Initially my plan was to respond in the comments section, but I think it’s worth addressing the questions my intital thoughts raised with another official post.

First, Rick, who says the Internet isn’t necessarily the final alternative to dumping the yellow pages. He’s right, Google and search engines are a bit of the Wild West right now, but for the sake of this argument, let me simply say while it’s not ideal, money placed with Google Ads is much wiser than any size ad in the yellow pages.

Next, James Edward Hicks III and Filobeto, who bring up valid questions:

  • What do you do when the Internet isn’t easily accessible in your market?
  • Or the majority of your prospects have molasses-in January dial-up speed on their computers?
  • Or your business targets an older demo, not as versed in using the Internet?

For sake of argument, let’s jump into our imaginative time machines and go back twenty years before the time of Google and widespread Internet use. What would I istock_000002797624xsmall.jpgrecommend to businesses back then?

Don’t waste your money in the yellow pages.

Let me repeat, the yellow pages is a phone book full of phone numbers. If you own a business, and have a business phone line, you will be listed in both the white pages and the yellow pages. If I look you up in the white pages your business number will be there. If I look you up under the yellow pages, you will be there.

This brings us to the primary question that should be asked of any marketing plan or dollars to be spent. The question should never be, ‘Will it work?’ Or, ‘Is it a good use of my money?’ but, ‘Is it the best use of the money?’ If a business has a dominant presence on radio, on TV, in newspaper, in direct mail, on billboards, magazines, etc., and they want to dump money into the yellow pages, fine. But that’s ludicrous. No one has enough money to be dominant in all media at the same time. Media is more expensive than ever, and continues to fragment. Who has money to spend $$ that aren’t finely targeted?

And don’t you want to use your money to create new customers who don’t know about you or your business? Wouldn’t you like to be known BEFORE people get to the yellow pages?

What if I took my yellow page money and put it into a radio campaign? If a market is small enough to have weak Internet penetration, you can buy radio spots there for a song, and they’ll write and produce your commercial for free. Or how ’bout buying cable TV, which can be targeted to individual zip codes, just like direct mail? Or what about using that money you’d waste in the yellow pages to create a killer Web site, or a tantalizing blog?

By doing this, a business reaches potential customers before they even consider opening the yellow pages. So when/if customers go to the yellow pages, they look right past the big ads, because they already know about you. (By the way, I’ve had clients do exactly what I’m talking about and reap significant results.)

A nationwide yellow page study was done in the early part of this decade. It asked 1,500 people across the country, who had used a plumber in the past 12 months, how they found the plumber they ended up using. If there’s any category you’d believe has to be big and bold in the yellow pages, plumbing would have to be near the top.

Survey says … seventeen percent. Only 17% of the people used the yellow pages! The rest asked friends or family or already knew about a plumber to use. My guess is if other categories were surveyed, on average, they’d be be even lower.

So if you’re willing to spend 83% or more of every dollar to reach that elusive 1%-17% that will use the yellow pages to shop for your business, do it. Just know what your marketing dollars are buying, and what they are not buying because of it.

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