How Much Would You Pay to Advertise in a Recycling Bin?

Are your yellow pages ads ending up in the recycling bin?

The yellow pages phone directories magically arrived in my neighborhood. I looked at the book sitting in my drive way, picked it up, and immediately tossed it in my recycling bin! That got wondering how many other people immediately throw out their yellow pages phone directory. So, I decided I would investigate this on the day before trash pickup.

Here’s what I found with 10 of my neighbors:

8 out of 10 had immediately put their yellow pages directories in the recycling bin.
1 out of 10 hates to pick them up. Therefore, his is still sitting by his front door.
1 out of 10 kept the book. They haven’t used it lately, but have used one in the past.

I know what you’re thinking, “you must live in a young neighborhood.” Actually, besides my wife and me, everyone in the neighborhood is over 50. In fact, three of the households are over 70. Yes, one of the over 70 were the ones to keep and use the book.

Advertising in Yellow Pages Phone Directories is Expensive

My point isn’t really to discuss how many yellow pages phone directories are thrown out. Having negotiated (if that’s what you call it) yellow book advertising prices for clients, I know how expensive it is to place an ad in the yellow book phone directories. Plus, it’s the same game every year. “We’ll give you the next size ad for the same cost as your last ad would cost this year.” That’s their gimmick. Your ad get’s bigger every year. The bigger it is the more it costs.

Let’s do some math:

$12,000 – A full page ad can run you $1ooo per month. I’ve read that a full page ad in Manhattan can be as much as $10,000 per month or $120,000 for a year. That’s only one ad. What if you need to run full page ads in multiple categories? More ads cost more money.
3 yellow pages phone directories. Most communities have at least three major yellow book phone directories. I say “major” since there are a lot of small independent yellow pages phone directories being peddled.
$36,000 to advertise in your Recycling Bin. That’s a lot of money to spend advertising in everyone’s recycling bin.

What should you spend your advertising dollars on?

Business should invest on a good Internet marketing campaign. Why? Well the Internet is where the majority of consumers find a business. In fact, I tell a lot of my clients to slowly cut back on their yellow pages advertising as their internet presence grows. Here’s what every Internet plan should include: Do you have a good internet marketing plan?

A good website! Your website is on 24/7 and does not end up in your prospective customers recycling bin. Plus, a good website is a fraction of what you’d pay in yellow pages advertising.
Optimization for your Website! What good is a website if no one can find it? Businesses invest good money in their website and forget to invest in search engine optimization. Again, a good SEO package can cost pennies on the dollar when compared to the cost of a full page ad in a yellow pages directory.
A good email marketing campaign. You can connect with your customers directly with an email marketing campaign. Unlike yellow pages ads, you can target a different product/service every time you send an email.

Stop advertising in recycling bins and start advertising on the Internet.

Watch as I ask two guys if they’ve ever seen a yellow pages phone directory.