Yellow Pages Value 

CRM Associates' research and analysis of Yellow Pages value can be easily summarized in the following 7 points:

Relevance – Yellow Pages ads reach and influence customers!

Yellow Pages are the most powerful medium for reaching active shoppers:  One out of five individuals in an active shopping mode use the Yellow Pages (print or online) for information – more, on average, than any other advertising medium.

Efficient  

Yellow Pages are the most efficient and effective medium for reaching people ready-to-buy:  Almost all users of the Yellow Pages (89%) will make a purchase (79% for IYP users).  No other medium is this targeted and no other medium can boast this high of a follow-through.

Decision-Impacting  

Yellow Pages ads help shoppers make purchase decisions:  The majority (58%) of Yellow Pages users are actively shopping (have not already chosen a business).   Even those that open up a directory with a single name in mind get curious and look at other ads – 55% of these users view other ads, and they look at 4 ads on average.   In net, close to three quarters of users of Yellow Pages end up being shoppers and view multiple ads when they go to a heading.  

Permission-based, Full-engagement, Highly Effective:

• Users are fully engaged.  Users pay attention to ads 100% of the time because users actively seek out the information when they have an immediate shopping need.  
• Yellow Pages ads are continuously available and reach people whenever (and wherever) they need information, at a point of time when the consumer is in a decision-making modeYellow Pages are frequently an advertiser’s last chance (and, in many cases, only chance) to affect a customer’s decision.

Brings in Great Customers

• The majority of customers (53%) received through the Yellow Pages are new customers to a business.
• Yellow Pages users ( both print and online) spend 25% more than average customers for most of the top headings.  The average amount spent by Yellow Pages users of the top 210 headings in 2009 was $404.
• Roughly one out of five Yellow Pages references are for business purposes.
• Because Yellow Pages ads do a great job of “pre-qualifying” customers, businesses have a strong chance of converting Yellow Pages users that contact them to paying customers.  On average, while they consider 4.6 ads, users will only contact 1.9 businesses before making their final purchase decision.  That translates to about a 50% “conversion” rate for every “call” or “lead” from the medium.
• Yellow Pages users tend to have major events occurring in their lives that drive the need for new types of purchases.