Local Search – Why Should You Care?

In July 2010, TMP Directional Marketing commissioned a local search study to see how consumers were finding local businesses.

As I noted in a previous post, local search is a big deal for smaller local businesses, and the TMPDM study produced some interesting results that every SMB should be aware of. For instance, the report notes that “digital acceptance is spanning generations, from teenagers to parents and even grandparents.” This group, who the authors refer to as “Generation Now,” is adept at searching online and they expect to find what they want – easily and quickly.

Local Search info

Key Findings from the TMP Study and What They Mean for You
70% of consumers go online when they’re searching for something local.
Gone are the days when you didn’t need to have an online presence if you were a small, local business. Now, if you’re not online, you’re simply not going to be found by a majority of your prospective customers.

About 60% of those people who went online looking for something local went to search engines.
At a minimum, you need to be sure your online listings at Google Places, Bing Local, Yahoo! Local and Best of the Web are claimed. You can easily manage this (for free) from getlisted.org. Beyond that, consider search engine optimization to help your site be more readily found by potential customers.

40% of online local information-seeking is happening somewhere other than search engines – social networks, online directories, etc.
Get listed in industry directories and others that are specific to your geographic area. Consider whether social networking sites are viable options for your business.

About one-third of local searchers abandon their search entirely if they can’t find what they need quickly.
As a local business, you need to ensure that you are findable in all the places customers might be looking. Use keyword research tools like Google’s and your own website analytics to help you see how people are searching.

Print Yellow Pages rank second (behind search engines) in terms of where people go to find local information.
For many businesses, a good Yellow Pages listing is still worthwhile. If you’re not already doing so, track where your leads or customers are coming from to ensure that this remains true for YOUR business.

A quick glance at the chart below from the TMP Directional Marketing white paper shows how things are changing (print yellow pages declining year over year, for instance) but also highlights how many options searchers have – and how many places a good small business marketer needs to be.

tmp directional marketing graphsource: tmp Directional Marketing

Social networking sites, local search sites, internet yellow pages, search engines, and cell phones & wireless device are all becoming more significant and adding to the complexity for marketers. Notwithstanding that complexity, though, there’s simply no way around the fact that you have to be where your customers are looking for you.

A Cootie-Catcher, Not a Crystal Ball

Cootie catcher, fortune teller, scrunchie, chatterbox.

Photo by Katerha, via Flickr • CC BY-SA 2.0

I spend a lot of time these days reading and thinking about how the way we live our lives online is changing. This is both because I’m fascinated with where we’re headed, and because it’s a really important subject for my students and my clients.

I was looking for an image of a crystal ball to include in this post when I came across this photo. Aside from bringing back memories of third grade, it really is a much better visual demonstration of how I see the future unfolding.

That is to say, I don’t think it’s a clear path with an end result we can see in the crystal ball, but rather a this-step-depends-on-what-happened-before kind of path, just like with the cootie-catcher in the photo. (Hey, that’s what it’s called; I can’t help it!)

The Future Looks Promising
There are so many really interesting developments happening, and the pace of change seems to be really accelerating.

I’ll be writing about some of the new technology and changes in online behavior on this blog, so be sure to check back often. (Or you could do the really smart thing and sign up for the RSS feed.)

For now, though, I wanted to talk about why I’m worried…

I’m Worried for You, SMBs
I’ve had the opportunity to talk (and work) with many small and medium sized business owners over the years. Many of these folks are in the unenviable position of working so hard on their businesses that they have little – or no – time left to devote to learning the intricacies of Internet marketing.

Some have a weak website; some have no online presence at all. Some have heard from the ‘gurus’ that they MUST be on Twitter, or that they MUST have a Facebook page. Some have been ripped off by less than scrupulous Internet marketers.

The Internet was supposed to ‘level the playing field,’ making it possible for small businesses to compete with their much larger counterparts. But, for a variety of reasons, that’s just not happening in the real world. SMBs are struggling to keep pace with the ever-expanding array of opportunities available to them online, they lack the deep pockets of their competitors who can spend more on everything from website design to social media, and even the search engines favor larger, more established brands in the search results.

And that’s where we are NOW. Imagine how far behind most SMBs will be if when some of the predictions for the future happen.

Now Is NOT the Time to Bury Your Head in the Sand
I understand how overwhelming all this Internet marketing stuff can be. There’s so much to learn, and so much changing all the time, it can be tempting to just bury your head in the sand and hope it all goes away.

But it won’t.

And this is why I think there’s a bright future in store for Internet marketing consultants who are willing to work with small businesses. A SMB who doesn’t know how to leverage social media now is going to really need help when the big picture becomes even more complex.

Words of Advice
SMBs
– pull your head out of (ahem) the sand and start developing a plan for the future. If you don’t have a considerable amount of time to spend learning how you can capitalize on the Internet, hire someone who can help. (And I don’t mean hiring your niece to set up a Twitter account.)

I realize that sounds self-serving. I am, after all, an Internet marketing consultant for small businesses. But I firmly believe that virtually ALL businesses need to have an online presence at this point, and I don’t think you have much time to waste.

(This is in contrast to an article I wrote just a few years ago for Insight Magazine. At that time, I said that some businesses probably didn’t NEED a website. Now, however, I can think of very few businesses that wouldn’t benefit from having some presence online.)

Students of Internet marketing – Consider a path that focuses on helping small businesses. The opportunities there will be great. And, the rewards are not only financial, but it’s also much easier to see how your work really benefits someone.

Internet Marketing Jobs

Occasionally, I like to peruse the job boards to see what kinds of Internet marketing opportunities are available for my students at Full Sail University.

Even in our current weak economy, there are some really great opportunities in the world of Internet marketing. Because there hasn’t really been much in the way of ‘formal’ education in Internet marketing, I think my students are supremely well-positioned to land some of these jobs when they graduate – or before!

One that caught my eye today came from Marketing Pilgrim Jobs for a Senior Director, Internet Communications and Marketing at Save the Children. This sounds like a great job, and it’s encouraging to see non-profit agencies really putting some focus on leveraging the power of the Internet.

Over at Simply Hired, I found a new toy useful tool that showed the average salary for SEO Jobs in the U.S. was $71,000 – a great sign for the students in my SEO1 and SEO2 classes!

SEO Jobs Salaries





And take a look at the trend of SEO jobs from Indeed.com: