The Death of Yellow Pages Myth or Fact and how does this impact contractors advertising?  

I have read hundreds of articles that predict the death of the yellow pages like this excerpt: 

“It’s no secret, the yellow pages (and all other brands) are on their dying breath when it comes to delivered, paper based telephone books. You may or may not know that they still charge for ad placements in a medium that is all but forgotten in the internet generation. Simply ask anyone under the age of 30 when the last time they used a phone book. You’ll either hear an “I have no idea” or a “probably 5 or 6 years ago”. 

If they can’t Google you and find your website, you simply don’t exist to those prospective customers, to say the least.” 

So is it true? Is Yellow Pages Dying? Am I wasting my money advertising there? 

The answer isn’t as obvious as what online advertisers are trying to tell you because in some areas the yellow pages are already dead, in other areas the yellow pages are thriving but at what cost? 

So what is the truth? 

If you run a small business in a small town that has a local yellow pages phone book then odds are your phone book is still in use. But competing with the yellow pages is usually a much smaller phone book with larger print that is very popular with the senior population who don’t reach for the internet every time the air conditioning breaks down or drains leak. If you are a proud business operator in one of these small remote towns then advertising in the phone book may be an essential part of keeping your message in front of your target consumer.  

But which book do you advertise in and how much should you be spending? 

Before you invest tens of thousands of dollars in advertising in the yellow pages do the math. You should be tracking your advertising dollars. This means when customers call you, your phone operator should ask “how did you hear about our company” and track the answers. A check list that they can tick off during the day makes this a very easy process and the results can mean the difference between becoming a successful contractor and bankruptcy. 

For example if it costs you $3,000 per month to advertise in the yellow pages and you average 40 callers per month that come from the yellow pages that means you paid $75.00 for each for every one of those leads (a lead is not a sale, you still have to persuade them to go with your company).  If your average service-call only makes $150.00 – and you sell 100% of every caller who calls your company it means that it cost you $75 per customer (which is 50% of your service call).  

If you are like most contractors you are already priced too low to afford 50% of your service call to be spent on advertising.  If this customer turns into a repeat customer then you may recover the losses from that initial visit in the future but odds are they will simply pull out the phone book again next time calling the first company they see (not necessarily your ad) unless you have an exceptional branding program* (see Your Plumbing Success for more branding information). 

But if you find that your $3,000 per month is generating 300 customers per month the cost is only $10 per customer – then the cost is certainly more cost effective advertising provided you again get to keep them as repeat customers in the future. 

If you live in a major city instead of a small town you may discover that you are only getting 2 calls per month from the yellow pages in which case it is financial insanity to advertise there ($3,000 divided by 2 means it costs you $1,500 for each of those customers!). 

The advertising costs on a small local phone book is usually 1/10^th the price of yellow pages (or even less) and thus the return on your advertising dollar can be much greater. Seniors tend to reach for these smaller books as they are easier to use, often have bigger print and represent the community they live in. But again you have to do the math. Track how your customers found you in order to put your advertising dollars into what really works.   

Regardless of the size of your town you still have to advertise online which means having a website that is ranked well with Google (the largest and most used search engine).  In mid-sized cities all over the US and Canada the internet has taken over as THE place to advertise your business.   

But creating a website alone isn’t going to get your business found online, you need to optimize the site so that the search engines can find your website (this is done through Search Engine Optimization otherwise called SEO). But if your website isn’t ranked well you can still get on page 1 of Google through pay per click advertising (PPC). Again you have to target your advertising to your specific consumer or you could spend thousands advertising to people in different states or countries which will never boost your local business (see Your Plumbing Success for online advertising & SEO information). 

Advertising and Branding have always been a difficult challenge for many business owners but if you track your spending and stay on top of the latest trends while providing exceptional service you should see your business grow even in hard economic times. 

To learn more about ways you can improve your Branding or Advertising you can speak to the experts at Your Plumbing Success. We aren’t just business consultants, we run a successful licensed contracting business that now runs without us and we can show you how to achieve that same independence and success. We are here to help you achieve your plumbing success. 

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