B2B marketing expert says directories are a waste

Chris Rand comes out NOT in favor of directories

First President Obama comes out publicly and says that he supports gay marriage, and now this …

Chris Rand of BMON: Still wasting time and money on directories?.

In the past, I might have said that its worth taking the time to find out which directories are worth being featured in, but its 2012 now, and I think I can safely say that NO directory is worth the effort.

Okay, he’s not the first to say it publicly, but his cred should make it clear that it is an educated, measured statement:

I have access to the website analytics from nearly a hundred companies, and I can tell you one thing without breaking any confidences: not a single one of them gets more than a tiny trickle of website visitors from directories. 

I’ll just throw in this one additional thought to add some nuance: directories have to bring more than just clicks and “visibility”.

Is this the beginning of a new paradigm, just like the acceptance of gay marriage?

9 Replies to “B2B marketing expert says directories are a waste”

  1. Hmm interesting. Totally agree about the zero traffic observation. What about the effect of citations in directories in getting Google Places listings to rank well?

    I get new G Places listings raking top of G’s main results with nothing else other than a few directory listings (and filling out the Places page properly). This results in a LOT of traffic AND phone calls (which don’t register on web stats)

  2. Ohhhh! I was on the opinion that directories are good for
    getting page rank back links and can create traffic finally
    improving the site rank. I still anticipate them to be a wheel
    turner for my business. I was told I will be missing lot on
    my tool crib software business if I am on the directories
    and now this statement of Mr. Rand is upsetting. I am bit
    confused of what to listen and what not to. Let’s see what
    beholds the turning wheel of time.

  3. Yes i agree to the above… Directories are just money making ideas.. for the  the directory company and not for the listed companies… Mere visibility is not the key to sale in a b2b market

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  5. This is exactly what I’ve found through experience with a couple of clients. Directories are a waste of time and sliding downhill in results. I pulled two clients out of directories the last three years after I was able to track the results and show each client. It was almost as rigorous a process as it used to take to get a client into media buys.

    Sorry to be so late to the conversation, I just found your blog through a search on mapping sales territories within WordPress. I’ll be following along on G+ and G Reader.

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