Local Search
Local advertising continues to change. In a recent article by Greg Sterling, a expert in local search advertising, he reveals some interesting statistics based on two surveys. The first one was September 2003 and the second was just recently completed.
Among many other questions, we asked consumers, “In the past year, which of the following sources of information have you used or referred to when shopping for products or services in your local area?”
That study found that traditional yellow pages, white pages and newspapers were the dominant sources of local information. The Internet was then in fourth position. A follow-up survey with 500 consumers earlier this year found that, remarkably, the Internet had moved into a tie for first position.
This indeed has some significant implications for us in the RIM vendor industry. As a very “local” oriented business you need to be aware of these changes.
Sterling goes on to
Traditional yellow pages and newspapers remain powerful local shopping resources but have lost some of their reach. The Internet has emerged as a potent source for local business information. However, “the Internet” is itself a universe of numerous types of Web sites, including Internet yellow pages, online newspapers and search engines.
Search engines in particular — driven by broadband adoption — have shown significant growth. Yet consumers do not regard search engines as reliable sources for local information in all cases.
One should resist the temptation to see Internet adoption as a zero-sum game vis-à-vis print media. Use of the Internet does not mean that consumers have abandoned traditional media. But it does mean that their local influence has diminished somewhat.
Keep your head in the game. The words my coach reminded me of years ago on the football field are applicable to you today. You can get so busy with the day to day that you forget to be aware of these sigificant changes that have occurred within just two years.