If you don’t have a wired telephone in your house, and you have google in your pocket, why would you use a phonebook to find a business?
In the title I say no one under 40, but I’m 43 and I haven’t used a phonebook in at least 10 years. With smartphones like the iPhone becoming so mainstream that they are no longer considered “crazy gadgets”, this trend is still picking up steam.
Mobile growth in particular was covered well by ClickZ’s Enid Burns in “U.S. Mobile Ad Revenue to Grow Significantly through 2013″:
- The percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2013.
- There are 54.5 million mobile Internet users in the United States, representing 25 percent of online users.
- Approximately 15 percent of iPhone applications are local.
Can you be found quickly and easily by someone lookin for what you offer? Are you at least listed in the local directories? Surely you’ve put yourself on the search engine local business maps, right?
Think about what you spend on that yellow page ad every year. Could you spend an equal amount on some basic SEO and see an even better return?
Take the test.
- Can you summarize your business in under 160 characters?
- Do you have a couple of good digital photos?
- Do you have a website you can link to?
- Do you know your street adress and phone number?
- Do you have 3 or 4 hours you can spend to build your business?
Well, what are you waiting for? You have hundreds of people who are looking for you. Go, go get found!
Yep. You’re right Mr. 1918. I’m 40 and I don’t use phone books (certainly not in the last 5 years). Last time I opened a phone book was to see an ad I had designed for a law firm.
In light of your age and mine and the similar experience with phone books, maybe you should change the title to “No One Under 45…”
I completely agree with you, and yet, I just designed an phone book ad for a client along with her brand new website. Old habits die hard it seems. 🙂