In days gone by, people used to flip through a printed copy of Yellow Pages or White Pages, find the type of business they needed and call one of the listed phone numbers.

To stand out in those printed phonebooks, businesses would purchase one or more of the larger ad blocks. They would use eye-catching headlines and/or colours to attract attention.

Some business owners even resorted to naming their business in such a way as to appear near the top of the list... using AAA or A1 as the first part of their business name.

We live in an age where more and more people are turning to the Internet to research businesses and their products or services prior to contacting any business. People have graduated from using printed phonebooks to using online search engines (primarily Google).

In addition, people are not just calling the first business they find. No... they are digging deeper to learn more about the product / service they seek and the businesses behind those products/services.

• They are looking for feedback from others who may have used those products/services.
• They are reading online reviews on social media sites and on review sites.
• They are asking for recommendations in Facebook groups.