Local Search Marketing and the Smartphone Redux

Gerard Tollefsen - March 25, 2009

About a month ago, I wrote a blog about the expected increase in local search advertising due in large part to the rise of Smartphone usage.  Since that blog post, I have seen some extensive research and statistics I would like to share that further support’s those expectations.

According to the latest report from the CDC’s Department of Health and Human Services, “More than one out of every six American homes (17.5%) had only wireless telephones during the first half of 2008, an increase of 1.7 percentage points since the second half of 2007. In addition, more than one out of every eight American homes (13.3%) received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite having a landline telephone in the home.”  Those are strong figures, but I am not surprised…I am included in the 13.3% because I do have a landline, but never use it.  All of my inbound and outbound calls are done from my Smartphone (the Motorola Q).  If it wasn’t for the fact that I need a landline for the Visitor’s gate to my development, I would be counted in the percentage of households who only have wireless phones.

Another strong indicator that local search advertising should be a critical aspect of a company’s online advertising strategy lies in the growing number of people using their mobile phones for accessing news and information.  According to a recent comScore report, “the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009.  Among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.”

The Smartphone has made these activities easier than ever.  More and more people are relying on mobile phones inside their house and out.  So the next time you are allocating budgets and determining your optimum marketing mix, remember to include local search advertising.  The technology inherent in today’s mobile phones have made it easier than ever to access news and information.  Make it easy for your potential customers to find you with a presence in online local search directories like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and YellowPages.com.