Are you spending money on the Yellow Pages?

Are you paying over $300 or more monthly on Yellow Pages?

If you are you may be wasting your marketing dollars.

Each of our clients has shown greater referrals from their Search Engine Optimized sites listed on  Google, Yahoo, and Bing than Yellow Pages.  As a matter of fact we have had these clients reduce there Yellow Page ads and in some cases do away with them entirely while still increasing referrals to their practice through internet organic searches.

When was the last time you did an ROI of your Yellow Pages?

Why Are the Yellow Pages like Nursing Homes? - They’re shockingly expensive, few people under 70 use them, and many who do are just a little out of it.

Moral of the story? When you invest in Yellow Pages ads, you’re setting fire to money.

Are we being a little harsh on this antiquated information source? I don't think so!  This obsolete technology sucks millions of dollars away from more cost-effective internet marketing tools, while delivering less every year. There are better uses for your budget, especially if you market goods and services to people who don’t remember the Pearson Government.

Read what others say:

• 5 Lies the Yellow Pages Tell - Read Article
• Yellow Pages ROI? - Read Article
• Even Restaurants get the idea! -Read Article
• Yellow Pages Losing Ground On Web Too! - read on....
• It is no secret that more and more people use the Internet for things they used to rely on the Yellow Pages to do.
  
  Yellow Pages had launched an Internet campaign to recapture some of the audience it had as a captive for generations. Unfortunately for them, the trend does not seem to be positive.
  
  The graph below is a trend in search traffic on Google that indicates that more and more people are looking for "local" providers, services, businesses through search engines, not "yellow pages."
  
  
  If you are still spending money on your Yellow Page advertising, you really need to watch the return on your investment closely. It may also make sense to transition some of those marketing dollars to the building exposure and presence on the Internet, even if your Yellow Pages seems to be still generating a profitable return. Indications are that it will not last forever.

What the Data Shows

Looks like search engines have officially trumped the Yellow Pages when it comes to customers looking for local businesses. Data from comScore and TMP Directional Marketing shows that this year more people are turning to search engines after the year 2007 showed that Yellow Pages were on top.

While most people still use a variety of different methods to find a local business, the study found what people seem to prefer as their first choice for doing so:

As these WebVisible-Nielsen data reflect, the Internet now has the greatest penetration and usage among local media (click to enlarge):