Small Business Commando News

Armageddon in Yellow Pages?

I can’t write about Yellow Pages without thinking of the scene in Monty Python’s Holy Grail of the warrior claiming “I’m not dead yet!” as pieces of his body are hacked away.

Ken Clark, a highly respected Yellow Pages insider wrote an enthusiastic rah-rah piece about the underlying strength of the Yellow Pages and how the industry does a lousy job of promoting itself.

I must agree with Ken that the core product is strong, and is perhaps the most misunderstood of all advertising mediums.

According to recent industry-sponsored surveys, usage of old yeller remains steady. While I find this particularly hard to swallow (as I do see falling usage), there remains plenty of usage in the print directories. I imagine that print Yellow Pages would easily come in behind Google and Yahoo in local references and well ahead of MSN and Ask.com.

In the heyday of the Yellow Pages (the period between the US Civil War and the Vietnam War), most people I spoke to claimed that they rarely used the directories. There are about 39,000 industry professionals in the US who beg to differ.

I’ve had the unique vantage point for the last few years working on online marketing to compare rates of return for online advertising and traditional media. I’ve been running call tracking test for a variety of clients, and have continually been surprised at the results.

While I firmly believe that nothing compares to a highly efficient online campaign (I am VERY biased), I continue to be amazed at the call volumes delivered by print advertising.

For years, I would ride along with Yellow Pages sales teams, and nearly every renewal sales call began with the advertisers stating (often vehemently) that he was NOT going to renew the Yellow Pages advertising for another year.

More often than not, the sales call would end with the advertiser buying a larger ad package than the one he wanted to cancel. I mean, this happened so regularly that it was comical.

See, Yellow Pages advertising is not BOUGHT, it is SOLD. The advertiser needs a respectable sales person to relate the value story, calculate ROI, provide guidance on proper tracking techniques and help the business owner make a wise decision.

I doubt that many of the folks on Wall Street have ever had to sweat making payroll as a small business person. I can tell you that it is not fun. That’s especially true when you (as the boss) have the great honor of going without pay, or reaching into your own pocket to ensure that your employees never miss a paycheck.

Yellow Pages is not glamorous. It will never be highly respected as a money maker for local businesses. It won’t win any awards other than ones it bestows on itself.

But at the end of the day, when the dust settles, and all good cliches have been ridden hard and put up wet . . .

The Yellow Pages remains one of the most fundamentally important aspects of a local businesses marketing campaign (alongside with his web site, online video, and search engine marketing).

Nice write up, Ken.

Small Companies Are Finding a Home on the Web - New York Times

An article in today’s New York Times Small Business Section discusses how small businesses are embracing the Internet as an important source of customer acquisition.

They mentioned my company, Weblistic  as a company designed to help small businesses solve these issues.

Although we’re normally very quiet about the secret sauce that helps Weblistic customers achieve superior returns, it is very flattering to be recognized. 

It’s important to view online marketing as a series of blocks that build a solid foundation.  Google PPC advertising, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, AOL, Superpages, Video, Mobile, Pay-Per-Call and lead generation sites are all important components and vary in their effectiveness.

The one thing that I see is that the business evolves quickly, and what was effective last month might not have the same power this month. 

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Kelsey Group Blogs » Universal Search Paves the Way for Local Video

Michael Boland of the Kelsey Group has a point on post discussing the impact of video syndication and universal search.

The point he makes is that some companies (usually traditional publishing companies) are fighting against publishing video through syndication.

Syndication means uploading the videos on YouTube, MySpace, DailyMotion and other video sharing sites.

On the one hand, you lose control when you syndicate the video.  It resides on someone else’s servers, and they control the surrounding page.

On the other hand, the video will be seen by many more potential customers.

At Weblistic, I’m thrilled to have played a part in the development of local video saturation.  We regularly push local videos to dozens of sites in an effort to generate leads for our clients.  Our clients relish the leads they receive because the customers have a better understanding of the products and services being offered.

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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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“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

This is from a New Yorker cartoon published July 5, 1993 created by Peter Steiner.

Perhaps that’s why the good old printed Yellow Pages still ranks as one of the most trusted sources of local advertising.

A report published by the Yellow Pages Association from Forrester Research found that Americans trust printed Yellow Pages above all other local media.

It also found that Yellow Pages advertising is nearly as trustworthy as user reviews.

I get asked all the time by clients if they should totally withdraw from the phone book. I always recommend that they DO NOT CANCEL their Yellow Pages advertising unless they’ve done the following:

1. Hire a great ad designer. Do not rely on the publisher’s art team to create your ad. Ad designers are increasingly stressed, and many of them work in India and Pakistan. A great Yellow Pages ad designer is worth ten times the cost of the ad production. I have links to several on my website, but I consider Robert Gould of ImageOne (a link to his children’s book site) to be without peer.

2. Track your ads using call measurement services. The cost is negligible and it’s the only way to truly tell how well your ads are performing. If you can’t find a call measurement service provider, email me, and I’ll hook you up. To learn more about these services, watch this free recorded webinar with CallSource.
3. Negotiate like hell. The Yellow Pages publishers are under extreme pressure to deliver revenue, and there has never been a better time to negotiate rates. For practice negotiating, stand in front of a mirror and say, “No” until your tongue bleeds. I think Harvey McKay came up with that line.

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.