The Stationers Guild

A couple of weeks ago, I participated in a Yelp sponsored survey to determine the relevancy of the Yellow Pages as an effective advertising tool for small business.  The last time I checked (several years ago), advertising in the Yellow Pages was an industry generating somewhere between $13 to $17 billion in advertising revenue.   I have not be able to find any more current data that I believe is reliable.  I suspect Yellow Pages advertising revenue has fallen, but I can’t be positive.

While Yelp’s results are no doubt skewed, Yellow Pages advertising for stationery stores and most local businesses is becoming less effective as “search” has migrated to the internet and mobile phones.  To determine how well your business is positioned to be found by online buyers, spend one minute and visit GetListed.org.  The results may surprise you.

If you are interested in acquiring the skills and knowledge to succeed in local search, visit the Stationers Guild sister site at www.rite4u.com for additional information.  Search marketing and local advertising is changing rapidly and a little time and a few bucks can make a great difference in attracting new clients.

Found below are the survey results from Yelp:

According to Yelp’s survey results “only 24% of our 3,500+ respondents said ‘Yes’ to the question, ‘Are yellow page phone books still relevant?’”  That’s quite a find. Here are some others:

1) Most business owners don’t think yellow page phone books are useful to them:

“Yellow page phone books are useful to me as a business owner.”
Agree – 11%
Somewhat Agree – 17%
Somewhat Disagree – 19%
Disagree – 52%

2) Only about 10% of business owners use yellow page phone books more than once per month; 3 out of 4 don’t use it at all:

How many times per month do you rely on a yellow page phone book to find a local business?
“Zero” – 75%
“Once” – 14%
“Between two and four times” – 8%
“Five or more times” – 3%

3) Very few business owners believe customers find them using a yellow page phone book.

Estimated percentage of customers who find me using a yellow page phone book.
“0%” – 43%
“1-25%” – 47%
“26-50%” – 5%
“51-75%” – 3%
“76-99%” – 1%
“100%” – 0.1%

The conclusion: Business owners have clearly observed the shrinking relevance of yellow page phone books. As we continue to move away from printed phone books, online and mobile directories will continue to grow as the customer’s choice for local business information.

One of the more useful benefits of attending the National Stationery Show (“NSS”) is the opportunity to attend highly targeted seminars that fill our impressionable minds with the many things we can do with our store and provide a context for identifying new products and trends.  The 2010 NSS was no exception with daily “How-to” exhibits  ranging from making wedding favors to holiday wrap and tying bows.  In addition, there were educational seminars ranging from stationery trends to how to use social media tools to market your bricks-and-mortar store.

Being the geek that I am, I attended two social media seminars brilliantly hosted by Patricia Norins, of Specialty Retail Expert from Gift Shop Magazine and the enthusiastic and engaging Carolyn Howard-Johnson from How to do it Frugally Publishing.  Both seminars were targeted at those who wanted to find out more about Twitter, Facebook and Blogging or those that were sceptical and wanted to see what the fuss was all about.  Judging from some of the questions that were asked, I suspect that most people who attended were novices.

Personally, I think both speakers made a convincing case as to the merits of engaging in social media marketing.  Carolyn stressed the importance of connecting with your clients in this new digital medium in an open-handed and friendly manner that was less about promoting your business than being a part of your community.   Both speakers made the point that Facebook is a more relevant social platform for exchanging information with family and friends, while Twitter has become far more commercial and “immediate.”  I certainly agree with them on this point, but feel that both platforms should be used to creatively engage, build and sustain a loyal following of customers.  The idea is to befriend your digital audience and come across as a “real” human being with a sense of humor and personal  interests rather than the proverbial one-dimensional used car salesperson.

It is difficult to judge how many attendees will heed Carolyn’s and Patricia’s advice.  I suspect that the digital revolution remains an anathema  to most storefront retailers.   While many have gotten over the hurdle of having a website, this is not a medium where they feel comfortable  and most appear unwilling to make the effort to do more.  It is not difficult to get started as Carolyn and Patricia demonstrated, but it does take time and effort to build new skills and engage in the online debate. Frankly, it is fun and interesting once you get the hang of it. 

We all know that the Yellow Pages (“YP”) brings in little or no business, but many stationers continue to pay ridiculous fees to YP to highlight their store rather than spend the time using free social media tools to market their business.  Hard to understand, but sadly true.  For those out there who want to know if your store can be found online (no, you do not have to have a website!), please visit getlisted.org to see if you are on the right track.  A listing below 50% means you have some work to do.  This is a good litmus test to join the 21st century. 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

As reported earlier, Google is aggressively reaching out to local businesses to improve search results for people who place a local qualifier in a search.  Google Places is certain to overhaul the search dynamics and improve search results for those seeking “wedding invitations Greenwich, CT” or “wedding invitations 06830″.  The natural or organic search results will return a stationery store -hopefully yours – in local search results for “wedding invitations” in your town or zip code.

Clearly, mobile search has been driving Google’s effort to improve the search experience for a growing number of consumers using mobile devices.  This is a tremendous opportunity for mom and pop stores and smaller businesses to effectively position their store for mobile search.  To determine how effective your online marketing is working for you, visit getlisted.org to see how well your store stacks up for local search in the four key search engines. 

Twitter is also beginning to make “big” noise on the local search front.  While I have reluctant to recommend Twitter and other social media tools, the local search component has caused me to reassess my position.  With technology, it is difficult to forecast what is coming next, but clearly the time of Twitter and Facebook has arrived.  If you value your business and want to help tech savvy consumers find your business, it is about time to reallocate your Yellow Pages advertising budget to online search.  You will be glad you did and so will your new customers.

This is also the death knell for wedding portals who have so corrupted the local search component.  If you are paying for advertising on The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding or other wedding portals, this money should now be reallocated to local search.  It’s a heck of a lot cheaper and far more effective.  Why pay for advertising to compete with the likes of weddingpaperdivas.com who are paying close to $50 for each sale in your local space?  Makes no sense.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

I have long held the view that Google Local  and Yahoo Local and Microsoft Local (now Bing) are far better advertising and promotion solutions for many small businesses than the Yellow Pages – online and in print.  This view was strongly reinforced this week when I received my Google local search results for August and an unsolicited advertising request (fax) to list my business on www.YellowPage-Connecticut.com.

First the good news.  During the month of August, the Therese Saint Clair listing on Google Local was seen 2,172 times with 95 clicks for the website, 22 for more information and 4 clicks for driving instructions.   A click-through rate of close to 5% is far better than the 1% to 3% we get for our Google adwords campaigns.   Make no mistake, this is highly focused search traffic from buyers seeking to make purchases from stores in their neighborhood.   More importantly, your local business listing is free!  Granted, it may take 30 minutes to an hour or more to get your listing configured the way you wish for it to be displayed, but it is hard to argue with the cost/benefit results.

Contrast this with the offer I received last week to advertise on YellowPage-Connecticut.  With a two year contract, I can list my business in the Connecticut Yellow Pages (excuse me, Yellow Page singular) for only $89  a month.  This website is virtually devoid of content but has the familiar Yellow Pages logo.  Is it really the Yellow Pages?   If you read the fine print, it is actually a UK company hoping to do what many other Yellow Pages clones are trying to do:  Namely, part small unsuspecting businesses from their hard-earned cash!   While the Yellow Pages could have become a dominant force in local search, their name has been seriously compromised and their archaic marketing model is little changed from the days of peddling ads for their annual Yellow Pages publication.

The three major search engines have very attractive advertising solutions for local businesses.  Unfortunately, the Yellow Pages needs to do much to clean up its image before it can become a credible resource for local search.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

Emi Havas and Deidre Karner, the talented stationers at Paperfolio in Summit, NJ, have taken a very important step to promote their bricks-and-mortar store on the Internet:  They have claimed their business on Google.  Emi reports that “claiming my name (store) on Google was the easiest thing I have done on the computer other than turn it on.  And now we’re even going to add some photos.  It’s easy, fun and free and there is no reason not to do it immediately.”

Experienced stationers like Emi and Deidre have discovered that buyers have migrated from the Yellow Pages to online search for stationery services such as custom wedding invitations, fine business and social stationery and distinctive invitations.  Stores such as Paperfolio have a huge competitive advantage over online resellers.  Unfortunately, online buyers often cannot locate an experienced stationer in their neighborhood to discuss paper options, printing processes and to see a wide array of fine papers and designs that are simply not available on the internet.  As more and more experienced stationers take advantage of the local search capabilities provided by Google, Yahoo and MSN, discerning consumers will soon have an opportunity to reconnect with fine paper and the stunning designs that are simply not available on the internet.

This is a story worth following and I will keep track of their efforts to upgrade Paperfolio’s presence on the internet.