Table 1: Information Sources ranked by Preference among Consumers

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Preferred Information Source Percent of Consumers

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Internet 58

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Visit to local stores 25

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Reviews in newspapers/magazines 8

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Friends and family 8

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Other 1

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Source: Nielsen Online

"The Increasing awareness about the personal, community and economic benefits of choosing local, independently owned businesses FIRST."
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The combination of 'Big-Box Influence' and 'Organic Influence' is creating an awareness of the importance of buying local.

I think there is a real opportunity to sell landscapes where the plants are locally grown (and I don't mean locally distributed).

I have sat through a number of consumer focus groups that say they are willing to pay a higher price if their 'purchase power' positively influences the local economy and the environment.

The day is coming when the consumer will ask for (or we graciously offer) a 'Carbon Footprint' value on the products supplied.

We as an industry need to be able to provide the answer, as well as the 'Oxygen Footprint'value as an antidote.

Steve

I had a fascinating 2 weeks in December as I traveled to Los Angeles for the Kelsey ILM:07 Conference and then to Chicago for the Search Engine Strategies Conference.

Without question, there is a growing movement of the SMB (Small-Medium Business) to the Internet. At ILM:07 one of the speakers (CitySearch) noted that they are finding that marketplaces with advertisers that traditionally spend little on advertising, are finding that Internet Advertising is an effective channel for them.

Well H-E-L-L-O.

For the first time ever, there is an affordable vehicle for getting your advertising message out to the "local masses". Every form of traditional media is invasive - it interrupts your mission. Watching TV ? - Interrupted by advertising. Reading a magazine ? - Interrupted by an ad.

Internet Search is totally different. So I go online and search for something to address my (immediate) need, and behold, there are potentially advertisers on the page that can address my need (at least that is how it should work).

Enter niche content, or vertical publishing or however you want to say it. Bottom line is that now there are web sites out there that address a theme, hobby, interest, business etc.

While the big search engines fragment into their "universal search" experience, the niche players refine - creating silo's of information that meets the very need of its users. Cool.

There is an unprecedented opportunity here for brands and local companies of all shapes and sizes (and budgets) to be heard.

What are you waiting for?

Steve

Have you looked for yourself lately. You may be lost.

You may be lost in the search engine world, while others are being found in your place.

Go to a major search engine and do a search for one of your high margin products or services and see if you show up. Add a geographic qualifier if / when necessary and see if it helps.

The more keywords you add to a search string the higher the odds are that you should show up.

If you don't show up, you're lost. Lost in on the web. To get out, or to be found, you need a plan, or a map of keywords and pages that are 100% relevant to what you are searching for, and the pages will have to be Search Engine Optimized.

First things first, make a list of words you want to be found for, then do some searching on the web for them. Take note of who is being found first for the query, and take a look at the pages to see "why" they are showing up first. Can you do the same. Can you beat them with some good creative?

Time to start learning how to do this now, as it takes a few months to get results.

Steve

I find it hard to understand the thinking of businesses these days when it comes to their web sites.

I have had this discussion with many a landscaper in a popular message board about it. These business owners are doing their best each and every day to portray a professional image, but when it comes to building a web site, they turn it over to their nephew in high school.

Imagine being a landscape design firm, and having a poorly designed web site. Happens all the time.

There is new data out today that has some real numbers on the influence of web sites on consumers. My friend Peter Krasilovsky summerized the Neilson Net Ratings study for WebVisible in his blog titled "Local Onliner".

Here is the part that stood out to me about web sites:

Website quality also played a significant factor in attracting local commerce. Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed that the quality of a business owner’s website is an important factor in earning the consumer’s trust. Over 75 percent of respondents said they were more likely to make a purchase from “an unfamiliar business with a quality website,” than “a poor website from a known business.”

We recently built a site that took the client from amateur to professional. It is pretty sharp.

If you have not hired a professional to build your web site, you need to do it, starting now, because your customers are making the "first impression" decision about you based on the quality of your web site.

Steve

Brian Wool wrote an interesting article today at ClickZ.

It is titled: Is One Good Web Site Enough for a Local Business?

The thinking behind it is that there are many opportunites to list your business in different directories, and many have profile pages that showcase your business.

As a business person, you should make the profile page as robust as you can make them.

Here is a snippet from his article:

"I don't think these profile pages are meant to -- or can -- replace a well-built Web site. But for some business categories, where in-depth product details, services, or inventory are necessary, profile pages can help drive traffic."

Click here for the full article.

Steve

The Purchase Funnel

Above is the classic Purchase Funnel diagram that marketers have been using for years. It has been a tried and true model of the decision making process of the buying consumer.

Not any more.

The "old" purchase funnel diagram does not take into account the influence of the Internet.

The change to the model is happening in the middle tiers of Opinion and Consideration.

Search and the social aspects of the web are making the the center of the funnel bulge. Time to re-stack the funnel or maybe even throw it away, because when using search, the user gets to the tier that says "One make/One model intention" and the funnel comes apart.

Why?

Because brand search is category driven. (I'll address this in tomorrows blog)

What happens now is that when someone searches on the web, their consideration set goes from one to many, as many brands are introduced on the web search. So the funnel gets MUCH wider in the middle.

Maybe we need to start calling it something different:

The Purchase Droplet

See you tomorrow.

Steve