It might be obvious that the use of Yellow Pages advertising
is diminishing but there are some companies in Northeast Florida who are still
uncertain about the value of directories.
One Jacksonville company currently using a “page stealer” ad
has determined after a year that they will downsize their ad to a business card
size. On the other side, another company has decided to increase their ad size,
thinking that their ad would be more dominant because of the current lack of
competitors’ ads.
After reviewing data from several sources, here are some
prospectives from a fact-check site, a marketing analytics consultant and a
former Yellow Pages ad salesman.
First, some facts according to a Hubspot Webinar:
- Since
2007, many states have quit printing residential listing or have pending
requests to stop publication. These states include Florida and Georgia.
- Traditional
landlines are being disconnected at a rate of nearly 10% each year.
- Consumers
are increasingly considering online services before Yellow Pages to make
their purchasing decisions.
- Yellow
Pages usage among people under 50 will drop to near zero over the next
five years (according to Bill Gates).
Then there are actual third party or individual measurement
programs that can more accurately determine the value of Yellow Pages
advertising.
Ben Landers is president and CEO of Blue Corona, a marketing
analytics and optimization company. As a former vice president of sales and
marketing for a bottled water company named DrinkMore Water, he experienced first
hand the measurement of that company’s Yellow Pages program.
Originally his company tracked their ads by running
different phone numbers in each of the 10 directories they used throughout
their market. Then he instituted a more sophisticated web-based software
platform to not only track calls but to determine how many calls resulted in
actual sales.
Landers’ system found that the number of people using Yellow
Pages to find his company was decreasing faster than they realized. In
addition, he found that most of the calls were not from prospective customers
or current customers ready to buy, but were from automated campaign dialers
(robots) and other sales reps.
In 2008, DrinkMore Water pulled out of the Yellow Pages
because sales did not justify the cost. For the record, from January 1, 2008 to
September 30, 2008, DrinkMore Water received a total of 54 calls from the
directory. Only 16 of these calls were made by prospective customers. And only
five of those resulted in sales.
Landers further found that Yellow Pages’ leads are least
likely to have a credit card for residential billing; most likely to haggle on
price; and pay little attention to quality or to the value of customer service.
He concluded that prospects from the Yellow Pages were of very low quality
compared to other marketing channels.
Denny Smith, formerly with the Yellow Pages for 25 years,
reveals his conclusions in an article called “Confessions of a Former Yellow
Page Salesman” that was posted originally on SEO Articles, then reported on
EffectiveWebSolutions.Biz/Blog.
In 1984, he didn’t think the Internet would be a threat. He
argued at that time that you could include coupons in your print ad, and it
took longer to look up a source online than it did to look through a printed directory.
But things changed quickly.
With features like keyword searches; unlimited search in any
market (while only regional information is available in printed editions); easy
and quick updating of ads; inclusion of updated coupons; the addition of maps
and directions; and access from mobile devices; he thinks the printed book will
become “the next extinct species.”
Smith speculates that perhaps a 60% plus price reduction for
Yellow Pages ads could keep them going for now. But at best the dwindling usage
will require them to offer totally free ads within three more years.
In a post by Magdalena Georgieva on blog.Hubspot.com.,
certain industries already left the Yellow Pages world, while some are still
getting results. She cites the travel and catering industries as being some of
the first to go to the Internet, led by Priceline.com and TripAdvisor, which
have replaced many local travel agencies.
Then she reports that service industries are the ones still
hanging on to directories. She mentions specifically that plumbers and
contractors are predominant in the Yellow Pages because searches for those
types of local companies are limited. However, even that is rapidly changing
with online reviews from sites such as Angie’s List.
Like so much of our lives, including marketing, things we
grew up with are changing or going away. And that includes the printed Yellow
Pages.
