An article titled “11 Reasons Why Your Business Should NOT Advertise with Yellow Pages” was first published online in 2010. But keep reading, because you don’t need eleven reasons for not advertising in the phone book.

You only need one. It’s a complete waste of money.

And you don’t need an internet marketing company to tell you that the internet will continue to be the key to attorney marketing.

The phone book has been dead for a long time. It isn’t coming back.

WHAT HAPPENED AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME?

I’m telling you this because the subject was tossed at me – literally – several weeks back.

I saw someone toss an item from a moving white van toward the approximate vicinity of my mailbox.

I had a hunch that it might be a phone book, so I ventured outside to inspect the item, and I was right. Unfortunately – yet somehow, also predictably – an attorney was advertising right there on the cover of the phone book.

It was drive-by marketing – in broad daylight. And the white van made a clean getaway.

My generation – and almost certainly yours as well – as a special file for telephone books. The circular file.

WHO USES A PHONE BOOK IN 2018? (THAT’S RIGHT – NOBODY)

No one uses a telephone directory in 2018, especially to look for an attorney. It’s bulky, and it’s difficult to read and use. If you keep it, it ends up becoming clutter.

Anyone seeking an attorney in 2018 will go online and will probably consider several attorneys before reaching out to one.

Phone books are superfluous. We toss them in the trash, and – quite honestly – if you are advertising in the phone book, you might as well be tossing your cash in the trash as well.

Phone books are local. The internet is global. You can change a phone book ad – maybe – after a year. You can update your website immediately and easily.

WHAT ABOUT RETURN ON INVESTMENT?

The cost of phone book advertising in 2018 is entirely out of proportion to its value – which is zero. You simply get no return on investment from telephone directory advertising.

Phone books simply are not the way telephone numbers are stored in the 21st century. We don’t watch movies at drive-ins, and we don’t need operators for long-distance calls, either.

And we could probably do with less drive-by marketing.

WE DO MARKETING RIGHT

If you’d like to learn more about how our internet marketing company helps attorneys and law firms, email us – info@socialfirestarter.com – or call us at 619-607-4300.

But even if you don’t contact us, please – stop wasting your money on phone book ads that millions of people are tossing into the garbage.