YellowPages.com - Smart or Stupid?

[hpoint]

I just met with an Offline potential client, a large florist. He's spending $460 a month with Yellowpages dot com on a Local listing. The price is going up, so he's thinking about changing to a National listing - $2,000/month.

He gets 260 or so clicks a month, but doesn't know how many sales...

Anyone know if this directory shows up in Search results - or do you have to go to it?

Waste of money? (that's what I'm thinking) or do people search on YellowPages dot com?

Any thoughts/experiences welcomed.

Thank you,
Jill

[SullyUI]

It very well may be a waste of money.

He doesn't know if it is or not because he's not tracking where his clients are coming from.

Google has its own local business index now for free...and I'm sure it is just as popular.

I wouldn't pay that much for a listing on that site. But, I think there are some businesses that could use a yellowpages listing online, especially the ones that are commonly searched for online like "[city] plumbing."

[rapidscc]

OMG! he's paying $460 for only 250 hits per month!!!

I can give him more..Please PM me if you're interested

oMar/RapidScc

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by hpoint

I just met with an Offline potential client, a large florist. He's spending $460 a month with Yellowpages dot com on a Local listing. The price is going up, so he's thinking about changing to a National listing - $2,000/month.

He gets 260 or so clicks a month, but doesn't know how many sales..

So, he's paying $1.77 per click. Do some keyword research and see what it might cost him for PPC through Google AdWords for comparison.

But, the real problem is that he doesn't know how many sales he's getting. It could be zero; it could be 260. Without knowing that, it's hard to tell whether he's wasting the money. If he isn't getting sufficient sales to cover the costs, then it's a waste of money. But, if he's making a profit by running the ad, then it's not a waste. Of course, that's not to say that, if the profit is marginal, that money might be better invested elsewhere where it might get him a better return.

One way he might be able to test is to get an additional phone number, and use that phone number only in the YellowPages.com listing. Then, he can better track how many calls he gets and how many of those result in a sale. If the listing points to his website, set up a page or website just for the YellowPages.com listing and use only that phone number on it. That way, if they call or order through the website, he'll know where they came from.

In those cases, that might give him a better idea of how well his advertising dollars are being spent.

[rlpruitt]

I'm thinking borderline stupid.

I'd first see how well they could get raked through Google, Yahoo, MSN LBCs and see how much business they get for FREE.

I can't imagine that many people would use YellowPages .com when searching for a NATIONAL florist - so that'd be an even bigger waste of $$.

Ralph

[hpoint]

Ralph,
You said it best... who would use Yellow Pages for a National Florist??
Thanks for the kick in the head and clear vision.
Jill

[hpoint]

Thanks about the Google suggestion!

[TheRichLife]

My personal experience is that yellowpages.com is a huge waste of money for a local business. They're easy to out-rank in the SERPs, and their PPC rates are outrageous. I would think any IMer in the local space could do much better for less money.