DigiTales & Other Stories

Last week the Evening Standard reported that local retailers in London were getting visibility through a local review site called We Love Local – The report suggested that the site was inspired by The Standard’s “Save Our Small Shops” campaign…

Actually, welovelocal.com is one of a number of websites trying to capitalise on the trend for local search providers cropping up and being a resource of local services, recommended or reviewed by other users. A kind of Tripadvisor.com for you local area if you like.

Tipped and Qype are others trying to tap into this market – it’s a nice idea but needs some critical mass of reviewers and reviews before they really get going.

It’ll be just a matter of time before they get snapped up by a bigger search provider though.

It’s interesting that The Standard’s angle comes at the same time that Microsoft released research into SMB’s advertising online – or rather investing in websites that never get seen.

I remember in 2001 a high profile CEO of a European DotCom based in London, left to join a company whose business model was to knock on doors in the high street offering to set up and maintain websites for small shops, hairdressers and independent traders.

We laughed at the time….but it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea now…

SMX London post coming soon…but enjoy the below from the guys at Site Visibility - Cheeky beggars!

Top line takeaways from the report on UK SMBs in the online space:

SMBs are saving Search Marketing for a “rainy day”:

 - 34% are planning to use it “in the future”
 - 20% have never “got round to it”

Many are resistant to trying out Search Marketing:

 - 92% of SMBs have not even tried to set up a campaign, even though 78% are aware of the online tools available to them

Of those who have investigated it:

 - 44% thought it was too time consuming
 - 33% though it was too complicated
 - 56% though it was too expensive

Nigel, Trade Marketing Manager for adCenter in the London says:

“UK SMBs are missing a trick by not investing in search marketing campaigns.  The misconceptions that exist in the industry, search marketing is holding back potential SMB revenue.  This is surprising, considering the majority of people questioned use search engines and yet they are not investing in search marketing to grow their own business. 

In today’s world, just having a website is not enough – you have to drive traffic to your site to ensure you are front of mind with your potential customers.  Search marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to achieve this.”

What an opportunity?!*£$

Check out the full report here: Search Marketing for Small Businesses

Check out the adCenter Blog for more on this SMB Research