A major pitfall for a number of companies is guessing who their target audience is. As a result, many are paying top dollar for their mistake.

“I receive calls daily from businesses that need their phones to ring but can’t afford the mistake of investing in a costly advertising medium,” said Fred Matthews, PBN founder and CEO. “Before you decide, you need to identify who your target customer is and you need to be the first in line to share your message before your competition beats you to it.”

For businesses on the go, Yellow Pages by default have become the preferred solution. However, is it the best solution for you?

Before the internet, consumers based their decisions exclusively from word of mouth and Yellow Pages. Today, there are multiple reports that support that 80% of consumers use the internet first when they need a new product or service. Print Yellow Pages (YP) usually comes second or third in those studies. Even if the consumer does find your business, you must pay a premium in order to be among the first companies listed.

The strength of Yellow Pages is to connect local businesses to consumers who have an immediate service need. According to Market Authority, 33% of metro market consumers rely exclusively on print Yellow Pages (YP) for local business lookups. The study adds that 40% use both print YP and online and 27% use online only. As a business, you cannot accept this data at face value.

Those who report using the print directory only:

20s – 17%

30s – 16%

40s – 31%

50s – 38%

60s – 49%

70s – 69%

Those who report using the Internet exclusively:

20s – 51%

30s – 32%

40s – 22%

50s – 17%

60s – 17%

70s – 8%

This study shows division between two generations and the way they prefer to connect with a company locally. A much older demographic relies heavily on print directories while a much younger demographic prefer to use the internet exclusively. An argument can also be made regarding the availability of internet in homes and phones. According to Market Authority, averages of 15% of people living in metro areas have no internet acces