Wow, what can I say about this? I remember starting my first local search internet marketing agency several years ago and speaking with local business owners about this idea of finding new business using the Internet.
I got the deer in the headlights look!
Well, it didn’t take long for my niche to get educated as I provided teleseminars, webinars, speaking engagements and guest author in trade publications. I learned very quickly that my prospects required education prior to buying.
Well, my first clients received first mover advantage in the local game. Let me take you back a little bit.
I knew how to sell the service, however I was challenged in managing the execution of this service. I knew I could not grow my busienss if I wasn’t the expert. I sought out to become one of the top marketers around the globe in the arena of local search.
Several years later, this little blog that makes no money ranks very high for search phrases like [internet marketing for local business] among several thousand other keywords. The keyphrase [local internet marketing] is rather competitive, and this blog managed to get fairly high.
My agency has now grown to several hundred clients paying us monthly to get them results. They must be happy, they keep paying us. We’re happy, we’ve built a long term, sustainable business. We have several employees, documented processes and a true, full fledged Internet Marketing Agency catering to local businesses.
You need to sell SEO first before you can execute!
What I didn’t realise what was about to come. This blog turned into my first book, Marketing Local Business Online. I didn’t not understand that I was three or four years ahead of my time.
The typical local business spends somewhere around $1000 monthly on Yellow Pages Advertising. There are over 5 MILLION locally based businesses in the United States that can benefit from local search. I mean, the dentist, chiropractors, plumber, accountants, attorneys, couriers, pizza delivery.
I mean, the trend was happening. People were flocking to the Internet to find a local business, but most businesses were not showing up. Google introduced their Local Business results in 2006, but didn’t include it in their mainstream results until 2009! Ask 10 people, how would you find a local business these days?
Download the free report to learn processes in SELLING SEO
Point is, the search engines realised that people were using the search engines to find a local business. What blew me away, in October 2009, 43% of all searches on the Google network are local! This comes directly from Google, Ari, product manager for Google local, made this claim at the Local Search Summit in August of 2009.
Think about this. Google, with around 80% market share, controls international commerce in a split second. They can chose to list business A or business B. They know that the #1 spot gets 40% of the clicks. This is a big deal.
So, if the trend is that people are using newspapers and yellow pages less and less and migrating to the Internet, Google introduced Local Search in 2009, and businesses aren’t listed that deep in the search results, there are a lot of opportunities for agencies like mine to capitalize! It’s a fact.
The size of the market is HUGE. Much bigger than any agency could cater to. I mean, there is room for 10,000 agencies in the US alone. Perhaps 20,000. How many web developers are there? Universities, colleges, private institutes are pushing out developers like crazy. Put it this way.
You don’t hire a carpenter to sell your home!
You don’t hire a web developer to market your website. Granted, it’s a natural fit for these developers to learn the skills to sell the website, just like a carpenter can’t sell a home, without skills in real estate.
Over a year ago I was approached by a very successful entrepreneur. This individual was seeking an opportunity to invest in, their time and money. He realised the opportunity and suggested that we use the processes, skills, execution and management that I developed at my agency. I mean, this company started with a laptop and a kitchen table and within four year, 48 months, the company grew several employees, in fact, over 13 team members, hundreds of monthly paying clients, broad client base and years of projected revenue.
Because I had visions of building a large, international agency, I knew I needed systems and processes from the get-go.
Little did I realise I was building something even bigger!
Everything that I built can be taught. In 2005, there was a handful of Internet Marketing Agencies catering to local businesses. Today, there isn’t much more.
Everyone one the Internet wants to call themselves an expert.
Now I see so many bad pieces of advice, even in my own community if I search for pizza delivery, not a single company shows up!
The point is simple. There are a lot of opportunities for learn how to properly provide Internet Marketing Services for Local Search to Local Businesses!
In any event, like this blog, this new business has a lot of free stuff to offer.
The biggest challenge in building a profitable agency is NOT the execution, it’s the management. This includes sales. This includes processes to manage the volume of customers.
I’d like to introduce you to Local Marketing Source. I’d like you to visit this site, opt-in to get the FREE report that will help you to exactly sell SEO services to local businesses.
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