Sensis, White & Yellow Pages - still dying

Spotted this afternoon, an interesting post at Technology Spectator.

Fifteen years ago Sensis, the directories arm of Telstra, was untouchable. A listing in the Yellow and White Pages was essential for every business and Sensis’ monopoly was a true river of gold.

Sensis’ launch this week of an Australian partnership with the US based review site Yelp is Telstra’s desperate throw of the dice to survive in a market where its directories business has become irrelevant. ... The phone directory business model is a product of the 1920s and in many ways Telstra and the other Yellow Pages franchisees around the world should be greatful it has lasted so long.

Technology Spectator considers how much partnership with Yelp may help Sensis and comes to a conclusion of "not very much".

Here at CCM our advice has been, for many years, that a dollar spent on listing in Yellow and White Pages is a dollar wasted. Spend that dollar on improving your own website! Your company website is your home on the Internet. That's the #1 online location where you can form and cement relationships with potential customers, tell your own story, and market your products and services.

Calculating the value of your email subscribers

In a recent article for the Barossa Grape and Wine Association I talked about using reports and testing to work out what editorial tone would be most effective in capturing the attention of a email newsletter’s readers. (See "What’s the right tone when communicating with your winery’s email database?")

In a new post I focus on the readers themselves – the people on the mailing list - and ask: "What’s an email mailing-list subscriber actually worth to the business?"

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