Clients, potential clients, colleagues, and lots of other people ask me all the time, “Who uses the yellow pages anymore?” Lots of people still use the yellow pages to find products and services they need. Lots of other people transfer their newly delivered yellow pages directly from the door step to the recycling bin. Kurt Greenbaum shared a website you can use to opt-out of receiving the phone book.
I keep them only because, well, I’m a marketing consultant. Actually, I might have used it recently to find a pizza place, though. No, no….wait. I used Google.
“Yellow pages” is used as a general term throughout this post to include all print phone directory books.
From my research, the two main factors that indicate whether people use yellow pages to search for a given product. Interestingly, one is based on the market (the people searching for products) while the other is based on the marketers (the companies being searched for). Those two main factors are:
- Age of the Searcher (the customer)
- Technology Adoption of the Searched Industry
Age – Older Folks Use Paper
Older people who have yet to adopt technology will reach for the yellow pages instead of going for the internet. They either do not use the internet or they do not realize its potential.
Technology Adoption
Industries slow to adopt technology – that is, those that tend to not have websites – are usually found through the yellow pages.
Local Searches – a Third Factor
This factor is really just as important as the others but only applies to businesses whose market is very locally focused. An antique store in a small town might be a good example. Small town antique stores might, however, uniquely fall into the “technology adoption” factor so this one is fuzzy.
Other Factors
Other factors include education level, income level, location, and special situations (how do you find a number when the electricity goes out?).
Don’t Drop Yellow Pages
That’s right. I don’t actually recommend dropping yellow pages ads but I do usually recommend clients spend less money on them to make more room in the budget for online marketing. Yellow pages are expensive and they require yearly contracts. I can usually take the money from the yellow pages marketing and get 2 or 3 times more traffic and customers from the same budget applied online.
Call me if you want to talk about whether you should hang on to your yellow pages ads. I am always happy to help.
(832) 628-0987 or you can contact me online.
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[...] Last week I wrote, “Who Uses the Yellow Pages?” and wanted to follow up with something more concrete and first-hand, albeit simple. Simple, but clear and not funded by any company who prints phone books or sells ad space in them. [...]