Five years ago, if you wanted to find a particular business, where did you look? I’m guessing for most of us the answer would be “Google”. And in 2024, this is still the case a lot of the time…but I would suggest that Google is starting to lose its monopoly on searching.
Of course Google is still the leader by far, but Microsoft’s Bing is increasingly taking market share. But a bigger development is taking place outside these tools.
People are looking for local businesses on social media such as Facebook groups, where they often trust the recommendations more highly than Google reviews (which as we all know, are sometimes less than genuine).
Gen Z increasingly look for information on TikTok, which is now classified as the world’s 4th biggest search engine.
Many people skip reading all together, and go straight to YouTube to get their information.
Pinterest is an image search engine that’s an under-used tool by many companies who would benefit from using it as a marketing tool.
You’ve probably also noticed that Google is ranking Reddit very highly in search results at the moment due to a deal they have made to use Reddit’s content to train their AI algorithms. Lots of people trust Reddit users as having “real” opinions that are not marketing/PR biased.
Then there are voice searches such as Google Assistant or Alexa, which are growing in popularity.
Search is becoming more diverse, and perhaps less easy to predict.
What does this mean for you as a business owner?
Unless you have unlimited budget and time, it’s pretty hard to be across all of these channels effectively.
The key is to understand where your audience spends their time online (note that this might not be the same as where you personally spend your time!) and focus your efforts there.
You also need to make your content work hard for you across multiple channels, so you can take just one piece of content and repurpose it.
For instance, rather than just churn out a blog article, you could:
1. Film yourself speaking about the topic (post to YouTube, or TikTok depending on content)
2. Make a transcript of the video, edit it and repurpose it into a blog (post to website)
3. Post to your social channels encouraging people to view the video or read the blog. One blog or video can be turned into several posts highlighting different aspects – don’t feel that one blog = one post!
4. Include it in a newsletter to your existing subscribers
The upshot – don’t rely on just one marketing strategy. If attracting new business is your goal, there are numerous approaches you can explore. Improve your website’s SEO, go along to in-person networking events (never underestimate the power of meeting people!), ask your current customers for referrals, consider paid advertising, and boost your social media presence. The more you can connect with your ideal client, the better your chances of success. As they say, “imperfect action beats perfect inaction”!
