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Do You Rely On the Yellow Pages
For Your Leads and New Clients?
If So, Have You Noticed How The
Leads and New Sales From The Yellow Pages Have Been Declining
Over The Past Few Years?
There's a Reason For This. In Fact, Many
Businesses Who Have Created A Proper Online Presence Have Been
Pleasantly Surprised That Their Website Is Bringing In
More Leads And Creating
More Sales Than Their Yellow Page Ad!
And It's Less Money Than Their Yellow
Page Ad! Here's What's Going On...
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We can help you fix them! |
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Twenty Years Ago
It Was A Different Ball Game With The Yellow
Pages The #1 Lead Generator ...
Twenty years ago,
the yellow pages alone could literally make a
business. All you had to do was have the
first ad spot for your category and the phone
would be ringing off the hook.
Just
having an ad in the yellow pages would in most
cases provide leads to a business with
businesses with the leads in the front getting
the most leads.
Ads in the
yellow page are very expensive, but it's an
expense businesses paid knowing the return on
investment ... more sales along with
increased creditability!
As time went on
and as more businesses wanted that first full
page ad spot the prices continued to increase.
The less fortunate
businesses would have to settle for ad spots
following the sacred first ad spot for a
category. Some settled for just a listing.
As a business who deals with the general
population within your community, could you imagine
not having at least a listing in the yellow
pages? How would people find you if you
weren't in the yellow pages?
During this era it
was helping businesses create some of the most
amazing and compelling yellow page ads that
would reach off the page grabbing the reader by
the throat saying, "call this business because
we can fill your need better."
The Average Businesses Marketing Department
When
working with businesses, what we
continuously experienced was the businesses
marketing department consisted of the owner
asking his/her spouse and employees what they
thought of the ad. Not a good approach!
But this was how
most businesses designed their ad spot!
And they wondered why their yellow page ad and
other ads did so poorly.
If the business
couldn't get the category first ad spot then our
objective was to create a very compelling yellow
page ad that would stand out from all of the
others and
convince people to call that business instead.
There is a lot to designing a compelling ad.
When done right
the outcome was very significant.
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The
Statistics of People Using the Internet versus
the Yellow Pages Is Staggering!
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 Shockingly,
as of 2008 54% of American’s have replaced their phone book
with their computer or smart phone accessing the Internet and doing local
searches! The number of people throwing out their phone books is increasing
every year! Why this huge change? Why are people turning to the internet (being
dubbed the "electronic phonebook") over the
yellow pages?
Simply, because it's
more convenient, you have immediate access to it
with a smart phone 24/7 anywhere you're at and you can get
more information about the business that what you'll find in
a phonebook and the yellow pages!
Convenience and
saving time is the bottom line.
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70% of Internet users
report using search engines to find a local
service - Nielsen//Netratings and
Webvisible Study. This is another study
that was done.
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“Offline sales influenced
by consumers online browsing & research
will increase by a compounded annual
growth of 12% over the next five years”
–Forrester Research.
Do you realize how important this knowledge is?
To add to this,
81% of
people first search online before making a purchase... (vs) using yellow
pages, newspapers, traditional "offline" methods. Even Newspapers are going out
of business left and right because of the Internet.
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80% of all searches are done with Google. The other 20% is
spread between Yahoo, Bing, AllTheWeb and the rest with Yahoo being #2.
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If you’re not on the first page, you just lost out on 75% of
the searches. That’s because 75% of the people won’t ever go past the first
page!
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Cell phones that search the Internet are on the climb!
Keep in mind, people carry their cell phones with them every where they go. Try
doing that with a phone book!
I have a good friend that hardly ever uses her computer anymore now that she has
a smart phone that has Internet access. She’s got Google … a world wide phone
book and information … at her fingertips no matter where she’s at.
When Googling, not only can I find the business I’m looking for, with another
click I can do driving directions from where I’m at using GPS technology to your
business … corner by corner, mile by mile. Nice, very nice.
And with this kind of technology at our fingertips,
why would anyone ever
turn to a phonebook again?
As
we've consistently tried to explain to local
businesses, it's a new era with technology
leading the way. Who would've ever thought
people would turn to the Internet over the
Yellow Pages.
Along with this, who
would've ever thought the rock solid newspaper
industry of yester-year would be so greatly
affected by the Internet, yet they are! Newspapers are
going out of business left and right!
The
times are changing. The question is, are you changing with
the times?
April 28, 2010 - Special Report by Chicago
Channel 7 News Team on the Future of the Yellow
Pages!
URL
to actual story:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/iteam&id=7412398&status=ok
Consistently, from person to person I talk to,
less than 5% actually keep the yellow pages.
Virtually every single person I talk to throws
the yellow pages away!! Channel 7 News in
Chicago did a story on this very topic.
The video follows (may have a 12-15 second
commercial before showing the 5:04 special
report).
The writing is on the wall. Are you seeing it?
Don't procrastinate on getting your website
optimized. Wait to long and you may be fighting
an uphill battle trying to catch up to your
competitors who recognized what is going on and
have already taken action to posture their
business for the changes taking place.
Waiting is no longer an option. People are
turning to the Internet, and your competitors
are taking notice and doing something about
that. You need to too. Call us NOW! Email us
NOW!
Summary
There was a
time when you could find a phone booth and
phonebook on just about every commercial corner
and in almost every business. Good luck
finding one now days! The phone book and
yellow pages are becoming more and more scarce
and harder to find.
I remember just
two years ago being out of town and my cell
phone died. What made this a big deal was I
needed to get the address of a hotel. I spent over 2 hours trying to find
a phone booth and phonebook. That's when
it really hit me and made it real to me that this country is going
through yet another major change!
Today
there is still a large enough percentage of
people still using the yellow pages to find the
business that will solve their problem or fill
their need that a yellow page ad still plays a role.
HOWEVER, the days of the yellow pages are going
away. More and more of our clients
are telling us that they are getting more leads
from their website than from their yellow page
ad.
It's just a matter of time
when the paper phonebook and yellow pages will
become extinct. As it is, every year more and
more people are dumping the yellow pages in
favor of the electronic phonebook, the
internet.
Are you ready to accept the changes taking place
and let us help you put in place a proper and
strategic online presence for your business?
Our account managers are standing by. Call or
email today.
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