Posts Tagged ‘Yellow Pages Group’

New Online Destinations Create Local Marketing Opportunities For Small Businesses

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

In my article posted on Search Engine Land this week, I discuss how advances in digital offerings are presenting small businesses with a growing range of possibilities for where to spend their ad dollars. Additionally, I discuss how owners these days are faced with the difficult task of determining how to link old and new initiatives into cohesive strategies that deliver the strongest rates of return for their businesses.

Since the start of the year, we’ve shared announcements from several major Yellow Pages companies including SuperMedia, Dex One Corp., The Berry Company, and Yellow Pages Group about new services, partnerships, and acquisitions that provide small business with the means to combine the most recent digital marketing possibilities with traditional print and online options that they’ve used for years.

Today, it’s not just about Internet Yellow Pages, which millions of small business already know and use. I’m also talking about new vertical web sites including digital coupon sites, shopping comparison sites and user review sites that are among the latest drivers of local leads and are increasingly being added to the portfolios of various Yellow Pages companies.

For my thoughts, check out my Search Engine Land column here.

March 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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Yellow Pages Group Adds 411.ca, RedFlagDeals.com to Online Portfolio

Monday, February 22, 2010

Yellow Pages Group is staying true to its promise to reposition itself in the “new digital universe” with dual announcements today regarding its acquisition of various online properties.

The Canadian Yellow Pages provider said it had purchased the 411.ca brand, a fast-growing online directory that currently attracts 10% of local search users or 13 million queries each month, expanding the footprint for YPG’s existing Canada411.ca and YellowPages.ca brands. The company said the addition of the 411.ca site will add approximately 1 million unduplicated unique monthly visitors to YPG’s online network.

Additionally, YPG took control of Clear Sky Media, a holding company that owns RedFlagDeals.com (an online discount/coupon site), Scarlett Lounge (a fashion and beauty shopping site for women), and PriceCanada.com (an online shopping price comparison site).

RedFlagsDeals.com, which alone attracts 2.2 million unique monthly users, represents a fast-growing segment in the local online space. In the U.S., for example, more than 20% of online users – or 45 million consumers – used digital coupons in 2009, according to research compiled by Coupons.com. This represented an 18% increase in use compared to 2008.

Today’s announcements come just days after YPG announced Search Engine Solutions, a new SEM offering designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

These moves represent the growing shift in the industry towards expanding online directory and vertical offerings and associated services related to search engine optimization.

February 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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Yellow Pages Group Launches Search Engine Marketing Services

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Over the weekend, we shared news that Yellow Pages Group was planning a digital makeover and a new name for its parent company – Yellow Media. This morning, the Canadian company made good on its promise with the announcement of an innovative offering designed specifically to help its clients leverage opportunities in the digital space.

In a press release, Yellow Pages Group said it was introducing a new suite of services, Search Engine Solutions, to assist small and medium-sized business with generating more qualified leads and converting online searchers into customers. Components of the new offering include:

  • Paid-search advertising campaigns tailored specifically to business needs, objectives, and budgets across multiple major search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo, and Bing).
  • Counsel in developing the most cost-effective search phrases for businesses to improve their Web site rankings and attract new customers.
  • Ability for advertisers to create a custom leads page with interactive mapping, driving directions, and “send to a friend” options.
  • Detailed monthly report to help clients optimize their online visibility and increase traffic to their Web properties.

Today’s announcement is just the latest example of how Yellow Pages companies are expanding their services to remain the one-stop, integrated advertising partners for small businesses – whether it’s in print, online, or via mobile.

February 18, 2010 | 2 Comments
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Yellow Pages Group Plans Digital Makeover, New Name

Saturday, February 13, 2010

A digital makeover is on the horizon for Yellow Pages Income Fund, the Canadian Yellow Pages provider, according to The Canadian Press.

In an interview with the outlet, president and CEO Marc Tellier said the company is, “going to look at repositioning our brand, repositioning the logo to be more representative of this new digital universe.”

In its 2009 full-year earnings release yesterday, the Yellow Pages provider announced that it has renamed its subsidiary YPG Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Yellow Pages Group and Trader Corp., as Yellow Media, Inc.

The new name is the latest in a string of recent re-brandings for Yellow Pages companies—including Idearc’s change to SuperMedia and R.H. Donnelley to DexOne Corp—and reflects the industry’s growing shift towards delivering hybrid solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses through its online, mobile, and print multimedia platforms.

Already, Yellow Media is starting to make major strides in the online and mobile space. According to its release, revenues for online directories and vertical media combined grew 24% compared to last year.

Specifically, the company said it has focused on enhancing the user experience on its different platforms. For example, YellowPages.ca, its leading online directory, now offers location-based results, interactive mapping features, additional options to help users refine their search, as well as merchant videos.

Yellow Media is also purchasing additional online verticals to help boost revenues, such as Restaurantica.com, the online restaurant and dining community we blogged about last month. Additionally, the company said it has partnered with a local search and performance advertising company and will soon launch a new search engine solutions offering.

On the mobile front, Yellow Media said it had achieved success with the launch of a series of mobile search applications for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Google Andriod users. The BlackBerry and iPhone apps have been downloaded more than 650,000 times.

For more information, read the full release here.

February 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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AT&T Interactive Partners with Expedia

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

AT&T Interactive just announced an exciting new partnership with Expedia Affiliate Network, the online travel company that owns Expedia.com.  Users will be able to check hotel rates, room availability and book rooms for hotels listed on AT&T’s YellowPages.com and YP.com.

The move is the latest by a Yellow Pages company towards developing new online tools and partnerships as a means of generating new revenues. As we reported last month, Canada’s Yellow Pages Group acquired Restaurantica.com, a popular restaurant and dining online community, in an effort to capitalize on the growing trend of users making their dining decisions online and based on user recommendations and reviews.

According to the release, the agreement creates a “natural extension” to the travel and hotel information already available on AT&T’s local search sites. In addition to local travel-related listings, users will now have access to Expedia’s expansive hotel content, including maps and points of interest, hotel photos and virtual tours.

While the partnership is a win for AT&T, it’s also a great indication of the importance that online retailers such as Expedia are placing on Yellow Pages’ local search. As Sunil Bhatt, vice president and general manager for Expedia Affiliate Network, notes, “Aligning with AT&T Interactive gives Expedia a way to reach consumers who are already looking for local hotel information.”

And the number of consumers going online for travel is growing. According to PhoCusWright U.S. Online Travel, more than 39% of all travel bookings are now being done on the Web. With today’s announcement, Yellow Pages will have an ever greater opportunity to be a part of the action.

February 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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CNN: Has Twitter Peaked?

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I came across an interesting article on CNN.com that questions the future of Twitter, which had enormous growth in early 2009 but has not seen its user base expand for nearly six months, according to several Web analytics firms.

In the article, one analyst suggests that Twitter may be a victim of its early success. After users flocked to the site to follow celebrities, athletes, and news organizations, some had possibility decided the site simply wasn’t for them. Others say that maybe there’s too much chatter on the site now for it to still be useful.

Yet Twitter and its supporters say that existing users are using the site now more than ever. According to Twitter CEO Evan Williams, Twitter saw its highest usage day ever following the earthquake in Haiti. Additionally, some experts think that the use of mobile devices and third-party programs like TweetDeck are skewing Twitter’s numbers lower – and that in fact its user base is still growing.

Several Yellow Pages companies have embraced Twitter. For example, SuperMedia launched its own handle, sp411, which provides local search results via the site. Other YP members, such as Yellow Pages Group, have launched their own handles as well as a channel to communicate with their customers.

It will be interesting to see how Twitter evolves to stay top of mind for users.  Whatever its path or future success, it’s clear that social networking is here to stay and that its impact on local search is real.  That’s going to make it harder than ever for local businesses to keep up with the trends and where our industry’s multichannel, platform agnostic direction can play a significant role.

February 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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Canada’s Yellow Pages Group Adds Online Restaurant and Dining Community

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Here’s an interesting story from our Yellow Pages friends up north: Yellow Pages Group, a leading Canadian local commercial search provider, announced this week that it has purchased Restaurantica.com, a popular restaurant and dining online community.

The move is the latest in a growing trend among Yellow Pages companies towards developing or acquiring new online and mobile tools as a means of generating new revenues.

Yellow Pages Group, which already runs the YellowPages.ca online search engine, will benefit from the addition of a restaurant-related site that hosts user reviews, which are becoming increasingly popular among users.

According to the company, 80% of dining decisions are significantly influenced by user recommendations and reviews. The site also comes with more than 50,000 restaurant customers, who will in turn become Yellow Pages customers.

Restaurantica currently lists around 400,000 restaurants, bars and cafes, with more than 200,000 user-generated reviews, according to the announcement press release. Additionally, the site, which has its own iPhone app, attracts more than 540,000 visits and 1.7 million page views per month.

New web verticals such as Restuarantica and EveryCarListed.com, a SuperMedia site dedicated to car sales, represent Yellow Pages’ expanding influence in the digital space – and a sign of more to come.

January 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
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Canada’s Yellow Pages Group Announces Search Engine Marketing Services

Friday, October 30, 2009

For years, small and mid-sized businesses have relied on Yellow Pages to attract new local customers. And under a new partnership announced in Canada this week, businesses can continue to count on Yellow Pages as their guide to reaching the growing number of potential customers using local online search.

On Wednesday, Canada’s Yellow Pages Group (YPG) announced an agreement with Marchex, a local search advertising company, to provide local online performance-based advertising services for the group’s clients on major search engines such as Google, MSN’s Bing, and Yahoo!.

These new offerings are in addition to the YPG’s popular online search directories – YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca, and CanadaPlus.ca – and its mobile site and cell phone applications.

We’ll be watching their progress with interest.

October 30, 2009 | 1 Comment
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Yellow Pages Group Launches Custom Delivery and ecoGuide

Friday, June 19, 2009

Yellow Pages Group (YPG) in Canada made two big announcements this week that I think are worth highlighting for those interested in the industry’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

Custom Delivery Program
Yesterday, YPG announced it is launching a new Custom Delivery Program in which consumers can increase the number of copies of print Yellow Pages directories they want, select which of the directories available in their area they want to receive, or remove their name from the distribution list.

The program can be accessed online or by contacting YPG at 1-800-268-5637.

Yellow Pages ecoGuide
YPG is adding to its print directories a Yellow Pages ecoGuide to help consumers properly dispose of materials and limit the environmental impact of their homes.

YPG found about one-third of Canadians don’t know how to dispose of certain items like electronic devices, personal computers, appliances and tires. Now, information on how to do that can be found in the new Yellow Pages ecoGuide, which YPG developed in collaboration with Earth Day Canada, Équiterre and Green Communities Canada, as well as local municipalities and recycling councils.

The Yellow Pages ecoGuide also offers a number of tips to help consumers reduce their environmental footprint ranging from light bulb usage to heating and cooling advice. According to YPG’s fact sheet, if every household in Toronto followed these 15 tips, it would save:

  • 878 million liters of fuel, saving enough fuel to fill 4 large oil tankers.
  • 1.3 billion kWh of electricity, saving enough electricity to power 8,000 homes for an entire year.
  • 241 million kg of solid waste, saving enough waste to fill nearly 10,000 garbage trucks.
  • 3.5 billion tons of Greenhouse Gases, which is the same as removing 480,000 mid-sized cars from the roads.
  • 28 billion liters of water, saving enough to fill 5,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
  • $528 million.

I hope all of our Canadian directory users take a look at the ecoGuide when it comes out beginning this month.

YPG has a robust environmental program that includes a number of other ongoing initiatives that you can read about too.

June 19, 2009 | 2 Comments
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Yellow Pages Group Launches iPhone and Blackberry Search Apps

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Yellow Pages Group, the largest Canadian Yellow Pages company, rolled out a new mobile search application this week that brings Yellow Pages listings to iPhone and Blackberry mobile devices.

The new app, called YellowPages.ca, comes packed with features. Blackberry and iPhone users can now search for local business listings on their mobile devices, save those listings to a list of “Favorites” or an address book, share the listings with friends and family through e-mail and SMS, and even map the location results.

YellowPages.ca also takes the convenience of mobile search to the next level by giving users free access to voice-recognition search, so they can search directory listings by simply talking rather than typing.

We know that mobile search is growing rapidly in Canada as well as all over the world so it’s really exciting to see our industry responding to consumer’s local search needs.

The investment seems to have paid off in the short term. YPG said in its news release that it saw a huge uptick in mobile traffic shortly after introducing the new apps.

April 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment
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