Print Yellow Pages Advertising - The Bell is Tolling

If search engine optimization (SEO) has taught us anything, it has taught us that each individual industry requires a different SEO approach. The same lesson holds true for print yellow pages advertising. Print Yellow Pages advertising still works for two specific types of businesses.

First, there are the dentists, the cosmetic surgeons and the lawyers who spend outrageous amounts of their advertising budgets in the print Yellow Pages. It seems impossible in today's online frenzied economy that these advertisers could make a reasonable return on their investment. However, if you consider that all the dentist and cosmetic surgeon need are a handful of clients while the lawyer only needs one client from the Yellow Pages to recoup their investment, it starts to make sense. The high margins these businesses demand allow for serious Yellow Pages advertising spending.

Second, there are the plumbers, heating contractors and automobile parts companies. The number on monthly phone calls these advertisers get is well above the norm and if you think about it, you are usually calling these businesses when you absolutely need them. And when was the last time you called more than one plumber in an emergency?

High margins and high call volume are the two main reasons to stay in the print Yellow Pages... for now. If your business is not in either category, I suggest you move your advertising dollars to search engine marketing, keeping in mind that most search engines get their local results from Yellow Pages companies so it would be a mistake to completely withdraw from the product.

I have no doubt that Yellow Pages advertising still works for a variety of businesses and that Yellow Pages representatives will continue to push the print product, after all, wouldn't you if your margin was approximately 50% on one of your products.

It was recently stated that the print product still accounts for 90% of a Yellow Pages publisher 's revenue. The powers that be have done a magnificent job of milking the print margins. But think about it, 90% in print, only 10% of revenue coming from the Tsunami that is online advertising. I suspect that the short-term gain will lead to long-term pain.

When the stampede of small business advertisers moving to the online marketing occurs in the next 18 months, that 90% figure will start to feel like quicksand if it doesn't already.

Pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, social media marketing are the new frontiers for small businesses. When it comes to the Yellow Pages, the bell is tolling.

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