Ran into an old colleague who still swears by Yellow Pages ads

We were catching up over coffee last week and she told me her plumbing business still gets calls from a half-page ad she bought in 2018. Made me think about how we get so focused on digital that we forget some folks still flip through phone books for local services. Has anyone else seen an older method that still works for certain crowds?

3 comments

3 Comments

bennett.harper5d ago

Wait, is it really the ad that's getting calls or is it just that she's been in business long enough to have built a reputation? @taraross that lawn care guy might be getting calls from people who already know him and happen to see his name in the paper. I've seen local businesses waste money on these old school ads because they think it's the only reason they're busy, when really word of mouth is doing the heavy lifting. Numbers show most people under 50 just google a service and pick the first few results, not flip through a phone book or paper.

taraross5d ago

My neighbor's lawn care business still gets steady calls from a small newspaper ad he's kept running since 2015.

sean_green4423h ago

My buddy Mike ran a small painting business in Austin for years and swore by his little ad in the local penny saver paper. He told me he'd get 3 or 4 calls a week from it, mostly older folks who kept the paper on their kitchen counter. One time a lady called and said she'd been clipping his ad out for 8 years before she finally needed her fence painted. The ad cost him like 40 bucks a month and he said it paid for itself every single time.