If you are the owner of a local business, you are probably suffering from a drop in demand for your products or services as a result of the economic recession our country has been suffering from the past few years. In fact, statistics show that small local businesses are making 30% to 50% less than they were just a few years ago.
The fact of the matter is that the marketing techniques that were solid and reliable for local businesses to use to reach their market in the past are no longer working. This means Yellow Pages ads, newspapers and other types of hard copy advertising are simply not bringing in business. That’s because people simply don’t use them anymore.
Businesses that are still using such outdated forms of advertising are throwing away thousands and thousands of dollars on ineffective marketing every month.
If you are one of those people still investing in such ads, ask 10 people where their copy of the Yellow Pages is. Most can’t tell you or will tell you that they put it in the recycling bin shortly after it arrived. What does that tell you about the money you are spending?
Consumers are looking more and more to the Internet to find information about the services and products they are seeking, even locally. Therefore if businesses want to reach new customers they simply have to have a quality Internet presence. And that does not mean just a lame website that a kid could have put together!
Today’s websites that rank well are well thought out, interesting, personable and informative. They utilize a variety of savvy online marketing techniques in order to stand out from their competitors. If you have a site with no keywords in it and almost no backlinks, you are missing the boat and will never get to the top of the search engine results.
Our Local Internet Marketing team will work to get your business found on the internet so you can take advantage of the 80% of people searching for your products or services. That means getting you on the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Look at these statistics and then ask yourself if your website (if you have one) is working for you.
STATISTICS
- In 2006, there was an average of 2.7 billion online searches per month.
- In 2009, there was an average of 32 billion searches per month.
- The first text message was sent in 1992. Today, texts sent and received each day exceed the earth’s total population.
- Google’s share of the search market is 76%
- Google reported $22 billion in ad revenue for the year 2008 and continues to be the largest ad platform in the world. The #2 slot is held by Time Warner with $9 billion in ad revenue.
- 44% of small businesses do not have a website
- 82% of people look online for local products and services
- Of all local searches, 8 out of 10 will call or visit a store and 6 out of 10 will make a purchase.
- 66% of all commerce is conducted on a local level
- There are 45 million small businesses and independent contractors in the U.S.
- 97% of people with online access research products and service providers prior to purchasing.
