Dennis Yu

Yodle CEO, Court Cunningham, talks to Borrell Associates about Local


It’s all about finding quality people—that’s what Court Cunningham says is the biggest challenge for Yodle, the local lead gen of which he’s CEO.  You need skilled people to both bring in new clients and set up campaigns—for them, they have 140 people in a call center dialing through the phone books and directories.  Selling clients is easy—just tell them that the average client gets a 7 to 1 return. Thus, for every dollar they spend, on average they get back $7 in sales.

But the bigger problem is that of retention.  How do you actually deliver upon the promise of calls that lead to sales?  The small business doesn’t have much money, and VC-funded companies have expensive office space, overhead to cover, and profits to generate.  Plus, if your agency’s focus is aggressive growth, good salespeople cost a lot of money, which further eats into whatever remaining budget you have to spend on the client’s PPC campaigns.

Cunningham mentions that Yodle spends the majority of campaign budgets on IYP (Internet Yellow Pages)—listings fees and PPC spend, as that generates the highest ROI. Content Factory takes a different approach—working more on the client’s website to get it ranking in organic (free) search results.  That longer-term strategy arguably takes more effort, takes longer, and is not as automatable as just running a click budget via Google.

By not having to touch a client’s website (whether building a new one or tweaking the existing one), it’s easier for Yodle to scale up their customer base. And should the customer wish to leave, all their traffic disappears instantly.

By the way, Nathaniel Stevens is the founder of Yodle— the brainchild and super genius that started the company, NatPal, while still a student at UPenn. His original vision may or may not be reflected in the current company operations, which is no longer a start-up. We had dinner a couple of months back to discuss– more on that another day.

We believe that the strategy that will win for the small business, in the long run, is to be transparent in our techniques, focus on a blend of natural and paid search traffic, and help them integrate online marketing into their traditional marketing.  The downside of this is that Content Factory isn’t going to grow as fast.  But we believe that in the long run, the marketplace will become more competitive and that we should be delivering at that level now.

It will be interesting to see who will win in the local agency space– the giant companies that are spending lots of money to grow as fast as possible or the myriad of local agencies (with just a couple of folks each) that have clients in their own backyards.  My money is on the little guy since there are a lot of unemployed bright people out there who are just starting to grasp the size of the local online advertising market.  Those folks will be more motivated than the corporate giants.  And we want to help them!

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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