Using Mobile to Stay Connected
If you’re like us, you’re old enough to remember the days when you had to call someone, at their house or office, and if they weren’t there you left a message. Most likely with a human being, and when the person you wanted to reach wasn’t in…you just waited until they were near a phone again, and they called you back. (Those were the days when phones were not mobile, and they were plugged into a wall).
Of course then dinosaurs died off and I think the Ice Age arrived, or something. Here we are today, with phones that we take with us everywhere, and they act like a life force. We don’t just get our voicemails, calls, emails, and text on them. We can start our cars, set our television remotes, and even unlock our front doors – all because of our mobile connections.
Since as consumers and every day people we are more and more connected, how does this impact the way that we communicate with our clients or prospects? Sure, email marketing is still around, and sometimes it works. You can send direct mail and you might get a hit or two. Are you overlooking opportunities to connect with your base or community? Have you explored mobile marketing?
Are the Yellow Pages Dead?
Four Reasons Why Search Engines Beat
Yellow Pages in Local Advertising
I was recently looking for a phone number in my kitchen drawer. As usual the drawer was packed and I had to pull all the contents out to find the15 page school directory I was looking for. As I was trying to stuff the pile back in, I realized the source of the problem, the 4 inch thick yellow pages book. Although I don’t use the yellow pages very often, I usually keep them and throw them out when the new edition comes.
I work with numerous law firms and I realized that many of my clients were spending a significant portion of their marketing budgets on the yellow pages. So I decided to do some research. Opening the 2,000+ page book, I was amazed to see that there were almost 100 pages of advertising just for lawyers. At about 21 pages into it I was overwhelmed – too much information and too many choices.
The yellow pages book in question wasn’t from New York or San Francisco, it was the book from a small rural California town. So why would anyone spend thousands of dollars a month to be part of this process?
When I asked my clients the most common answer was… because everyone else is doing it. I didn’t like that answer and I also don’t like wasting money. I looked closer at the Yellow Pages vs. Search Engine models and identified four trends that will impact how local companies advertise.
Ease of Use - People do what’s easiest. Access to the Internet via work, home or smart phones has truly made getting information easy. According to Jupiter Media, over 64% of people who are looking for information on-line, use search engines. If I can type my problem or what I want into a search engine and find what I need, I don’t need to go through the 100 pages of ads in the yellow pages.
