The New Yellow Pages Directory: Making The Leap From Print To Pixel

For small brick and mortar businesses, yellow page advertising is the most frequent choice in marketing

. As more and more households relinquish land lines--and phone books--for cell phones, how will local business advertising evolve?

The logical choice seems to be Internet yellow page directories. Small business owners are familiar and comfortable with the format. They understand how directories work. They don't have to worry about scary sounding tech terms like SEO and click through rate and page rank. Since most of the directory sites are backed by the big names in printed yellow page directories, small business owners feel safe with their online choice.

However, digital is not the same as print. It does not have the same size and space limitations. More importantly, digital directories are not static pages preserved forever in permanent ink. Digital directories can and should be constantly changing and evolving to meet the needs of small business owners and their customers.

A small business owner looking for the best choice in Internet yellow page directories should ask some hard questions before committing to an advertising contract.

* How often can I change my ad? If your provider tries to lock you into a contract that doesn't allow for changing your ads, run away. Unlike paper and ink, digital ads are easy and inexpensive to change. You should be able to make changes every day if that's what you want to do.

* How large can my ad be? Printed yellow page directories are limited by size. After all, who wants to lug around a 7,000 page directory? The Internet is weightless, and storage space is cheap. Don't let your yellow page directory needlessly limit the amount of space you have.

* What about colors and graphics? Colored printing is more expensive to produce, so it makes sense that colored phone book ads are more expensive to buy. But a red pixel costs exactly the same as a black pixel, so your online yellow page advertising cost should not be effected by color.

* Do I have to sign a long contract? With printed ads, once the phone book is in print it's forever--or at least for the year that's printed on the front. Digital is not permanent, and can be changed or deleted with a moment's notice. Don't let your provider force you to sign a year long contract. You should be able to remove your ad at any time if it's not working for you.

Don't be overwhelmed by the array of choices available online these days. With a little research you will be able to figure out the best Internet yellow page directory to advertise in. But don't make the mistake of thinking online yellow pages are just digitalized versions of print ads.

by: James Belt

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