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| Dear Reader,
We are not exactly sure that we can go along with the "end" of the recession as some national newscasts recently trumpeted. When some more of the 6.5 million people who lost their jobs can go back to work might be more of an indicator that we are heading in the right direction.
In marketing and advertising, some of the trends we are seeing are truly historic. We don't need to recite the list of bankrupt newspapers or even the list of dailies that have simply closed. As the newspaper industry has long known and dreaded the day, the plethora of news sources available has made the morning newspaper full of old news and irrelevant. The newspaper is a day late, and much too slow for today's upwardly mobile family. In most cities, the daily newspaper seldom reaches more than one-third of the metro area, and virtually no adult under the age of 40. No reach, no young people, equals LOSER. What will you do as an advertiser, if your newspaper closed tomorrow?
The yellow pages companies are in even worse shape. AT&T, who controls 40% of the directories in the United States, is stopping home delivery of phone directories all over the country. They have requested permission from the state Public Service Commission to cease delivery in states where they must deliver to the home by law. All of their focus is on their web directory. (see attached article).
Radio, especially "music" radio is a huge dinosaur. Millions of listeners have deserted the music radio stations because they have 986 songs on their IPods. Why have in and out signals, lousy stereo, too many commercials, and inane announcers, when you can have brilliant sound, "your" music, commercial-free, 24-7 entertainment? And that's only 120,000,000 listeners. There are an additional 20 million folks with XM/Sirius receivers that have left their old over-the-air radio stations.
Think about it for a minute.....where do you turn to advertise your business if there's no newspaper, no yellow pages, and only news/talk/sports radio?
Come to one of our seminars and get some answers!
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Bad News for Yellow Pages |
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A comScore study sponsored by TMP Directional Marketing finds that search engines have become the primary sources for seeking local services (31%) ---followed by Yellow/White Pages (30%), on-line Yellow Page-type sites (19%) and then local search sites (11%).
 Last year, Yellow Pages ranked first by 33%, followed by search engines at 30%.
It is good advice for any business to pay attention to their online yellow pages site and local search sites which combine to equal the value of the Yellow Pages.
Another little surprise in the study is an increase in mobile phones for local search:
Mobile web search for local services has also gone mainstream. One in five shoppers with a standard mobile phone have conducted a local search from their handhelds.
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Why is Local Search So Important? |
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It's estimated that 30 to 40 percent of all searches are made with local intent. However, for certain types of businesses, search almost always has local intent. If you have such a business, it is critical to be found for as many pertinent local searches as possible.
If where you are is important to what you do, then you must maximize your business's presence in the Local Search results and optimize it for best performance. People searching for you may be across town or a continent away. Wherever they are and wherever you are, you want them to find you.
After years of languishing, the Local Search ecosystem has recently become a bustling, buzzing place, as an assortment of players jostle for a stake in what is a critical online space for most brick and mortar businesses.
Here are some reasons why Local Search is so important:
- Local businesses of all types are realizing that they need a visible online presence in order to compete in their marketplace.
- The Local Search platforms of major Search Engines have become very robust, with useful features that attract an ever-increasing number of searchers to them.
- The users of print yellow pages are rapidly moving to Internet Yellow Pages and to other locally-focused websites for information that they used to look for in printed phone books.
- The Search Engines know that Local Search is different from traditional search and that when people search with local intent, they want and expect to see different results.
- The Search Engines are committed to integrating Local Search results into the regular Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
- The Search Engines and the mobile network service providers (like T-mobile, Verizon, etc.) agree that Local Search results are the logical results to show to searchers using mobile devices, such as cell phones and PDAs. In other words, they believe that searches made on mobile devices are most often made with local intent.
- The Internet Yellow Pages marketers realize that their clientele needs to get online. They are trying to make it quick and easy for them to do so by providing bundled online marketing options that are easy to understand, take minimal management and can be paid for on a monthly basis.
- The number and importance of Social/Local websites is growing and they are becoming more popular among users because the user generated content they contain is what shoppers crave.
This convergence of sellers and buyers primed Local Search for its current explosion. Now, searchers, businesses, Search Engines, Internet Yellow Pages, Local and Social/Local sites and Search Engine Marketers all have a huge interest in making it work.
Local Search is currently a much less competitive universe than traditional online search. However, this will change as more and more business owners realize the importance of Local Search and become actively involved in it.
It's critical to learn how Local Search works now. It will enable you to gain the best possible presence for your business AND position you to keep up with changes and developments as they occur. With Local Search, as with most other business and internet endeavors, the early adopters disproportionately reap the rewards. __ excerpt from the Blizzard eBook, Local Search Engine Marketing by Mary Bowling
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Advertisers Migrate from Print to Net
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Confirming what many already suspected, a recent poll from LinkedIn's Research Network and Harris Interactive found that advertisers are spending less ad dollars on print newspapers in favor of online. The poll results are a dagger in the heart of America's beleaguered newspaper publishers.
The LinkedIn-Harris poll of 1,015 top executives at ad agencies and their corporate clients from June 22 - June 30 found that while the number of advertisers using print and online are still roughly equal - 88% and 92%, respectively - the trend lines for the two media are heading in the opposite directions.
Some 74% of advertisers that use Internet say they are using it more than they did one year ago, while 49% of advertisers that use print say they are using it less. Another 41% of advertisers that use print say their spending has remained steady with a year ago.
On the upside, 54% of advertisers that spend money online do so as part of a broader, multimedia campaign strategy, versus just 14% that only advertise online. The poll also had some good news for mobile advertising, which has struggled to find its footing in the U.S. market: 69% of advertisers that employ mobile advertising say they are using it more than they did a year ago, suggesting the medium has proven itself - at least to marketers willing to try it.
Radio and TV are roughly even, according to the LinkedIn - Harris Poll, with the proportion of advertisers that use radio and/or TV exactly even at 46%. Both are also experiencing slippage, although not as much as print.
Among advertisers using radio, 46% say they are using it the same amount as last year, and 43% say they are using it less. Also, 48% of the advertisers that use TV say their spending is even with last year, versus 38% that say they are spending less. Harris also found evidence of significant regional differences.
In the South, 57% of advertisers say they use radio, and 56% say they use TV, versus just 39% for each medium in the West.
The erosion of print media is bad news for newspapers, which have seen total print advertising revenues tumble from $10.5 billion in the first quarter of 2006 to $5.9 billion in the first quarter of 2009 - the most recent data available from the Newspaper Association of America.
While conventional wisdom holds that newspapers are losing print ad dollars to the Internet, polls like the LinkedIn - Harris survey provide empirical evidence to prove it. _Thanks to Eric Sass, Harris Interactive
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