Posts Tagged ‘white pages’

WhitePages.com CEO: White Pages Opt-In Shouldn’t Apply to Yellow Pages

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

If you’ve been reading the news over the last few days, you’ve seen a good amount of discussion on the future of the residential white pages.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution yesterday covered AT&T’s plan for opt-in residential white pages in parts of Georgia.

That news followed on the heels of a survey from the online residential information provider WhitePages.com that found the majority of consumers embrace opt-in residential white pages programs.

The WhitePages.com survey prompted some people to ask if the same applied to Yellow Pages. WhitePages.com CEO Alex Algard responded quickly with a guest post on Greg Sterling’s blog that clarifies his thinking on the issue.

In his opinion, Algard does not believe Yellow Pages “will or should” embrace opt-in for the following reasons:

  • Yellow Pages are a proven means of local advertising for small businesses across the country.
  • Without access to Yellow Pages, a small business’ ability to attract new customers suffers, thus greatly impacting their ability to generate revenue.
  • Yellow Pages play a useful role for consumers, as there is rich content (sometimes richer than what is available online), the listings are generally up-to-date, and the coverage of listings is generally comprehensive.
  • There is a viable financial model for Yellow Pages that supports an entire industry.

I applaud Algard for clarifying this position on Greg’s blog. Residential white pages and Yellow Pages are fundamentally different tools that serve different purposes. And the reasons for falling usage of residential white pages – namely, the increase in unlisted cell phone numbers and the information storage capabilities of mobile phones and handsets – don’t necessarily translate to Yellow Pages.

That said, we recognize consumer behaviors are changing and the challenges small businesses face are getting tougher.

For our advertisers, we continue to generate one of the best return on investments of any advertising medium and have tools in place to help measure that, such as our metered ad program. Yellow Pages advertising offers businesses more for their money by generating an average sales ROI of 27:1 for national display advertisers and nearly 13:1 for local display advertisers. No other advertising medium can offer this unmatched ROI for display advertising.

To address changing local search preferences, we offer digital and mobile search platforms, in addition to print. We also have launched www.yellowpagesoptout.com to make it easy and effective for consumers to manage the delivery of Yellow Pages to their doorsteps. But even as we’re focusing more than ever on consumer choice, we think it’s important to recognize that the value of print Yellow Pages directories to both businesses and consumers is still very, very high.

August 19, 2009 | 3 Comments
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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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Comparing White Pages to Yellow Pages

Monday, March 16, 2009

There’s been quite a bit of coverage about recent decisions by telephone companies to stop automatic delivery of residential White Pages.

So the next logical question is should we continue to deliver the print Yellow Pages?

The answer is definitely – yes.

AT&T said that “Customers are a lot less reliant on the printed residential White Pages than they used to be.” An AT&T spokesperson said, for example, growing cell phone use has made the printed directory less relevant, since mobile numbers are not listed. Candisky said about 60 percent of telephone numbers in Ohio are for cell phones.

But Yellow Pages fill a different need than White Pages – the need for 8 out of 10 U.S. consumers to find local businesses in their community.

Of course, technology is also a driver in changing our behavior. We’re much more apt to use our mobile device as a directory now, storing numbers in our phones as we receive them.

But finding a local business usually requires us to look beyond our mobile contact list. For many, that’s a print directory with businesses categorized for easy search.

For others, it means a trip online – via our home computer or mobile browser – to an Internet Yellow Pages site or a search engine like Google or Yahoo! Local, which receive data feeds from Yellow Pages companies.

But the growing usage of online local search hasn’t eliminated the need for print directories. In fact, print Yellow Pages were referenced more than 12.3 billion times in 2008. And they are still one of the most effective ways for businesses to advertise.

Additionally, the Yellow Pages include business listings, government listings and a wide range of consumer information. Many people turn to the print Yellow Pages to get this information quickly when then need it.

So, let’s not mix apples and oranges, or in this case White and Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages continue to be a great way to connect buyers and sellers.

March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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