Chapter 2
Search Engines Are the New Yellow Pages
by Talor Zamir
I did not quite finish the story about my conversation with the lawyer I shared with you in the last chapter. After venting to me for a while about his huge drop in leads and revenue and how ineffective his Yellow Pages ads are, this was my response:
That’s because Google is the new Yellow Pages. Twenty years ago if someone needed a plumber or roofer or lawyer or whatever, they would go to the Yellow Pages and find a business there. These days, when was the last time you’ve even seen the Yellow Pages? Personally, I have not seen an actual physical Yellow Pages in years.
The point is, if you need a plumber or a roofer or a dentist or a lawyer, you’re going to Google them. (Note: There are other search engines besides Google, but for the purposes of this book, we will focus on Google because it is, by far, the dominant search engine.) As you are reading this, your prospects are searching on Google for a business that does what you do. These are people in your local geographic area who need help with a problem you can solve, and they need that help now.
Will they find you there?
WHY THE YELLOW PAGES WAS (AND SEARCH ENGINES ARE NOW) THE HIGHEST-QUALITY LEADS
The reason why Yellow Pages ads were one of the most effective forms of advertising for local businesses for so many years and why search engines have now taken over as one of the most effective forms of advertising for local businesses is this:
These leads are from people that have already made a decision that they need a lawyer, dentist, chiropractor, roofer, plumber, or other local business, and they are actively searching, finding, and calling you.
This makes them a much higher-quality lead than just about any other form of advertising.
If you have done any sort of sales or marketing, then you know the difference between “cold calling” or “cold prospecting” someone and when someone searches, finds, and calls you. The difference is like night and day, both in the quality of the lead as well as in the conversion rate (turning them into a paying client).
Think about it: If someone goes to Google and types in “Personal Injury Lawyer in Dallas,” that means they are probably looking to hire a personal injury lawyer in Dallas right now.
You’re not going to get a higher-quality lead than that from any other form of advertising!
In fact, the only lead that’s higher quality than a search engine lead is a personal referral. If your friend says, “This is the best personal injury lawyer in the world, and you need to work with him,” that would be an extremely high-quality lead which would most likely turn into a client.
However, you can’t get referrals if you don’t have enough clients to give you referrals! That’s why it’s so crucial for local businesses to constantly be bringing in high-quality leads that turn into clients for their business. Then when you treat those clients right, that should turn into referrals, which means new business that comes in for free. But remember, you would never have had that (free) referral business if you didn’t generate the initial lead from Google.
Let’s say every 10 clients generate two referrals for you, but you only have 150 clients. Then in this example you would only get 30 referrals. But if you had a constant stream of new high-quality leads coming into your business every day, and let’s say you got 500 clients from that, then in this example you would get 100 referrals (free clients).
As you can see, the referral machine works in tandem with the advertising machine, but you must feed the machine (your business) if you really want to grow it fast.
WHY TRADITIONAL FORMS OF MARKETING ARE LESS EFFECTIVE
It’s not only the Yellow Pages but also other traditional types of advertising and marketing that are far less effective compared to Google advertising. Let’s look at the issues with some of the common sources local businesses try.
First, let’s look at billboards. Billboard companies will almost always lock you into a long-term contract, and it’s very expensive. They know those billboards will get stale, which is why they lock you into long-term contracts. The first month that you put up a billboard, you might get some strong, new exposure with people in the area. But by the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth month, it’s the same people typically driving by that same billboard and the effectiveness tends to drop.
Most local businesses are priced out of TV due to the high cost to produce a good TV commercial and buy the airtime. There are some lawyers, cosmetic surgeons, and cosmetic dentists who can afford it, yet even those that can afford it are receiving an extremely low ROI. These days, many people are using DVRs to record shows and skip the commercials completely.
Similar things can be said about radio, newspaper, and magazine advertising. You tend to reach the same audience over and over, so your ads go stale; you often get locked into a long-term contract; and/or have a very low ROI (if you are even able to track your ROI).
And here’s what you need to understand about the ROI: Let’s say you’re doing a billboard, and it costs $2,000 a month. Then a six-month contract means you are on the hook for $12,000 before you even know whether it’s working and you’re getting an ROI or not! You’re locked into a $12,000 commitment no matter what! Whereas the method we will teach you in this book is something you can test for a couple thousand dollars and, if it works, you can scale it up massively. And, if it doesn’t work, your risk was only a couple grand, and you are likely to at least get something out of it.
Remember, the best ROI and the highest-quality leads come from people who are actively searching for you.
Now, we don’t want to sound like we are totally bashing traditional forms of advertising and that you should completely avoid them. If you have billboards or are running TV/radio ads already and people in your area are familiar with your name, then when they do a Google search, they’ll only be more likely to click on your ad. So if you are doing billboard, TV, radio, etc. and are happy with it, then don’t stop! It’s only going to make what we are going to show you that much more effective.