Online marketing is one of the hottest topics in the local business space right now and it’s only going to get hotter as more and more business owners start to take notice of what’s going on in the local business online marketing space – as well as of the results that so many local business owners are getting from their online marketing efforts.
And it’s not just hype. There are solid numbers behind all of the buzz, such as those reported in a recent study by the Kelsey Group which found that 97% of Americans use the Internet to find information about products and services that they can buy locally – of whom:
- 90% use search engines
- 48% use the Internet Yellow Pages
- 42% use comparison shopping sites
- 24% use vertical sites
And it isn’t only business-to-consumer sales that have been getting a lift as a result of the increasing number of people who turn to the Internet to find – and buy from – local businesses. According to Nielsen/WebVisible’s The Great Divide, 41% of business-to-business (B2B) decision-makers rely on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing to find local businesses to do business with.
