Recently Nielsen Ratings & WebVisible conducted a survey polling nearly 4,000 people in the U.S. asking about their habits and methods in finding local businesses. Their results revealed a considerable disconnect between the way consumers look for local business and the way business owners are advertising.

Because of this, local businesses miss a significant opportunity. We hope the research here shows you the absolute importance of search engine marketing. We also hope you enjoy numbers as much as we do!

You already know that an incredible 82% of consumers today use search engines to find local business.

But Did You Know…

With advertising and marketing coming from every direction, consumers today feel inundated with all the marketing being pushed in front of them.  They value control and relevance. Search engines allow the consumer to control their advertising via their search queries and 73% would prefer to find products and services using search engines, rather than have a pro-active advertisement or marketing piece sent to them.

Because your advertisement and marketing message is only shown to laser targeted interested consumers searching for your products or services, internet marketing provides the highest quality leads to business owners. When consumers want to find a local business, they use clearly defined search terms. 40% use a location specific term in their search, such as “dentist in New York”. Less than 10% search by business name.

Today, search engines are the No. 1 choice of consumers and small business owners alike when looking for a local product or service. 72% more people use search engines than they did 2 years ago, yet the majority of local business spend less than 10% of their marketing budget on any type of internet advertising. In fact only 26% of local businesses are currently investing in search engine marketing to promote their business.

Meanwhile, 63% of consumers turn to the internet FIRST when looking for local products or services.

Impact on Traditional Advertising

That was 3 years ago. Can you imagine the numbers today?As search engine marketing continues to dramatically increase its market share, consumers have heavily    decreased their usage in other traditional forms of marketing when searching for local businesses.

Over the last 2 years, local newspaper usage has declined by 15%, direct mail by 18%, and radio by 14%.

Consumer searches for “Yellow Pages” is also quickly becoming obsolete:

Search Engine Marketing Consumers are Satisfied and Ready to Buy!

Of those surveyed:

• 92% were happy with search engine results
• 70% Would call the phone number on a website
• 60% Have referred a business they found on the internet to a friend
• 52% Always or often use the internet to research, then purchase offline from a local business

Of those that participated in the study, they searched for a local service vendors in the last 90 days:

• 39% searched for medical services
• 33% searched for automotive services
• 27% searched for home or office repair services
• 25% searched for financial services
• 12% searched for legal services
• 9% searched for landscaping services

Did they find YOU?

We invite you to call 520-302-5737 right now for a FREE consultation and needs analysis, so that we can custom tailor an  iQ Marketing Solution just for you… and your business. Let us show you how we can save you both time and money in your marketing efforts.

Tags: Google Places Optimization, internet Marketing, local internet marketing, Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, tucson internet marketing, Tucson SEO, Web Design, web marketing