Digital Main Street Partner Spotlight: How Yellow Pages connects business with digital and print solutions
Yellow Pages has been helping small businesses for over one hundred years. We started with print directories and now offer a robust portfolio of digital and print solutions to help businesses grow. We've built partnerships with other companies like Google and Facebook. Our network and internal experts ensure that we can help an SMB reach their business goals.
How does Yellow Pages work to support small businesses?
We make digital solutions accessible and affordable to small businesses so they can stand out and reach the right people, at the right time. Business owners have the opportunity to speak with a Yellow Pages consultant who will get to know their business and provide tailored solutions to meet their unique goals.
We support the SMB by offering a website product, with ecommerce capabilities, enabling them to take their business online and help them capture customers who have moved their shopping online during the pandemic. We also launched a product called Multi-Channel Ads, that uses artificial intelligence to deliver an SMB’s brand message over multiple advertising platforms, at the right time and in the right place to find their next customer. Further, our NetSync product ensures an SMB’s information, including business hours and means of product delivery, is accurate and up to date across a significant network of websites, including YP.ca. Throughout different phases of the lock down, this was critical to keeping customers of SMB’s informed.
From a thought leadership perspective, we share articles weekly, speaking to industry best-practices and Tips & Tricks to help businesses grow and stay up to date with market trends.
What changes have you seen this year with respect to SMBs and digital adoption?
The past 18 months were full of challenges for SMB’s and they have had to expedite their digital transformation. More and more shoppers are expecting businesses to be accessible online, be it through e-commerce or even curbside pick-up. Many business owners are listening and have embraced digital to meet this ever-growing demand. Shoppers also want to support local businesses and by increasing their digital presence, it has helped many SMBs connect with their community and made them more available to those buyers.
Are there any trends you would want to make sure an SMB owner was paying attention to?
An integrated marketing strategy is vital today and for the foreseeable future. It’s no longer enough to simply focus on one platform. Being found in several places, with consistent messaging, will allow SMB’s to reach buyers across a variety of platforms and networks. Businesses also need to think about connecting with audiences in engaging and authentic ways through channels like social media.
What is one piece of advice above and beyond anything mentioned that you would want to provide for SMB's generally.
Customers have more choices than ever before when making a purchase decision and thus transparency is critical. Customers want to check out products online, know if their item is in-stock, and if it is out of stock when will it be available, can they pick it up curbside, etc. Creating a good customer experience and keeping your customers informed will increase customer loyalty.
Yellow Pages is committed to providing a robust portfolio of marketing soutions to help SMB’s reach their business goals and stay connected to their communities.
