Consumers are increasingly moving to the web to search, find, try, and buy things — which means they spend less time looking in the yellow pages.
The trend is a very sharp double edge sword — and it is fascinating to take a look at the other side of the sword — and see how the massive flight to online media is actually making paper media a better value for the laggard businesses who stick around and continue to place ads in paper books.
The reason is simple. There is less compeition. The truth about Yellow Pages advertising is that the ads at the front of the heading always get more calls compared with those at the back. That is precisely why we see som many "AAA" plumber trucks.
This fascinating blog post shows how a chiropractic group benefited in AT&T’s Lancaster and Palmdale directory when the page count at the heading went from six to three pages. The writer makes a clever and compelling argument that the move away from Yellowpages is premature –especially if you’re a chiropractor — and if your average customer is older than 50.
The morale of the story is simple:
Thanks for your kind comments. You provoke me to validate the theory that the users are older. I’ll have someone listen to the calls, and track down the demographics. Also… We have found in research that the yellow page/internet shift is very much market dependent (See rule #1). Interestingly, the areas with thick phone books are trending towards internet.
Also worth a mention that AAA plumbers was fine until 2007 when the Yellow Pages listed entries alphabetically. Since late 2007 calling your firm AAA Plumbing Services or 111222333 Electronics etc will not do you any good at all – they have randomized all entries – period!. Its now pot luck and your annual spend will not count for a jot in trying to convince them to hedge you up towards the front either.