Internet as a medium of advertising has found its new saviorlocal search. This helps global corporations to geo-target customers, and encourages local Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to join the bandwagon of online advertisers. Further, it revives and extends e-commerce opportunities to the "last mile". Read on to know more about the defining media of the future.
While "searching" the web, we must have at one time or other attempted to search for our neighborhood grocery store or laundry shop or the famous local lawyer/general practitioner Soon, we may refrain from consoling ourselves that they won't be available online. It is no longer the same scenario. In the US , already one can reach all the grocers, professionals like Doctors and Lawyers of one's neighborhood online. One can evaluate products and services, contact the shopkeeper or the professional to give an order or fix an appointment over the phone. The entire credit goes to "Local Search". With local search, now your neighborhood is just one mouse click away!
Conventionally, we used to rely on directory services, and print yellow pages to find and reach local, small to medium enterprises and also other professional services like, Dentists, Lawyers, and Consultants. Though print media and telephone directories fulfill the need to a certain extent, they lack the "versatility" of the Internet. Their role is restricted only to "inform" but they fail to meet, to a greater extent, on the "compare" and "evaluate" phases of customer decision-making process. Thanks to the Internet, now with the click of a mouse, we can compare various products on offer and evaluate which suits our purchasing criteria. Further, through local search, the Internet is going to elevate shopping activity from "cumbersome" to "convenient" and "fulfilling" experience.
Yellow pages and Business Directories merely list address, and contact details of a business. Internet On the other hand, apart from listing contact information, also provides a link to navigate further. Through geolocation maps, it also offers directions that handhold the customer to the doorstep of a business. In addition, with tools like Rich Media and 3D Visualization, one can view the product in three dimensions (meeting the "sense of touch criteria" available only offline, to a certain extent) and can even interact with the product or service on a real-time basis. It also lists "epinions" (reviews which are akin to offline word-of-mouth cues) that help one to make informed buying decisions. Taking a step further, sometimes, the Internet also distributes the product. For instance, we may buy an e-book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. (Note that; "inform", "transaction" and "distribution" phases are all integrated in the above example). Yellow pages and other Directories severely fall short on all these parameters. Bridging these gaps, the Internet reincarnates and connects sellers and buyers in a unique way through local search. Needless to say, wherever sellers and buyers exist (or migrate), advertisers are the obvious followers. They are the toppings that uniquely bind the seller and buyer halves to form the delicious "market sandwich". |
