Luke Judge

  With every Swansea business battling to find new customers and new clients whilst dealing with the every day problems a local business faces such as local regulations, the authorities, taxes and employees, they could be forgiven for thinking that traditional media is expensive.

What may surprise them is that there are new mediums available that will secure new clients or customers provided they know where to look and how to use them.

Although many consider the internet to be a new medium it has been around in a commercial form since the 1990’s but has shot to the fore-front recently. Therefore every Swansea business should be up and running with a ‘Local Listing‘ and website to start promoting online.

In the past when searching for a product or service we would have turned to our copy of Yellow Pages and looked up what we needed. For those of us with young adults or teenagers we will recognise straight away that they rarely if ever use the Yellow Pages.

Swansea Business Prospecting Tools

In these competitive times people search for their information on the internet.

What is even more eye opening is that the Kesley Group reported that 74% of users perform local searches on the internet.

It goes on to say that 43% of search engine users are seeking a local merchant to buy something offline.

With this evidence in hand it’s important that local businesses develop marketing strategies to capture clients and customers online.

In the early days when the internet had not long started in its present form purchasing online was slow as people learnt how to use the internet and to build up trust with using your credit cards online.

Now it’s a multi-billion market as technology and security has shown how easy it is to find what you need online.

What most businesses in Swansea fail to realise is that these consumers go online and are searching for information. If they can find the information, goods and services locally because your website shows up on page one of the search engine results, they will usually buy from the local merchant.

Google Helps Businesses In Swansea For FREE!

Google understands this which is why, when a customer starts searching online, Google will identify their I.P address (computer address) and if there are local merchants available show them in the ‘ten pack’ at the top left of the page.

Talk about a bargain, how much would it cost us, as a local Swansea business to advertise on the front page of a newspaper or magazine in the top left corner where your customers eyes will first land!

What’s more remarkable is that your Google Local Listing is free!

Over the years we have all used Yellow Pages, the Evening Post, The Wave, leaflet drops, banners hanging over railings and anything else we could do to get noticed and increase our customer or client base.

Now we have the advantage. More money is now spent on internet advertising than on T.V. advertising.

Take traditional media. You place an advert in a paper, magazine or radio and the majority of people either do not notice or were not interested. That’s an expensive advert!

Now, take a look at how it works on the internet.

For a start, the person searching was looking for information on something you do, your service or product. When they typed in the search query on Google they were looking for something specific and Google only displays relevant results so if you fit your business will be displayed in front of a hot prospect.

Of course you need your local listing, website or pay per click advertising campaign optimised to ensure your business shows up on the first page when the prospect is looking, but unlike all other forms of advertising you only show up in front of your market!

This is target marketing and very inexpensive for any Swansea business marketing no matter how big or small.

When it comes to how expensive is this form of advertising well for a start its online 24/7, websites are inexpensive compared to say a one off newspaper advert and pay per click advertising, the adverts you see at the top and down the right hand side of the search engine results page, only cost you if someone sees your advert and clicks on it!

Talk about cost effective!

Now you can see why Swansea business marketing budgets are moving away from traditional and being spent on more cost effective marketing strategies.

Local Services information goods, people search, swansea business, yellow pages, young adults