Online and search engine marketing offer local companies enormous potential for winning new customers.
A classic example of this is gastronomy: you are on a business trip in a foreign city. After an appointment you are overcome by hunger. Since none of your friends and colleagues could recommend you a restaurant, you ask your smartphone. The local search will immediately give you a few hits. An Italian in your immediate vicinity seems interesting. With one click you can check their website. But it is obviously not optimized for your smartphone and you can’t find any pictures of the restaurant – let alone a menu. Facebook only shows you a very pixelated and too large background image of the company page. Different logos are used on different channels. You will find an entry on Google My Business, but there is a different address than on Yelp. On TripAdvisor you’ll find a two-out-of-five star rating and the comment “Weak staff image, loveless food”. Would you really eat in such a place?
