A Yellow Page Expert Speaks Out

You first may be asking: what qualifies me as a Yellow Page expert? I worked as an advertising consultant for a Bell System division for nearly 25 years. During that time, I counseled about 3000 businesses in advertising design, marketing programs, and promotional campaigns. I was a top performer for about half that time and won numerous awards and honors. With that background, let me discuss the unique media known as directory advertising. In my market, we had about 80,000 businesses represented in the local city Yellow Pages. That’s a large sector of companies fairly reliant on a single product used by over 80% of the population. The Yellow Pages is a reliable constant that is relatively unchanged since its inception over 100 years ago.

Back then, it was a list of companies and their ads, bound together in book form, and sent for free to every resident with a phone. Today, it serves the same function: a current resource for business information. The only difference is the addition of full-color and the replication on the Internet. Otherwise, it’s your father’s Yellow Pages. It began as a byproduct of the phone company’s need to get the their subscribers’ phone numbers out to the general public. Then someone realized the value of actual ads that would offer additional facts such as hours, products, services, and locations. Presently, many businesses rely on their Yellow Page ads, exclusively. This is especially true for emergency service companies such as plumbers, electricians, and appliance repairers. Lately, more and more professionals like attorneys, dentists and plastic surgeons have discovered the power of this prevalent media. For them, it is a somewhat reasonable alternative to television and other mass media. Their ROI (return on investment) is high as is their exposure to every potential client. Most of this information is fairly common knowledge and a reminder of what the Yellow Pages means to the average user. The rest is not, hence the reason for this article. Here are some lesser-known facts I’d like to share as my part in educating the public: (1) The placement and size of the ad has no bearing on the quality of the business.
(2) Therefore, anyone with lots of money can get an ad, regardless of qualifications.
(3) In fact, some of the largest companies in town only have a simple listing.
(4) The advertiser can make outrageous claims, even if they’re lies.
(5) Some of the best, small businesses have the smallest ads, for many reasons.
(6) Many businesses with an “A” name do so only to be placed first in a heading.
(7) Words like “official, authentic, only, quality, & qualified” are often meaningless.
(8) Just because they have a logo like “GE” doesn’t mean they are GE approved.
(9) Ads with many phone numbers for different locations may only have one location.
(10) A business claiming they are 25 years old, may actually be brand new. So, the next time you pick up the Yellow Pages to make a purchase, be an educated consumer and know how the ads are placed and what they really mean. Or, if you are a business-person, learn what type of ad to run and how much to pay. Either way, the mystery of the Yellow Pages will no longer be confusing to an outsider: you’ll be on the inside.

Jeffrey Hauser’s latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages,” which can be viewed at: www.poweradbook.com

He was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.