Practicing What I Preach

For the past week or so, I have been doing more local search than writing about local search! It was my wife’s birthday and I wanted to do something special. I got her (and the family) a new widescreen TV. It is awesome! we previously had a 27 TV and it is a whole new world right now.  We are breaking it in by watching the extended version of the Lord of the Rings. (I cannot believe what I was missing.)

Ok, so how did I local search my purchase? (Small businesses listen up)

1. I first went online to big stores here in town: Circuit City, Best Buy, Hhgregg to see general selection, price etc.
2. Made a trip to Best Buy and looked at the general selection and asked questions.
3. Came home, went back online to review what was told to me and look at customer reviews of different models.
4. Did some local search for televisions locally. From what I found online, the big stores were basically my only option. [Point 1: If you sell TV in Augusta, you need to get online so folks can find you. I liek to support the smaller local shops if I know they exist.] 5. Continued to search online for information on TV and pricing.
6. Went back to Best Buy and asked more questions. (It is interesting, the different information you can get from different sales people. I am glad I did not listen to what the first guy told me.)
7. Again went home, back online to find more information and to finalize my decision. [Point 2: People are looking for info, reviews, pricing online, so make sure you provide that on your site or at least link to it as a service] 8. Did find a store other than the big ones that had the set I was looking for, but no website and was too far to drive. [Point 3: The studies are correct, people will stay close to home.. I was running out of time to get this gift!] 9. After I felt I had done enough, I ended up back at Best Buy to purchase my TV.

As I have said before, eveyone does local search these days (looking for product information, customer reviews, store location, pricing, availablility, etc)  so you small businesses need to make sure you get listed online. I will be more than happy to help you with your local search marketing (right after I finish Lord of the Rings 🙂 )