Don't Sneer at the Yellow Pages

Editor’s note: Following is this month's column from Fuel, a marketing and communications newsletter that contributes to Kiplinger Recommends each month.

Most of us have a yellow pages directory at home, covered in dust, perhaps, or tucked away in a closet. But we rarely throw them away — just in case. And that just in case is a big reason why many businesses should be sure to keep the yellow pages in mind when reviewing marketing plans and budgets. It's often the place consumers and other businesses turn when a pipe breaks over the weekend, a supplier fails you at the last minute or you need to make one of those specialized once-in-a-decade purchases.

If people don't use the actual phonebook version, they often turn to Internet versions — and advertisers ought to take advantage of both. This month's look at marketing by the newsletter Fuel points out that Internet searches can't be as specific in searches for certain types of services as the real yellow pages. As one marketing expert points out in the article, "A hairdresser needs to be in my neighborhood. For an intellectual property lawyer, I'd be willing to travel."

For a medium about as cutting edge as black and white television, it is extraordinarily effective. "Despite their lack of sexiness, yellow phone books have an enviable overall conversion rate: the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) says 86 percent of people who look in the yellow pages either make or intend to make a purchase," Fuel says.

Fuel offers practical advice about how to make most effective use of both the print and electronic versions of the yellow pages. It also offers tips on how to make your ads stand out that goes far beyond renaming your company AAA-something or other. "The biggest mistake businesses make is to run a yellow page ad that looks like their competitor's," one marketing consultant says in the article. "We see a lot of this in the legal industry, where the only thing different, page to page, is the name of the firm."