Yellow Pages vs Internet

[Yellow Pages Guru]

To most companies, advertising in Yellow Pages is the unshakeable cornerstone of their annual marketing spend and they would not even consider cancelling it.

Surely Yellow Pages is established, recognised everywhere and enjoys strong distribution. It’s expensive, but is there any alternative?

A moderately sized quarter of half page ad is looking at 3 -5K a year. A whole page? That can be anything from 5 to over 8K for the year. There’s no negotiation; take it or leave it - and that’s with the regulators on their back capping and indeed cutting rates by 3.4%.

How surprising is it that more and more of my clients are cutting back expenditure on Yellow Pages?

Not surprising at all really. If you think about it, search is not new and it has played a major part in marketing activity for decades in the form of phone books and directories. Effective search engine marketing simply takes this a giant step further, unlocking as is does the incredible introductory potential the web medium provides between supplier and consumer to connect and do business.

This trend is reflected in Yellow Pages’ own market analysis, which shows a downward trend in client retention from 78% to 75% year on year. Interestingly, it is newer customers who are leaving.

[JustOneUK]

Yellow pages is a waste of space unless you are a plumber , in fact i would go as far to say as they are diabolical to do business with (unless you want every single company in the UK phoning you or sending you junk mail regarding their services because they purchesed your info from the yell database)...stay away from yellow pages.

[eggplant1]

I'd say it really depends on what you business is. The plumber example is perfect, where do most people look when they need a local service?

[Eagle]

Have to agree really - on the rare occasion I need a local service then YP is what I'll use. For all else though, the internet is where I look first and foremost.

I probably look in YP once every 18 months or so...

[Teresa2084]

I used to work for yellow pages and Bt Phone book and the sales stance on businesses is dreadful and really is just a sales tactic and not because you actually need it.
You will be over charged for an advert you don't need and yellow pages used to be owned by BT and the only reason BT sold it was because yellow pages got too big. BT phone book then went onto use thier business listing directory and start up all over again by adding a classifieds section.

There is something in the sales industry called BFM. That stands for Bit For Me. Its like window companies, they have a pricing structure and go for the higher one just to get higher comission.

There are 2 new directories I strongly do not recommend and if you want thier details, email me.

If you knew half of what goes on you would not be happy but I am definatly going to use my knowledge and skills to prevent businesses being ripped off by producing tips on how not to be ripped off by a directory.

Its about time businesses had control instead of the other way around because its your money and you really ought to start taking control of what you spend your money on and control your advert. It is down to businesses to also make a directory work for them too and the ONLY reason yell and bt get away with it is because you dont make use of the good directories on the net. I set one up in total anger at what I saw going on & admit I dont like seeing just listings on a business directory site of reels and reels of urls either and no advert.

[url]www.123trades.co.uk[url]

its a really simple site but got lots of features in it and alot more than yell.com too. You dont get lost in it like most, its been well thought out and a glam site does not mean it will work so it was kept simple for a reason. Free listings are on it but I havent had one person from this site put an advert on it at all and just because its only got a few on it, remember its brand new and hasnt even been advertised yet. When its got over 50 on it then i will hammer it out across the entire net because I have not only the sales skills to do that, but also marketing and know the internet more than most because Im also a researcher hence market-ur-biz.com and I know enough big site owners personally to get it noticed where it needs to be.

Dont moan about directories if your not prepared to do something about it. If you want my site to be glam, i will make it glam but not without anyone on it. Why should i put my money into it if your not prepared to even add a free listing.