I’ve been a big fan of the Yellow Pages over the years, often recommending them to others as a great way to advertise themselves.
But are the Yellow pages now obsolete? They’re certainly struggling financially, with fewer people using their services each week. (With a $1.44b loss last year many doubt they’re be around in 12 months). As the sales leads dwindle, it comes as no surprise that local businesses are looking into alternatives for reaching customers in their area.
The upcoming generations are using the Internet often on their mobile phones. Most probably are not familiar with the hard copy yellow pages at all! Baby-Boomers are are growing group of mobile device users…and certainly EVERYONE is using the net and Google.
And for those that think the net is only for the young, latest polls show that those aged 55 and over are in fact using Google and doing more online shopping than those under 25!
Yellow’s Sales Pitch
Here’s how the game is played. If you’re on the phone with your Yellow Pages rep and he feels you’re going cold on their costly Yellow printed book, they’ll push their online listings, likely their ‘gold’ online package for around $200-300/mth. Some who have a costly Yellow Book listing will qualify for a ‘free’ online listing. But even they will be hounded to ‘upgrade’ to one of their paid-for ‘gold’ listings that will, somewhat magically, give 4 times more leads. Yeh, right…
But again remind yourself, the total number of sales leads is NOT really determined by Yellow themselves, but where people go looking. Are they entering the Yellow.co.nz or Google.co.nz sales funnel? Research tells us that Google is the clear winner here, with around ten times the local search inquiries from NZ consumers.
But Yellows telemarketers don’t want you to know too much about this and will keep you ignorant on the industry trends. If asked, they cover the ‘Google aspect’ saying that a listing in yellow online will also appear in a Google search. The big problem is, you’ll seldom see a yellow.co.nz result on Google’s page one. And even when they do show up, consumers are still 5-10 key-clicks away from finding someone in their local area. Google has already served up exactly what they need on page one with a detailed Map, pictures, reviews, even coupons (for verified listings), just one or two mouse clicks away.
Remember you’re buying advertising space, not ‘a deal’
Be very aware of Yellows aggressive, hard sell tactics, with their reps often flooding you with meaningless statistics, then mentioning phrases like ‘your local competitors are all listed with us’ and you’ll ‘miss out on sales’ if you don’t sign up. Or ‘we’ve a great deal just for you’ but only ‘if you sign today’, etc etc… Typical persuasion strategies. These people are better trained than your average car dealer….
But logically, if fewer people are [undeniably] using Yellow, then whether you [or your competitors] are listed in the Yellow Pages online or offline, is largely irrelevant. No matter how great ‘the deal’ is, you’re ALL wasting money. You need to market your services in places that people are actually going to.
Think about how you buy other ad space
Here’s a good analogy. What if an advertising rep contacted you, working for a long-standing magazine in your market. They have a circulation of 8,000, selling full page display ad space for $1,900/mth, offering you a ‘great one-off deal’ of just $1,100/mth for a 12-month commitment. Sounds amazing value. You’re very tempted to sign up.
But you also seen another, newer magazine in the same industry and market. You then discovered they had a circulation of 75,000 charging a flat $950/mth for the same display ad, and no long term commitments. Who would you go with now?
This is Yellows basic problem. Yes, they’ve been around a long time and can conjure up amazing ‘deals’ done in a way that makes you sound like the world’s top negotiator. But the bottom line is their online and book publications now have a smaller ‘circulation’ and far fewer ‘readers’ – But they will still charge more than their competitors, the main one being Google.
STOP THE MADNESS
A local ad marketing consultant tells me that although support for Yellow amongst consumers is now at an all time low, many businesses remain surprisingly loyal, continuing to spend thousands with them every year.
What’s happening is like watching a variation of the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber‘, but with no happy ending…
I’m not saying Yellow haven’t been somewhat effective in the past. But their importance, especially in recent times, is grossly overstated. There’s little doubt that the October 2010 Google maps/search upgrade is the final nail in Yellows coffin. Stop the madness. It’s time for a change. Yellow Pages, hardcopy or their online version, has had its day.… Time to say farewell.
Here’s a view from another online marketer in the US.