I was doing a radio interview this morning with Rex Parry of Business to Business Radio. Rex asked me to explain why businesses need to have a listing in the search engines and on the Google maps. To me the answer is quite clear; paper is dead.
Let me ask you this; do you have Yellow Page books in your house or business? How often do you use them to look for a business? In the past six months have you been reading a magazine or newspaper, saw an ad and followed up by going to or placing a call to the business?
The fundamental difference between advertising in newspapers and magazines is that they are “push” advertising. They push an ad in your face when you are not looking for them. Yellow pages and searches on the internet are “pull” advertising. When a search is conducted, the searcher is “pulled” into the ad. They find what they are looking for when they are looking for it.
The facts are that more people are using computers and mobile devices to find businesses than ever before and the number will only keep growing in the foreseeable future. 20% of all searches done form a computer are local and 95% of all mobile searches are local!
Paper is not 100% dead obviously. Check out this 37 second video that explains a very good reason why paper is not completely going away anytime soon.
