Small businesses rush to local Internet marketing
The rush is on for local online marketing. Most people search online for a local business before they pick up a phone book, yet fewer than half of small business have websites or advertise online, according to Nielsen Online.
If Horace Greeley were alive today, he would say: “Go local, young man.”
“There’s an increasing sense of urgency around having an effective online marketing strategy,” a CEO on an online ad agency told Business Week.
The Internet marketing industry is ready to help the mom and pop stores that want in Internet presence. Microsoft’s Bing has beefed up its neighborhood and business listings. Google enhanced and renamed its Local Business Center to Google Places. Businesses in a handful of cities can pay Google $25 a month to have their listing show when Web searchers check their area.
Instead hiring large big-city advertising agencies, small business will want to work with small, local experts who are more affordable, understand their communities and will take the time to meet their needs.
Local search is one of the most underused yet most effective Internet market strategies, said Jon Schepke of http://searchenginewatch.com/3641176″>Search Engine Watch. Out of 16 billion searches every month, one in five is local.
Plus, local searchers are more likely to make a purchase.
In addition to using pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization, he says, businesses need to
- have local listings with the major search engines,
- make sure their information is up to date,
- use photos and videos to promote their brand,
- optimize profiles with customized fields with informative descriptions,
- track online performance with web analytics, and
- encourage customer reviews.
“The marketers who fully embrace local search,” Schepke writes, “are enjoying a competitive edge.
