The Yellow Pages Is Dead. Websites are Thriving
Written by admin on December 6th, 2010New Zealand is ranked #10 on the list of countries with the highest internet usage (iternetworldstats.com) with 85.4% of our population now using the net. In the year 2000, this was only 22.2%. That’s a 385% Increase in the last 10 years!
There are two main reasons that websites and the internet is now the preferred way for consumers to find potential products or services:
Easy Internet Access: People can jump online anywhere – at home, at work, or on the go with the addition of mobile browsing on iphones etc. They don’t have to lug the Yellow Pages around everywhere they go! Useful websites are just a click away.
Fast & Easy: People are time-poor. They can’t afford to be dealing with the wrong company. Aside from the fact that performing a website search online is faster and easier than hunting through the phone book, websites helps potential customers to research. They can make sure they’re going to be dealing with a right-fit company before picking up the phone. An ad in the yellow pages gives a name, a few bullet points and a telephone number. This means many potential phone calls to qualify inappropriate companies until the right supplier is found.
Many companies continue to advertise in the yellow pages, for no other reason than that they always have. Many of them don’t have a website. They can see the returns on this type of marketing diminishing, but the prospect of spending their marketing dollars online is an intimidating venture into the unknown. Sometimes, they’ll procrastinate, saying: “We’re not happy with our web design just yet. Don’t really want to promote the website.”
Let’s cut to the chase: you need to dump your yellow pages ad and spend that marketing budget online. You need a quality Website Design, with good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to ensure the website makes the front page for key search terms. Here are the reasons why:
1) Poor Competition: In New Zealand, we’re lucky. Many advertisers don’t even have websites, and many of them aren’t being marketed sufficiently. Your competitors most likely have no website at all, a poor quality website, or a website that doesn’t rank highly on Search Engines. This is especially true in the trades and professional services sectors. That means a website with high quality web design and good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will set you apart from the vast majority of your competition.
2) Measurable: Online Marketing is measurable – you can see how many people are viewing your website, how many are enquiring, how long they’re staying, and what keywords they’re searching with to find you. This means you can test what works, and improve your website results over time.
3) Affordable: In the long run, online is significantly more affordable than Yellow Pages. Once the web design is completed, and you hire a web marketing company to carry out the SEO, the bulk of the expense is out of the way. From there, it’s just a small Website Hosting monthly charge, and reasonable monthly charges to do updates to your website to maintain your search engine rankings.
Making the move online can be scary; especially if you’re not an internet expert yourself. Also, if you’re banking on your website, you need a really great website design, which is the first step. It’s important to select a website design and search engine optimisation company who can make the process easy, effective and affordable. Done right, websites are essential marketing tools to drive your business forward. Take the first step – you’ll find the internet isn’t as scary a place as you may think.
