Newsletter Archive - Dollars & Sense

8 out of 10 Still Ready to Buy When Using Yellow Pages

04/29/2010 - Last month the Yellow Pages Association (YPA) released the results of their first Local Media Tracking Survey. To no great surprise to anyone in the industry, Yellow Pages have continued to be an invaluable source for local search buyers (and advertisers) in 2009. This article looks at some of the findings in that survey.

Usage: Combined, the print and Internet Yellow Pages generated approximately 16.9 billion references last year. In addition new data from the study shows that the vast majority of consumers who consult print and Internet Yellow Pages sites for local business information are in a "ready to buy" mode after their search:

• 8 out of 10 Internet Yellow Pages searches were from people who said they were ready to buy, with 36% reporting they had made a purchase after finding a local business at an Internet Yellow Pages site, and an additional 44% saying they intended to make a purchase.
• Approximately 8 out of 10 print Yellow Pages searches were from people who said they were ready to buy, with 39% reporting they had made a purchase after finding local business in a print Yellow Pages directory, and an additional 39% saying they intended to make a purchase.

Of note is we are not talking about people leisurely surfing the net or flipping through email. We are talking about consumers/businesses in an active buying mode. These results support what I have been advocating for a long time on blogs and in prior articles - using the Internet to surf, browse, play, and gather information is NOT the same thing as making an actual local buying decision. That's when you will turn to a trusted source like the print Yellow Pages or an IYP ap.

Trust/Awareness: Another encouraging result was the volume of those buyers seeking a new company to do business with:

Those are very impress results that advertisers need to be aware of - buyers are not always just going to the books and the IYP applications with a specific company in mind. They are looking for alternatives at the critical buying juncture. For years, the industry has advocated that local businesses have relied on Yellow Pages to help them bring qualified new leads from consumers who are ready to buy products or services. Here is the proof.

As Neg Norton, president, of YPA noted in the official release "Our biggest value to local businesses is our ability to generate qualified leads from consumers who are ready to buy something. This means that advertisers see a high return on investment for their advertising spend, which on average, is about $15 for every $1 spent on local display advertising."

For those that are curious as to how this research was conducted (always a sore issue with naysayers) here is a description of the methodology:

"Research Methodology
The Burke 2009 Local Media Tracking Study was based on 8,062 interviews conducted in 2009. The report is the first survey regarding Yellow Pages usage to incorporate a multi-mode data collection technique, of which 80 percent of interviews were conducted through online panels and 20 percent through offline phone interviews. Participants were asked the following question: "We would like to know when, if ever, you last used some potential sources to look up information to find a business, or to shop or look for a product or service in your local area. Please include your use at home, at work, or elsewhere." Previous Yellow Pages usage surveys by KN/SRI from 1985-2008 were conducted solely by telephone, and therefore cannot be used for year-over-year comparisons to the Burke data.