When’s the last time you cracked open the yellow pages? Really?
Battelle Media
Turns out, yellow page directories are not going away as fast as you might think. In fact, they’re arriving on your doorstep more frequently than ever. So some states are actually considering legislation to make the white pages portion of the directory an opt-in to reduce the size and bulk of the that thud on your doorstep, according to this recent NPR story.
At the end of every year, a new telephone book, usually weighing a few pounds, lands with a thud on doorsteps across the country. The directory is estimated to consume millions of trees a year to produce. But with most Americans now carrying mobile phones, do we still need phone directories made out of paper?
Doesn’t make sense, right? If people use them less, why are they showing up more often? Well, yellow yage directories are hardly a small business. “They produce $13 billion a year in ad sales. That’s more than all magazine advertising combined,” NPR reporter Amy Standen tells us. “This industry has been so lucrative that there are now more than 200 Yellow Page publishers in the U.S. Each year, they print almost twice as many Yellow Page directories as there are people.”
And they are doing well in the digital age, too, although this particular story doesn’t cover that. In various conversations at a local media conference last month in Los Angeles, I talked to several people at yellow pages companies who seemed to be doing just fine, thank you very much. After all, when you type in “Topeka plumber” into Google, you might not think you’re using the yellow pages, but if the result that you eventually click on comes from the yellow pages company, you are.
No related posts.
I'm shocked actually by the revenue “$13 billion…” It really comes down to this. Knowledge of marketing/advertising is not always the “Mom & Pop” shop specific expertise. These book feed off the less knowledgable when it comes to advertising. You can get so much more for your money if you just spent an extra hour a day Twittering, Facebooking, Email Marketing, etc..
This is just hard to believe, with mobile being the wave, more compact computers attached to us at all times. I just can't really grasp that people really open these anymore, it's pointless, online is where it's at in this realm. Type something you need in goolge, plus location and done, you've got it all right there, use your phone, laptop, etc…
They are feeding of the un-informed and making $13 billion, wow, you throw enough crap at the wall and I guess some of it will stick
Side Note:: The comment box should have a spell-checker, that'd be sweet, I see all my mis-spelled words and I don't want to look into another browser to try and fix it.
Are local (mom and pop) businesses really so unsophisticated as to throw $13 billion away to a slick-talking Yellow Pages salesman?
I will only surmise that you have never personally made a living selling anything to local business owners.
The small business owners are far more logical, thoughtful, and careful with their money than just about anyone else. They earn every dollar, and they know that they get to keep whatever they don't spend.
Directory advertising can be (not always) very cost effective.
An ad in a HomePages community directory (my employer) generally costs $1,000 for a full page for a full year.
That directory includes more local advertisers than any other directory, online or in print.
That directory is printed, and mailed through the post office to 12,000 residents and businesses.
Compare to a pay-per-click campaign on Google.
An average local click for a service business like roofing, plumbing, or dentistry costs about $2.00 to $5.00.
Even if the cost for establishing, managing, maintaining, hosting, tweaking, and making a few mistakes were zero, the typical local business would be hard pressed to make this work.
The cost of tweeting, facebooking, or blogging is the time away from running the business.
Print directories are on the decline as a whole.
Internet advertising is on the rise as a whole.
But there are far more local businesses who rely on their Yellow Pages leads than you might imagine.
Since it tends to be posted on an internet directory site in at lease two I know of, it's not THAT stupid. That having been noted, I don't need any more than my local phone company (Qwest).
If I can't remember the number of the hardware store than why in the name of god to I want to twitter or facebook it???
Once again reality is overtaken by the narrow and blind thoughts of computer addicts.
Yellow Pages is predicated on an “intent based” advertising model coupled with a “paid inclusion” business model. When you combine an “intent based” advertising model with free map listings, free organic listing and as a lat resort Performance based business models (Pay per Click) then Yellow Pages days are tuly numbered. One of my recent blogs (http://www.karlmorris.com/Blogs.php) describes small business suffering from a loyalty to Yellow Pages not to dissimilar to Stockholme Syndrome. I think there will always be a place for Yellow Pages but online search and mobile search will destroy the books as we know them.
You guys who think 100% of all search come from IYP are forgetting a very important element of a basic marketing. It’s called demographics, Geographic’s and habits…in any given town the a high % of the population is over 40 years old and did not grow up using the computer, and by the way this demographic has most of the disposable income. Some of this demo will learn to use a hand held PDA or the home based computer but the greater majority will continue to use the original print search engine the yellow pages because that is what they know and are comfortable with. I am one of those guys. I recently was in a Harley Davidson dealership talking to the owner about print advertising; he commented that he thought that most of his business came from internet. I disagreed and then asked his permission to go around and talk to all the customers in the store that morning looking to purchase these $35,000 bikes. Of the 12 older guys we talked to, not one used the computer to search , they all used the yellow pages. So until this demographic dies.. we will continue to use the thing we know. Yellow pages. Al Landis RSD Ziplocal.com
Well, if you check the stock price of some of them you will realized they are not doing that well… RHDonnelly, yell directories, Marchex…. most of these companies are pretty much bankrupt and the stock reflects that.
Especially when we get a CELLPHONE DIRECTORY!
Crappy thing costs a fortune, doesn't it?
STOCKS are BANKRUPT, Monica Urr.
* the average “churn” rate for companies selling SEO and SEM is nearly 90% every 6 months. That means they lose 90% of their customers every 6 months. Why? Because they got sold the “internet is the future” pitch by some sales rep who told them that no one uses the yellow pages anymore, then they spent thousands and got nothing but a sheet of paper showing them how many “clicks” they got. Mom and Pops aren't savvy enough to understand how to make the internet work for them. Sadly, the internet hasn't produced a viable sales model for the mom and pop either.
* pick your favorite search engine and search your town for a specific product or service and try to find a COMPLETE database of everyone in the area who can supply said product and service for you. You can't. You'll get a bunch of results with crappy aggregate sites, unrelated pages, sites giving you yet another list and maybe a few local businesses. Mainly clutter.
* Phone books are still around because people still use them and local businesses still get a hearty ROI from them. It's that simple.
It’s called demographics, Geographic’s and habits…in any given town the a high % of the population is over 40 years old anyway nice share
Well, how many of you still have a Yellow Pages book in the house? I for one use Yellow Pages Online and besides saving up space (the book is quite big and heavy) it's way easier to find info by using the computer rather than turning pages.
Unfortunately for them, I think the Yellow Pages will soon become a thing of the past unless they really struggle to make up for the lost ground in online presence. Today it's much more convenient to look up a Local business directory than to skim through the Yellow Pages, and slowly but surely everybody will have access to the internet, so I think the question is not “if” but “when” will they be out of business.
$13 billion ? That's really shock me