The local Yellow Pages is running a radio campaign to promote advertising in the Yellow Pages. In one spot they use a business owner to talk about how successful his Yellow Pages ad is. In it he states that over 80% of his traffic comes from his Yellow Pages ad. 80%! Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket.
I’m sure the Yellow Pages loves this figure but as a business owner I’d be worried if such a large percentage of my enquiries came from the one source. It’s the same argument you’ll read online about relying on Google for all your traffic.
When marketing your business you should be focusing on promoting your business in a variety of ways both online and off. This will ensure that your referrals come from many sources including search engines, word of mouth, newsletter promotions, Yellow Pages and so forth. Apart from widening your net this ensures that should you receive a drop in traffic from one source you’ll take comfort knowing you have plenty of others to keep those referrals coming in. If you don’t you’ll like that Yellow Pages campaign from a while ago “Not Happy Jan“.
Yup I always advise a balanced approach to marketing but some people just pin their hopes on one source and never have an answer if that source dries up or becomes increasingly more competitive.
I do get funny looks when I suggest a customer uses newspaper editorial and advertising in niche publications for their website alongside internet marketing – they are over-sold by inexperienced or desperate sales people that the Web is THE ONLY way to go…
Daz
I hear you Daz. It takes time to develop a marketing mix but the rewards are definitely worth it. Sadly it often takes a downturn for people to realise.