I always liked the phrase "Shooting ahead of the duck". It's the idea of anticipating where the market is going. Just because something worked in the past, or more importantly might still be somewhat effective today, doesn't mean you should bet your future on it.
I know there are still plenty of lawyers out there that are dumping marketing dollars in yellow book advertising. I also understand that for some it still provides a return on their investment. However, the writing is on the wall. The yellow pages are dying and if you don't have some sort of plan moving forward than you will find yourself in a precarious position.
According to Read Write Biz:
Nearly 70% of adults in the U.S. "rarely or never" use the phone book, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive. Instead, most of them (60%) use the Internet to find contact information, a number that's certain to continue to rise, especially as smart phone adoption and location-based services both grow.
So not only aren't people using the phone book much anymore, but as of February 1st, businesses and individuals can request to stop receiving phone books using a new website www.yellowpagesoptout.com. The website was established by the National Yellow Pages Service Association because, in their own words, "we understand that delivering unwanted directories doesn’t benefit anyone." Basically, they setup the equivalent of a do not call list for yellow page directories.
It's only a matter of time before this method of finding local businesses disappears completely. When it does, will you have another plan in place?
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