ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

Your decision where to put your marketing dollars depends on where most customers will look. National statistics indicate that your better bet is to put your money into the Internet versus the Yellow Pages.

According to a recent report by comScore, yellow page usage has seen year over year decreases starting in 2006. As a matter of fact, they report that 2008 marks the first year Internet searches eclipsed all forms of the yellow page usage, claiming an impressive 31% of all local business search queries - and trending upward.

Other reporting agencies report similar statistics including:

• 90% of online business searches result in offline brick and mortar purchases
• 61% of all local searches result in a transaction

However, if you know you live in a rural area with a high concentration of elderly residents, do you find that more people use the Yellow Pages there? If not, stick with the web. You may find that flyers, direct mail pieces and networking in your community works well, too.

Hope this helps.

Doug Dolan

The Solopreneur's Guide

http://thesologuide.com/