Google has a nice little website, www.thinkwithgoogle.com, where they discuss the latest digital marketing trends as their research shows.

Thanks to smartphones, you have some new opportunities to market your business – and especially so if you’re a local one.

Let’s take a look at some of their recent findings and see how you might be able to capitalize:

1. 65% of Online Consumers Look Up More Information Online Now Versus Just a Few Years Ago

Now remember, this just applies to US consumers. We’re generally well ahead of most countries when it comes to adopting new technology.

Our smartphone users look up information online more frequently than they did just a few years ago.

So when we discuss this whole “be useful” rule to attract online customers, we mean it. You don’t need a lot of content. But you do need practical stuff people can take and apply to their lives and get value from it.

And there’s a lot of room for growth in this. Because just 46.1% of the world has internet access as of this writing.

2. 100% Increase in “Near Me” Searches in the Past Year

Don’t create “near me” pages on your website! But do have geo-targeting of your city and its surrounding suburbs.

A big win for local businesses.

3. 91% of Smartphone Users Look to Their Phones for Help Doing a Task As They Do It

You tradesmen have a big opportunity here. You can be the “go-to” resource in your niche. Examples of content you can create:

• “How do I change my A/C filter?”
• “How do I plant new grass?”
• “How do I prep my SUV for winter?”

The format doesn’t matter so much. Obviously, these topics lend themselves well to video explanations.

A simple smartphone video posted to YouTube will do, but a professional-looking video does even better. And you’ll want to make sure to SEO your video properly so people actually get to it.

4. 82% of Smartphone Users Use Their Smartphone to Help Them Decide What to Buy in a Store

So if you have one of these “brick-and-mortar stores” that seem to get less common by the minute, there’s good marketing opportunity for you too.

For one thing, you’ll want to make sure the products you carry have good online reviews. Smartphone users will check those and consider them strongly in their decision.

Another benefit to you is this pushes you to do better marketing. You have to show what customers get with your products, why they’re better, and why they’re different.

When you figure out how to do that, which is hard and takes time, you have a strong marketing advantage in your niche. And that means you get more sales and have a healthier bottom line.

It’s tough to keep up with all this, but we’re here to help you stay on top of it and grow your revenues.