to whether consumers first turn to print Yellow Pages or search engines, it’s clear that both are being widely used; and it’s a more accurate gauge of how you should market, rather than any single individual's "research." CONSUMERS COMBINE INTERNET, MOBILE, PRINT IN SEARCHING FOR BUSINESS INFORMATION “Nearly half (48%) of consumers report print Yellow Pages as the resource they turn to most often for information on a business or service, and more than three-quarters (77%) use the print Yellow Pages overall. Search engines (49%) are the second most-turned-to source, followed by Internet Yellow Pages (36%), and free or fee-based 411 (30%).” Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Consumers-Combine-Internet-Mobile-Print/story.aspx?guid=%7B267979EC-4048-4E52-B54E-D9FC031A1DE8%7D FOR LOCAL INFO, USERS TURN TO SEARCH ENGINES, YELLOW PAGES; MOBILE SEARCH UP “The first sources that Americans turn to for local business information are search engines (31%), print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%), internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites (19%) and local search sites (11%). “Those results differ from last year’s study, which ranked Print Yellow Pages first (33%), followed by Search Engines (30%).” Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/search-engines-yellow-pages-used-to-find-local-info-mobile-searches-on-upswing-6459/ Here are two different (and recent) studies that discuss how consumers use both online and print media to search for local businesses.

While the studies disagree as to whether consumers first turn to print Yellow Pages or search engines, it’s clear that both are being widely used; and it’s a more accurate gauge of how you should market, rather than any single individual’s “research.”

CONSUMERS COMBINE INTERNET, MOBILE, PRINT IN SEARCHING FOR BUSINESS INFORMATION
“Nearly half (48%) of consumers report print Yellow Pages as the resource they turn to most often for information on a business or service, and more than three-quarters (77%) use the print Yellow Pages overall. Search engines (49%) are the second most-turned-to source, followed by Internet Yellow Pages (36%), and free or fee-based 411 (30%).”

Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Consumers-Combine-Internet-Mobile-Print/story.aspx?guid=%7B267979EC-4048-4E52-B54E-D9FC031A1DE8%7D

FOR LOCAL INFO, USERS TURN TO SEARCH ENGINES, YELLOW PAGES; MOBILE SEARCH UP
“The first sources that Americans turn to for local business information are search engines (31%), print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%), internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites (19%) and local search sites (11%).

“Those results differ from last year’s study, which ranked Print Yellow Pages first (33%), followed by Search Engines (30%).”

Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/search-engines-yellow-pages-used-to-find-local-info-mobile-searches-on-upswing-6459/

]]> By: J.R. Augustine http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/comment-page-1/#comment-7887 J.R. Augustine Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:30:05 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/01/13/is-it-time-to-abandon-your-yellow-pages-advertising/#comment-7887 Combine the downward trend of yp usage and the upward sales of smart phones and I suspect by 2012 we'll be picking up our phone to surf for the listings we used to get from the yp. Combine the downward trend of yp usage and the upward sales of smart phones and I suspect by 2012 we’ll be picking up our phone to surf for the listings we used to get from the yp.

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