Local businesses can hugely benefit from the internet as part of their marketing. Have you thought how you can earn a share of that marketing budget? How can local search help customers and how can you provide internet marketing services to local businesses?

Around 40% of searches on Google include local content. People are more likely to search for „SomeTown Accountants“ than just Accountants, if they are local to that town. Customers are changing how they find things, yet not many internet marketers have taken advantage of this growing trend in local search.

Customers are making local searches more frequently. Now we have mobile apps and there are 3 times as many mobile devices out there as PCs, you can see why. People use internet access to get information and to find local businesses. People no longer need to rummage through local papers and directories to find a product or service. They can more easily find what they want and get more information about local business, including a location map online.

Local search marketing has made a big impact to how customers behave, which is why local businesses need to include local search into their marketing strategy. Local businesses may not know how. So you can claim a share of their marketing budget. That’s how you benefit. The arrival of Google Plus alongside Google Maps makes it easy for you to offer marketing services that will get local business ranking highly, on a budget.

By learning some of the skills of the internet marketer, you have the opportunity to build a business offering internet marketing services in any local area (not just the US). Provide the service the customer wants, build a relationship, get repeat business and ask for referrals. Business associations meet locally and provide a platform for promoting your services to business people in that locality.

There isn’t as much competition for keywords that contain a place name, so you can offer a service for the local business, with less effort. If you want a domain such as simply Accountants, you will be hard pushed to find accountants.co.uk or .com available. Maybe try buying the domain name from whoever has it already. The price may be too high. Now if you want SomeTown Accountants there will be less competition for that, more chance of it being found by people nearby and greater value to the local business. This is just one way to get your local business customer’s website on the first page of Google.

Small to medium sized local businesses tend to have a modest marketing budget. If you can help proprietors get more leads, more prospects and better cash-flow into their businesses, they will pay you for your internet marketing services. Get results economically by outsourcing the work to the right people. 500 spent on a good outsourcer (the business does not necessarily know how to outsource internet services) can get you resources (e.g. an optimised website) the local business will gladly pay you a lot more for.

Internet marketing isn’t core business for most local businesses. Many prefer to stick with what they are good at (e.g. carpentry, cooking). They need someone to deliver a cost effective internet presence that gets them more customers.

When you find the right training and support you can quickly build a business providing internet marketing to local business.

Georgio and his business colleague are willing to share some internet business tips with you and to recommend the very few training courses they have found to deliver everything they set out to.