Stop Advertising in Your Phonebook; Spend Your Money Here Instead!
By now you have probably realized that having an ad in the local phonebook just isn’t worth the price anymore. With everything going digital and less people really wanting to fill up their cabinets with those big clunky phonebooks, more and more businesses are starting to shift their hard earned money into new directions other than the phonebook.
Here are some of my favorite places to shift your advertising and marketing budget to:
1. Onsite SEO: If your website is relatively small in nature there is a good possibility that you could be spending your money to just have your website optimized rather than paying for an expensive phonebook ad. If your website is under 50 pages large the cost could be significantly lower than the price of taking out a 12 month ad in the phonebook.
2. Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC): If you really want to spend some advertising dollars you would be much better off doing it through Bing or Google. The probability of generating any phone calls from the phonebook is very slim, whereas the search engines could bring in nice volumes of traffic once the account has had time to mature.
3. Blog Writing: Have a blog installed on your website and start writing a few times per week in order to get some traction with articles. Depending on your industry, a blog could bring in very nice targeted traffic if you position the writing correctly.
4. Niche Advertising: Every niche out there usually has some sort of blogs surrounding it where you can purchase some ad space in order to be that much more visible in front of your target audience.
5. Social Media Marketing: Get involved in some targeted online discussions that are happening all around you on a daily basis. In today’s online market place it is all about joining the conversations that exist around us.
The days of advertising in the phonebook are slowly coming to an end as more and more people turn towards the search engines to find what they are looking for. Don’t waste your money paying for that large expensive ad when there are many other viable locations to list your business.
3 Responses to “Stop Advertising in Your Phonebook; Spend Your Money Here Instead!”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
First, thank you for taking the time to write your tips, articles, etc. I have agreed to most all of your recommendations in the past, with exception to this article. While I will be the first to concede that yellow page advertising does not bring a good return on invest for all businesses, there are still many industries that receive good results from advertising in the “clunky old book.” A study by CRM Associates (www.crmassoc.com) showed that calls to YP ads increased for about 60% of advertisers in 2010, with a median increase of 10% compared with 2009. This followed a 3% increase in 2009 over 2008. I personally have a client, an Opthomoligist, that is receiving is receiving between 40 & 50 phone calls a month from his yellow pages ad. Another contractor client is receiving 80-90 calls each month from his ad in the local phone book. The studies that I have read, combined with the real world results that I have seen across many different industries cause me to question what sources did you use to get to the conclusion stated in your article? Specifically, I’m referring to the statement, “The probability of generating any phone calls from the phonebook is very slim, whereas the search engines could bring in nice volumes of traffic once the account has had time to mature.” Again, I have no conflict with your focus and encouragement towards search engines and understand your reasons for doing so. Search Engine advertising, as well as other electronic marketing can no longer be ignored by the SMB. It’s real, and when done right, can provide a great return on investment much more than just nice traffic volumes, which are worthless unless that traffic is converting into sales leads for the business. That said, your assumption that the yellow pages are worthless is misguided and in my opinion, dangerous to the many SMB leaders that value your opinion and guidance. Consumers use different means to make purchasing decisions. Some consumers use search engines exclusively, some yellow pages, some a mix of each and more. SMB’s, in my opinion, should (at least for the foreseeable future) continue to consider a reasonable level of print marketing when formulating their marketing plans. Thank you for the opportunity to provide my insight and opinions. Best regards and continued success.
HI Davey,
Thanks for being a reader and sharing your situation and experience regarding advertising in the phonebook and yellow page type products.
What you are saying makes sense and I guess there might still be some sort of demographic out there that still uses the Yellow Pages and phone book to find products and services.
Thanks again & Take Care!
Nick
Very well said Nick, it is not going to help you anymore by advertising in phonebook and directories, rather you should move towards the online web world where billions of customers are searching for your service or products.