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Some Yellow Pages Usage Data: Print v. IYP

September 11th, 2008 · 12 Comments

Sitting in on a Yellow Pages webinar organized by the YP Commando himself, Dick Larkin.  Thought it might be interesting to post some of the data the presenters are discussing.  I’ll keep updating this post as I see more interesting stuff.

Yellow Pages Usage Print v. Internet
The Value of Yellow Pages Against Other Media
Sales ROI By Medium

IYP Search Volume Trends
5 Year Advertising Spending Forecast By Media
Local Media Co's % of Gross Revenue From Online Operations

Addressable Market for YP Publishers
Local Online Ad Sales Force Sizes
Local Interactive Market Share by Medium


Borrell Associates predicts a 39% decline for annual print YP usage by 2013.

It’s not all doom and gloom though.  While print is not growing it still seems to out perform the Web in a lot of areas.

Some musings from Dick on his experience in selling to SMBs at Spotrunner/Weblistic:

  1. The advertisers are interested in talking to Internet sales people
  2. It is difficult to match the ROI of print yellow pages because there is not enough online volume.  Categories like personal injury attornies and bail bonds have this issue. (no kidding re bail bonds - the wifi in county jails sucks)

Tags: Local Advertising · Local Search · Yellow Pages

12 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Michael Dorausch // Sep 11, 2008 at 11:29 am

    Nice charts Andrew. In my experience Personal Injury is still doing well in the books for consumers seeking attorneys/doctors but online has really assisted PI attorneys in locating doctors nearby where clients live/work.

  • 2 christine coleman rodriguez // Sep 11, 2008 at 12:49 pm

    Thanks for all those charts. Like the ROI by medium. This is a good case for every small business to get online and get a great SEO STAT!

  • 3 Stever // Sep 11, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    In the last slide what does “pureplay” mean?

  • 4 Andrew Shotland // Sep 11, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    I believe it means a business that is only online (i.e. no TV network, newspaper, etc.).

  • 5 Paul Pedersen // Sep 12, 2008 at 5:22 am

    It’s interesting that, in “The Value of Yellow Pages Against Other Media” chart, they left off what we typically see in the charts as the best performing media …like search engine marketing, etc.

  • 6 Dev Basu // Sep 12, 2008 at 5:48 am

    Thanks for the coverage Andrew. These slides will definitely come in handy in future client pitches. Additionally, I will forward it to some folks at the YPG in case they haven’t seen these charts already.

    Cheers!

  • 7 Andrew Shotland // Sep 12, 2008 at 9:13 am

    Good point Paul. Wonder if “online services” includes search?

  • 8 Jon // Sep 15, 2008 at 2:09 am

    Thanks for posting that Andrew.

    In the “Sales ROI by Medium” chart, do you know if “Internet” means paid-advertising on the net (PPC etc), or does it also include general investment in internet marketing (ie. website design, SEO, etc)

    Cheers, Jon

  • 9 Mihmorandum | The Value of the Yellow Pages for Small Businesses Today | General Marketing // Sep 15, 2008 at 9:59 am

    [...] With that kind of dramatic gap, it’s hard for me not to advise SMB’s to put the vast majority of their marketing budget into organic search, or at the very least, paid search. In fact, that kind of data makes it hard for me to understand how the Print Yellow Pages have ANY real value for small businesses anymore. It stands in stark contrast to the data being presented by the Yellow Pages Association (found this graph on Andrew Shotland’s Local SEO Guide): [...]

  • 10 Loci 2008: The year in Local from Michael Jensen’s Point of view » Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search // Jan 7, 2009 at 9:48 am

    [...] Some Yellow Pages Usage Data: Print v. IYP by Andrew Shotland (@localseoguide on Twitter) [...]

  • 11 If Markets are Conversations, Blogs are Natural Marketing Platforms | EvoBloggito | Evolution Web Development // Aug 6, 2009 at 3:21 pm

    [...] Yellow Pages, as Google search replaces the Yellow Pages search for information (MerchantCircle; Local SEO Guide), blogs are becoming more important as information [...]

  • 12 Stop Throwing Your Marketing Dollars Away! | Denver SEO | SEM // Oct 30, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    [...] Pages themselves came out with a study showing how valuable their services are. But wait! Their own reports show their online version of the yellow pages beats their print ads AND Organic Internet Marketing [...]

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