Business Owners Will Need To Change Their Tactics In Order To Survive

An increasing amount of people, including myself, use the internet more than any other resource to find products and services online.

The problem is most business owners are having a hard time keeping up.

Lets take an example: A couple is traveling out of town and wants some Italian food. Most likely they will use their smart-phone and search for an "Italian restaurant", and the phone will search those based on their current location (thanks to GPS). A search engine, such as Google, will provide a list of business within a given radius of their location. Only so many will appear on their mobile device (or computer) at a time.

The problem is that not all business make it to the list. "I've seen businesses that have been around for decades not be visible in a particular keyword or phrase" says Business Marketing Consultant Chris Wilson. "There is a game you have to play with the search engines to become visible and to gain their favor. It doesn't matter how long you've been around, or how much you've spent on your site, you won't make it till you play their game". Obviously the restaurant owner who has successfully positioned his business to be visible to the search engines will gain more customers than the others.

What would be successful local search positioning? Say in the list of restaurants the couple has to choose from is a restaurant listing that has pictures, and even a video on youtube of the restaurant owner showing off his kitchen and one of their more popular dishes and a personal invitation to come in and try their food.

This is why social media marketing has been gaining momentum over the past few years and is why business owners need to toss away the old marketing methods and make room for the new. Businesses that fail to change their local marketing strategies will most likely be left behind.

In fact, more businesses experienced failure in 2008 and 2009 than any other year since the great depression, and 2010 isn't forecasted to be much better.

So what can small business owners do to survive and to avoid failure?

First, target your local search marketing. There are many resources and tips to do so. Attracting traffic to your site or store is the first step to growth, regardless of your industry or profession, there are new prospects every day searching for your products or services.

A medium-size dry cleaning company recently said “People don’t use the internet to find a dry cleaner. People are only going to go to a place thats in their local area... somewhere they drive by frequently.”

Surprisingly, she was wrong. With a little research, a local business marketing firm, Macro Marketing Solutions, found that in her area there are over 270+ daily searches for “Salt Lake dry cleaner” and “Salt Lake professional dry cleaner”. Thats a lot of people looking for your business, and her dry cleaning company is not alone.

Second, generate leads. Find a way to capture the contact information of those most interested in your products and services. These prospects will be cheaper and easier to sell your products and services to, especially in local markets.

Third, do new things. Create videos. Give away more information. Interact more with your clients through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook (which receives more traffic than Google now). The more you give, the more likely you are to get their business in return. ??Recently a local Houston TX Cafe’ did a test and fount that more people responded to their Facebook offers, than their emails, postcards and other marketing campaigns combined.

Last of all, don't be afraid to talk to the experts. Search engine optimization (SEO), and more specifically, LSO (Local Search Optimization)m can be a complicated and difficult task to successfully undertake. To get results quickly and effectively, hiring an expert can cost less than you think.