Archive for the ‘Partner Program (YAP3)’ Category

Adam Clayton Powell III author of “Reinventing the Local News,” was the keynote speaker this morning at the Kelsey Conference in Washington DC.  He claims to be a recovering journalist involved in a 10 step program.  During his speech he talked about how the local news needs to reinvent itself by looking to morph into other areas.  He used one example of Cox Communications and their experiment with AutoTrader.com now a $750 million dollar business.  This is example was something he called a Microlocal play.  Microlocal?  He defines this as a small community, but not necessarily geographically based.  Mircrolocal opportunities can occur in a geo target, but can also occur  within a vertical, or a group of people.  One example of a group of people given was the military.  This is a very large group but considered a microlocal target.

His point was that as media companies move deeper into this digital age they need to be aware of microlocal opportunities are around them and be prepared to act even if it doesn’t fit their current model or platform.  John Kelsey commented that many media companies are resisting this change because their management teams were successful with a different plan, the plan they seem to be holding onto.  You can draw another parallel between media companies and print yellow page companies in this area.  While not all print yellow page companies are slow to move many are!  Some companies such as AdVentures publishing are embracing new cross platform sales opportunities and are working hard to provide their customers the very best advertising opportunities.  The large publishers like AT&T (AT&T The Real Yellow Pages/Yellowpages.com, Idearc (Verizon Yellow Pages/Smartpages.com), RH Donnelly (Dex Yellow Pages/Dexknows.com) are very much selling cross platform and have been for almost two years now.  Time will tell if the smaller publishers will see the trend and begin to sell in this new media ecosystem.  Here are some of the pieces to the new ecosystem:

• Print
• Broadcast
• Internet Ads (SEM)
• SEO
• Online Directory
• Video
• Mobile
• Social Networks

I am interested to see what this market will look like in the next 2 years.  I think the economy has thrown jet fuel on the fire and we will see the elimination of a lot of companies who do not figure out how to offer their advertisers a full suite of products.  The yellow page and broadcast companies have an advantage with feet on the street, only time will tell if they will use those relationships, or if new players will step in and fulfill that need for the local advertiser.

The answer is everyone with a pulse.  Mobile phones are referred to in the industry as the Third Screen.  The TV and the Computer being 1st and 2nd respectively.  A lot of focus is being put on advertising on the Third Screen, why?  It is harder to advertise on because it is a pull versus a push form of advertising.   Shouldn’t email marketing be easier because you can practically send it to everyone? Actually, advertisers love the mobile phone because it is push, in essence they are advertising to people who want their advertising!  Sounds like a fantastic opportunity to advertisers to advertise to only those who want their advertising.  This is a fairly new technology but many companies are cropping up to offer large companies like Pepsi, Arby’s, and Jiffy Lube the opportunity to opt in cell phone users.  Once the cell phone users opt in, then the company is free to market to the mobile phone.  These companies will send out marketing messages in the form of mobile discounts andwill easily be able to accurately measure the results.  With this type of marketing, the companies can quickly find out what works and what doesn’t work and then run similar promotions via other media.

The Third Screen is also fast becoming  viable method of viewing broadcast content.  Companies like News Over Wireless are offering television content, news, sports, etc. directly to the mobile phone.  This is one more area for advertisers to reach the fastest growing segment in the advertising industry.  However, this advertising is not permission based, it is the same as broadcast on TV, it is interuptive. My guess is most users won’t care about a few commercials just as they didn’t care when TV first started running commercials.  The newness of the technology affords some leeway to the advertisers.  Also, it is more difficult to surf while the commercials are on, most cell phone users will watch the commercials.  It is a more captive audience then the person watching TV or listening to radio. 

Will the broadcast companies partner with companies like Yellow Assistance to provide local search and mobile advertising platforms to their current and new advertisers?  Time will tell who forms these partner relationships and who will try to internally build the technology.  One thing is clear, it really isn’t a question of should they, it is more a question of when will they do it.

At the YPA Conference, Neal Polochek is speaking with the CEO of BIA Financial Network, the company that acquired the Kelsey Group 6 moths ago.  During their presentation he reported that the 4th, 5th, and 6th phone books in a market will be eliminated.  I agree, this is too many books for a market anyway.  User’s don’t like it and, frankly, it is not a good situation for advertisers. It fragments the market as advertisers decide which books to be in and which books to not advertise in.  The result is the user doesn’t have one or two complete books to use to find advertisers.  This has an impact on the move to internet.

In his report, he also stated that the future looks good for incumbent publishers versus independent publishers.  Yellow Assistance is trying to change this, but it is up to those independent publishers to get together on a national platform to compete.  A small independent who operates a local IYP will struggle in the future to compete with incumbents who are making it obvious that there growth is going to come from smaller markets and their margins are going to improve by eliminating competition.  Yellow Assistance FREE offer to independent publishers is an answer to this problem.  We provide the publisher a local IYP platform and at no charge put their advertisers into a national platform.  If independents will come together, we can have one of the top sites in terms of traffic, which translates into value for their advertisers.

The next threat to the independent publishers are the states who are pushing for telco only books to decrease the number of books being delivered in their markets.  This is a huge threat, so how do independent publishers combat this.   I don’t have the answer, I hope that both associations are working diligently on this, and I believe they are.  My suggestion is to make yourself matter in the market.  Get on board by educating your advertisers about the benefits of print, iyp, search engine marketing, and search engine optimization.

It was said that many are putting their heads under the sheets and saying, “wake me up when it is over.” Don’t be one of those publishers. Change is difficult and retraining a sales staff is not easy, but the relationships that independents have are extremely valuable, make sure you continue to have those relationships, by offering your advertisers a full cross-platform solution.

Recently the Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Yellow Pages Facing Extinction” where reporter Emily Steel painted a pretty grim picture of the Yellow Pages industry. However, for the most part, she presented a very one-sided view of the industry.

While I concede that there are some publishers bleeding, especially in a down economy, there are many, many more that are doing very well and continue to drive fantastic value to their advertisers.

The big question in the industry revolves around the future of print directories versus the Internet. Publishers are turning to online solutions as people migrate steadily away from print directories. In the WSJ article, Emily writes, “The audience for online yellow pages remains relatively small, and traffic growth is slowing. So many directory services are vying for the ad dollars of local businesses that no single site has an authoritative roster.” I would heartily disagree with the contention that traffic growth is slowing. I am aware of many Internet Yellow Pages sites, including Yellow Assistance, that are experiencing rapid growth.

The issue with fragmentation among online yellow pages will continue as long as individual publishers continue to stand alone on local online directory platforms that have limited reach, no national scope, and little search engine exposure.  They will have trouble convincing local advertiser of the value their online offering brings versus search engine marketing.

We believe that if publishers can come together on a national internet yellow pages platform, they can generate an exponentially greater flow of traffic, which will in turn increase the value of their online ads, driving revenue. Yellow Assistance offers a platform that allows Directory Publishers to maintain their identity, but at the same time overcome fragmentation and deliver tremendous value to their advertisers through the collaboration of network traffic.

Through our Yellow Assistance Publisher Partner Program (YAP3), we provide publishers with a fully integrated Internet Yellow Pages site that is customized to their look, using their own domain name.  The platform includes a nationwide search engine of 19 million+ business listings.

The real power comes in the combination of directories that form the YAP3 network, which will enable participating Directory Publishers to combine their individuals sites into a national collaboration, leveraging network traffic, search engine visibility and revenue potential.

We believe so strongly in this platform’s ability to revolutionize the Yellow Pages Directory industry, we are offering it at no charge to Independent Directory Publishers. To learn more about YAP3, go to partner.yellowassistance.com and watch the features and benefits.

At the Association of Directory Publishers’ Mid-Year Convention this week, the overriding theme was finding an answer to this question: “How do we continue to compete as more and more people move online for their local information?”  The concern is how to maintain their core printed product, which, although slowly declining, still remains the first source by 30% of consumers according to a study conducted by TMP Directional Marketing, while becoming profitable in the growing online markets.  I believe it was Jacqui Ponkey of Genesis Publisher Services who said, “It’s not about being in print or online, but about being in print AND online.”

The difficulty seems to be in devoting the extensive resources in time, money and staff to develop a viable and competitive online presence, then further effort to get consumers to use.  That’s why we have spent considerable resources developing our Yellow Assistance Publisher Partner Program (YAP3).

Through YAP3, we offering Independent Directory Publishers the ability to get online quickly with a privately-labled Internet Yellow Pages product at no cost to them.  That may seem crazy or too good to be true, but let me expound a bit on the thinking behind YAP3.

We know know the majority of print publishers either don’t have an online presence or have a poor representation on the web.  We also know that most online directories are not optimized for search engines, which means consumers aren’t using them.  We had the idea of developing a network of publisher sites built on the solid Yellow Assistance search platform, that would enable publishers to offer their own online advertising solution that complements their print product.  Through this network, publishers can broaden their advertisers’ exposure outside their market, benefiting everyone.

The reason we can offer this at no cost to publishers is simple.  We are looking at this network of publisher sites from a holistic vantage point.  The traffic generated from this network will create great momentum for future partnerships and exposure that a single site could not muster.  It allows a network of smaller publishers to compete in a jungle of 800-pound gorillas.

Learn more about YAP3 at Partner.YellowAssistance.com.  It’s risk free and a great way to give online a try.