It’s not a top-secret with regards to the huge opportunity that exists with aiding local firms get online. It is really among my main business solutions I handle and I try and remain on top of the current products and solutions, applications and training that guide others in this area. It’s not anymore enough to have a web portal and several traffic. People today are searching for local firms on multiple properties, they’re now engaging and reviewing these companies in different areas. One particular area that is extremely new to the mix is the fusion of mobile phone into the local search, you may do it every day and don’t think so much about it. Let’s tackle this in a lot more detail.Google MapsThis is a huge market right now and Google is paying very close attention and putting a lot of resources into this particular area. There has been a big shift in the way Google Places listings are displayed on the Google search results, but more importantly there is a massive social shift in the way people are finding local businesses. The amount of people who are using their mobile device and specifically Google maps to find a local business is rising at an alarming rate. Local businesses are struggling without it and the ones who are in the ‘know’ are reaping the rewards. This is what the President of Google, Eric Schmidt, has to say about the mobile landscape:”There are currently about 3.2 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and that number is expected to grow by at least a billion in the next few years. Today, mobile phones are more prevalent than cars (about 800 million registered vehicles in the world) and credit cards (only 1.4 billion of those). While it took 100 years for land-line phones to spread to more than 80% of the countries in the world, their wireless descendants did it in 16, and fewer teens are wearing watches now because they use their phones to tell time instead. So it’s safe to say that the mobile phone may be the most prolific consumer product ever invented.” – Eric SchmidtThe iPhone, Blackberry, Android all allow easy searching on the spot to find local businesses through Google Maps (displaying Google Places listings). Experts predict 80-90% of people will be DEPENDENT on mobile maps in the next 24 months.QR CodesHave you ever heard of a QR code? Have you ever seen a QR code? In case you have not yet, you will likely to start noticing them in a lot of places. You’ll see them on traditional advertising media (sides of buses, ads in bars, restaurants, business cards, boarding passes, flyers, brochures, etc.). In no time, you and each business out there will one or more of these codes. Just recently a lot of vineyards are putting them on their wine bottles, makes it easy to get their website address or more information on the wine bottle sitting in front of you!Google has created roughly 49 million+ Places listings for local businesses. Almost 9 out of 10 of these go unclaimed. This simply means, these companies are usually not optimized nor have vital information and facts filled in apart from the address (which often could be wrong) and the organization name. The Places listing allows you to go far beyond that information, providing detailed hours of operation, pictures, videos, services offered, coupons, reviews, citations, and much more.Merely like a regular Google search result, these kinds of information and facts get ranked in Google whenever people conduct local queries (lookups that normally include a area identifier such as “Toronto” or if an individual utilizes the mobile maps program on Android, iPhone or BlackBerry). In most cases, people head off to Google maps even on their desktop computer to be able to track down local vendors and your business has the chance to be on the top of the list.This does not require high prices to develop new websites or redesign existing websites. These are hosted by Google so these local businesses don’t even need an existing website, nor one in the future! They can get on the front page of Google with an optimized Google Places listing during the most important searches, the local ones!It’s time to start thinking beyond the website and the browser when helping local businesses, and reach out to their customers using mobile services. The percentage of their customers who will find a local service with their phone is rising and rising FAST!
Tag Archives: services
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.