How do you use your Yellow Pages book? Vent blocker, paper weight, coaster for wet coffee cups and glasses, tossed in recycle bin to make your neighbors think you are enviro friendly, head start on a compost pile?

If YOU are not using Yellow Pages, why invest your hard-earned dollars in space and ink on a Yellow Page ad?

The tradition of having “as large an ad as my competitor” sucks money straight from your local small business advertising budget to AT&T or the Yellow Book or whatever the special book of yellow ads is called in your market.

Yellow Pages served a great purpose “back in the day” with pay phones on every corner and when dial up Internet service took longer than “letting your fingers do the walking."

Today, high speed Internet connections and millions of Google local searches a day for local goods and services are speeding the extinction of the Yellow Pages. Buying a Yellow Pages ad today is like paying to wrap a dinosaur in your business's logo.

With more than 70% of U.S. households searching online first for local business sources for the goods and services they want to buy, it is critical that local businesses have an Internet presence. Marketing tactics that engage prospects and connect with them are critical. The Yellow Pages cannot engage or connect with consumers for you. How do you decide whether to cancel your Yellow Pages ad?

You should ask yourself these Three Key Questions before you buy any advertising.

1. Does it reach your targeted ideal prospect? Does everybody gets one whether they want it or not? If the answer is yes, then it is not targeted advertising.
2. Is there a call to action or sense of urgency? The Yellow Pages cannot create a sense of urgency for you -- because the book just sits there. A long shelf life does not help you.
3. Does it generate a solid Return On Your Investment to justify the expense? Numbers do not lie.

With a tradition like the Yellow Pages, it’s hard to change what you have been doing for a long time. And it’s even harder to change if your competition will “have it all to themselves” --- even if your competitor is riding a dinosaur.

One of my clients pays $980 every month for a Yellow Pages ad the size of a vertical business card. Why? Because the competition has one. I asked, “How many clients does that ad bring to your door?” No tracking.

Do you even remember the last client that the Yellow Pages attracted for you? No.

Then, this was the comeback --- devoid of logic --- “But if I want a smaller ad, or cancel and come back, it will cost more than I pay now.” Huh?!

In this economy and particularly in print advertising, publishers and sales reps should make customers happy by helping them succeed, not threatening to dip deeper in their pockets. If you can justify an expense with a healthy ROI from Yellow Pages, with real numbers, good for you. Start preparing for tomorrow, though.

The Yellow Pages is drying up faster than Lindsey Lohan’s new career as a fashion designer.

The Yellow Pages will exist for maybe five more years. Yes, I said it. Five years, tops and it’s history. Buying Yellow Pages ads is just supporting an advertising dinosaur.

Make a commitment to yourself to track the prospects and clients you get from the Yellow Pages and then make an informed decision on whether investing in the Yellow Book worth it.

When you see what your cost vs. benefit is, you will feel so much better when you have that cash back on your bottom line instead of it going in the advertising sales rep's pocket.

What could you do with a few hundred or thousands of bucks in extra cash a month? Just look at your last payment(s) for the Yellow Pages. Then really be honest and add up the real amount of sales directly generated by your Yellow Pages ads. Compare that amount to one year ago.

Are you convinced now that you can recoup that wasted cash and put it to better use? Invest that cash in targeted marketing that produces amazing results for you, not the dinosaur. Leverage your dollars to connect with more targeted prospects, bond with existing clients, generate referrals....make more money! Local small businesses that are marketing smart, will thrive instead of simply survive. For more straight talk on marketing and sales techniques that will work for your small local business, check out www.salestipsmarketing.com