Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

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Dex One Partners with Yelp to Provide Consumer Feedback on Its Listings

Thursday, March 4, 2010

When Dex One emerged from bankruptcy last month, the Yellow Pages provider said it would further develop its hybrid range of advertising solutions including online and mobile search, print yellow pages directories, voice-search platforms and pay-per-click networks.

Yesterday, the company took another step in that direction by announcing a new agreement with Yelp, the popular local business review site, to provide consumer feedback on its local search listings.

Starting next month, DexKnows.com’s approximately 500,000 small business clients will begin seeing Yelp-branded content—including ratings and reviews written by the Yelp community—appear within their individual local businesses listings. The Yelp content will complement the existing user-generated content already provided by DexKnows.com users.

User review sites such as Yelp are very popular with consumers. Consumer opinions posted online are among the most trusted forms of advertising, second only to recommendations from personal acquaintances, according to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey released in July 2009.

For more, check out the press release by clicking here.

March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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Travel Searches Take Off in March

Monday, March 1, 2010

It should come as no surprise that each year in March, the number of travel-related Yellow Pages searches increases as families and students plan their Spring Break trips. However, what I was surprised to discover is that the number of travel searches for “airlines” is actually sky-high in March, receiving more references than any other time of the year. Combined, the “travel agencies” and “airlines” headings receive more than 65.6 million references annually.

What does this mean for our local advertisers? Among the various YP platforms consumers use to search for travel agencies, our data shows local businesses make up nearly two out of every three references. Because nearly 60% of all users do not have just one travel agency in mind when turning to the Yellow Pages, there is a real opportunity to generate qualified leads and establish long-term client relationships. In fact, travel agents that invest in YP advertising are typically seeing a 3-to-1 return on investment.

According to Chris Russo, president and chairman of the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), Yellow Pages has been a critical tool in the overall marketing plan of the organization’s members.

For more information – as well as tips from the ASTA on selecting the best travel agency to fit your needs – click here.

March 1, 2010 | 1 Comment
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Legal Battle Over Print Yellow Pages Placement Shows Continued Value

Friday, January 22, 2010

Recently on this blog, we’ve focused on the growing importance of online and mobile opportunities for Yellow Pages companies and their small business advertisers. Recently,  SuperMedia (formerly Idearc) emerged from bankruptcy with a commitment to developing those areas of its business.

But in Baltimore this month, the continued importance of print Yellow Pages as an marketing medium became clear after a legal battle emerged over which local law firm would be allowed to advertise on the back cover of this year’s directory.

The dispute, though unfortunate because it involved an error on the part of the local directory publisher, nonetheless emphasized the high regard small businesses still hold for print Yellow Pages.

Read more on the BIA Kelsey blog.

January 22, 2010 | 1 Comment
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Local Search Plays a Role in Healthcare

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

In my “Locals Only” piece on Search Engine Land this week, I take a look at the national healthcare debate and the continued importance of local search to connect individuals and families with the right medical professionals.

Regardless of where national health care is headed, all Americans share the same challenge: finding good healthcare providers. According to a recent study by Knowledge Networks, 14 percent of all Yellow Pages usage, or roughly one out of every seven, is related to healthcare. In 2008, there were 2.4 billion references to healthcare headings.  And in recent years, there has been a proliferation of vertical Web sites that offer local search tools, ranging from Angie’s List and City Search to webMD Physician Finder.

This means that local healthcare professionals or practices wanting to build a clientele of patients will need to take stock of all the tools available to you, from print yellow pages, internet yellow pages, city listings sites and local search verticals to determine which will reach your intended audience.

You can read my full piece at Search Engine Land here.

October 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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Americans Kick Off Fall With a Trip to Local Pharmacy

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Every month we take a look at interesting headings data.  Since cold and flu season begins as early as October, we thought it would be appropriate to look at the  ”Pharmacies” heading this month.

As it turns out, “Pharmacies” ranks 17th out of more than 4,000 headings and generates 129 million references annually, with the highest frequency coming in October and November. Yellow Pages are one of the primary resources for consumers, in fact, 90 percent of Yellow Pages users who refer to the Pharmacies heading followed up with a purchase with 19 percent of sales generated from new customers.

In addition to October being the highest usage for the Pharmacy heading, it is also American Pharmacist Month, as stated by the (APhA). The month-long observance is a time to recognize pharmacist’s significant contributions to health care and the commitment to patient care in all practice settings from around the country.

Pharmacies know that Yellow Pages advertising will reach the local consumer at the precise moment they are ready to make a purchase, thus generating qualified leads. These purchases, based on local Yellow Pages display ads, result in more than 175 sales per year and over $38,000 in sales revenue for pharmacies. In addition, the average return on investment received from these local display ads at the pharmacies heading is $11 of sales revenue for every $1 spent.

October 13, 2009 | 2 Comments
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Tight Credit Markets Continue to Impact Small Businesses

Thursday, October 8, 2009

I recently ran across a Wall Street Journal piece about the credit crunch’s continuing impact on small businesses.

Of course, there’s been significant talk about economic recovery lately, and the government had made a number of moves to unfreeze credit. So it might be easy to think that our small business clients see a light at the end of the tunnel. But Meredith Whitney, CEO of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, LLC, warns that we’re only about halfway through this credit crisis, and this is bad for small businesses.

“Since the onset of the credit crisis over two years ago, available credit to small businesses and consumers has contracted by trillions of dollars, and that phenomenon is reflected in dismal consumer spending trends. Equally worrisome are the trends in small-business credit, which has contracted at one of the fastest paces of any lending category. Small business loans are hard to find, and credit-card lines (a critical funding source to small businesses) have been cut by 25% since last year.”

She also says that home equity loans are still hard to come by, which means even less money available to small business owners through that credit line.

Since a critical component of our business is helping other businesses generate leads and grow sales, these predictions should be top of mind for all of us.

Our sales teams in the field working with business owners must understand that their advertising resources might continue to be tight for some time to come. As always, that means the responsibility is on us to demonstrate value and ROI to our clients. Now more than ever, we must present solutions that address the specific objectives of individual businesses, and we must demonstrate that those solutions help our clients achieve their goals – however idiosycratic they may be.

October 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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NYT: Managing an Online Reputation

Friday, July 31, 2009

Online local review sites are “the new Yellow Pages,” according to an article by Kermit Pattison this week in the New York Times.  At face value, you’d probably think that I’d take exception to that statement, but actually, there’s some truth to it.

For starters, it’s true because Internet Yellow Pages sites are by their very nature local review sites.  Online Yellow Pages sites (like SuperPages.com and YellowPages.com) offer users the ability to rate, comment on and review businesses across a long list of headings categories.

Additionally, many online review sites feed our local business data.  In that way, you could say they are a “new” kind of Yellow Pages.

What’s most interesting is that search engines are mixing it up even more, taking our data and displaying it along with other information relevant to their users.  Do a local search on Bing, and you’ll get sponsored listings from YellowPages.com, map/location content, data listings that we provide, and aggregated reviews from various sites – all in one spot.

There are a lot of things businesses can do to take some control of their online reputation.  Pattison gave some good advice about businesses adding content to their profiles on local review sites and placing advertisements to generate attention.  Helping local businesses do that has been a priority for us and I’d recommend that every business owner talk to their Yellow Pages sales rep about their Internet Yellow Pages profile.  Many experts agree that Internet Yellow Pages sites play an extremely important role in search rankings.  Yellow Pages reps can also provide helpful information on search engine optimization and other online marketing strategies as well.  A solid reputation is something that any business can be proud of and that makes managing yours all the more important.

July 31, 2009 | 1 Comment
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Small Business Administration Ups Support for Business Owners

Monday, July 6, 2009

I was pleased to see an announcement from the U.S. Small Business Administration last week and thought I’d repeat it in case anyone else missed it:

The U.S. Small Business Administration has just announced permanent changes to its 504 loan program that will enable small-business owners to refinance any existing loan to buy real estate or equipment or build.  These new rules are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February, and also include provisions to lower borrower fees, restart the secondary market for small-business loans and offer emergency loans.

The timing is critical.  As we’ve seen with our customers in recent months, small local businesses – which constitute the backbone of the American economy – have really taken a hit.  These amendments mean that small businesses will get more support to grow in the recession.  As The Wall Street Journal’s Raymund Flandez reported:

“This is one more piece of the Recovery Act that is going to have a direct impact and put more money in the hands of small business owners just when they need it most,” SBA Administrator Karen G. Mills said in a statement. “Lower interest rates mean lower payments and less money going out the door each month in debt repayments.”

In order to be eligible for the new 504 benefits, a business must meet these conditions:

  • The refinanced debt cannot exceed half of expansion costs.
  • The refinancing interest rate and terms must be better than the existing debt.
  • The existing debt must be collateralized by fixed assets.
  • The borrower must be current on existing debt payments for one year.
  • For every $50,000 in SBA guarantee, the business must create or retain one job.

More details about the program can be found on the SBA website.

July 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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Quality Over Quantity Will Reduce Small Business Ad Churn

Monday, June 22, 2009

You may have read about the recent Borrell report that found high turnover with small businesses who try out an online local search ad buy. If you haven’t, this Wall Street Street Journal blog gave a good synopsis of the report.

Today’s media environment provides small businesses with a large number of metrics that are both overwhelming and confusing. Reach, frequency, and gross ratings points are all metrics that advertisers have relied upon in the past to help measure the effectiveness of their advertising. For many businesses, these metrics have given way to clicks and calls which are more measureable and can be directly tied to lead generation.

However, even clicks and calls can be misleading. Generating qualified leads can be a moving target and that’s why you see such a high turnover rate reported in the Borrell report.

Targeted marketing has been the holy grail for many years and is the primary reason why direct mail is the No. 1 medium in terms of revenue. However, true targeted marketing can only be achieved when it is driven by the consumer, not by the medium. So media such as the Internet, Yellow Pages, Craig’s list, and classified Newspaper advertising are examples of buyers looking for sellers, not sellers seeking out buyers.

But if these searchers do not find what they are looking for, a qualified lead is wasted. That’s why today’s media need to provide relevant results that solve an immediate need-quality over quantity will help the consumer save time and will result in a transaction. Small businesses need to keep this in mind when developing their marketing strategies. This will result in informed buying decisions which will mean lower advertiser turnover.

June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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The Best Call is a Local One

Monday, June 8, 2009

A study just released by CRM Associates shows that consumers prefer local telephone numbers over 800 numbers, and the study provides some suggestions for why that’s the case.

Ads with local phone numbers receive twice as many calls as ads with just an 800 or toll-free number. I wrote about these findings in a column today at Search Engine Land.

It’s worth noting that these results – local numbers beating 800 numbers – occurred across the board, regardless of the type of advertising. Whether it was display, in column, trade, leader ads or white pages, local numbers generated more calls every time.

Due to the local nature of shopping and use of Yellow Pages, advertisers who replace the local number(s) with an 800 number put themselves in a disadvantageous position. Consumers prefer businesses that show a local, personal focus through use of local numbers, even from well known nationally branded companies.

Should advertisers ditch their 800 numbers entirely then? Not quite. When used in conjunction with local numbers, an 800 number actually can be quite effective. Those ads draw the most calls. It’s when the 800 number is used to replace the local number that businesses experience a decline in calls.

June 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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