Local Search Marketing–A Great Tool for Start Up Businesses!
I am a member of SCORE (Senior Corp of Retired Executives). It’s a national volunteer organization with local chapters. As business leaders we volunteer our skills to help entrepreneurs starting a new business or small business owners who want to grow their existing business. I was invited to speak to our local St. Paul SCORE Chapter about the impact social media sites are having on SCORE’s work with new businesses. 
Rather than focus on Facebook and Twitter, I focused my remarks on power of local search marketing. Local search marketing is a small business owner’s most powerful friend!
83% of today’s customers start their buying process online. 50% of these searchers look for a local business or service. A small business needs to be where customers are shopping.
Using local search marketing, a business owner can put his business online where customers are shopping. It is fast. It is economical. It is totally under the control of the small business owner. It is a perfect startup tool for small business owners.
Here are some of the thoughts I shared in my presentation. Enjoy and prosper.
Local Search Marketing
There is a new trend that has emerged call local search marketing. For the last year or so, you’ve been using local search marketing and probably didn’t even know it. Behind the scenes the search engines made an unannounced shift to local search marketing. Let me explain.
The Internet Shift to Local Search Marketing
In the early days of the internet, small businesses were told a website was the answer. We tell our SCORE clients the same message. Put a website on the world-wide web and customers will see your site and want to do business with you.
It doesn’t happen! What happened is billions of websites making it impossible to find a local website. If your website does not show up on the first page of the organic search, you don’t exist to customers.
Customers Change Their Buying Preferences to Local Search Marketing
Over the past two years, the internet has quietly evolved from the power of the world-wide web to the power of the local web. The most fundamental reason for this change—customers changed. They are now thinking locally. 83% of today’s shoppers use the internet to start their shopping process. More than 50% of all internet searches now look for a local business, a local product or a local service. This is a significant change from the past.
Search Engines Change Their Search Process to Local Search Marketing
When customers change, search engines change. Increasingly, the search engines created ways for local shoppers to easily find businesses in their towns and communities. Search engines like Google Places are now catering to local searches. This is a significant change for search engines. The search engines now present the little Maps we see with searches with the little 3-7 pins of local businesses that match our search.
What is Local Search Marketing?
Local search engine marketing is nothing more than an online version of the Yellow Pages where people can search for local small business providers. The computer and the smart phone has made it very convenient to search for a local small business or service by entering keywords into Google or their smart phones and clicking SUBMIT.
When a search happens, the search engines go to local directories and finds businesses that match the keywords used in the local search. They create the little Maps you see with 3-7 local businesses. From these Maps, customers make 90% of these decisions. 
Currently only 20% of small businesses are using local search marketing. Local search marketing is not difficult to use. You put your business onto local internet directory sites. These are free sites. A small business can do this in a matter of weeks without any out of pocket expense. Local search marketing is a SCORE client’s best marketing tool for their local business.
Conclusion
Now I know I have made this sound too easy. There are tricks and tips for everything done on the internet. But wouldn’t you agree, we need to be sharing this tool with our SCORE clients, especially those entrepreneurs that are starting a local business? It’s cheap, its fast and it’s the way the internet and websites are being used by today’s customers. It’s far more effective than our traditional website technology. It’s time we incorporate local search marketing into our SCORE business seminars for start up businesses.
SCORE
SCORE is a National organization with local SCORE Chapters with over 13,000 volunteer mentors. Each year we help thousands of entrepreneurs as well as existing business to prosper. If you want to use this volunteer help for your business, contact your local SCORE Chapter. If you want to volunteer your services to help local businesses, contact your local SCORE Chapter. http://www.score.org/
Need help using local search marketing to start your business? Give us a call and we can share our experiences with you.
