Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

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Cultural Exchange: YPA’s Neg Norton to Speak at EADP in Prague This Week

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

This week, Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, will be speaking at the European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) Annual Congress in Prague. The EADP congress is the biggest event in Europe dedicated to the directory publishing industry and is expected to draw over 300 attendees.

In his address, “Strength, Courage & Opportunity: The Yellow Pages’ Game plan for Success in a New World,” Neg will be discussing the future of the US industry and what it will take to stay successful in these seas of change.

I think this opportunity really highlights something that we’ve been talking about this year: the fact that we’re all in this together.

Although the European markets are different in many ways, the issues and opportunities currently facing EADP members are very similar to those that YPA members are facing here – media fragmentation, new consumer media habits, changing demographics, new technologies, the tight global economy and evolving environmental movements.

To that end, I think that the EADP has lined up a dynamic list of speakers and topics that US audiences would also be interested in, including:

An Update of the Economic Situation in the Media Industry – A broad economic overview narrowing to the media and directory industries

  • Julian Moore, Head of Media Sector Advisory, RBS, Global Banking and Markets

People Search and Social Networking – Monetizing the Growth

  • Dr. Clemens Riedl, director, studiVZ Ltd
  • Valérie Shwartz, Director, Voice Services and Mobile Internet Business Units, PagesJaunes, FR
  • Geoff Avard, Chief Strategy Officer, Sensis, AU

Leveraging 100 years of Experience in Directory Publishing

  • Peter Buxton, Buxton Independent Consulting, DE
  • Jim Easton, Director, AMR International Ltd, UK
  • Neal Polachek, CEO, The Kelsey Group, US
  • Jesper Simonsen, Partner, JS Consulting ApS, DK

If you aren’t fortunate enough to be heading to Prague, you can see Neal, Neg and a host of others at the Kelsey Group DMS09 next week in Orlando. These are the kind of opportunities that everyone should try to take advantage of, after all our collective future is right around the corner.

September 16, 2009 | 1 Comment
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Simmons Findings Show Value in Print and Internet Yellow Pages Ads

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Some advertisers believe that advertising in both print and Internet Yellow Pages is redundant. The thinking is that they will reach their target audience by advertising in either one or the other. But according to the Simmons, Spring, 2009 data, that is not the case. Print and Internet Yellow Pages are in fact complementary products. Therefore, advertising in both products expands the reach for advertisers.

According to Simmons data, only about 7 percent of those that sought out a heading in the print directory also looked at that same heading on the Internet Yellow Pages. The data show that advertisers reach different sets of customers through print than through Internet Yellow Pages. Consequently, the benefits of being in each product are additive – there is virtually no overlap.

On the other hand, 21 percent of those that sought out a heading in the Internet Yellow Pages also looked at that same heading in the print directory. This suggests that advertisers that place ads only in the Internet Yellow Pages may lose potential customers by not being in both print and Internet.

The bottom line is that these results suggest that businesses can generate more leads by advertising in both and could miss out on sales opportunities if they choose not to.  Print remains the “dominant” medium of the two products based on user behaviors, but Internet Yellow Pages usage is growing quickly.  Businesses should consider how they can best leverage both into their marketing mix.

September 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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Back-to-School Puts ‘Child/Day Care’ Heading to the Test

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

More than 12 million children under the age of six in the United States are in some type of child care arrangement every week while their parents work, according to The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). The organization reports that, on average, children of working mothers spend 36 hours every week in child care.

As the nation heads back to school, parents of newborns, toddlers and younger siblings are learning a valuable lesson: The expense of full-time child care can cost twice the national average for in-state college tuition at a public university, estimated at $6,585 per year by Trends in College Pricing, 2008. And finding the right child care can be well worth the effort, not just the expense.

YPA data indicates, the “Child/Day Care” heading, receives 51 million annual references. The heading receives the most usage in September by 18-to-34 year-old women who have lived at their current address for less than five years and the majority of heading users (71 percent) are “first time purchasers” or new to the facility that they choose.

Sixty-seven percent of parents are in a search mode when they utilize the heading, meaning that they have not yet made up their mind on a child care facility. YPA research also tells us that 92 percent of users with a decision to make, and no name in mind, consider 6.6 ads on average.

September 2, 2009 | 1 Comment
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Telmetrics: Pay for Performance Advertising Shows Dramatic Growth

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I invited Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics Inc., to author a guest blog today about the growth of pay for performance advertising:

This year we have seen explosive growth in the number of pay per call programs we are tracking and noted three driving trends in a press release last week. While the increase is from both print and online worlds, the most dramatic growth is with Yellow Pages.

Yellow Pages embraced call tracking and the importance of performance early on. But in today’s economic environment, advertisers are demanding even greater performance visibility. Enter pay per call. The growth we are seeing echoes what AT&T’s Frank Jules and The Berry Company’s Scott Pomeroy shared in the recent Simba webinar on the state of the yellow pages – pay per call is on the rise.

Yellow Pages usage is not dead, as many would like to report, and pay per call growth, especially among heading strongholds like “Attorneys” and “Dentists” is proof. These advertisers value the high-quality leads that Yellow Pages deliver and are happy to pay for calls.

To help publishers more easily monetize this growing trend, we have added new pay per call features – a billing ceiling rollover which can cap advertising spend and bank unused funds to ensure the full cost of the ad.

Stay tuned – we expect pay per call to continue as a high-growth revenue reality.

August 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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comScore Presents on Internet Yellow Pages

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Last week, Elizabeth Emmart at comScore conducted a webinar on the state of internet Yellow Pages (IYP) and local search.

There were two graphs in the presentation that particularly piqued my interest: the percent increase in web searchers and the number of result pages viewed.

Although the absolute number of General Web Searchers (167 million) and Local Web Searchers (160 million) was larger than the number of IYP/Local Web Searchers (88 million) in December 2008, the actual percent increase year over year for IYP searchers was 21%. This exceeded both the increase for general web searchers (16%) and local web searchers (20%).

This is a strong indication that IYPs are not just holding their own in the local search space, but actually growing their user base at a faster rate than its more-hyped competitors.

The second graph that I found interesting showed total result pages for the various types of search engines. comScore referred to this as a measure of “engagement.”

For the period December 2007 to December 2008, General Search increased 52%, local portal search increased 60% and IYP increased 30%. So on the face of it, IYP looks to be far behind the other search alternatives. However, the question is whether this is a measure of “engagement” or really a measure of “frustration”?

Is it better to have a bigger number or a smaller number? A bigger number means that people are spending more time on the site because they are looking at more pages, but does this mean they are truly engaged or they simply cannot find what they are looking for and therefore continue to look at more pages.

One can make the case that that people going to an IYP site are motivated buyers and already know what they are looking for. Therefore, they don’t look at as many pages because they are able to make their decision more quickly. So, in this instance, a lower number of page views are preferable.

We’ll continue to watch Internet Yellow Pages data closely, as represents such a fast-growing segment of our business.

August 4, 2009 | 3 Comments
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Yahoo! and AT&T Partner to Expand Local Advertising Portfolio

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

On today’s Yahoo! earnings call, CEO Carol Bartz announced a new sales partnership with AT&T that’s been generating some buzz. The agreement will enable more than 5,000 AT&T sales representatives to sell Yahoo! display inventory to local businesses across the United States.

We’ve been touting our “feet on the street” sales force as a differentiator for Yellow Pages companies for quite some time. Our presence in market enables us to develop personal relationships with small businesses who trust their Yellow Pages representative to build a advertising approach that will generate sales leads.

Through the AT&T and Yahoo! partnership, Yahoo! will have the advantage of tapping into those customer relationships that are held by AT&T. In turn, AT&T can add Yahoo!’s display inventory and targeting technology to its portfolio.

I believe that these kinds of partnerships are extremely important for our industry. At the end of the day, it’s about our ability to sit down with advertisers, understand their business challenges, and pull together programs that work for them. The more platforms we have to offer, the more cross-selling we do, the better it is for our customer. Ultimately, it helps solidify our position as a trusted advisor to small businesses well into the future.

July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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‘Mad Avenue Blues’ Spoofs Ad Industry Change

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

 

In case you missed it, check out the Mad Avenue Blues video on YouTube created by Terence Kawaja lamenting “The Year The Media Died” to the tune of Don McLean’s famous American Pie.

As Kawaja (LMcDuff on YouTube) explains:

Mad Avenue Blues is about the media/advertising world and the impact to the traditional models brought about by the accelerating migration to digital.

And while the song reflects a lot of inside humor from the ad agency perspective, I think the points will resonate with many of us in the larger advertising and marketing industry.

The shift from old media to new media has been an ongoing topic for the Yellow Pages industry. We spoke at length about our digital transformation at the Yellow Pages Association conference in April and it will surely be a big topic again at DMS09 in September.

The song, with its oft-repeated chorus that “Tech has taken us for a ride, Algorithms got me cross eyed” implies that search has all but killed traditional advertising. This has some layers of truth – it’s not the whole story. And our industry should remember that we are in a unique position as both advertising vehicle and search engine. We started our digital transformation years before many other competitors saw the tsunami in the distance. That means that we have emerged with models to integrate ad sales, search marketing and print and online advertising in ways that provide new value to our customers, while also providing very clear ROI metrics.

But let’s not take it too seriously – it’s a spoof after all. I admire the creativity and wit that went into it.

The video has hit a lot of nerves, and therefore has been blogged about quite a bit, including Wall Street Journal’s Andrew LaVallee and BusinessWeeks’ David Kiley.

July 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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Forbes Points Small Business Owners to Yellow Pages Association Data

Monday, July 20, 2009

I ran across some good advice from Forbes magazine’s entrepreneurial expert Kern Lewis on Friday, “Market Research On The Cheap” advising business owners to act smart when their budgets tighten, and seek free data to keep sharp.

The article – the first of a two-part column – offers some practical advice to entrepreneurs on the value of “actionable data” and where to find it.   Lewis cautions that because a market can change quickly, savvy marketers need to keep an eye on demographics, measurable preference data and behavioral trends in order to stay competitive – all things that the Yellow Pages industry has been tracking for years.

To find that important trend information, Lewis suggests general searches, government databases, and trade associations.  And with that, I was jazzed to read his advice, saying:

Some associations are better data trackers than others, but be sure to browse what they do have. I’ve used information compiled by the Yellow Pages Association to advise my clients on the relative merits of advertising in print or online Yellow Pages.

All of us at YPA have been working with our members for a long time to support small- and medium-sized businesses.  We are proud to be referenced here and will continue to provide consumer information and business data to American entrepreneurs.  We know that data and metrics mean better ROI, and have built our industry around gathering and interpreting data to best serve our customers’ bottom line.

July 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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RH Donnolley Takes Dex Pages Digital

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

One reason many consumers still like print Yellow Pages is the way directories clearly organize and lay out local businesses.

In a print directory, you can quickly flip through the pages to find business information, browse the headings of interest, and compare the display ads of the various businesses under that heading. The display ads are often useful in helping a consumer select which business to call.

As online local search grows in popularity, the Yellow Pages industry has been expanding Internet and mobile search solutions. Last week, RH Donnolley and Innovectra announced an innovative new offering called Dex Pages that takes the print Yellow Pages experience online while adding additional flexibility that digital content offers.

This new virtual directory features clear digital replicas of local Yellow Pages listings, display ads, and page layouts, while including a multi-word search function. I’ve been experimenting with Dex Pages over the last few days and one tool that I think will be particularly useful is the hotlink to e-mail and Web site addresses of local businesses. They’ve also taken the time to include local community information that many people like to have close by via their Yellow Pages.

Dex Pages is available in all 28 states where R.H. Donnelley publishes directories. Take a moment to browse Dex Pages and see what you think.

July 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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YPA Releases Print White Pages Study

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Yellow Pages Association has just released a new study on print White Pages conducted by Wiese research and some of the findings are quite interesting.

When consumers are referencing business phone numbers , print Yellow Pages (80%) continue to be the predominant source for this information while the printed business White Pages (69%) are also used quite often.

Nearly seven in every ten consumers have used both the White and Yellow Pages of a phone directory in the past 30 days.  When White Pages usage is further segmented into residential versus business listings, it can be seen that the proportion of consumers using (as well as the frequency of use) is greater for the business White Pages than for the residential White Pages.

53% of those who have used the business White Pages in the past 30 days made a purchase, while one in five of these uses (21%) resulted in a new customer relationship. Over half of those who made a purchase using the business White Pages (59%) also referenced the Yellow Pages.

Member companies who are interested in obtaining more information on this study can contact Larry Small.

July 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
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