With the dominance of the Internet as a lead generator today, search marketing has become an even more important element in a business’s marketing activities. As businesses need to engage with clients, looking a little closer to home has slowly become the focus of many companies in the B2B market.
As Russ Cohn, head of business and local markets at Google UK, says, don’t think of the businesses you want to attract and trade with as anything but customers. “In the advertising world, marketing messages are being targeted at the consumer and not the business, because businesspeople are consumers too. If you have local advertising it’s very relevant to business, but particularly SMEs.”
US-based Kelsey Group’s Yellow Pages, local search and classified ads forecast concludes that over the period 2005-2010, local search will be an essential component in the growth of total advertising in the US and across global markets. Print publishers and online players will expand the overall market, rather than taking share from one another. Online classifieds will also see rapid growth over this period.
The current trends indicate that wi-fi and wimax (wireless networks that operate over an entire area, such as the one planned for Manchester) will become a major driver in the mobile wireless local search market. Print directory publishers will increase their aggressiveness to penetrate online markets. Specialist suppliers (such as Touch Local) will invest and develop products for SMEs that want to reach local markets and the ability to search locally will become deeper and richer.
Recent research from WebVisible, which looked at Internet usage to locate local service business, found that 70 per cent of respondents used the Internet. The survey also revealed that nearly 90 per cent of respondents regard their local search as ‘very effective’ in finding local business services and 68 per cent stated they would use the phone number listed to contact the vendor. Clearly, whether in the B2C or B2B space, local search is increasingly becoming an important component of all business’s marketing mix.
The marketplace
Search marketing has become a key weapon in the promotional arsenal of all companies operating in the B2B arena, but like all other media, it does not work better in isolation. Duncan Parry, director of strategy at Steak Media, says, “Online and offline advertising are not mutually exclusive, so I am always wary of comparing the two and choosing one medium at the expense of the other. Purchasers have become increasingly commercially savvy: they know that credible businesses are as likely to be found solely online as well as offline nowadays.”
Local search marketing is now offered across a wide-range of channels that include the general search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask and MSN, but you should also pay close attention to the specialised local search services such as Yell, Thomson and 192 as they offer your businesses expertly targeted local search marketing that could give your advertising spend the focus it needs to generate the needed RoI.
Traditional directory searches, such as Thomson and Yell, which have been the norm in the B2B market are increasingly giving way to their digital counterparts according to Gavin Somers, marketing director at InfoSpace Europe, “The issue now is that the online directories themselves are starting to become restrictive.” says Somers.
“They tend to force the user to look at the information in a certain way and they do not provide the variety of information that the user now seeks, i.e. maps, opinions, product info and reviews, etc. B2B marketers therefore need to ensure they get appropriate visibility on the search portals their audience will be using by advertising on the high-profile local web properties, search engines and directories that the search portals will be bringing back local information from.”
Market focus
Local search is clearly being integrated into other forms of promotional activity. Cohn of Google outlines its current strategy in the local search market. “We feel that search is a great tool for any business whether they are promoting goods or services online. One point that is interesting is that local search is interpreted differently across categories in the advertising world.”
He continues, “One of these is, of course, the directories market like Yellow Pages. At Google we have the ability to offer regional targeting within an AdWords account. This means that a business can run a campaign and target a particular region using polygon targeting. So it’s possible for a business to reach local customers in a local area. This is a great way to really focus down and attract just the people you want to in that marketplace.
For example, a Ford car dealer in Manchester could target his local market with just the keywords ‘car dealer’. He would not have to use the keyword ‘Manchester’. So only people looking for local businesses would pick up your ads.”
Putting it to good use
The use of Google Maps was also highlighted by Marcus Flacks, marketing manager at serviced office supplier MWB Business Exchange. “Google is such a market leader that we are always keen to test out their new features,” he comments. “With the growth in use of Google Maps and Google Local, and the fact that our business is so location-specific, this is an ideal feature for us. With its ability to specifically target actual locations and place them on a map, we think it’s a very useful advertising technique.”
Understanding how local search could fit into your marketing mix is vital. Grant Whiteside, technical director at search marketing agency Ambergreen, says “Yell and Thomson have done great things to bring local businesses closer to the online B2B community. Two years ago there seemed to be lots of IT-related services that were switched on. Nowadays, it seems that more traditional B2B-faced businesses pull orders from the web. This ranges from office fitters, to florists, recruitment, telecommunications, hotels and travel. The awareness is so much greater than before. Everyone knows about search nowadays.”
Businesses are taking time to understand how local search can enhance their businesses, but according to Joy Green, online marketing executive at Access Self Storage, local search optimisation is ideal for businesses that need local customers. “We’ve only recently started using the local business ads. So far, we think they’re a great product as they take targeting that one stage further, to customers searching at the street level. They’re great for businesses like ours that need to target specific geographical catchment areas, and we plan to develop our use of them further in the future,” she comments.
See into the future
The Internet has been described as a global village, but when it comes to buying goods or particularly services; locality is the most important factor that a customer will use. This is something that has been exploited by 192, which offers businesses the chance to appear on a well-targeted search engine.
Its MD Keith Marsden comments, “The fact is, the main search engines do not work in the favour of small businesses. At the top, they list those companies who receive the most number of visitors and who have large websites containing a great deal of information. A listing on a site such as ours means that all those seeking a local service have contact details within a matter of clicks. It’s all about allowing these businesses to make the most of their localness, enabling them to stand out by virtue of their proximity and convenience.”
What does the future of search marketing look like and what impact will localised search have on how B2B enterprises interact with their customers? Mark Blenkinsop, head of search marketing at Pod1, concludes, “Anyone who has used Google AdWords and set it for the whole Google network will appreciate how quickly you can burn through your daily budget. Good news if these clicks lead to new business, but not so good if you run a printing business based in Watford and half your traffic has come from Uzbekistan. This may seem like common sense, but targeted local marketing in any medium always produces better conversion rates and the search engines know this. Google is talking about providing advertising on Google Earth, similar to that already available on Google Maps. And MSN is continuing to roll out its Live portfolio that includes Live Local and Virtual Earth 3D, which will offer 3D rendered buildings you can advertise on.”
More local searching is clearly a component of search marketing that will continue to grow over the next few years. As mobile access becomes ubiquitous, so local information will become a premium. If your business is looking to enhance its search marketing activity, and has a local component that you can market, take a look at what local search marketing could do for you. It might just open a whole new channel for your business to exploit.