Goodbye idearc Yellow Pages
 

Well, after 21 years I've decided that at least for my small business (small medical practice), advertising in the yellow pages is a waste of money. We poll our patients, and not one in the last two years has referenced the yellow pages, now it is all the internet or word of mouth referrals. I'd be interested in the opinions of the Pelicans as to how useful the Yellow Pages are.

Very rarely. I used them to find an A/C contractor when my A/C was broken. I could match up the logos in the ads with the trucks I see around town. You can't do that on the internet. I find searching for things like that very difficult on the internet. I use the internet when I already know what I'm looking for, but need a phone number or something.

I never use them. When they arrive on our door step, they go staight from there to the recycle been. A big waste of trees if you ask me.

charlesbahn......funny you say that, after 26 with yellow pages and yes, polling patients rarely comes from yellow pages but from word of mouth, I too have had it.
Big waste of time and the money I sent them every month. You know by just having a business account you will be listed in the yellow pages for free but it will be the small version, big woop.

+1, we also seem to have 3 companies all producing phone books now so its 3x as much waste. We also get the 2 "free" local papers numerous times per week that have no "content" but lots of ads.

I am killing trees everyday and have no choice in the matter.

I used to sell yellow page ads for Verizon. Worst job, but easiest money. They were just starting to offer website building and hosting when I left in 2001. I honestly have not opened a yellow pages since I had that job. But they are good for some things. Plumbers, personal injury lawyers, HVAC, etc. tend to be their biggest advertisers. You'd be amazed how much some of those ads can cost, upwards of $20,000 PER MONTH.

Yellow Pages is about my only form of advertising but all I was after was listing in three different places, $30/mo. My business is all local and I have a lot of low-tech customers.
Jim

I would say that it's about demographics. If your target marget is 50 years +, you should continue to advertise. If your primary market is <40 years old, then consider letting it go. The other factor (as mentioned) is local shoppers. Many of them will still dive to the yellow for a tradesman or other local service contractor.

Ian

I have a medical practice as well. I had an ad in the Yellow Pages for 4 years when I started. I was at full volume within a year of opening my practice so I started to think that maybe the Yellow Pages ad was a needless expense. It was. I've been out of "the book" for 12 years. No impact on my practice at all. None.

I track referral sources carefully. The vast majority of my patients are referred by other patients. Other physicians refer the next largest group followed by the internet (yelp.com, etc.) Dump the big yellow doorstop. You won't regret it.

I have not used yellow pages in at least 12 years, probably longer.

But I understand that if your demographic includes the elderly, they probably still use them. I think nobody under 40 uses them anymore.

In the machine shop business, sometimes I need to find little mom and pop shops and the yellow pages are the only way to find them, so I still keep them around but use them rarely.

I use the yellow pages for emergency situations--when I don't have time to research extensively.

When my sewer backed up this year, I went straight to the yellow pages and called every place in there. The first place to answer got the job.

When my regular plumber stopped returning calls and my main shutoff valve was leaking, I looked for a new one in the yellow pages.

Same here

bullet stops.

I've had to call a contractor several times over the years (plumbers, HVAC etc) and always used the yellow pages, and was always disappointed and pissed off at the quality of service and cost.

Recently I needed to replace my outside AC compressor so I checked the internets. Found an independent guy who charges $80 an hour and does great work. No additional costs, no surprises. His company ids his. No franchise, no fancy brand name, just one guy with a van and very small shop who's been doing this type of work all his life.
No hassles, no language problem, no trouble at all. Totally trust him. He has my business as long as he wants it.

I use them to beat baby seals.

After that, I use them to soak up spilled mercury in my garage, then toss 'em in the storm drain.

See, now that's a problem. You are supposed to douse them with gasoline and burn them, and then toss the ASHES in the storm drain.

You're going to damage the pelts doing that. Use a sack of ripe Valencia oranges instead.

Mercury - I just toss that in the sandbox at the playground. Very absorbent...

just the free listing for me. if they're looking for me and are familiar with the alphabet, it should be no problem. got enough bills already.

Same here.

The cost of any type of ad is a rip off.

In 8 years I've really only got one job of any substance from the yellow pages.

Searching online is faster, anyway.



KT