Local Search Booms - Driving Offline Sales

Need Hits - If you thought that local search is not affecting the way consumers shop offline then you would be mistaken! TMP Directional Marketing has released the results of a comScore study, revealing that 61% of local online searchers proceeded to purchase from a local business. Just under half made a phone call or visited the store offline, whilst only 6% made a purchase online!

While 33% of searchers still look to Yellow Pages for the majority of their local information, and 90% believe that print directories are "still a valuable source for shopping information." the majority (over 60%) of consumers use the internet to find local and business information. Half this number utilizes popular search engines like Google and Yahoo!, 17% choose to search Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs) and 13% use local search sites such as Citysearch, InsiderPages or Merchant Circle.

Despite the strong evidence, highlighting the benefits of investing in local search, Stuart McKelvey, CEO, TMP Directional Marketing, said that advertisers have been slow to embrace local search marketing efforts due to the lack of perceived value in driving purchases, and the cost of moving dollars from offline to online local directories. With only 6% of the 61% of local searchers actually purchasing online, and no tracking to link offline purchases to online searches, advertisers just aren't seeing the proven benefits of local search marketing.

"Online local search is a $9 billion market and growing. The consumer is there, and the opportunities for marketers to capture a share of this growth are huge," states McKelvey. Now is the time to invest in clever local search marketing to drive your offline sales!

Start your local search marketing with Local Search Listing. You provide us with your details. We submit your business to 46 major search engines and local directories, and create an optimized local webpage, displaying all your business information! Simple and smart local search marketing!