Stuart R. Crawford

Finally, a practical use for the Yellow Pages

Finally, I have found the best use for today’s Yellow Pages!

Dave and I were out visiting clients and prospects in and around the Calgary downtown core today when we stopped by to visit a great prospective Calgary web design client who has some very special needs when it comes to his overall web strategy.  His website when completed will be something he can use to communicate in Calgary’s vibrant oil and gas market. When we combine this is complete online solutions consisting of online hosted services he has a complete, robust and secure business solution.  Plus, a possibility enjoying a competitive advantage in the community.

While our prospective client was sharing his requirements with his web design plus other critical services like search engine optimization, mailing lists and some hosted services around email and document storage something caught both Dave and my attention.  We did notice the stack of Yellow page books which increase the height of his computer screen to a comfortable viewing level.

I had to applaud my friend from across the table who brought up the importance in having his oil and gas firm on the first page of the Google searching ranking and this is when he said the magic words.

“We don’t use the Yellow pages anymore to find information, we turn to Google to search for everything.  Can you see how the Yellow pages are now used in our company”?

It was awesome and something you just had to experience.  Is this the reality in today’s globally connected world?  Are Yellow Page ads rapidly becoming a thing of the past?

Today, I see many small businesses continuing to spend thousands if not tens of thousands of their hard-earned dollars on Yellow page advertising.  Like my trusted prospect, today’s population are using the Yellow Page books to raise their computer screens, prop up a busted leg on a workbench or simply take them from the front door of the house and immediately march them into the garage to have them deposited in our Calgary blue box recycling program.  Well, at least this is what happens in our house.   They are not being used to find a plumber, moving company or someone who can fix my garage door opener.

Does this happen in your home?

Why spend time looking up stuff in the Yellow pages?

Everyone in my home has a laptop (Mac or PC) or a smart phone (Blackberry or iPhone) where we can immediately look for information with a quick trip to google.ca.  I am pretty confident the population is now turning to online sources to find information online, to find a supplier of a particular product, to get directions to the nearest hair salon and to find a simple telephone number. 

Is your business showing up in the top three or four searches on Google today?  What opportunities are you missing when the average Joe turns to Google to find products and services in a whole new way?

Here is something to chew on.  If you take your Yellow page advertising budget from last year and cut it in half and then hire a Calgary SEO expert to help you optimize your website and social media services with the other half, I am pretty confident you will get more phone calls, more leads and eventually close more business.  Try it out.

Looking for comments

1.  Have you stopped using the Yellow pages?
2. If so, why
3. What other ways are you finding information?