# How important is yellow pages?



## hal (Aug 10, 2007)

We have been tracking how we get orders since December with a new POP program we have. We have found that almost none of our new customers found us using the Yellow pages advertising we spend almost $400 am month on. Our ads are within the same sizes as our competitors and of a good design. We have gotten only 3 new orders, amounting to less than $300 total thru Yellow pages. Google has given much better results and word of mouth is the best.
This all begs the question..Is Yellow pages still relevant? Of course the Yellow pages salespeople will always bring up the need to stay competitive in size with your competition. But, i wonder if my competition now how well the Yellow pages are doing for them.
You any of you have any similar experiences? What are your opinions?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I was paying $200 a month for my yellow pages ad. Yep, that's what I was paying. Every month. Not a single phone call, at least not for anything I could do. I got several calls from women wanting me to print their cookbooks.. but no one wanted me to print shirts. A year after the ad stopped I got a phone call and made one $20 shirt!

With that said, I'm one of those people who still uses the yellow pages! What is really irritating is that we now get 3 different telephone books for the same locale and seems like they all have different businesses listed in them. Often times the phone numbers are wrong, too.


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## logon511girl (Jan 23, 2010)

We did advertising this way for about 2 years and saw no return from it. People were finding us from online sources, (google, local town sites etc) and word of mouth so we discontinued the yellow pages & other phone book listings.


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## hal (Aug 10, 2007)

logon511girl said:


> We did advertising this way for about 2 years and saw no return from it. People were finding us from online sources, (google, local town sites etc) and word of mouth so we discontinued the yellow pages & other phone book listings.



We are considering discontinuing most our yellow pages advertising and putting the money is more online resources. One problem we are facing is the way the yellow page people are linking their print books with their online books..you can't get one without the other. Are their online books..yellowbook.com , dexknows.com any good?


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I was with both the yellow pages and yellowpages.com. Not a single sale until nearly a year after the last payment and that was from a phonebook that was 2 years old that was still in a house a couple had just bought. One sale for $20 but I spent $4896 over 2 years to get that one sale. I could have bought some nice equipment for that kind of money.


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## Rusty44 (Apr 28, 2008)

The conversations are seeming obvious. Personally, I NEVER look in the yellow pages (.com) for anything. Wow now I feel bad after seeing how much you all have been paying them a month to advertise. 

Ad campaigns, forums, blogs, flyers, networking, community involvement, word of mouth works for me.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Rusty44 said:


> The conversations are seeming obvious. Personally, I NEVER look in the yellow pages (.com) for anything. Wow now I feel bad after seeing how much you all have been paying them a month to advertise.
> 
> Ad campaigns, forums, blogs, flyers, networking, community involvement, word of mouth works for me.


So what you're saying then is that this is all your fault? LOL.. You should feel bad. Here we are going broke trying to advertise to you and you just ignore our ads. LOL

Probably millions of others out there doing the same thing. And yet I still use the yellow pages when I'm looking for something local... go figure.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we use the phone book for a door stop. better to have a web site with one page with your address and phone number on it. completely free and you will show up at the top of the search engines.


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## Rusty44 (Apr 28, 2008)

lben said:


> So what you're saying then is that this is all your fault? LOL.. You should feel bad. Here we are going broke trying to advertise to you and you just ignore our ads. LOL
> 
> Probably millions of others out there doing the same thing. And yet I still use the yellow pages when I'm looking for something local... go figure.


Sorry about that. I think it could also depend where you live too if you'd be prone to using the yellow pages or not. Living in the Tampa Bay Florida area (2.5 million population), I have everything within a few miles. If I was living back in my rural hometown (3,500 population) I would use the yellow pages more often, to source out where I would have to drive to, which would be a much greater distance.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I recently joined manta. It's a compilation of businesses from all over. They just started a forum there too.


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## TYGERON (Apr 26, 2009)

Biggest waste of money. Did it for a few years way back. Got 1 decent customer. Rate icreased every year.Cancelled and decided not to re-up. I checked each year to be sure the ad was nixed. 8 years later got a bill for $800 when billing switched to another outside entity.

Please...


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I got conned into signing up for a 2 year contract. I had agreed to only one year during our unrecorded conversation, and when the recording went on she said I was signing up for the yellow pages and the internet. But what she didn't tell me was the at the internet was for 2 years and the 2 had to be done together! I was not a happy camper when I found that out. Paid for it dearly, but when they called to renew I told them never ever to call me again.


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## TYGERON (Apr 26, 2009)

lben said:


> ... but when they called to renew I told them never ever to call me again.


And this your 1000th post.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

manta will index you if you have a business phone number or register as a business. you can add to it. also register with the 'local' for google, yahoo and bing.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Tygeron I have my black tee now! How exciting is that?

I've been listed on Manta for about a year now. Every week they send me an email telling me that I've had fewer than 5 visits to my page, but if I'd like to buy into the premium listing.... At least now they have a forum where you can talk to others in businesses all over the country and hopefully find a few customers.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

buying in is a waste of money. just being listed on manta if your website is there will give you a link and you will move up in the search engines.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Oh I agree. That's just as much a waste as buying linked in upgrades, some of which are nearly $1,000 a month! I couldn't imagine wasting that kind of money.


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## dantevyllc (May 3, 2009)

A better use of your time and money is to advertise in local newspapers, or if you target a specific market (bridal) hit the industry magazines. The cost may be a little higher per run - but you will get a much higher rate of return on your investment. Make sure you are up on all the media sites - facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc.


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## cre8tivemyndz (Aug 13, 2008)

I replaced my yellowpage ad with a good salesperson. After 2days I realized this was the best decision I could have ever made. This salesperson uses Facebook and twitter to drive business in a way that could never do with the Yellowpages. Customers can just click on a link an get all the info they need.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

Another thing I didn't like about the online yellowpages was that when my name came up so did all of my competitors. Now what I want to see when someone is looking for me.


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## Mabuzi (Jul 3, 2007)

Yellow pages make great doorstops and if you do, as you should, ask customers where they heard about you it wont be yellow pages.

BUT, big but, is Google, Bing and Yahoo see YP as an authority page and will use the business details entered there to base your local listings on.

Dont pay for YP advertising but take advantage of the free listings.


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## Uncle Chenzo (Mar 27, 2008)

We have "The Golden Pages" in Ireland. Same thing. Massive book. Vigorous salespeople. I don't know one person who uses it. 

Easy solution to this is to (if you can afford it) - put whatever money per month into Google Ads alongside Yellow pages.

Ask every inquiry you get - Where did they get your phone number/email address?

And base your actions on that.

Large physical directories - History. We'll be laughing about them in a few years.


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## veedub3 (Mar 29, 2007)

In 2001 I was paying $210 a month to advertise in the yellow pages for both my Commercial Appraisal Company and my Screen Printing Company. Two years later in 2003, I realized that all the business I had was from word of mouth or me talking my services up to someone at a networking event. Not one call from the yellow pages in 2 years. Then it dawned on me that when they bring the yellow pages book to my home I don't even bring it in the house, I just toss it the trash bin outside, I was sure their were others that were probably doing the exact same thing. I canceled right then. Best move I ever made. A complete waste of my money. This year when they dropped the book off at my shop, I was standing outside so I picked it right back up and tossed it back on his truck. He looked and said "You don't want it?" I said...do anyone? Now there was this big news investigation here about all the tax payers money being spent on those books when no one even wants them.


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## Sport T (Nov 10, 2010)

OK, I am telling my age now but being in the advertising and marketing business for over 35 years and working in the yellow pages business as well here is what I have found. Before the year 2000 yellow page ads were very important to all businesses because everyone used the phone book whenever they were looking for products and services. The more businesses in the classification the larger your ad had to be to get results. I can remember spending over $800 per month on yellow page ads. After the PC started taking over in the early 2000's yellow page use began declining every year. I don't know the numbers on usage right now but I can tell you that I have not used a phone book for anything for over 2 years. Oh wait a minute I did clip a pizza coupon out about a year ago. My experience has been that the people that do still use the phone book that are shopping are usually price shopping and will call everyone under the classification unless there are hundreds listed like plumbers. I bet you will get the same number of calls from a bold listing as you get now with your ad. Everyone goes to the internet now and that is where my bucks go.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

I live in a smaller town and we have three different phone books here and none of them make it into my house. If I need local services I look online, or check on Twitter or Facebook. I haven't opened a phone book in years, and I'd be reluctant to do business with anyone I couldn't contact via e-mail and who didn't have a website.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I haven't opened a phone book in years, and I'd be reluctant to do business with anyone I couldn't contact via e-mail and who didn't have a website.


That pretty much sums it up with me.

Being in the Yellowpages is no longer an indicator of a "trustworthy" business. 

Having a professional website with your services and contact information will take you much further in my opinion.

You could be doing some nice Google Adwords and get better returns with a $400 a month budget.

But the free listings that are out there are worth more than the Yellowpages. 

Getting a free listing in places like Google Places, Yelp, Foursquare, PrinterListings (if you're a printer), Facebook page (and places page), an active Twitter account can take you pretty far.


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## Jsmith (Jun 17, 2011)

logon511girl said:


> We did advertising this way for about 2 years and saw no return from it. People were finding us from online sources, (google, local town sites etc) and word of mouth so we discontinued the yellow pages & other phone book listings.


There is one major mistake commonly made on yellow pages.The first is evaluating the yellow Pages heading relative to ad density instead of the positioning of an owner's particular competitors. Most everyone knows a facility's return on investment increases if its ad is in front of those of competitors. However, buying the largest ad you can afford is not always necessary. I advice you to create your own website.

kids shirts | boys shirts


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## tee09 (Oct 30, 2009)

Im 24 years old and i remember opening a phone book maybe once in my life..If im looking for something i'll just google it.


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## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

All seem to agree and to drive the point home.....San Francisco is passing an ordinance prohibiting delivery of yellow pages to anyone in the city that has not specifically requested one!


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## foot print (Jun 2, 2010)

We are in the digital age the internet is king..having a website is great, but I truly believe doing great work will pump up the word of mouth. 1 more thing that got my phone ringing was putting my company info on my back window of my car. My moving billboard goes everywhere and is seen by hundreds.


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