Yelps article on Yellow Pages

[Bob Foster]

Most Business Owners Agree: Yellow Books are Irrelevant

LGTC
"Internet directories have led to a dramatic decrease in the number of business owners and consumers who use phone books." Last week, we presented a survey to gauge how business owners feel about yellow page phone books in the digital age. Only 24% of our 3,500+ respondents said "Yes" to the question, “Are yellow page phone books still relevant?”

That's quite a find. Here are some others:

1) Most business owners don't think yellow page phone books are useful to them:

“Yellow page phone books are useful to me as a business owner.”
Agree - 11%
Somewhat Agree - 17%
Somewhat Disagree - 19%
Disagree - 52%

2) Only about 10% of business owners use yellow page phone books more than once per month; 3 out of 4 don't use it at all:

How many times per month do you rely on a yellow page phone book to find a local business?
“Zero” - 75%
“Once” - 14%
“Between two and four times” - 8%
“Five or more times” - 3%

3) Very few business owners believe customers find them using a yellow page phone book.

Estimated percentage of customers who find me using a yellow page phone book.
“0%” - 43%
“1-25%” - 47%
“26-50%” - 5%
“51-75%” - 3%
“76-99%” - 1%
“100%” - 0.1%

The conclusion: Business owners have clearly observed the shrinking relevance of yellow page phone books. As we continue to move away from printed phone books, online and mobile directories will continue to grow as the customer's choice for local business information.

 

[Brian R]

Even the phone book companies have made the jump to internet advertising.

That in itself says it all.


Last I checked, the amount to advertise with a phone book company ON THE INTERNET was the same or MORE than advertising in their books....depending on the level of the ad.

It really isn't such a bad deal to advertise in their books if you can get a screamin deal.
Probably get a full page ad for $500.00/Month now....I'm not sure it's even worth THAT.

 

[gavin]

right on the mark. my full page ad should cost $14,792 but is discounted to $7,550 for the year. so a little higher then $500 a month but not much.

Hopefully this is the last year I do this. build up the customer base a little more, and get my business card magnets and custom spotters in their homes. Developing some b2b relationships as well. ohh how the phone book frustrates me.

 

[Royal Man]

I had a client yesterday said they just recycle the new books as they come in.

Really all I ever see them used anymore is for an occasional doorstop.

 

[smastio]

Here's an article written in 2008. What does that say about the decline? :shock:

http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2008/0 ... vertising/

 

[Ross Buettner]

In all my years of janitorial I can only say I hate this day the most:

When the new yellow books come out. I have to throw 1000's of them out. And no, not the old ones.

 

[skledeny]

I think it seems to be redundant to say things over and over, the good folks at Yelp have helped out with a survey on the irrelevance of the Yellow Pages for businesses these days. Some clients tied up in several Yellow Pages but they don't get direct customers come from it.

 

[GCP]

It just takes to much time to look up something in the yellow pages book vs the computer. Most clients already have a computer on or can look it up right on their phone. But print advertisement still cannot be cancelled out.