Business Directories

[RichardFenton]

I would be interested to know how many people on this forum still use the big business directories i.e Yellow Pages, Business Pages, Thompson for advertising their businesses.

It is that time of year when the directories are starting to hassle about next years entrries "send the fax back signed today because the book is about to close - blah, blah, blah"

In this online day and age, are people still picking these directories up, or do they go straight to Google et al? My feeling is that there has been a definite tail off over the last 2 years in the effectiveness of directories. I have tried their web versions in the past e.g Yell, Thomweb etc, but using these is a little like playing pass the parcel; you have to work too hard to get to where you want to go.

Opinions please?

[gary]

I had a long "discussion" with someone from Yell who wanted me to take out an online listing to complement my Central London yellow pages ad (which I no longer have because it generated one response in a whole year!) for the web management company I'm involved in. He couldn't seem to understand why I didn't want to fork out a couple of hundred pounds to appear randomly on yell.com under a very general heading of Internet Services where there were already 40 or so premium ads already, when I could target specific people searching specifically for website maintenance or management on Google, and decide where I wanted to appear in those listings.

My point is, yell.com is poorly targetted IMHO compared to search engine advertising, and the book is now so split up into regions that unless you're a local only company, there's no point in being in just your local pages, which means you have to pay a huge amount to go nationally. Just can't see the value in that, but I think it really depends on the type of business as to how successful that sort of advertising is.

Gary

[GraemeKerr]

I agree with the thoughts about Yell.

I always look to the search engines first. The only time i have used Yell is to find companies for a marketing campaign.

I have registered with around 35 free directories, both local and national which is much more worthwhile. To be honest though the main idea behind this was to create links pointing to our site to help search engine optimisation, rather than generating sales. This however is an added benefit.

Graeme

[SillyJokes]

I only ever use Yell for local suppliers and so wouldn't advertise there - a lot of my competitors do.

In fact I never pay for inclusion in online directories. If they are serious about sending me good quality traffic they are usually happy to become affiliates and earn commission.

[Colin]

I ran a full colour ad in my first year in Yellow Pages - no results, I dropped it to text only listing in 2 categories in year 2 - no results. This year I told them to take a hike.

As the others have said, it may work if you are a local plumber, but I don't see the value for my business. I need to advertise nationally, and I easily fit into a large number of categories, so I would need to pay an absolute fortune.

They tried selling me on Yell.com with their 'new improved search', but it still comes down to needing to be entered in many categories to make it worthwhile.

Overall there must be better ways to spend your advertising/marketing budget unless you are a local tradesman.

[RichardFenton]

The reason I posted this in the first place is that these directories have worked very well for me in the past, leading to some substantial fees from clients that found me in them. However, their effectiveness seems to have lessened over the last 18 months, but whether that is due to a downturn in the service economy, or a rise in internet searching I do not know, hence the question.

[Ozzy]

Well Richard, I am in a couple of different regions in the Yellow Pages book, and also on Yell.com and it does work for me. Accepted it may just be somewhere near breakeven, it does build up the client numbers.

[akhtarkasia]

I have used both yellow pages and yell.com. And i must say they both have been very poor in generating any kind of response. However my father in law and my uncle both run a succesfull coach hire business and their business predominantly comes from yelow pages.

From my marketing and advertising experience I have taken up marketing my own website. I spend 2hrs every week and now i have over 700,000 hits a day. Thats impressive right!

So my thoughts are it depends on service and products you offer. However all form of printed directories are going out of fashion. And learning to get better with Search engine ranking will bring more positive response. I know it takes time, but there is more satisfaction to it.

Akhtar
www.pennpaper.co.uk

[Claire]

Hi, We are actually currently discussing this in our company wheather to scrap the yellow pages and just use online resources or weather just to use both, I think in this day and age there is a divide between the people who still like to use the phone book and the people who prefer to source all their sources online, I think it depends on what product or service you are trying to promote. I like to think that the majority of people use the net nowadays and yes a lot of people do but there is still a fair amount of consumers that dont use the net. So i think at the moment its best to use both avenues but I seem to find that the yellow pages is so expensive to advertise in, word of mouth and online hits would prob work better

[Sibs]

What about more specific directories? For example, if you are an FSB member would you be more inclined to choose another member or not?

[RichardFenton]

Again I wonder whether anyone uses even industry specific directories. If I were to advertise in directories specific to the property industry, then I would just be advertsising to my competitors. My market is basically any company that occupies a commercial property in London. I could spend a mint on being anywhere and everywhere and at the end of the day still not be getting a response.

[gary]

I think the idea of "community" type directories like the FSB have grand notions but I doubt they're that effective. That said, apparently some directories like those aimed at women-owned businesses do work sometimes, so I suppose there is place for them. Personally if I'm going to do business with other businesses then I would rather not limit myself to one group or category of people.

Gary

[Sibs]

Richard

It's the same with us, we're a web design business so in theory every other business is our target market. It makes it very difficult to decide where to advertise.

Thanks
Sarah

[kyber]

Oddy, Lucy (LAM Design) got a lot of orders from an old YP having had virtually nothing when it was current and therefore not renewing!

Personally, I do turn to YELL and Thompson online when looking for something outside of the traditional areas well represented online (e.g. builders).

Stuart

[Ozzy]

I agree with Stuart regards "dated" industries. For example, when we needed our TV arial and sky dish fitting after we moved house back in May we called out an ariel company from the Yellow Pages.
However, we ordered our new oven and fridge from an online retailer found on Google :) So it does depend on the service we are looking for.

Also, take into account how "online" you think your target market is going to be. Taking into account our fridge and over, the company we purchased from, their target market are home owners who are more than likely to be "online" so they advertised using Googles Adwords and very unlikely to use the Yellow Pages. Hence I doubt they even have a YP ad.

[Anonymous]

There is a simple test here guys. Find out how competitive google adwords are for your phrases, RESEARCH thewell, if you really want them researched, then pay an SEO to do it. I would imagine two hours would have it all sown up, three at most, unless it is complicated.

You can get the volume of searches per month no problem, armed with this, compare it to your yellow pages past return. Not really rocket science is it? YP is dying slowly, but pace of death has picked up in the last two years. The biggest change being always on broadband where you can walk up to a keyboard as quickly as you can get yellow pages out.

[DeanD]

Hi guys, I've developed an online directory so although my views are obviously biased, I do feel that there is still a place for it.

We recognised that the way people use the internet has changed - a high number of people will use a search engine to find what they are looking for, rather than using a directory. This didn't mean the end of the directory, it just meant a change of approach was required. We decided to use the search engines to our advantage by optimising the listings of our members.

Every member is assigned a unique url to their listing that is automatically optimised and created at sign up - its placed into an area that is regularly spidered by the search engines. This takes the online directory a step further. Rather than waiting for people to visit our site to search for something, the aim is for the search engines to find the optimised listing and return it as a result to a search query.

As the strength of redcog grows, so will the strength of the listings. For businesses that struggle to increase their online presence, this will be a an excellent addition to an ongoing SEO campaign.

Dean