How to Steal Customers from the Yellow Pages

Paul Weyland

There are a number of very good reasons that local direct decision makers who are advertising primarily in the Yellow Pages should begin advertising on local broadcast stations immediately and reduce their exposure in the phone books in the future. Cutting back on phone book advertising makes sense for several reasons including:

* High cost of Yellow Pages advertising
* Dying medium (many sources predict that phone books will cease to exist in just a few more years)
* Passive medium (the phone book just sits there until somebody picks it up)
* Can’t change the ad for a year
* Younger people don’t use the phone book
* There are too many books
Absolutely no competitive protection
* The biggest ads go in the front of the section but people usually flip from the back to the front (so the smallest ads get seen first)

But here is the primary reason.  Clutter.  Every one of his competitors, including national discounters are advertising in the same section.  And why on Earth would a local businessperson want to give consumers any reason whatsoever to go to the Yellow Pages and shop all of his competitors?

When you have a catastrophic plumbing problem at your house (aren’t they all catastrophic?) when do you want a plumber to fix it?  That answer would be immediately.  Recently I had a plumbing problem and I had no one to call.  My old plumber had moved so I was forced to go to the Yellow Pages and sort through hundreds of plumbers in my area.  Too bad I didn’t have a plumber’s telephone number firmly affixed in my mind.  I would have called that company first.  Instead, I called three companies at random from the phone book and waited for people I didn’t know to call me back.

I had the same problem when after a storm I needed a roofing contractor…no specific company in mind to call… and again when I needed a power washing company to clean some tough-to-get-to places on the exterior of my house.  This situation pops up for consumers constantly in every city and town in every country on the planet.

Although the demise of phone book advertising seems imminent, various forms of Yellow Pages books are still widely in use and many businesses still perceive that Yellow Pages advertising is effective for them. And maybe it is, a little.  But by not advertising regularly on your station, local direct clients are forcing consumers that are ready to buy their product or service right now to fumble through the Yellow Pages (or go to the Internet) and shop all of their competitors.  Imagine how many more customers an advertiser could pull in by being the dominate player on an under-fished station like yours, instead of taking the chance that a consumer just might happen to see his ad in the phone book and might happen to call him instead of one of hundreds of his competitors who are running similar ads right next to his.

How many homeowners in your market will be driven to the phone book, Craig’s List or Angie’s List to find a plumber this week?  How many people will have heating and air conditioning problems and do the same?  Think about all of the consumers that will be forced to play Russian Roulette in the phone book for flooring contractors, attorneys of all types, bail bondsmen, re-modelers, garage door specialists, landscapers,  retail outlets…I could go on and on.

By advertising with you on a consistent basis a business has a chance to sell himself to consumers by fishing in a media lake that is not being over-fished by his competitors.  In many instances the client might even have a monopoly on your station (how many garage door companies are advertising with you this year?).  With you he can work methodically to modify the behavior of people who will definitely buy his product or service this week from either him or one of his many competitors.  By presenting his case thoughtfully, in an un-muddied media lake like yours, he has the opportunity to catch new customers before they ever go to the phone book and shop every single one of his competitors.  In the consumer’s mind he could be the voice of authority in his product/service category and catch more fish regardless of the bigger size or better position of his competitor’s ads in the Yellow Book.

Broadcasters should be reaching out to local businesses of all types, in virtually every product/service category,  and make them aware that by advertising exclusively in the phone book they are simply playing Russian Roulette in a dying medium.   By advertising with you on a consistent basis they have the opportunity to deep-sell people who are ready to buy this week, brand those who might buy in the future, control public dialog in their product or service category and keep people from ever having to go to the cumbersome Yellow Pages again.  

(source: Paul Weyland , President Paul Weyland Training Seminars www.paulweyland.com)