Spiro, “The Boss” and I have been in heavy discussion about advertising dollars as I work out my 2011 budget for sales and marketing expenses. One of our largest expenses are the ads we have in the Verizon Yellow Pages. (They cost twice as much as our website hosting and maintenance.) When we first started talking about it, we were sitting on opposite sides of the desk, figuratively and physically. As timing would have it, Hubspot sent out an email on Monday that they were hosting a webinar on: “Why Yellow Pages Ads Are A Waste of Money” on Tuesday. I sent Spiro a link and he agreed to listen in with me.
The presentation was given by a fellow that had sold yellow page ads for a living for several years. It was good (minus the expected Hubspot sell but that’s to be expected in a free webinar) and I think I further proved my point. We are wasting valuable marketing dollars on a medium that is not targeting our ideal customer and is not easily tracked.
The argument on the other side seems to be that there are still people who use the phone book. I decided for the first time ever to try the WordPress Poll Daddy feature.
Please vote I am very interested in the results. Let me know how/if you are making use of the Yellow Pages for advertising or what makes you drag that big book out. We’d love to hear any of the funny uses you have for the phone book too! Like this one. Drop me a line in the comments below.
**Photo Credits: RIP Photo at left from Sleepy Dog Media and the Header at the top is from DK Design Studio Blog
I accidentally hit Yes when I went to vote in my own poll. How lame!
I’ve used it in the past for two businesses and it’s a major waste of money. Go with the line ad.
I agree. Thanks Scott!
I work with a lot of businesses and teach classes ranging from college age up to people in their 60s. I always ask which of them use the yellow pages, and very rarely do I find anyone who does, and those who do, are always on the upper end of the age demographics. Clearly, we are getting to a time when Yellow Pages (both on and offline) are becoming less and less relevant. We’re doing our business, our searching, our travel arrangements online.
So true Ken, thank you for commenting. I think if the useful tracking methods for off-line advertising like Google Voice #’s would prove ROI, yellow page sales people would suggest it. They don’t.