Don't Get Me Started on the Yellow Pages

yellowpages wasteRecently a friend that works in the marketing department for a private & public works construction company asked me my thoughts on advertising in the yellow pages.

This way my response:

Our firm believes Yellow Pages advertising is a waste of money for all industries, especially the A/E/C industry. It is good to stay listed so people looking for your phone number can easily find you in the antiquated book or online in their directory, but not much more is needed. I am amazed at how much money both the phone book & newspaper charges even though their reach drops each year.

For the construction industry, I truly believe in building relationships though traditional networking and being found online with a solid web presence is a must.

In this competitive industry where every dollar is carefully spent, more and more companies are pulling their phone book advertising budgets and moving them to other avenues such as social media, website design & SEO.

Have you pulled your phone book advertising? Does it still work for your company? Where are you reallocating your advertising dollars?