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Yellow Pages Advertising in the Eyes of an Inbound Marketer

Posted by Casey Lewis on Wednesday, February 11, 2015


yellow-pages-advertising-eyes-inbound-marketerWhen you think of the yellow pages, you probably conjure up images of a thick, musty old book with crinkly pages. But when an inbound marketer thinks of the yellow pages, they feel the same way a writer probably feels when they see a typewriter: why would anyone ever subject themselves to using such an antiquated tool, when there are far better and cost-effective options available?

That’s because inbound marketing is kind of like a Blu-Ray player while yellow pages advertising is more like a VCR: sure, it might still accomplish its intended purpose, but the quality isn’t great and you could do a lot better. There are dozens of reasons why inbound marketing is a better choice for any business instead of the yellow pages, but you don’t have all day to read 10,000 words on the subject. So instead, let’s go over some of the biggest reasons why yellow pages advertising pales in comparison to inbound marketing methods.

Adaptability vs. Static Marketing

One of the biggest reasons we prefer inbound marketing here at Rhino is its adaptability. Because inbound marketing exists almost entirely online, it means you can change anything at any time. Don’t feel like your messaging is effective? You can switch it up with a few keystrokes. Made a mistake in your content? Changing it is a breeze.

Yellow pages advertising, on the other hand, comes out once a year. And once it’s out there, there’s no changing it. So if your annual yellow pages campaign turns out to be a dud, you’ve got to wait twelve months to try a new one. No pressure!

Analyzing the success of your campaigns

Have you ever seen an ad that asks you to mention to the business how you heard about the company, a product or a promotion? That’s because the company wants to know how effective their ad campaign is. Yellow pages advertising operates under a similar concept; unless the company asks you directly how you heard about them, they will have a hard time gauging how successful their yellow pages campaigns are.

Conversely, inbound marketing provides us with tons of numbers. You can track page visits, clicks, time spent on pages, etc. And if you decide to invest in marketing automation software (such as HubSpot), you can get even more analytical information to help you understand what is and isn’t working. And that leads us into our next point…

Tracking leads

Another benefit of marketing automation is the ability to track and score leads. A feature such as the HubSpot contact database allows you to build files on all of your leads, so you can monitor where they are on the “buyer’s journey” and act accordingly. The contact database feature records every interaction you have with a lead, and provides helpful data gleaned from publicly available information on the web (such as social media profiles). And since HubSpot can incorporate tracking tags directly into the URLs of your site pages, lead interactions with your site are automatically recorded in the database.

Yellow pages advertising offers no such features. If you want to track your leads, you’ll have to compile the information manually, possibly creating a logistical nightmare for your sales staff.

These are just three of the biggest reasons you should abandon the yellow pages and move on to inbound marketing. If you want to know more, please download our FREE eBook: A Six-Step Plan to Transition From Yellow Pages Advertising to Content Marketing.

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