We’ve all noticed Yellow Pages directories have gotten thinner as a result of media migration. Consequently, many people wonder if the Yellow Pages are still a good value for 2013. Absolutely! One way to look at it is, with less Yellow Pages competition … you’re actually getting more leads. But, for those who are still skeptical – we have some hard core statistics from CRM Associates (November 2012) to share with you. Yellow Pages remain: Relevant Yellow Pages are a powerful medium for reaching and influencing active shoppers: A significant percentage of active shoppers (roughly 24%) seek out and are influenced by Yellow Pages ads (print or online) – more than all other media except online sources. Effective Yellow Pages are a highly-effective medium for reaching people who are ready-to buy: Almost all users of the Yellow Pages (six out of seven) will make a purchase. No other medium can boast this high of a follow-through. There is no “waste” with Yellow Pages advertising. Decision-Impacting Yellow Pages ads help shoppers make purchase decisions: The majority (58%) of Yellow Pages users are actively shopping (have not already chosen a business). 60% of users that have only one business or brand in mind when they seek out the Yellow Pages end up looking at other ads. Thus, about three quarters of Yellow Pages users are shoppers and use information in the Yellow Pages ads to help make shopping decisions.                       Targeted Yellow Pages delivers a strong, valuable, highly-targeted audience: The majority of usage is driven by “out-of-the-ordinary” events, such as life-stage changes. Yellow Pages users tend to be leaders, smart shoppers, willing to try new brands, and willing to pay full price for good value. Yellow Pages users spend 25% more than the average customer for most of the top headings. About one out of twelve Yellow Pages references are for business purposes; business users spend twice as much as consumers on average. Recent Yellow Pages are only used when a consumer is ready to make a purchase, which makes Yellow Pages ads highly influential. Permission-based Users of Yellow Pages actively seek out the information in ads. 100% of ads viewed are closely evaluated. There is no better time to reach a consumer than when that consumer has a need and is interested and actively seeking information about businesses and their products and services to help make shopping decisions.  Good for Business Yellow Pages ads deliver prospects – the typical local display print ad delivers close to 140 calls per year and the typical IYP ad delivers over 85 calls per year. Yellow Pages are the most effective medium for attracting new customers: The majority of sales resulting from the Yellow Pages are from new customers to the businesses. Great for the Bottom Line A typical business receives $14 of sales revenue and $5 profit for every $1 spent on Yellow Pages print display ads. Other Yellow Pages products have returns even higher than that. Summary The conversion rate to sales from Yellow Pages is almost ten times greater than almost all search and direct marketing vehicles. It takes 9 clicks from Paid Search to have the same chance of making a sale as one call or visit from a Yellow Pages user. It takes 17 clicks from Online Display ads to have the same chance of making a sale as one call or visit from a Yellow Pages user. Yellow Pages has the advantage of being the most effective medium at reaching and influencing an audience of consumers that are ready to buy and are looking for information to help make their decisions on who to purchase from. Telephone marketing has the second highest conversion rates, but is costly, with low SROI values as a result. Emails to house lists and Yellow Pages space ads provide the highest SROI values of 28 and 34 to 1 respectively. Businesses must be wise in the allocation of their advertising dollars – taking care to focus on the quality of leads from each source and the effective cost per sale from each vehicle, instead of focusing only on the top line “lead” counts. Large numbers of leads do not necessarily translate to large numbers of sales. Not all leads are created equal.  

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It’s an understatement to say that raising funds for your hospital foundation is a challenge, particularly in a tough economy. Having an online presence, however, can be an effective solution. Online marketing is quick, flexible, and a cost-effective means of soliciting and promoting your foundation initiatives. Still, challenges remain on knowing how to promote your foundation online, finding tools to use for capturing donations, and discovering which best practices are actually best for you. Following are some thoughts you should consider. Defining Your Target Before you begin mapping out an online strategy, you need to be clear on your objectives. Whether you are seeking donations to grow a specialty line or raising funds to hold a community event, your tactics will be different. Maybe you are looking to help support an affiliated cause such as breast cancer research – your online approach will be different yet again. By having specific objectives, you’ll know when and if you are reaching them. Growing a Specialty Line Suppose your objective is to raise money to expand your hospital’s cardiac care unit. An online blog is an excellent starting point. Blogs allow you to post case studies about local patients (with their permission, of course) that have received heart surgery and that are thankful for the technology and care they received from your hospital and staff. Another option is to have a cardiac surgeon post commentary about surgical procedures and the need for continued advancements in technology. You will likely be surprised about the level of community engagement the blog generates.   Your PR manager could also join in by posting on your hospital’s Twitter and Facebook site about the need for expanded cardiac care and the benefits it could bring to your community. Tapping into these forms of online social media provides the local community the ability to join discussions and ask questions in an open, friendly environment. Social media also provides users with the means of remaining anonymous if they so choose. Social Media widgets (mini Web applications) are available for plugging into your blog or Website for collecting donations. For instance, www.GoFundMe.com provides a free donation widget that you can download from their Website. The widget connects directly to e-commerce programs, such as PayPal, to give you instant and secure access to every donation you receive. Funding a Community Event From women’s health seminars, to dinner galas and children’s helmet safety programs, increasing donor income through fund-raising events is one of the most widely-used forms of foundation marketing. So, how do you get the word out about your event through online channels? If you have looked into online banner advertising in the past but thought against it due to suggestions of low “click-through” rates, you should reconsider. Online banner advertising has made significant advancements over recent years with hyper-local and user-centric targeting capabilities across large distribution networks. Most of these advertising networks can zero in on users based upon previous online history (behavioral targeting), page content (contextual targeting), and user location (geo-targeting). For instance, these capabilities would allow an advertiser to promote a bike riding event to those in its local community who are visiting a healthcare Website, and who have also visited an Alzheimer’s-related Website within the past 30 days. Some online banner programs also allow targeting by age and income demographics. If you need further evidence that online banner advertising is still viable, consider the fact that according to investment firm ThinkEquity, U.S. online ad spending is expected to reach $37.5 billion this year, up 18% over last year. Supporting a Cause  Another big question is “what marketing vehicle should I use to promote our foundation’s cause? While it’s true that mail-acquired donations is the leading medium for promoting gift-giving, you may be surprised to learn that online-acquired donors tend to give much larger gifts and give more in total revenue each year than mail-acquired donors. Whether you are seeking funds to directly support AIDS research or looking to promote your pediatric department with portions of the donations going to the Children’s Miracle Network, online marketing is a must for promoting healthcare causes. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is another very effective method of online marketing, particularly due to the nature of search – where online users are seeking relevant information, rather than having the information broadcast or pushed to them. Google Ad Words is the leader in SEM advertising. It allows users to promote local gift-giving through the purchase (bid) of keywords. For example, a hospital foundation for children’s research in Des Moines may want to bid on keywords that include cancer, oncology, children, pediatric, pediatrics, foundation, research and giving. When the user searches on any of these words and specifies Des Moines or Iowa, the foundation ad will appear in the search results. The higher the advertiser bids, the higher its ad will appear in the search results. Performance-based SEM programs are also available whereby advertisers only pay for ads clicked by the user. There are many ways to use online advertising to promote your healthcare foundation. Taking advantage of blogs, banner ads, social media, and search engine marketing is a great place to start. So, if you haven’t looked into online advertising lately, now is the time to look again. About the Author: Mark Williams is a Senior Media Strategist at Berry Network. Berry Network provides advertising solutions to national and local advertisers through a variety of print and online media. Berry Network is also the preferred advertising vendor for Novation member organizations. If you have questions or comments about this article or would like more information about online advertising solutions, please contact Berry Network, Healthcare Marketing, at 1-800-366-1264, or visit www.berrynetwork.com.

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One of the more frustrating parts about being in marketing is that the ideas we come up with are often scrutinized by others that only see things through their own eyes. They make the assumption that everyone thinks and acts just like them. Take social media; if you are like me, you have probably heard statements like the following: “I don’t understand why we need to invest in Twitter. I tried Twitter and didn’t like it.” - Despite that over 50 million active Twitter users do like it and use it. “Why should we invest in Facebook, only college kids and teenagers use it.” - Despite 38% of Facebook users are age 35 or older and the growth rate for those 55 and older is 59%. “The only thing LinkedIn is good for is to find a new job.” - Despite that LinkedIn can help you get answers to tough business questions by connecting you to experts in your field. You get the picture. The example above is not limited to social media. Take the Yellow Pages. Sure, usage of printed Yellow Pages has declined, but the way some bloggers and others in the media are talking you would think the Yellow Pages is on its last leg, despite the fact that U.S. adults made over 12 billion references made to print Yellow Pages last year. The bottom line is that we can’t allow people to judge our marketing plans based solely on their personal beliefs. It’s a diverse world out there. Some people use Twitter, some don’t. Some people use print Yellow Pages, some don’t. Some people read blogs, some don’t. The good news is that in today’s world there is a wealth of data we can use to support our marketing decisions. Marketers need to arm themselves with this data and defend their positions. We have to have the courage to remind the people who may criticize our marketing plans and that not everyone thinks and acts just like them.

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