Often many businesses wonder if online marketing is worth it. For the most part, I understand their concern. They have a location, they advertise in the Phone Book, or the Newspaper, or even the radio station and they see/hear their advertisement. It’s real, concrete and can often bring some new people into their establishment.
The internet, on the other hand, is complicated, always changing, very confusing and definitely unnerving. Really “why would some stranger want to know where I’m going for dinner”? It’s hard to get your head wrapped around it.
Then if you do take a stab at this online marketing, your time is sucked up like a vacuum. It’s crazy, you don’t know which way to look, or what to focus on. Everyone is screaming a million miles an hour, all around you about this or that strategy that is the must thing to do. You just don’t know who to trust or which way to turn. So you make the easiest turn, your head, and chalk this internet thing up to good for someone else.
Why You Must Dedicate Resources to Online Marketing
The internet is not slowing down and in fact for local business, there has been a game changer – Smart Phones! With the massive popularity of smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) Internet Search has skyrocketed to new levels. In fact probably one of the most affected by this growth is local businesses. Now when your driving around town and you need to find say a tire shop, you just whip out your phone and Google it. In fact, the effect has been a game changer for many businesses, as their traditional local marketing results have started to dwindle. It’s not the economy, it’s not your competition, it’s your not being found even locally now. How has this affected the search engines?
In 2006 2.7 Billion searches were completed online every month. Fast forward that to 2010 and the monthly searches completed online is now a staggering 31 Billion!
In 2010, an average of 31 Billion Searches were completed per month!
It’s pretty safe to say this is not an insignificant change for businesses. The growth has only just begun as the penetration of easy to use smart portable devices become more convenient and adopted by all walks of life. Your customer is searching for you, make sure they find you first, not your competitor.
Have you noticed a decline in your traditional marketing efforts?
