2011 was a fast-paced, challenging year for local digital marketing. Search marketers had to deal with Google’s Panda updates, businesses raced to develop mobile strategies, social firmly established itself as a cornerstone of the web, and the industry as a whole grew more than 14% YoY.
While many of us may be still be recovering from the holidays, as we move closer towards the new year, it’s important to examine the big picture of how local marketing will take shape through 2012.
We’ve compiled four key areas likely to see important changes throughout the new year. While the entire local space changes day-to-day, these are some of the majorly impactful areas that businesses large and small need to be aware of.
Mobile Continues to Surge, M-Commerce Goes Mainstream
Mobile is such an enormous trend, it’s hard to sum up everything that it will impact. Obviously, smartphone adoption and mobile web usage will continue to grow, and this huge consumer demand will shape business and marketing tactics like never before.
In terms of traffic, current analysis of Where 2 Get It web properties usually place mobile at between 20-25% of all traffic. Through 2012, we expect that mobile could grow to as much as one-third of total traffic on many of our local websites.
Mobile commerce is a developing sector which is poised for serious growth through 2012. As more smartphones become equipped with NFC capabilities, and more vendors adopt technologies like Google Wallet or ISIS, 2012 could be the year where mobile/local commerce takes off. (And where early-adopting merchants reap the rewards.)
In terms of mobile devices, 2012 is likely to see Android take a full 50% of the smartphone market, while Apple will likely remain at a steady 25%, and RIM will continue to bleed marketshare.
The tablet market is less predictable. While iPad sales and usage are likely to continue rapid growth, cheaper Android tablets like the Kindle Fire could take a solid bite out of iPad’s share, as well as growing the general market for low-end tablets. Whatever happens for specific tablets, the general consumer adoption of tablets is likely to grow solidly throughout 2012.
Local Search Stays Strong, Social Integration Grows
Two recent analyses of local marketing, one performed by MerchantCircle, and the other by RevTrax, both pointed to very positive signs for search.
MerchantCircle asked small business owners which digital channel they would pick, if they could only choose one. Almost 33% chose search, putting SEO in the lead by more than 10% compared to the second place choice of “traditional media”
RevTrax analyzed the effectiveness of paid search for driving offline sales. The conclusion? For every one dollar generated by e-commerce, paid-local search generates $6.
Both studies point to the continuing primacy of search as a local marketing vehicle. However, we are likely to see some significant changes to the general local search landscape.
Google’s Panda update had an impact not just on local businesses, but on local directories and Internet Yellow Pages. An analysis by Myles Anderson showed that while the larger IYPs often gained from Panda, smaller sites took heavy hits. Through 2012, we expect the IYP space will mature and consolidate, with smaller sites dying or being acquired, and major players continuing to expand influence over the local search market.
Through 2012, we should also expect social to continue to redefine SEO. Both Google and Bing are likely to ramp up social-search integration in the new year, and modern search strategies must be optimized to take advantage.
More specifically, in 2012 we are likely to see Google push forward on integration between Google+ and Google Places. The result could be a very significant merger between search, social, and local. This integration will also make G+ an increasingly critical channel for local search success.
Display Becomes a Local Marketing Staple
We’ve covered search and mobile, two areas that have been major players in local for years. But display is a medium that is often underrepresented in local marketing. That could soon change.
In a recent discussion lead by Matt Booth from BIA/Kelsey, some key observations were made. Consumers spend only about 5% of their time on search, compared to the other 95% spend browsing the web. So businesses focusing only on search are missing 95% of a consumers attention!
In the current state of display, 80% of the industry is spend is occupied by the 200 advertisers, and directed to the top 100 publishers. But as technology allows for smaller local businesses to build display ads easily, and buy media afforadably, the market could explode in growth.
Technical innovation will lead the way in local/display. Dynamic technologies that present hyper-local creative to consumers based on their locations will drive massively improved CTR, engagement, and effectiveness.
eMarketer predicts that overall display ad revenue will rise to almost 15 billion in 2012, compared to 12.3 billion last year. As businesses become more excited about the potential for local display, we could see display become as critical a part of local marketing as search, mobile, and social.
Part of the growth of display will be fueled by social. Facebook’s share of the display market has exploded since 2009, and next year we’re likely to see marketers and business owners implement Facebook advertising strategies with more confidence.
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