Phone books are falling out of favor with people looking for local businesses. It used to be that your name in the yellow pages was the first line of advertising. No longer. Curious customers have begun moving away from the turn of the yellow page and toward the click of the mouse. As a matter of fact, three of the top five ways in which a Comscore study determined that people find local businesses involved the Internet rather than print media. Here they are:

• 31% visit a search engine, searching without a specific brand or business in mind
• 30% look up a business in print in the phone book
• 19% use Internet directories
• 11% look at local search sites like Google Maps (driving directions)
• 3% get their information from a newspaper or magazine

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What does ordering a pizza and lead generation have in common? A lot! Pizza and lead generation? What’s going on?

Let’s take a step back and think about ordering a pizza with just 1 or 2 or 3 toppings on different sides. Yes, this will appeal to the actual people who are ordering the meal.

But what happens if some friends come over who have not been involved in the ordering of your pizza? What if they just don’t like pepperoni and are allergic to cheese? They don’t get to eat with you. In fact, they may go out and eat elsewhere.

Or what happens if that pepperoni half (or third) falls on the floor? You’ve lost a major portion of your dinner. Either some people are going to go hungry or you’re going to have to spend more money on dinner to feed everyone.

Please, follow the analogy through. The choice of lead generation marketing channels (like pizza toppings) probably has the same affect on your potential customers. Almost everyone will react more favorably to certain advertising media and totally ignore or dislike others for whatever reason(s). Just like some people like onions, peppers, and mushrooms and others hamburger, sausage, and pepperoni. (more…)