Google is the new Yellow Pages

by daveatkins on December 4, 2009

It’s been a long time since I picked up a phone book, but I can still remember the excitement of seeing my name in the white pages for the first time after moving to a new address. The yellow pages were my initial orientation as I searched for local services and businesses.

These days, people are organizing campaigns to stop the delivery of yellow pages phone books to people unless they request them. I know ours go straight from the front doorstep to the recycle bin. We google everything. Just type in your zip code and a description of what you are looking for and up pops a map with the nearest businesses listed. If you are using an iPhone, the phone numbers will be hyperlinked–so you can just touch the number to call.

Google makes it easy for local businesses to provide more information about themselves and enhance this free listing–just read this excellent tutorial by Interactive Marketing, Inc. which includes detailed instructions on how to ensure your business is listed in all the search/map engines. Even if a business does not have a website, they can ensure their listing is accurate and upload photos.

That article is also an illustration of how an online business provides valuable content online to generate leads:

  • I’m linking to his website–that will boost his search engine ranking a little.
  • Most people who read through that LONG tutorial will conclude: I don’t have time for this…I’d rather hire someone to do it for me.

Are the yellow pages dead? I think so unless you can buy the back cover. The directories that show up on our doorsteps now are not even a product of the phone company–they are essentially paid advertising supplements that are becoming increasingly irrelevant as most local businesses have stopped buying space in them and the publishing companies themselves are becoming internet marketing resellers–go to yellowpages.com and you can create a similar listing for free…

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Different Businesses with Different Needs

by daveatkins on December 3, 2009

The first commandment for technology and marketing should be “do what works.” I spent over a decade in tech companies and after being in so many different environments, I finally realize–it is all relative to success. One company spent over a million dollars on marketing and hired a team of a dozen engineers to build a website. Today, “solopreneurs” are running businesses off their MacBooks. And many local businesses are still thinking…maybe I should have a web site.

All businesses need leads. The concept of using the Internet to generate interest in your business and get people finding and calling you is called inbound marketing–an idea operationalized by the company HubSpot in Cambridge. I think they have a great business plan and a great idea for companies that are ready to dive in. But frankly, their platform and service (at $750/month plus the time to manage it all) is a hard sell for people who think…maybe I should have a web site.

Get a full suite of powerful inbound marketing tools for one year for only $9,000.00 plus a $500.00 one time set up fee.

The real challenge is to do enough that works to learn if you should do more. Nobody has the risk tolerance to invest thousands of dollars in paying someone to help them “go online”…those who are willing to do that will do it on their own time, by self-educating and because they are excited about learning about online and social media. That leaves a gap (I hope Dave Atkins Media can fill) to provide some basic starting point for evaluating whether more time and money is worth investing. Pay-as-you-go marketing is what people do when they don’t have $20 million of venture capital funding behind a wacky new idea and they just want to see if they can get more clients by having a web site.

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