Yellowpages.com: Misinformation & Why Generalized Marketing Doesn’t Work

Tips for Philadelphia Internet Marketing (Search Engine Marketing & More)

Most small businesses have gotten the phone call, especially if you currently run traditional Yellowpage ads in ‘the book’. “Hey! We have this great new product, it’s called Yellowpages.com and it’s a MUST for your business to stay current online!” And then you see the price tag and say… “A bit pricey.” Or “A bit pricey… but I don’t know, I need to be online right, so OK.”

What Yellowpages.com is selling:

Ad space on their website (description, text, phone, website)
Tracking of Phone Calls and Website Visitors through your Ads on Yellowpages.com
Search Engine Advertising
Soon Mobile Search

What They Will Tell You:
We’re one of the top most visited websites on the internet. We’re a huge, financially solvent company, with a great success rate. You’ve trusted us for years!

What You’ll Spend:
Roughly $2K to $6K per month, depending on your plan. Customizable plans available.

Make an Informed Decision.

The Numbers Scam:
Yellowpages.com is the 16^th most visited website in America, but it’s unlikely you’re selling to ‘America’. It’s much more likely that you’re selling to one to five counties around your business. It’s much more likely you’re selling to a particular demographic of that small region. The questions you have to ask is how does Yellowpages.com stack up regionally? In places like NYC or Seattle you’ve got many affluent tech savvy people who are looking for your services online. But in places like Wilmington DE or central PA there isn’t enough traffic to make it worth the price tag.

Tracking & Search Engine Advertising:
I handled a Yellowpages.com account for two years and ran a Custom Pay-Per-Click campaign of my own against it. To contrast and compare how I stacked up against a gigantic corporation I placed tracking scripts on every page of my clients website to see who was coming, where they were coming from and what they did when they got there.

• Yellowpages.com ran ads on their website and ads on search engines.
• I ran ads on search engines only.

The results were staggering, Yellowpages provided a meager 3-10 sales leads through their website ads and less than 12 leads via search engines. I provided 30-80 sales leads just using search engines. Obviously something was very wrong with Yellowpages.com’s marketing strategy. I contacted my rep and brought the numbers to his attention, he not only didn’t believe it he quoted me inflated sales leads done by ‘his own team’. Now a program doesn’t lie, especially Google Analytics which is a third party provider which I have no access to ‘fudging numbers’. After I pointed this out he provided me the correct numbers but only after a 2 hour phone conference and several follow up calls.

In summary it’s abundantly clear to me that Yellowpages.com is using a very generic and generalized method of advertising local businesses. The problem with this is that unlike success with National Models where vast numbers of a demographic are spread out over the whole country, these ‘cookie cutter’ methods can’t compete on a local scale. A unique, carefully crafted marketing strategy will always be more effective because local businesses are unique to their regions themselves. You’re not a Starbucks, you’re an independent, locally grown entity that can’t be placed into the same crate as everyone else.

If you have questions or want to contact us about our Philadelphia Internet Marketing (search engine marketing and more) contact Alex Seigfried at 215-825-6992 or seigfried.designs@gmail.com