Broadband Evolved

For more than 100 years small business owners have been paying for placement inside of yellow pages directories and getting rewarded with lots of new customers.  It was a great ride while it lasted, but unfortunately for yellow pages publishers the game is slowly coming to end.

Seriously, think about it for a moment.  When was the last time you personally opened up the local yellow pages to look for a small business product or service?  Have your teenage kids ever used a yellow pages directory in their entire lives?

It’s definitely not a secret.  Everyone knows that consumers have been spending less time looking in the yellow pages and more time on the web searching, finding, trying and buying all sorts of different things.

Yet despite this huge shift in consumer behavior from print directories to online search — you might be surprised to learn that there are still 3 million companies in the US collectively spending $13 billion annually on yellow pages advertising.  That’s approximately $4000 per year, per company — and $333 per month.

I know what you’re going to ask.  If the value of the yellow pages is trending down — then why in the world are so many businesses still spending so much money advertising in the book?  The reason is because the value of the yellow pages has not completely disappeared (not yet at least).   Indeed, there is still significant value in yellow pages advertising, especially for certain types of businesses, like plumbing contractors, where consumer needs tend to be immediate and highly local.  Recall what you were thinking the last time you had water in your basement?  ”I need a local plumber right %$#&! now!”   Yellow pages value also remains sound for SMB advertisers in smaller/rural markets and in markets with a higher percentage of elderly consumers who are less prone to web-centric behaviors.

So what should you do if you own a small business and you’re looking to connect with customers in your local community?  Should you advertise in the yellow pages?  Should you redirect the investment toward the web?  Or, should you hedge your bets and keep a smaller ad in the Yellow Pages while simultaneously building a robust online presence for your business?

This is a critical question for any small business owner.  Unfortunately, the answer is not binary, and therefore never easy.  The following thoughts are designed to offer context.  Hopefully you’ll find it useful when deciding whether you should fish or cut bait in regards to your yellow pages advertising:

• No one knows your business or community better than you.  So depending on how you answered the questions above — you probably already have a gut feel for what you should do.  Do you find that your typical customer is internet-savvy?  If yes, then it’s probably time to say good bye to the yellow pages and invest the resources necessary to create a search-optimized, socially-enhanced, and commerce-enabled online presence for your business.  Online marketing by itself is fertile ground for deep exploration.  It’s a topic for another day, but suffice to say there are many different options to consider ranging from free do-it-yourself (DIY) services to more expensive do-it-for-me (DIFM) services.

• Can you remember the last 10 times someone walked into your business and said they found you in the yellow pages?  If yes.  It’s probably worth staying in the book.  Although print yellow pages suffer from a lack of data-driven analytics — as the owner of the business you generally know when customers are finding you in the book.  If it feels right — then it probably is.

• Have you noticed that your community yellow pages book is getting smaller?  If yes, then you might want to use this to your advantage by capitalizing on the fact that a thinner phonebook means fewer advertisers and less competition for your ad.

In summary, the decision on whether you should fish or cut bait comes down to 3 things:

1. Know your customers habits and make it easy for them to find you and engage with you wherever they’re looking
2. Study your most successful competitors carefully.  Don’t be afraid to do the opposite of them, even if it’s counter-intuitive.
3. Don’t be naive.  At a macro-level the web is the future and the yellow pages is in a state of serious decline.  Jump off the at the right time — but not too early.

Share