According to a new study released recently by TMP Directional Marketing, search engines beat out print yellow page and white pages for the first time as the first source used to find local business information. Since the inception of the world wide web, the Internet has been gaining year after year on other forms of media and has overtaken offline media in many areas. Now the search engines have overtaken the print yellow pages as the top source for local business information. Here’s why.
1. Ease of Use – People do what is easy. Access to the Internet via work, home, any library or most coffee shops have truly made getting online easy. Over 64% of people who are looking for information online, use search engines.
2. Cost Model of Yellow Pages vs. Search Engine – In reviewing these two models we need to compare the traits and cost basis of each media.
| Yellow Pages | Search Engine | |
| a. Printing Costs | Yes | No |
| b. Mailing/Distribution Costs | Yes | No |
| c. Sales rep Cost Model | Yes | No |
| d. Per click or Per Action Model | No | Yes |
| e. Results Tracking/Statistics | No | Yes |
| f. Commitment level | 1 year | None |
| g. Flexibility of Ad | once/yr. | Anytime |
3. Differentiation vs. Directory – As a business owner, the last thing I would do is give my prospects a detailed list of my competitors, including addresses and phone numbers. But that is exactly what the Yellow Pages do.
4. The Future Big Winner … Local Firms! – – The traditional success model for winning online has been the ability to sell your product or service nationally or internationally. Good news … the search engines have the ability to determine where the search is coming from. What that means to you is you can target all the way down to a city, zip or area code.