No matter where your business is and what it does, local Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of gaining new customers. At Serious SEM, we help clients in Tennessee get more exposure from local searches. We serve clients anywhere in Tennessee, whether in Chattanooga, Nashville, Knoxville or Cookeville. Our aim is to help small to medium sized businesses with all-in-one online marketing plans.
Why Small to Medium Sized Businesses Need Internet Marketing
Nowadays many people will turn to the Internet rather than a phonebook when they want to find a product or service. Even for local products and services, do online searches. With a rising amount of consumers turning to the Internet to find local Tennessee businesses, it’s important to market your business where your prospective clients are. And because so many people are turning to Google searches to find local businesses, there’s truly no business that’s too small to build an online presence and start working on an Internet marketing strategy.
According to statistics, at least 60% of Americans use search engines to find local businesses. Statistics also indicate that people who are searching for local businesses online are very likely to end up buying, with some statistics indicating that up to 78% of local mobile searches will result in a sale. Searching for local businesses online has become so popular that an estimated 46% of all Google searches are local, and 54% of people asked in one survey admitted that they’ve replaced using a phonebook with doing online searches.
Ultimately, the statistics indicate that more and more people are using the Internet on a daily basis to find local businesses. This means that the audience your business can market to online is constantly growing, meaning you can reach more people even though you aren’t marketing to a whole lot of different channels.
It doesn’t matter how small your business is, you can benefit from local SEO. People are searching for local business all the time, doesn’t matter what industry you work in. No matter what you do, you can help search engine users find your business more easily. You don’t have to wait till you think you’re business is big enough to invest in online marketing. All you need is a location and industry.
Building an Online Presence – What You’ll Need
Building a solid online presence takes time. If there’s a lot of competition in your industry to rank high for local searches, it takes even longer to build a noteworthy presence than if there’s almost no competition. Remember, no one can promise you a top spot on Google’s SERPs for almost every local search related to your industry, and you should avoid doing business with anyone who claims they can.
Getting ranked high can be beneficial for your business, but your marketing should be about more than keeping Google happy. At the end of the day, you’re marketing to people, and people don’t buy from businesses just because they ranked high.
You might have heard that roughly 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. But keep in mind that statistics can be somewhat misleading sometimes. Users who are searching for information might behave different from those searching for a local business. Especially in cases where a user is searching for an expensive product or service. Consumers can be much pickier than people doing ordinary searches, and those statistics don’t consider these behaviors.
What should be clear is that Internet marketing is about more than getting high rankings. Although getting ranked higher certainly helps, your Internet marketing strategy should also be about building trust, and building trust requires a multi-faceted approach. Of course you want to rank as high as possible in searches, but you also want to send a consistent message to users and build a brand online. A few things that will help your business build trust include:
- A professionally designed website: If your website doesn’t look professional, consumers will find it difficult to trust you.
- Regular content: Publishing content regularly shows website visitors that you’re active in your industry while also building your authority.
- Engaging social media content: Keeping your social media regularly updated and engaging with followers shows your active interest to keep serving your clients.
- Positive online reviews: People who are searching for products and services online place a lot of value on online reviews when making their purchasing decisions.
The great thing about Internet marketing is that things that help people gain trust is your business can also help you rank higher in searches. While all of the above mentioned things can help build trust, they also contribute largely to improving your SEO.
At Serious SEM we can help you build and maintain your online presence so you can rank in local searches while also building a consistent online brand to help your business gain trust. The benefits of increasing your online visibility speak for themselves. Search engines might even go on to replace phonebooks entirely. Focused marketing to an audience interested in what your business offers is well worth investing in.