Small Business Labs

Google and Small Businesses Marketing

Last week Google hosted a symposium on local markets and local advertising.  About 120 people attended and for most it was their first visit to the famed Google Plex. All appeared to be wowed. 

There were presentations on adwords and mobile advertising.  But for me the 3 key take aways were:

1.  Google continues to work very hard to better enable small business marketing.  Quote from one of the Googlers:

"Our goal is to provide small businesses with the ability to out-market large corporations."

2.  How quickly local and mobile advertising is advancing.  If anything they are moving faster than we forecasted in our report on the Connected Entrepreneur last summer. 

3.  How few small businesses have the technical skills to fully take advantage of online marketing.  Google sees this problem and is doing several things to address it.  They are planning to release a simplified version of adwords in the near future.  They are also developing relationships with 3rd parties to create marketing solutions for small businesses.   The goal of these relationships is to eliminate or at least minimize the technical complexity of adwords and search engine marketing (and, of course, to sell more ads).   

One thing we keep seeing in our research is a growing "digital divide" between tech savy and technically challenged small businesses.  As online local and mobile advertising continue to advance we see this divide getting bigger.

The Emerging Buy Local Coalition

A clear indicator that a trend is gaining momentum is support by diverse interest groups.  This is happening with the trend of buying locally produced goods.  I got multiple responses to my post on Conscious Consumers, which mentions that consumers are getting more interested in buying products made in the USA.  Through this feedback I found out about a range of made in the USA sites and resouces, including:

• The Made by Yankees blog which covers products made in the US.  They also have a made in the USA product finder.
• The Made in the USA blog which also covers made in the USA products.
• China Free Christmas blog which focuses on toys and where they are made.
• Made in the USA magazine. 

Obviously support for products made in America and efforts to reduce foreign imports are nothing new. Leading up to the Boston Tea Party, US patriot and tea smuggler John Hancock organized a very effective boycott of Chinese tea imported by his foreign competitor, the East India Company. 

What is interesting is how many different consumer segments are involved in the buy local movement.  These include:

• Buy American types who are worried about the US economy and job loss.   
• Safety types who are worried about unsafe and/or inferior foreign made products.  I've posted in the past on the growth of local food production, which is in part driven by safety concerns. 
• Environmentalists who see buying locally as more sustainable.  Bill McKibben's book Deep Economy covers this trend. 
• Consumers who are looking for unique, one of a kind or handcrafted products.  This growing consumer segment often looks to local or regional producers for these goods.

We're not the only ones seeing a trend toward localism.  Nokia just released a study looking at the future of entertainment and one of their key trends was localism.  From their study release:

"The report uncovered a locally-minded sprit emerging in entertainment consumption and Localism will become a key theme of future entertainment. Consumers will take pride in seeking out the local and home-grown."

The growing coalition of consumers who are increasingly interested in buying local, coupled with new and cheaper technologies that better enable local production, is resulting in a range of new small business opportunities.  We will be covering this trend in more detail in our next forecast report.

Online Moms and Search Engines

Double Click Performics, an online search engine marketing firm, recently released a study on how online moms use search engines.  Microsoft's search engine group assisted in the study.  Not surprisingly they found that online moms are heavy users of search engines.  Key findings about online moms:

• 70% use search engines to gather information prior to making an online purchase
• 57% use search engines to gather information prior to making an offline purchase
• 64% use search engines to find out where to make offline purchases
• 92% said search engines were helpful in providing valuable product purchase information

These numbers are more or less in line with other studies looking at how online consumers use the Internet to do product research.  The local aspect is interesting, and shows how the Internet is increasingly being used for local commerce purposes.

Online User Reviews and Staples

In follow-on to our post on Wal-Mart and online user reviews, Staples recenly announced they too will be supporting online user reviews.  They are working with PowerReviews.  Quote from Staples in the PowerReviews press release:

"Staples is always looking for ways to make it easy for our customers, and we see product reviews as a key step in making their buying experience faster and better informed..."

As we've said in prior posts, user reviews will continue to expand both in number and coverage, and will increasingly include small business goods and services - especially as the local web expands and location based services become more common.

Marketing Integrity, Transparency and Small Business

Ad Age has an article called "Integrity in Marketing Not Optional" written by UC Berkeley professor Lynn Upshaw.  Key quote:

"In a world where buyers are continuously in touch with other buyers and claims are publicly deconstructed by anyone and everyone, marketers' toughest job may be to simply convince buyers that they speak the truth. In such a world, marketing integrity is not just a virtue; it is a driver of choice."

Upshaw goes on to say that "companies that have a systematic approach to marketing integrity will hold a significant advantage over those that fail to treat honesty as the new driver of choice."  The article lists a number of things to look at to see if your marketing is done with integrity. 

While Ad Age and Lynn's article are targetted at big businesses, small businesses also need to be aware of the growing importance of marketing integrity.  Small business transparency is increasing, and small business claims are facing the same customer and 3rd party deconstruction. 

I've posted several times on the growing impact of user reviews and the local internet on small business transparency and small business marketing.  The local internet will also result in substantially more scrutiny of small business marketing claims as well as small business product and service quality.

NBC, The Local Web and Small Business

Interesting post on the Lost Remote blog on NBC affiliate WCAU's launch of a local website called "DigPhilly.com", and NBC's plan going forward to target local niche markets.  Key quote from NBC affiliate head John Wallace:

“You’ll see a big change in the focus on local, in terms of our digital strategy,” he says. “It’s our intent to have a bigger presence in niche communities and get away from general news.”

DigPhilly has very high production values, and covers a lot of ground.  Think Myspace meets Yahoo meets eBay for Philadelphia. The site has lots of reviews of local businesses, and lots of opportunities for users to add their reviews and comments on local businesses.  They also seem to have an editorial plan to feature interesting local businesses.  They currently feature a local handbag company. 

Lost remote also has a previous post on why TV stations should aggresively pursue local internet opportunities.  The same logic holds true for local newspapers and radio stations, and the same logic is why there are so many local and hyperlocal (neighborhood) web start-ups.  Simply put, the local web is too big a business opportunity not to happen.

As the local web matures there will be increasing amounts of information on local small businesses, their products and services, and their pricing.  Local business transparency will increase, and new opportunities for local business marketing will emerge. 

Disclosure: I've worked with both NBC and their parent company GE in the last year.  I've had no involvement with WCAU or DigPhilly.com.