Yellow What?

from Drew recently:

Why the Demise of the Yellow Pages is Great for Small Business Marketing

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 07:17 AM PST

You No Longer Need to Get Lost Among a Blizzard of Big Ads from the Big Boys. You can win online instead.

If you were to dig up a five or 10-year-old edition of the Yellow Pages, you would find that in every major category, there are lots of very large ads from companies with huge budgets to spend influencing buying behavior. Back then, it really was important to have some kind of presence in the Yellow Pages because they frequently represented the last stage in purchasing.

Today everything has changed. Buyers go first to the web to do their research about potential purchases. They then either buy directly from the web or take their research results and go to the store or contact the business in order to complete their purchase. You have only to look at the incredible shrinking Yellow Pages to understand how little influence they have in purchasing behavior today.

That is sad for the Yellow Pages. But it is terrific for small business marketers.

In days past, they would have had to invest thousands of dollars every month year in and year out to be able to compete against large established companies. A tiny Yellow Pages ad could cost several hundred dollars per month. Unfortunately, the impact of that small ad would be minimal compared to that of their giant-sized competitors.

On the Internet Even Small Companies Can Be Major Players

For a capital investment of $5-$10,000 a business of any size can build a credible and compelling website that integrates a blog, an eNewsletter, and social media in order to compete effectively with companies that might be 10 or 100 times their size.

The power of such a web presence is that it can have infinite depth and breath. Although the website of a small business may lack some of the polish and pizzazz of its giant brethren, it can be every bit as successful when it conveys content that is truly relevant and compelling for its ideal target customers. Moreover, we’ve all seen small companies execute more effectively on the internet than their competitors who may have big budgets but less understanding of what works on the web.

Even better, social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter make communicating with your customers and building a base of rabid fans surprisingly easy. Because both of those tools are free, ideas and creativity have the chance to beat out marketing efforts from companies with big budgets but a poor understanding of how to put social media to work for the benefit of their customers.

Bad Economic News. Great Marketing News.

Every small business faces the challenges of a very tough economy. That’s the bad news. But, the good news is that it is never an easier or less expensive to create and conduct an effective marketing program.

You can now go head-to-head with the big guys online–and win.

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