Experts Agree: Print Advertising Isn’t Enough for Local Marketing
A few decades ago, an ad in the traditional yellow pages was enough to get all the local customers your business needed. Just one ad and you were in front of every eye in town at just the right time to get their business. Things were simpler back then.
Then the internet came along.
Ask yourself this? In the past few months, where have you looked for local business information? If you’re like most consumers, “online” is becoming a larger and larger part of that answer. Here’s what the top researchers are saying:
- According to a 2007 comScore study, one third (33%) of consumers prefer the printed yellow pages for looking up local business information, compared to six out of 10 (60%) who prefer online sources like search engines, internet yellow pages, and local search sites.
- According to the 2007 Knowledge Networks/SRI Industry Usage Study, people referenced internet yellow pages sites 3.8 billion times in 2007, up 15% from 3.3 billion in 2006.
- Bill Gates has predicted that printed Yellow Page usage will die off by 2012.
- According to comScore, over 65-million people visited the top four local business search listing sites in December of 2007, nearly 65% more than the year prior.
- Local businesses are recognizing the online trend. According to Borrell Associates, local online spend will reach $13.1 billion this year, up 50% from 2007.
The message is clear: Your customers are getting more and more comfortable with online business listings, and so should your marketing.
I’ve said this before- eventually the printed phone book will be as much of an anachronism as the LP, and without the kitsch value.
That said, one of the advantages of the internet is that when the eyes move over to it, the ad dollars don’t stay at the same volume. There’s basically an infinite supply of information on the net, and there’s a finite (if growing) number of consumers in the world, and this leads to businesses not having to shell out as much for local ads.
Another big change is that user generated content tends to by more important to consumers than simple contact info… my company (Brownbook.net) was build on the idea that anyone could edit it, and it’s been well received.