“Who in the world still uses the Yellow Pages?”

I’ve been asking myself that question for years now. Combine that with the annoyance of having 10lbs. worth of phone book at my front door every few months, and I’ve really come to wish for the demise of the Yellow Pages, at least for the most part. I understand that there are people out there (see also: most of my extended family) that don’t have a computer or aren’t as comfortable finding the information they need from Google as they are with finding it from Ye Olde Phone Book. However, in an age in which between 80 and 90 percent of home sales start on the Internet, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that 80 to 90 percent of people aren’t flocking to the Yellow Pages to find your goods and services.

In comes San Francisco with a recently law banning the unsolicited distribution of Yellow Pages. In a way, it’s sad that it had to come down to a law to force the phone companies into some common sense (and of course they’re planning to sue), but to me it’s a welcome change.  Anyone who wants a copy of the Yellow Pages can still get one, but people like me don’t need to have their doorstep spammed with stacks of useless yellow tissue-like paper.

I think we all know what the issue really is though: Yellow Page ad sales. If the Yellow Pages don’t go out to an incredibly large number of people, it becomes very difficult for the phone companies to charge the outrageous rates they charge for Yellow Page ads. But, in my opinion, no one should be paying those kinds of advertising dollars for what is, for most intents and purposes, a dead medium. If the phone companies want to keep that portion of their business alive, the right move is for them to make their Yellow pages predominantly available online in some sort of engaging way that will draw consumers to their service over a simple Google search.

It’s not impossible; services like Yelp certainly accomplish it. Unfortunately, large phone companies just aren’t going to change their practices until the market forces them to. What needs to happen is that businesses need to re-allocate their advertising funds to online endeavors rather than the print Yellow Pages. Only the loss of those dollars can force TelCo conglomerates to adapt and innovate.

Granted, there are exceptions in the case where a business caters primarily to “the Yellow Page crowd” so-to-speak, but for most businesses, those thousands upon thousands of dollars would be better spent on Internet campaigns. Whether it’s your own website or whether it’s Google AdSense, it doesn’t really matter as long as you’re working with a knowledgeable partner to promote yourself online. Remember though that online campaigns vary in effectiveness. Make sure you have the right campaign and not just any campaign, and make sure you have tracking in place to determine your ROI for your online efforts.

Speaking of ROI, the Internet gives you the unique ability through various services like Omniture or even Google Analytics to track your ROI in very specific ways so you can determine exactly how your advertising dollars are benefiting you. When talking about the Yellow Pages, or any print campaign, for that matter, tracking ROI tends to be a matter of best guesses or trusting statistics provided by your print-ad salesman.

The point I hope to impress upon you here is that the Yellow Pages and print advertising in general are endangered ways to advertise yourself, and it’s time to get ahead of the curve before more laws like San Francisco’s cut into your advertising medium and send you scrambling elsewhere without a firm plan in mind. You don’t have to commit 100% to the Internet, but it’s probably in your best interest to tilt the scales away from print and toward the Internet.