Yellow Pages: DOA

Do people still use the Yellow Pages? Over the last few years the “Gold Standard” of local advertising has been watered down by so many competing books. Our house received FOUR books last year. We have not touched one since the day they were dropped off in the driveway. Need a number? Google it!

Does Yellow Pages advertising still work? I say no and I have proof. I had a business that sold products to professional photography studios. The product needed to be installed in a permanent location, it is not portable. This item has virtually no use to local consumers. Therefore, I did not need, or want a listing in the Yellow Pages. When I have tried to explain that to the folks who sell the ads, they were not pleased. So, they took it upon themselves to give me a free listing (it is part of the cost of a business line they said).

The first year they listed me under “Business Brokers” in the entire year that listing was in print, we received ONE PHONE CALL. That’s right, only one call.

Now, perhaps nobody was interested in buying or selling a business that year and since I had no ad just a listing, I may have gotten overlooked.

The next year, they put me in the “Wall paper” section. WOW my calls doubled! Yep, I got two calls that year. Are these two examples typical of Yellow Page results? To me that is pretty convincing information.

What used to be a must for business advertising has gone the way of matchbook ads. (For those too young to know, in the days of old when most people smoked cigarettes, businesses gave away books of matches printed with an ad for the firm.)

The poor sales guys who used to come into my brick and mortar business were always trying to get me to increase the size of my yellow page ad. They has all sorts of reasons for me to spend more money with them. Back then there was no way to track if the ads worked or not.

Now, with Google Analytics, we can tell just how many people visit our site, how long they stay on the site, what country, state or city they are from and much more. If we see that a page or part of a site is not getting the desired results, we can change it immediately; no more waiting a whole year for the new Yellow Page book to come out.

For advertising results you can track call us for a FREE consultation about your existing or planned website. I promise not to try and sell you anything, although I hope you will consider us for your Internet needs. . The call is FREE and so is the information. Call 800-5898-4008