Atlanta's Marketing Center

Yellow Pages

Not intending to offend anyone in this post, particularly yellow page ad reps.  So if you happen to be one, you might want to skip this one...

There's a trend in the marketplace by small businesses away from advertising in the hard-copy yellow page directories.  Why?  Because it's much easier to find businesses today on the internet.  People are turning more and more to the internet to find products and services to fill a need. 

Every small business owner that I meet with now complains that the draw from the yellow page ads has decreased year over year for some time now.  One owner that I know, who owns a flooring business, recently decided to scrap all the yellow page ads as he doesn't feel like they're worth it anymore.  (Keep in mind that in that business, the directories have traditionally been a huge source of business.)  He now invests in website automation and pay per click advertising, which are both bringing him a good deal of business.

What is your experience with yellow page ads?  How much business are you generating?  Is it worth it?  If so, it may be worth keeping it, perhaps at a smaller size.  If it's just not drawing much for you anymore, then I suggest looking into some other avenues such as the internet.  We have some great internet programs that can get your site visited often here.

Atlanta's Creative 100

I've recently launched an Atlanta advertising directory on the web that I've named "Atlanta's Creative 100".  The directory includes quality Atlanta vendors with a number of different promotional-type skill sets from illustrators to copywriters to printers.  The idea is to assist business owners in finding good vendors when creating promotion material.

I believe it can be difficult for owners to identify good vendors in the Atlanta area who have their interests at heart.  And this is why I created the site.  Right now the list is up to about 50 companies/people with the intention of getting to 100. 

I intentionally made the site/directory advertising-free to remove any perception of hidden agendas.  My motivation is to provide information on those in the area who do quality promotional work. 

I could use your help on making the directory stronger.  If you have ideas/information on:

-categories I may have missed
-quality vendors within these categories who you'd like to recommend
-information on vendors on this list who have not performed well

...then please let me know via email at scott@impactyourcompany.com.  Thanks!

Local Internet Directories

In the last post, I spoke about the migration of those looking for products and services from the yellow pages to the internet.  (I encourage you to track the results of your efforts and really look into building a good website presence as this trend continues.)

The major internet directories have really taken notice of this trend at the local level and are catering to this market.  You can market your company through the local directories made available by both Google and Yahoo.  That way, when a local customer is looking for say, a home appraiser in Norcross, or whatever you do, then they can search in Google and find you easily.  It's still relatively inexpensive to do this so I encourage you to get on it now.

The local directories offer an even better way for customers to search for businesses, even offering online maps, which hard copy yellow page ads can't by nature of the technology.