People – May

It has been a while since we updated our regular blog sponsored by Hawthorne Executive Search .   It is all about people in the Yellow Pages industry. If you have news you want to share about someone that is involved in the Yellow Pages industry (including retirees) that we should all know about, drop us a line and tell us how they are doing. Send your submissions to ken@yptalk.com.

Herb Gordon

The industry suffered a big loss when Herb Gordon, retired former president and CEO of the Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Saturday, May 4, 2013.  Herb is survived by his wife, Annemarie, three sons, nine grandchildren, two sisters, and a large extended family.

Herb led ADM (which merger with what was then the Yellow Pages Association – YPA – more info) for eighteen years, retiring in June 2009, after the merger.  During his tenure, he served on the Boards of ADM, the YPA (now Local Search Association), and Association of Directory Publishers – the only person in the industry to have the unique honor of serving on all three boards.  He served at a time when the industry was just starting to experience unparalleled change.

For more go to our recent YP Talk article by clicking here.

 

Jeff Hoyer

Local Market Launch, the Santa Barbara-based startup that is driving new standards of quality and service in local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses and SMBs, announced today that Jeff Hoyer has joined the company as Vice President of Sales. He will lead the company’s sales efforts, with a focus on channel partner development among local media companies, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers and broadcast companies, as well as digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs).

“Jeff will be a tremendous asset as we continue to grow our channel partner network,” said Brian Coryat, founder and CEO, Local Market Launch. “His deep expertise and proven track record in the directory publishing, business listings management and SMB digital marketing space make him a valuable addition to our leadership team.”

Hoyer is a local media solutions veteran with significant experience in executive management, sales strategy and execution, online marketing, SEM/SEO, advertising sales, customer and client relationship management and leadership development.

“Accurate business listings data is the foundation of today’s local digital economy, as consumers increasingly engage with local businesses through social networks and mobile devices,” said Hoyer. “Helping local businesses, national brands targeting locally and multi-location businesses manage their listings data efficiently and effectively has to be an essential element of any local media company’s digital marketing solution set. Local Market Launch has developed a solution that is truly ahead of anything currently on the market in terms of data quality, focus on the customer experience and ease of ongoing management. I am excited for the opportunity to bring it to the marketplace.”

Prior to joining Local Market Launch, Hoyer was SVP, Sales & Marketing at Name Dynamics/Universal Business Listing. He also served as VP, National Sales for R.H. Donnelley/Dex Media, where he managed a national team of 30, with P&L responsibility of $420 million in print, online and PPC products. Previously he was Group VP, TMP Worldwide, managing four VP/GMs and a portfolio of national clients.

 

Richard Wall

Dex Media’s Richard Wall, Vice president for Enterprise Application Engineering has been named “One to Watch” by CIO Magazine.

The CIO Executive Council’s annual Ones to Watch award identifies the rising stars in IT. To be honored, these future CIOs must have demonstrated leadership, driven innovation and delivered value to their business.

Wall has led organizations within IT at many companies and has experience across several disciplines including architecture, development, production support, and quality assurance. He is responsible for application development and maintenance activities at Dex Media, including all applications supporting Lead to Cash processes, mobile and online applications and websites representing Superpages.com, search platforms and traffic distribution integration to search partners, customer portal, and Business Intelligence Systems (BIS) applications

 

Bill Dinan:

Telmetrics’ President  and LSA Board Chairman Bill Dinan is scheduled to speak at SMX London on Mobile Search Best Practices.

With mobile advertising spend continuing to increase, leading call measurement provider Telmetrics announced that Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics, was scheduled to speak at SMX London on the “Paid Search Advertising in a Multi-Device World” panel.   SMX London is a premiere U.K. event for search marketing and other online advertising professionals.

Dinan will address mobile search best practices including tailoring and localizing ads to incorporate mobile consumers’ category-specific usage patterns and preferences. The presentation will include insights from the recent xAd-Telmetrics U.K. Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study, which was based on an online survey of 1,500 U.K. smartphone and tablet users conducted by Nielsen.

 

 

The Facts Are The Facts, And They Are Not in Dispute

I borrowed this title from actor Kevin Bacon’s statement in the “Few Good Men” movie, but it applies in this case.  I’m sure you see them all the time too.  I get 4 or 5 of these types of incoming comments each week.  Most are bogus or just pure spam.  But these two made me laugh since they are contrary to what the call tracking data is telling us about print Yellow Page usage:

“Yellow Pages are obsolete”

The following comment was posted on the YP Talk comment area:

I was googling “why do yellow pages still exist” and I was delighted to find this hilarious article desperately defending them instead. It’s like reading someone trying to defend the slide rule. Sorry buddy, but technology has made yellow pages obsolete. They provide no value, but they do kill a lot of trees. Mobile phones with internet access are now dirt cheap and ubiquitous, providing the same information to people. Even my grandmother has a cell phone. Nobody in their right mind would use the yellow pages, other than as kindling or paper weight.

My response, while trying to be somewhat diplomatic was as follows:

 Thank you for your commentary. It’s comments like this that show exactly why the print yellow pages still work as you clearly had already decided on the answer you wanted to hear before you even did your Google search.

I can only assume you missed the article which showed that 76% of all adults do still use the printed YP each year. Or the one about how 85% of those people who do use a book make a purchase once they pick it up. Or that advertisers are seeing AT LEAST a $10 to $1 return for their advertising investments. Perhaps you also missed the article about how call tracking results for print ads have shown INCREASES in the number of calls over the last two years. But even if you had seen that, I doubt you would believe it.

So maybe the better approach with someone like you who appears to only believe what they see at the end of the arm, how do you think all that mobile stuff got there, especially the parts from local businesses??  Answer: yellow page reps working with those businesses that get them listed where ever their clients might be. Print, online, mobile — that’s the definition of “Yellow Pages” these days…

I had really wanted to be much wittier in my response, but the facts are the facts….

How shallow can I be:

This other one came across my radar screen and it sounds like it was a man on the street type interview from an Aussie city.  They are easy to do – let’s find a cross section of people who don’t fit the demographics of a typical small business in the print or online Yellow Pages, who probably aren’t experiencing the life events that drive usage, and then ask them leading questions:

Do People Use Yellowpages Anymore? – YouTube Do People Still Use The Yellow Pages?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_psVGi-pEQc

Note how many of these people commented that page 1 of a Google results page is the extent they will go when looking for local businesses.  I don’t know about you, but if I’m spending $15,000+ on a new roof, need an experienced dental surgeon, a local limousine service for a special night out, or have to have my air conditioning system repaired, I don’t think I’m going to limit myself to the just the results Google choses to give me on the first page of a search.   That seems a bit shallow to me.  What about you??

Looks like a perfect opportunity for one of or two industry associations to develop a similar video which shows the exact opposite, with real people who spend real money for real products and services – that’s the real power of yellow……

 

 

Herb Gordon, Former ADM President/CEO Has Died

There are always people who you run across in your personal and business careers that make a lasting impact.  For me, Herb Gordon was one of them.  It saddens me deeply to tell you that Herb Gordon, retired former president and CEO of the Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack on Saturday, May 4, 2013.  Herb is survived by his wife, Annemarie, three sons, nine grandchildren, two sisters, and a large extended family.

Herb led ADM (which merger with what was then the Yellow Pages Association – YPA – more info) for eighteen years, retiring in June 2009, after the merger.  During his tenure, he served on the Boards of ADM, the YPA (now Local Search Association), and Association of Directory Publishers – the only person in the industry to have the unique honor of serving on all three boards.  He served at a time when the industry was just starting to experience unparalleled change.

It was during the time that he was on the YPA board that I got to work directly with Herb.  Simply put, he was a gentleman no matter how passionate a discussion got, he was a masterful politician keeping the peace between publishers and CMRs who were always at each other’s throats, and he was a passionate supporter of the national channel.  I can say I didn’t always agree with him, but I did have a great deal of respect for him no matter his views.

Previously, Herb held senior management positions at Ketchum Communications, including president, Ketchum Yellow Pages, and executive vice president, Ketchum Specialized Services, and was a member of the company’s executive committee and board of directors.

Herb was a well-educated man.  He was a graduate of Tufts University and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.  And he was a patriot, having served as a U.S. Air Force missile officer from 1960 to 1965, working on the country’s first inter-continental ballistic missile unit.

Following his retirement from ADM, Herb continued to write the NMD Flash newsletter.  He enjoyed finding articles of interest for readers and kept up to date with the industry.  In his spare time, Herb played tennis (a lot of tennis as he wasn’t a big fan of golf), cheered on Pittsburgh sports teams, traveled, played bridge, researched WWII history and enjoyed gardening.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 11, 2013, 11:00 a.m., at St. Andrew’s United Presbyterian Church, 801 Beaver Street, Sewickley, PA 15143.  Contributions may be made to the Salvation Army, 700 North Bell Avenue, Carnegie, PA 15106; or the American Cancer Society, 320 Bilmar Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15205.  Remembrances may be sent to the family at 310 Maple Lane, Sewickley, PA 15143.

Herb was a unique man in with a great enthusiasm and passion for life, and equally as enthusiastic and passionate about the industry.  People like Herb aren’t replaceable.  So he will unquestionably be missed.

Yellow Page News Briefs – April

This regular article provides a snapshot of Yellow Page recent industry news you may have missed.

Industry Recycling News:

Seattle Councilmember and handful of residents still venting over opt-out

Don’t want yellow-pages (etc.) directories? Opt-out deadline ahead West Seattle Blog (blog) Both Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien and a PR agency for the yellow-pages-directory industry have sent reminders today that a deadline is ahead for opting out of the next big round of deliveries – go to this website by May 6th if you want to …

Phone Book Recycle Kickoff Party – Branson, MO

Recycling locations for telephone directories are available at various locations in the City of Branson. Any resident and business that wants to recycle their directories may do so at Jubilee Foods, Dewey Short Visitor Center and the Branson Recycle …

Unwanted Phone Book Drop Off Planned – Nebraska

Now is a good time to get rid of unwanted phone books since new phone books were recently distributed to Lincoln homes and businesses. Laura Cole of The Berry Media Company says 51,000 pounds of outdated telephone directories were recycled last …

Berry Company noted for recycling efforts

Dayton company urges phone book recycling WHIO Dayton The Berry Company’s “Think Yellow, Go Green” program has kept 1.5 million outdated phone books out of landfills by recycling more than 750 tons of them. Earth Day was the fifth anniversary of the program. Berry has teamed up with schools, The Boy …

Industry Conferences:

EADP conference in June

The European Association of Directory Publishers (EADP) in cooperation with the European and German Search, Directory and Database association and will have its next conference in Berlin on June 10-11, 2013.  You can now register on the EASDP Conference site.

This year’s conference will have a theme of “Using the creative chaos of speed and innovation”.  All information, program, exhibitors, speakers, and online registration are available on the EADP site.

Kelsey Group – Leading in Local

Austin will play host to the Kelsey Groups annual “LEADING IN LOCAL: SMB Digital Marketing” conference that will take place Sept. 11 – 13, 2013. This conference will focus on the fast-changing SMB marketing solutions space and examine the digital innovations that are transforming how SMBs attract, retain and upsell their customers.  Today is the last day for early registration discounts.

Yellow Pages in the News

Green light for Dex – SuperMedia Merger

Bankruptcy court gives OK to Dex One-SuperMedia merger WRAL Tech Wire By Staff, wire reports Cary, NC — Dex One and SuperMedia, two money-losing phone-book publishers, won a judge’s permission on Monday to merge and exit …

New Cover Girl for the Phone Book

Phone books are being delivered across the Townsville region at the moment, and the woman on the cover has a really interesting story to tell. Angie D’Arcy is mother to a child with special needs and in 2008 she founded The Umbrella Network to give …

Bogus Yellow Pages still out there

Company knocks off Yellow Pages invoice to dupe business owners A Knoxville businesswoman says she received a bogus invoice from a company claiming to be the real Yellow Pages and requesting a fee to renew the listing in …

Angie’s List remains hot

All the indicators are going in the right direction as modern-day yellow pages Angie’s List, which helps people find trustworthy carpenters, dentists, mechanics, and more, reported its first quarter results today. Revenues were up 68 percent to $52.2 million, paid memberships were up 60 percent year-over-year — hitting two million just two days ago — and its cost-per-acquisition was down 12 percent.

Ziplocal Partners with Marchex

Marchex, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX), a leader in mobile performance advertising, today announced a partnership with Ziplocal, an advertising platform that

Other news:

Print Yellow Page penetration “amazes”

Foursquare Has 93% Penetration In Retail – Plus New $41 Million Note Forbes Foursquare = 93%; Citysearch = 66%; Facebook = 65%; Google+ = 59%; Yellow Pages = 55% (I am often amazed at this sort of penetration for a physical book, however, it might also include digital presences the Yellow Page industry has been slow to create …

 

How can the industry collaborate?

Just got back from the Local Search Association annual conference, and once again I heard a lot suggesting/pleading/begging from various speakers that the industry really needs to think differently, act differently, and most importantly collaborate better.

In the 25+ years I have been in the industry, the one thing you can be guaranteed to hear at an industry conference is that the industry needs to work together.  Conceptually, everyone agrees that all boats will rise if the overall industry can grow.  But usually within 10 minutes of arriving back in the home office, the issues of the moment take over and that whole collaboration thing gets filed away for another year.  Perhaps now more so than in the past, we can’t let that happen.

I don’t think anyone would disagree that today the industry faces massive change both internally and from forces external to the industry.  It wasn’t very long ago that there were usually three, four, five or more print directories in a market and that was it.  Then about ten or so years ago, this “digital” thing started, and toss in a prolonged business slowdown (some would even call it a recession), and small business owners/marketers have had to change their attitudes and philosophies about promoting their businesses to often just keep their lights on, and maybe even pray they could grow a little.

Industry collaborations are possible, and can be very successful.  For example, remember the “got milk” campaign?  Often hailed as one of the most successful ad campaigns in marketing history, got milk? was launched in 1993 when fluid milk processors in California agreed to allocate $.03 of each gallon sold to fund an overall promotion effort. The campaign was licensed nationally in 1995 for use in print ads featuring celebrities with “milk mustaches.”

The program still continues to this day with an interactive website promoting various health benefits.  The campaign is managed by the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board, which has an approximate annual budget of $110 million.

Another example is the “Pork: The Other White Meat” effort from the National Pork Board.  This original campaign, which is often cited as one of the most memorable campaigns of all time, was intended to promoted pork as a healthy meat option.  Realistically, as the National Pork Board acknowledged it was really an effort to stem the steady decline in pork sales.

The original $7 million budget in 1987 contrasted to the $30 million spent primarily on network   television ads for the “Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner” campaign from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the $112 million spent on ads for branded chickens.  Using this program promoting pork as a lean meat to more health-conscious consumers, pork sales in the United States rose 20%, reaching $30 billion annually by 1991

This year the Pork Board is launching its new $11 million Pork: Be Inspired campaign, which aims to increase sales by targeting customers who already eat pork.

So there are examples where industry players, competitors in effect, have banded together to promote their overall value, and as a result everyone in the industry saw higher sales.

Which brings us back to our beloved Yellow Pages industry, and to you the readers of this newsletter.  The topic for discussion is simply:

1. How can the industry work together?  Now, not a year from now, but right now, to show the outstanding value we bring to advertisers??
2.  What steps are needed?? 
3.  Who needs to get together in a room to start to make this happen??

We want you views and suggestions, and if you’re worried about your company not being pleased to see your name (or the company’s) in the comments, we’ll block them out and change names.  But the clock is ticking…

Send me your thoughts at ken@yptalk.com..

 

 

Survey: SMB’s Wasting Their Time With Social Media

Ouch.  The digital fanatics’ aren’t going to like this one:  As reported in the USA Today — Most small businesses feel like they are wasting their time on social media, according to a new survey.

The survey indicated that about 61% of small businesses don’t see any return on investment on their social-media activities, according to a survey released from Manta, a social network for small businesses. Yet, the big disconnect is that almost 50% of those SMB’s say they’ve increased their time spent on social media.  What’s going on?

In reality, many small businesses just don’t have a true place they fit in yet when it comes to social media.  Most SMB’s will jump in because of peer pressure, or media pressure, or the perception that their business will be left behind even if they have no clue what they’re trying to get out of a social-media campaign. The quote of the day in the article is from Stephanie Schwab, CEO of Crackerjack Marketing:

“Just thinking that Facebook alone will send droves of customers to your doorstep is a mistake a lot of people make”

Why are SMB’s getting into social media anyway?  The study indicates that:

• 36% said their goal was to acquire and engage new customers,
• 19% said to gain leads and referrals,
• 17% said to boost awareness.

And I’m willing to bet that 90+% of them think it’s cheaper than traditional media like print Yellow Pages.  And it may be at the onset.  But isn’t it usually true that you get what you pay for?

Take this one SMB quoted in the article:

“…Regina Hartt, owner of Hartt’s Pool Plastering in Turlock, Calif., says social media hasn’t helped her business because there are too many disreputable companies in the construction business, and no amount of “Likes” on Facebook is going to sway a prospective customer to spend $5,000 to $40,000 on a pool-plastering job. Hartt created a Facebook page for her business over a year ago, but she says out of the 200 to 300 jobs she does a year only three or four come from people who have found the business online…”

How many jobs do think this pool company could get from a print and online Yellow Pages ad program over the course of a year?  I would be willing to bet it far exceeds what they are getting from Facebook.

Perhaps the industry can help SMB’s through this dilemma.  Aren’t we the people who do the “fact finding” on each and every call to help identify where a business stands?   And aren’t we the industry that has simple, one stop solutions in print, online, and mobile?

Folks, we just need to show them the “power of yellow…”

Say Hello to Local Market Launch

I recently ran an article that “Mom & Pop Are Still Not Advertising Online”, and I think I figured out why. Two reasons actually:

1) It’s not easy. The Internet is a big, wide open, complex, even formidable space with lots of moving parts. There’s search portals, social media, hyperlocal directories, niche sites, IYP’s and on and on. Even geeks really into this stuff have trouble keeping up. And then throw mobile on top and you have a real mess to navigate.

2) It can be very expensive. One SMB showed me a recent proposal he got that would cost him several thousand dollars for something he wasn’t sure he could even get a decent ROI on.

So naturally, many small business owners are reluctant and unsure on who to trust and how to proceed. We think we may have found just the solution for this dilemma, a new supplier for the Yellow Pages industry – Local Market Launch.

Background
The beginnings of this new industry entry are classical Yellow Pages start-up type stories. Brian Coryat, the company’s Founder & Chief Executive Officer, launched his first internet directory listing service back in 1995 — AAA Internet Promotions. After that he moved on to Web-Ignite, one of the first SEO companies, but is best known for founding and taking public the online advertising company ValueClick, for which he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2000 for eCommerce.

After moving on from ValueClick, Brian decided to try something different and acquired a small hotel in Wisconsin. When the economy sputtered he began looking at every nickel being spent and noticed a line entry for $700 per month which he later identify was yellow page advertising. Determined to grow his struggling hotel identity beyond just the local print directory, he began the process that every SMB goes through trying to establish a consistent identity across the Internet. It was during that period that he realized that if an experienced industry professional like himself was having such problems, imagine what the less knowledgeable SMB owners were going through. So about 18 months ago he started Local Market Launch headquartered in the heart of beautiful downtown Santa Barbara, California.

Recently the company has announced another important hire in bringing on 20+ year Yellow Pages industry veteran Jeff Hoyer.  Jeff brings background as the former VP, National Sales for R.H. Donnelley/Dex Media, (managed a national team of 30, with P&L responsibility of $420 million in print, online and PPC products), and he was also Group VP at TMP Worldwide where he managed four VP/GMs and a portfolio of national clients.

Value Proposition:
Hoyer was able to give us some insight as to the value Local Market Launch can bring to both Yellow Page publishers and CMR’s. Basically the company performs three critical functions:

1. Business Listings Management (BLM): They work with SMB’s to develop a business profile, highly customized to their local market, validate and enhance the client data to ensure a standard, quality listing. That profile is then optimized across top 30 search, social & directory sites, sites such as FaceBook, Yelp, Foursquare, Google+, Bing Local, City Search, and Merchant Circle. Once the business profile has been established they then push that information across the net syndicating it to over 150 search portals building the SMB’s brand presence consistently, uniformly.
2. Local Search Optimization (LSO): After the initial stages of BLM, they come back every month, analyze the business’s top competitors and build citations based on where those competitors have business profiles.
3. Ongoing Reputation Monitoring (RM): Here they provide interactive agencies, publishers, CMR, national brands, and even those mom & pop SMB’s a dashboard which allows them to break down usage and viewing results of their business’s reputation and social web presence in any number of sorts such as division, zone, etc, and receive daily report cards

When I questioned Hoyer about what a typical average cost that an SMB would expect to see for this type service, he indicated that they are targeting a $600 first year price point. But it doesn’t end there.

Given the swift growth of mobile Local Market Launch is not limited to just working on solutions for the Internet. To provide a similar, consistent profile on mobile platforms, the company helps develop individual business landing pages which are completely mobile optimized, and then spreads that profile across the internet.

What I think will make this company very different from other providers is its agency friendly business model. The dashboards discussed above are customized for each agency. The company also has no plans to establish a direct relationship with SMB’s. They expect that publishers and CMR’s will be able to take their core product and white label it with their own brands. Under Hoyer’s guidance the company has already begun testing with a “large-scale” publisher.

The company currently has about 20 people and is beginning to rapidly hire in the Santa Barbara area. Of note is that none of the work they do is being done by offshore workers. Everything is being done right here in the good old USA.

LML Will Be at LSA:
Hoyer revealed that the company will be making a big splash at the upcoming Local Search Association conference in Las Vegas April 13-16. The company is planning a wine tasting event in their private suite and he hinted at a drawing for a weekend on the company in Santa Barbara, possibly in a private yacht. Companies interested in meeting with Local Market Launch (or to do the wine tasting) should contact Jeff at mailto:Jeff@localmarketlaunch.com or via his office line of 805-960-5572.

 

Partner With Local Market Launch
If you are an agency, marketing firm, media publisher, Internet directory or an organization that reaches local businesses, consider partnering with us today.

• White-glove, dedicated specialists for each client account
• Single point of contact for each partner project
• Scalable and effective
• Easy to integrate tools for resellers
• Revenue sharing for the life of the client
• Custom campaign capabilities

Need more information? Give us a call at (800) 720-3291 or email partners@localmarketlaunch.com.