Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, gave a talk a few years ago about the future of advertising and made this statement, “Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero – near zero – over the next five years.” That’s a pretty dramatic prediction, and if he’s only half right means that we all need to be rethinking our advertising and marketing strategy as internet technology moves faster and faster in its quest to provide information and answers to just about everything and everyone.
The fact is there is no question that consumers are reading online, gathering information on people, products, companies, services. And that trend is gathering speed at a phenomenal rate. Why? It’s simple. Because the information they want is up-to-date on the internet. It’s also fairly easy to find with today’s sophisticated search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Bing and many others.
HVAC contractors who are factoring these trends into their marketing plans are, like many businesses, depending less and less every year on Yellow Page advertising as a primary source for being found and sought out by potential customers. Bill Gates is on to something here.
So how do you capitalize on this changing internet technology? One of the most powerful tactics for business owners is, in some way, also the simplest. Blogging. Typical blogging patterns: two or three posts a week on your field of expertise; over the course of a year, hundreds of pages people can link to, your company, your products, your services, your expertise. Your competitor, if not on the same bandwagon, house just a few pages on the internet, mostly from a fairly static website.
Along comes a consumer looking for heating and air conditioning repair information and companies that provide the service. If done right, the blogger’s company will dominate the first few pages on the search engine. Or, if they find you in a different way, the blog with valuable and relevant information will stand out (and is 60% more likely to be chosen per Custom Content Council research). And the customer has far more information about the business, its offerings, its expertise, than any Yellow Page ad can offer.
Interested in learning more about SocialTract, click here to watch our video.
Are the Yellow Pages Dead?
Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman, gave a talk a few years ago about the future of advertising and made this statement, “Yellow Page usage among people, say, below 50, will drop to zero – near zero – over the next five years.” That’s a pretty dramatic prediction, and if he’s only half right means that we all need to be rethinking our advertising and marketing strategy as internet technology moves faster and faster in its quest to provide information and answers to just about everything and everyone.
The fact is there is no question that consumers are reading online, gathering information on people, products, companies, services. And that trend is gathering speed at a phenomenal rate. Why? It’s simple. Because the information they want is up-to-date on the internet. It’s also fairly easy to find with today’s sophisticated search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Bing and many others.
HVAC contractors who are factoring these trends into their marketing plans are, like many businesses, depending less and less every year on Yellow Page advertising as a primary source for being found and sought out by potential customers. Bill Gates is on to something here.
So how do you capitalize on this changing internet technology? One of the most powerful tactics for business owners is, in some way, also the simplest. Blogging. Typical blogging patterns: two or three posts a week on your field of expertise; over the course of a year, hundreds of pages people can link to, your company, your products, your services, your expertise. Your competitor, if not on the same bandwagon, house just a few pages on the internet, mostly from a fairly static website.
Along comes a consumer looking for heating and air conditioning repair information and companies that provide the service. If done right, the blogger’s company will dominate the first few pages on the search engine. Or, if they find you in a different way, the blog with valuable and relevant information will stand out (and is 60% more likely to be chosen per Custom Content Council research). And the customer has far more information about the business, its offerings, its expertise, than any Yellow Page ad can offer.
Interested in learning more about SocialTract, click here to watch our video.