Why We Still Don’t Get Local
Filed Under (the PPC Book) by Jeff Hudson on 11-02-2008
Perfect example of the void that still exists when shopping locally online.
Sunday 1pm:
Temperature: -9
Windchill: -35
Returning from a quick overnight vacation we’re on highway 94 traveling about 70mph when my right front tire decides to implode. You couldn’t have picked a colder, less opportune time for this to happen.
Long story short, I drive farther than I should into a gas station right off the highway. A really cool guy helps me get the spare on, a 15 mn job with him, 30 minutes by myself.
Anyhow, I make it home and hop online to look up tire prices to see where I find a good deal. After some examination, I determine the tire that imploded was formerly a ‘Lemans Champion 205 55 R16′.
A quick search brings up no relevant paid search listings
Some shoplocal spam
That leads me to the shoplocal spam for a tireshop in Alabama. Hmmm…
Only when I search the most generic terms possible do I find any results:
Moral of the story:
If you sell tires regionally, you maybe, just maybe, want to have campaigns with tire makes and models.
[...] Why We Still Don’t Get Local - I think Jeff is right. Local is important but I believe 97%+ of the local service businesses out there don’t get it, haven’t even heard about it; therefore, they don’t even think about it or know it exists. [...]
[...] Hudson of The PPC Book gets stuck in some chilly weather and provides a great example of a void when shopping locally [...]
Other way around, you sell tires in a province or national? You come to the visitors or get local affiliates doing that.
We also have some good experiences with local paid ads.