Small Business Commando News

I read a lot about marketing and the importance of segmenting your target audience.

I get that, and agree, but it’s really hard to do.

If you happen to be a dentist (an extremely competitive field of medicine), your target audience can change at a moment’s notice.

Take this young chap in the photo.

A few seconds before the photo was taken, he was merely an average prospective client for a dentist.

You know, semi-annual check-ups, maybe some braces, a cavity here and there. Nothing special, right?

But immediately following this photo, he’s suddenly become a highly valuable client needing extensive dental work. Say it with me, “cha-ching!”
This is the customer that you reach using Directional Media also known as “who?” advertising. You do not need to convince him of the value of good dental health, or spend much time on branding with him. You simply need to be the go to provider of services and answer the question, “Who’s a good emergency dentist near here?”

Branding through repeated television, radio and print advertising will all come into plan as this boy makes a decision for a dentist.

If you do not have a currently running search marketing campaign or Yellow Pages presence, all of your previous marketing will go to waste, because the customer with an immediate need can not find you.

Find three places this boy (or his parents) will look to make a quick decision on emergency dental care, and make sure your business is well represented.

JupiterResearch Finds Local Advertising Will Represent A Key Battleground on the Web - BroadcastNewsroom

Jupiter Research released their survey and predictions for local online advertising growth (along with their predictions for online advertising as a whole).

In short, they predict that local is where the battle will have the msot heat.  Perhaps it’s because the Yellow Pages publishers and newspaper publishers will have finally caught fire with sales.

Perhaps it’s because the advertisers are demanding to reach the audience that relies on the Internet to find local information.

Here’s a dirty little secret.

Local online advertising is much harder than it looks.

Converting searchers to buyers is a skill that very few traditional publishing companies possess, and fewer know how to monetize.

Advertiser expectation and patience for results from online advertising are difficult to meet because the Internet does not bypass human nature of procrastinating, building trust, qualifying, deciding and taking action.

It’s important for traditional advertisers to NOT abandon their terrestrial publications, rather embrace change as a restaurant owner embraces trends.

Mad Cow disease did not kill the beef industry any more than Yellow Pages bashing will eliminate the value delivered by a high quality directory. 

However, Mad Cow did reduce consumption and some consumers forever changed their diets.

Smart publishers will provide a mix of media to deliver customers to their clients.  That includes search, display, video and much more.

The growth of local online advertising will not be a zero-sum game at the expense of traditional publications.

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Google Maps Puts Local Search Industry On Notice:

This hilarious (photoshopped) images of Steven Cobert putting the Internet Yellow Pages on notice was done to illustrate a blog post by Evan Roberts at the MarketingShift blog.

Evan’s point is that user reviews will make Google Maps even more important to local internet and make the IYPs obsolete.

While that’s a bit premature, it is important to see Google improving their local initiatives.

If Google is able to capture local advertising dollars (and I’m helping them do just that), they will continue to make inroads.

In Matt Boland’s Column at the Kelsey Group Blog, he discusses the NY Times article on iPhone’s potential effect on local search.

This is so overwhelmingly clear to me that local search and mobile search are going to be a major driver of local business information.

Of course, in 1999, I sat with Naveen Jain, who was the founder of InfoSpace discussing the multitude of devices that the Internet would become available on.

While our business relationship was less than optimal, I must give the man his due.  He was (and perhaps still is) a visionary in the eventual pervasiveness of information.

This is far bigger than the iPhone.  Given it’s price point, limited network and the few hundred million perfectly good cellphones in use, the iPhone isn’t the driver it’s mp3 playing cousin was.

Let this be a warning to publishers of local information.  Mobile search marketing makes little economic sense today.

Is there anyone who doesn’t think that mobile will be more important five years from now than it is today?

Well, that’s your answer. 

The question is who will be profiting from bringing buyers and sellers together on the mobile platform.  I think that local information publishers are in the cat bird’s seat (whatever that means) to have the most impact.

Superpages announced a serious upgrade to their ad serving that takes a lesson from Google.

Basically, Superpages is now positioning advertisers based on a score that evaluates relevancy, performance and their bidding structure.

Superpages, which was recently spun off from Verizon, is the hands-down leader in Internet Yellow Pages. Having been an IYP publisher myself of Worldpages.com, I have long admired the progressive movement of Superpages.

I can’t say that I agree with the ads they show that often seem unrelated to the search, but they continually challenge the status quo.

Superpages was an innovator in performance-based IYP advertising, and this is a step in the right direction. Their challenge, as many local sites have found, is remaining relevant in a world where Google is the source for so much of their traffic.

I recorded an interview with Bobby Kalili, CEO of TollFreeYellowPages.com who owns a couple of interesting pieces of intellectual property.

Last week, TFYP announced that they had received an investment of $32.5 million from a Saudi Prince. Given that the company is a pure start up, this is a bold and audacious punch into the already crowded toll free directory asistance business.

One twist is that they also own comparison shopping sites of BidSell.com and DiscountMore.com. Bobby imagines the day that the voice activated shopping engine will put TFYP in the sweet spot between actively shopping consumers and online merchants.

Also, they own two numbers 1-877-YELLOW PAGES and 1-866-YELLOWPAGES as well as the trademark to “Toll Free Yellow Pages” which could be valuable to AT&T as they begin marketing their 1-800-YELLOW PAGES service.

Telephone services is a very tough business with many deep pocketed competitors (ever hear of Google?).

Nonetheless, raising this amount gives TFYP some oxygen to develop their niche.

Spend the money wisely, Bobby.

 Toll Free Yellow Pages Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Kelsey Group Blogs – Yellow Pages and Local Media:

One of the really interesting things I saw at the Drilling Down on Local 2007 conference was a private presentation of Yellowbot.com by Erron Silverstein.

Erron is justifiably exhuberent about his approach toward Internet Yellow Pages , social networking and web 2.0 (how’s that for a trifecta of buzzwords?)

I am one of the most jaded users of Internet Yellow pages (having run WorldPages.com for half a decade).

However, Yellowbot.com showed one of the most seamless integrations of easy consumer input with structured directory content.

Erron is (and I say this with much respect) a mega-geek.  He’s nitpicked pieces of various properties and layered the most interesting features on top of the Localeze enhanced local business database.

In a way, it reminds me of MojoPages.com, a San Diego based start up that hopes to accomplish much of the same. (fabulous user generated content with structured data).

YellowBot is more likely to be a technology provider to an existing sales force or media publisher.  Erron’s strength is not in creating a local sales force.

But if you want to see the future of IYP, take a look at yellowbot and mojopages.

A brief news release announced that LiveDeal.com is incorporating the infoUSA database into its platform.

infoUSA is one of the top suppliers of national directory listings to the Internet Yellow Pages publishers.

This move signifies that LiveDeal is branching out beyond the classified ad business and into the firecotry business.  I can tell you from personal experience, an IYP can be a VERY profitable business.

Note that I didn’t call it an EASY business.

THis data can be useful in SEOing their site and becoming more relevant.

Peter Krasilovsky popped by the other day to share a double-double from In-N-Out Burger.

He showed me some cool upgrades on CanPages.com, the turbo-charged Canadian independent Yellow Pages (and now Internet Yellow Pages) publisher.

In my first run throughs, I am impressed with the integration with maps a la Google maps.

It’s all about driving quality customers to the advertisers, so only time will tell if it is a successful strategy.

I had a great conversation with Paul Youlten, founder of Yellowikis.org.

Yellowikis is to Yellow Pages what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias and what craigslist is to classified advertising.

It has the power to change the game forever, and to bring the open source movement to small business information.

 Small Business Commandos conversation with Paul Youlten, founder of Yellowikis: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download