Yellow Pages Association Letter to Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting letter to the editor about yellow page advertising from the President of the Yellow Pages Association, Neg Norton (Sat Nov 22, 2008).

The letter show "they still don't get it."

With rare exception, the lawyers in our mastermind and coaching groups are reporting cutting back on yellow page spending due to diminishing returns.

Mr. Norton makes an astonishing statement that "Yellow Pages are universally used." Huh? By who. Except for looking up the phone number of a restaurant (not searching to find a restaurant) I can't think of a single instance where my family has used the yellow pages in years.

Mr. Norton then goes on to make a pretty common mistake when he says "no other advertising medium generates new and qualified sales leads as effectively as the yellow pages."

Here's the mistake: its not the medium, its the message. All media can be made to work but its a mistake to think that, with most businesses, one medium is better than another, everything else being equal.

For lawyers, most consumers are looking on the internet (but not, as Mr. Norton asserts, by going to yellowpages.com. They are going to Google.

Ben Glass
Great Legal Marketing