Yellow pages publishers from around the world continue to struggle. Whether it’s Idearc, YPG, RHD, or Yell — it’s a familiar refrain consisting of bad news, good news, bad news.
- Bad news = overall revenues are trending down due to declines in the print yellow pages (PYP)
- Good news = online revenues are trending up due to gains in the internet yellow pges (IYP)
- Bad news = IYP advertisers generate substantially less revenue than PYP advertisers
In summary, although yellow pages publishers are indeed making strides transitioning their advertisers onto the web, their legacy-driven and directory-centric approach is seriously flawed and has led to a situation where many of them are simply “trading analog dollars for digital dimes”.
If directory publishers want to succeed into the future they must adopt a new approach that innovates beyond traditional directory-centric thinking. This new approach must fully embrace the open and social web as the platform for delivering next generation advertising and content solutions.
For starters, publishers must acknowledge that the web itself is the one true directory. Upon this playing field there are brokers of information (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, Kosmix) and enablers of content (Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter). There are also hybrid players attempting to do both (CitySearch, Merchant Circle, Yelp, Service Magic).
While it’s difficult to compete with Google in the brokerage business, there are plenty of opportunities to compete and win on the content creation side of the market. There are also plenty of opportunities to compete and win as a hybrid player, provided that you find ways to create differentiated content and surface it openly in co-existence with Google and all of the other information brokers.
The web is the open directory. It’s got very capable search tools on top of it. However, the one thing it still lacks is quality content, especially in the context of 15 million small businesses.
Let me say it again. Quality local content. It’s the one thing the web still lacks. And it’s the one thing that even Google can’t get for itself. It’s also the one area where I believe yellow pages publishers have an enormous opportunity to compete and win.
Equipped with a next generation lead gen platform, a yellow pages sales force could sell simple tools and services to enable millions of small businesses to create quality online content for purposes of getting found in search, conversing with customers, and generating much needed sales leads.
I’d welcome the opportunity to show you the future.
If you’d like to see it, please send me email at matt.howard@smblive.com.
I sell print yellow pages as well as a host of digital (seo, sem) products. It seems that every month we are meeting about a new product that has been half baked just to get in our hands to see what will stick. I would love to hear your thoughts on what is in store for the traditional print book.
Happy to chat. Feel free to drop me a line at matt.howard@smblive.com
Hoi matt, liked your summary, that there is potential for a next generation lead gen platform. Do you have any ideas how it will look? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the late post here, but I just found this on the web, Matt. I work for a YP publisher and I could not agree with you more. Trading analog dollars for digital dimes is exactly what’s happening. The plot thickens though when the print YP publishers are now alleged SEM experts and sell packages on Google and Yahoo. When you lose $5000 on an account in the print phone book, the company looses the entire $5000. When they try to make it up by selling $5000 in SEM, the only money they really earn is the amount they charge for the campaign management fee because the bulk of the click cost goes to the search engine itself. Not to mention that in most smaller markets, it’s easy for a business to cancel $5000 in print YP ads but hard to get $5000 worth of business on the search engines, unless you’re in a medium to large sized market. So the digital dime that the YP publishers are using to offset the analog dollar, isn’t even a dime in terms of real monies earned by the print YP company. This makes no “cents” to me!