Roughly 15 years since I started writing about digital marketing, I’m still amazed that large numbers of marketers still don’t fully understand the importance of location and location-based targeting. Over the past 18 months, chiefly because of mobile, things have started to change but location has historically been treated as a sideshow by marketers focused on capturing clicks.
National and brand marketers have regarded location and local search as something primarily for small businesses to worry about. The reality is that everyone who sells anything in a physical store or in the real world should be laser-focused on local search and mobile-location — either in the form of targeting or from an attribution perspective.
Even in the most aggressive scenarios, e-commerce and m-commerce represent a small fraction of overall U.S. sales. Officially, e-commerce is just under 7 percent of total US retail sales, per the US Census Department.
Compared to the billions in e-commerce, there are trillions in offline product and services sales that are influenced by digital media (retail, restaurants, real estate, home services, etc.). Mobile, now the primary screen, has helped many agencies and brands start to recognize this long-existing “online-to-offline” connection.
This is the heart of the “local search” discussion.
Increasingly offline impact is becoming measurable (see Google Store Visits, Facebook Conversion Lift Measurement, Twitter and others). In a relatively short time, offline measurement will be mandatory. Just as online display marketers are increasingly demanding “real metrics” (rather than clicks or impressions), offline store visits and sales will become an expected metric for brands.
With mobile traffic now at 50 percent or more for some publishers and half or nearly half of mobile search queries carrying a local intent, getting location right is imperative.
Marketers that want a crash course in all aspects of location and local search — everything from SEO and social to mobile SEM, offline attribution, reputation management, local tools and video — should attend the Local Search Advantage Workshop at SMX West next week.
Here’s the agenda:
Google My Business: Everything You Need to Know Now Joy Hawkins Product Consultant @Imprezzio Marketing and Google My Business Top Contributor Local SEO Strategy & Key Tactics (Bonus: Apple Maps Clinic) Adam Dorfman, SVP Product & Technology, SIM Partners Andrew Shotland, LocalSEOGuide Driving and Tracking Online-to-Offline Conversions Michael Mire, Co-founder SweetIQ Executing a Winning Local-Social Strategy Kelley O. Williams, Director the Honey Bee Company Building or Fixing Your Online Reputation Chris Silver Smith, President Argent Media Mobile SEO, SEM and Attribution Jaclyn Jordan, Senior Paid Search Strategist at WordStream New Rules for Local-Mobile Search John Busby, SVP Marchex Top Tools for Local Marketers Conrad Saam, General Manager Atticus Marketing Leveraging Video for Local Lead Generation Mat Siltala, Founder & President Avalaunch Media Managing Multiple Locations: the In-House Perspective Derik Beck, VP of Digital Marketing, Cottman Transmission and Total Auto Care Heath Bradbury, eBusiness Marketing Manager, Advance Auto Parts Advanced Tips and Tactics and audience Q&A
We’ve also added a lunchtime Q&A with Yelp about reputation best practices and white hat tips.
The day is packed with best practices advice. Register today. You won’t want to miss it.
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