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You have probably
used a search engine to find a local business (e.g. when my
computer broke down recently I wanted a local repair shop to look
at it and I found it through a Google search. The technician
is not listed in the yellow pages since he only makes house calls
and has no physical business address). If you are a bit
savvy searching on the Internet, you probably figured out that it
is better to add your zip code (rather than your town name; for me
"Milford" produces results not only for MA but for all the other 49 states
that have a town called Milford). If you are even
savvier, you probably used Google
Local Search. You might know that, as an advertiser on
the Internet, you can now target your ads by zip code or region
or country. Now Overture is launching a
similar service that will allow you to search within a half-mile radius
compared to 20-mile radius option offered by Google. So a hair salon in Milford, MA does not need
to promote itself to anyone who is unlikely to show up for a hair
cut at their location.
In this article, I
will not talk so much about the potential for growth that a
micro-business has by using local search marketing (if you are
such a business, my recommendation is that you invest in online
advertising to attract new customers through local search
marketing). On the
other hand, I will focus on how even a large business can now sell
its offering to a remote location, if that is something you want
to do and it fits with your business model. I will show you with a simple example how
local search marketing can be
turned into a tremendous growth opportunity. (Related
article: Ask
Jeeves' entry into contextual advertising makes search engine
advertising competitive) Let
us consider the case of a company based in Idaho that rents kits
for lemonade stands, so that if someone want to put up one in the local
summer festival, these amateur businesspeople can simply rent it from them. What if you
could advertise your rental business not just in your area but
everywhere a summer festival is being held? And you could do
it by zip code, say, two weeks prior to the event. So if zip
code 01757 has a summer festival scheduled for August 1, you start
to advertise for this zip code from July 11 to July 25. When
I want to put up a lemonade stand and want to rent the kit, I will
see your ad when I perform a local search, and order a kit from you rather than go nuts when I
can't find a single business in Milford, MA. (Note: I
am not going to discuss the economics of this but am basically
using a simple example to drive home the point that you can now
target your advertising by a specific geography and period.
I am assuming that you will crunch the numbers to see what is the
geography that you can profitably target).
Challenges
of local search marketing
- It's not perfect, yet. I have tried
both Google and Overture/Yahoo local
searches and they both produce not-so-perfect
results but good enough to help me find what I need. I am hoping that these will get better over
time.
- The competition will become intense in no
time. While Overture does not require a local business
to even have a website, I see no reason why even micro-businesses
will not rush to get a website, which now you can ask a
high-school kid to design for some pizza and Coke.
- You will need to run your marketing campaign
carefully and monitor it closely to check if it is producing
desired results for you. If not, change your strategy or
drop it.
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