There are over 150 Books of Lists produced by business journals, and hundreds more industry lists and rankings produced by other publishers across the United States. From New York to LA, from Florida to Charlotte, this site is your portal to finding more ranked lists than any other resource in the world.

What is Book of Lists?

Purpose of this Web site
This Web site helps sales professionals, job seekers, marketers, researchers, and Book of Lists aficionados to quickly find DIGITAL (Excel) Books of Lists produced by business journals across the nation.

BOL Definition
A Book of Lists is a yearly compilation of business rankings produced by regional business journals like Crain's Chicago Business, Los Angeles Business Journal, Houston Business Journal, and many others. These local compilations of top rank data make compelling sales leads, marketing lists, and job prospecting lists. They are also good for local research and competitive analysis.

Background
Every major market in the United States has at least one weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly business journal or business magazine. Nearly all of these business journals conduct proprietary research, and publish ranked lists of businesses across multiple industries throughout the year. They compile these lists (annually) into one publication, the Book of Lists, in both print and digital form. The digital format is typically an Excel download, a PDF, or an eBook.

Sales Implications
Business journals conduct proprietary research (i.e. individual surveys) throughout the year, in order to produce "Top Rank" lists of businesses across industries. As a result of this research, business journals end up with a highly current, accurate, and deep database of the "who's who" in business in their respective markets. Generally, businesses want to be included on the lists, because the lists provide a public forum for peer recognition, prestige, and "bragging rights," in addition to free and effective advertising. The business journals leverage these relationships to obtain deep business data that cant' be found elsewhere. From a sales/lead generation perspective, the Book of Lists database is a unique, accurate, current, and profound "street-level" view of the top businesses in a given region. This is not an exhaustive database, but rather a premium product. It is a powerful supplement to any national database subscription.

Significant traits of the Book of Lists: 
  • The Book of Lists usually contains 30 to 120 individual lists.
  • Each list is typically around 25 records. (i.e. Top 25 Advertising Agencies)
  • The Book of Lists traditionally has been a print-oriented product. 
  • The Book of Lists is often a top revenue-generating publication every year, for print advertising.
  • Only within the last few decades has the Book of Lists adopted a digital component (Excel format.)
  • A consumer can typically purchase a digital Book of Lists for between $99 and $499. This price tends to vary in proportion to the size of the market. $199 is a typical price.
  • The Book of Lists is precious to marketers, researchers, and job seekers because it provides a timely and accurate snapshot of the top businesses in a local region, across industries. Book of Lists makes an excellent lead list for sales professionals.
  • The Book of Lists provides contact information for the top businesses in a variety of industries. But it also ranks them according to objective criteria, and this is where the magic happens. It provides the characteristics by which these companies can be evaluated against one other.
  • Buyers pay 3 to 5 times more for a digital (Excel) version of Book of Lists than they do for a copy of the print product.
  • Businesses disdain to be left off of the lists, and many would take it as a personal affront. This dynamic ensures a high level of participation by relevant businesses per list.

Aggregators
Some businesses aggregate the digital versions of Book of Lists all in one place, for easy professional access.

American Cities Business Journals: http://www.bizjournals.com/bookoflists/

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