If I… (Still) Had a Yellow Pages Ad
If I… still had a Yellow Pages ad running, I’d, well, stop immediately. Like, now. Unless you are a tow truck service or a locksmith, stop reading this post and cancel any kind of ad running.
Now.
Whew, now that I think I’ve stopped sweating from the sheer thought of all that wasted money, I can tell you, if you have a Yellow Pages ad, you need to make a change now. Small businesses can fall victim to the lowest common denominator of advertising, but is it effective? Not really anymore. What used to be the single most effective way to showcase your business (and its legitimacy), is now the least efficient. Small business marketing is no longer confined to, limited by or even led by Yellow Pages advertising. When two giant reams Yellow Pages books arrived on my doorstep last week, I couldn’t quite believe it — “People still do this?,” I thought.
Small businesses need marketing budgets, spending that money wisely is vital to survival now more than ever. This isn’t a plea to stop advertising, it’s a plea to stop advertising in Yellow Pages books. Oh, don’t pocket that money so fast; I’ve already got it spent for you.
1. Cancel your Yellow Pages display ad. If you’re in New York or any major city, it’s likely anywhere from $2500- $100,000. I’m guessing it’s more in the $3500 range. If you’re in a smaller city, your display ad is probably running you between $500-$5000. Make sure when you cancel the ad that you ensure that your free listing is still there (you can even do that online at the Ad Solutions site from ATT). This will list your business in the YP directory online and in the book.
2. Run a Google search on your business. What comes up? You’re a small business owner not an SEO or web expert. You are not a marketer and you’ve got zero time to worry about this junk. I know, I know. But watch what happens when I Google my friend’s B&B, The Madison Street Inn, then see what happens when I run a search on Bed & Breakfast in Santa Clara. This should give you a few pieces of information. Where is your small business listed? Who is listing it? Is the information correct? What needs to move to the top of search results? With a little poking around, you can make leaps in your presence online (and in mobile search, of course), by just knowing what your customers are seeing.
3. Get a Yelp account for your business. This is important stuff, I’m telling you. Yelp can do many things for free for your business and some paid things that are great too. The very basics: Get a business account, this part is free and easy to do. Populate your profile well. This means make sure you’ve done your hours of business, photos, contact information, etc. Now, write a special offer or an announcement. I click on the little orange flag all the time when I’m searching for something on Yelp. It means that the small business cares and is actively engaged with me. I like little things like “20 Years in Business and Going Strong!” but I’ll also pick something that says “Mention this Ad and…” These things are free of charge. This is a must-do. Yelp also offers sponsored listings. I am not a fan because I don’t like the way the Yelp sales team bullies clients, but that aside, it’s a smart option for your Yellow Pages dollars.
4. Get a Merchant Circle account. MC is like a CVB and business association all wrapped into one. MC can be big and scary feeling, but try to find pieces of it that work for your business. What can it do for you? It can act as your small business website, if you don’t have one, it’s got a good, solid couponing tool and it’s a good network for reaching out with other small business owners. But, what I like from Merchant Circle is their low cost tools. For the cost of your out-dated Yellow Pages display ad, you can have MC do a lot of the small business marketing for you. They are the master of search results (see tip #1) and even do your Google ads for you.
It is such a shame to take those big yellow bricks and throw them in the trash unopened. It makes me feel for small businesses who are not marketing experts and who have a history of using their limited marketing funds on Yellow Pages ads that cannot yield the targeting, quality and results that can be obtained through using these basic tools. If I… was a Yellow Pages customer I’d know that now is the time to graduate to better marketing opportunities.
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Shout-Out to Yelp!
I’ve been personally Yelping since 2006 and for work about three years. Well, before then, technically. But I count it from when I made a commitment to Yelp and she to me. It’s been a mutually exclusive relationship, full of trust and growing faith over time. She loves me to, knowing I’ll tell it like it is, always come back to her and play with all her features happily.
The deal between Yelp and Google seems to have fallen apart today. Jeremy Stoppelman is going to hold out for more. Everyone from Michael Arrington to the geeks on the message boards at Slashdot are talking about how the deal fell through. I don’t get the surprise. Yelp is kicking some serious ass and they want more than .5 billion. I think that’s fair enough.
Having watched the big Y! turn down acquisition deal after deal, I learned a lot about holding out, holding off, cooling off. I had an opportunity to watch and learn (albeit not enough!) from a great, brilliant, unforgettable business master who taught me, amongst other things that opportunities don’t always equate to the right opportunities. As a way underdeveloped mind in this arena, I had such a hard time understanding how she could pass on offer after offer for large scale lucrative (and at times acquisition) offers. Years later I get it so much more: wait, wait, wait. Then pounce. I’m hoping Yelp is doing the same right about now.
Oh, come now, it’s not fair to call Stoppelman and DAG Ventures greedy. And yes, the valuation about 18 months ago was only a couple hundred million. But that was then, and life moves fast. Some reasons that might not be so obvious for why Yelp might want to deny Google their prey of the week.
1. Yelp’s App is unsurpassed. The iPhone app for Yelp has easily become my favorite app. From the Yelp app you can pull off directions and recommendations and reviews and filters that are relevant to instant gratification. I am not sure having an iPhone is worth it to me without the Yelp app. Don’t have it? Well, then, run along and go pick it up.
2. Yelp blasted yellow pages and open table usage out of the water. People are going directly to a location — restaurants included — based on community recommendations. Yelp’s yellow pages meets community equates to an extraordinary and powerful tool to drive business to businesses. And no offense to my dear ex-boyfriend whom I love dearly, but MC is getting it’s tail kicked by Yelp too. Google knows how valuable this kind of engagement can be.
Yelp vs. OT vs. MC
3. For over a decade, defining the power of online communities has been exceedingly difficult. How much value is a person’s opinion? How influential are reviews? How influential are peers versus strangers in your local community? How much do consumers care? How much do businesses care? As we begin to understand the vast and vital role that online communities can have on the impact of business (albeit, admittedly hard to convert to ROI), the more valuable, powerful and influential companies like Yelp become.
Good for you, Yelp. Hang in, take a breath. Make a decision that’s right for you. Get acquired? Fine, just don’t underestimate the power of those of us who drive you there.
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Side Gigs
