Once upon a time, if you owned a small business, yellow page advertising was the first thing that would come to your mind whenever you thought about marketing. It may have even been the only thing you thought of. And if Jane was searching for a new dress to buy or a new washing machine to wash it in, the first place she would turn to was the yellow pages, so it made sense to put your ad where she was looking.
But that’s not where Jane is looking at anymore. Now, more than 86% of consumers turn to the Internet whenever they’re searching for a product, and over half of them open a browser first. The yellow pages that used to be the bread and butter of advertising to most businesses have become the book of last resort for many people.
Recent years have seen a massive decline in yellow page advertising, and with good reason. You only have to look at the decline of print advertising, in general, to realize that the yellow pages can’t be far behind. The radical changes that have taken place in this industry have left the use of yellow pages to diminish. Yellow pages thought they had taken a position in the economy and they thought they will continue to dominate the market. Well, they did dominate the market, but all this changed with technology. The truth is that; many people don’t even have a phone book.
Despite the shift in effective advertising to internet marketing, there are still companies and business owners that invest in yellow pages. These businesses have to change. Before we look at 6 reasons why you should stop spending money on Yellow pages, below are just a few hard facts.
Advertising via Telephone Directory is losing more and more advertisers each year.
The number of consumers who use the phone book has decreased by almost 86% in the last ten years.
Although consumer use has been significantly reduced, advertising rates have increased in recent years.
The response rate is difficult to track, and analytics options are limited.
More Yellow Pages companies are being filed for bankruptcy in recent years due to poor sales.
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If you are still into Yellow Pages advertising, you can save thousands of dollars by adopting effective online marketing tactics that will generate more customers for you. Here are six major reasons why you should stop spending money on Yellow pages.
1. Yellow Pages Are Ineffective
When advertising on Yellow Pages, you have no idea of what triggered a prospect to take action. Knowing which keywords are most effective and the types of ads that are more effective is an advantage you get through internet marketing. Online marketing also lets you analyze comprehensive statistics about those who respond to your online content. Age, location, frequency, race, time of day and traffic source are just some of the hundreds of parameters available to you for analysis.
2. Yellow Pages Do Not Allow Relationships with Prospective Customers
It is impossible to establish any relationship with prospective customers through Yellow Pages ads. However, with online marketing, you have the ability to respond to information requests via email or newsletters. You can even reach prospective clients on an emotional level with a personal video, and your blog can allow visitors to leave comments that you can respond to personally.
3. Yellow Pages Create Excessive Competition
With Yellow Pages advertising, there are many ads and dozens of marketing messages in every category. As an advertiser, this is a game of trying to stand out with bright colors and creative graphics. As a reader, it is a confusing mixture of information that will, most times, make your competitors make more sales, even when your ad is more expensive.
4. The Graphic Design Is Terrible
The graphic designers working for Yellow Pages companies do not have the incentive to make a client’s advertisement more efficient than any other advertiser in the category. And even if you employ your own designer, they are limited by the old methods of printing and the quality of paper is only suitable for wrapping fish.
5. Yellow Pages Offer Limited Space for Content
Space has always been considered to be an important factor when it comes to advertising. If you want your clients to know more about your business, a limited space will not work. In online marketing, you have whatever space you need to promote and advertise your business. When advertising on Yellow Pages, even the largest ads will get a limited amount of space to stay on.
6. Yellow Pages Have Limited Reach
Yellow Pages can’t go really far. They have no keyword usage, and listings are typically for only one category. As online marketing has grown over the years, search engines have become smarter to understand not only the “local intent” behind search queries but also the location of the searcher, called “geo-targeting.”
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