Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

Google and Intuit’s new alliance has spawned a revolutionary effort to bring more small businesses online. In Intuit’s QuickBooks 2007 product, set to release this fall, Google tools will be integrated into the software, allowing the 3.7 million small businesses who already use QuickBooks to access Google Desktop, Maps, Base and AdWords right from an icon on their home page. This strategy will encourage SMBs to enter search marketing in a quick, easy and familiar way - possibly speeding up search’s adoption. But will it cause other local online advertising outlets to suffer? Not necessarily.

This partnership could become a very positive injection for local online advertising because the more educated SMBs are the more willing they are to advertise online, the less education other ad outlets have to do. Online marketing offers great potential for small businesses who seek cheaper and more effective ways to reach the targeted, down-the-street consumer. Yet, the complexity of self-serve bidding models and create-your-own ad strategies have kept many at bay.

The fact remains that users only spend about 5% of their time online at major search engines - the other 95% is spent at the destination sites and with email. SMBs will still want to advertise where the users are spending more time and making local purchase decisions - making Google a must, but not the only place they’ll begin distributing their smaller yet highly influential marketing budgets. The more dollars that shift online the better. SMBs have been stuck in offline advertising b/c it’s familiar. With this move, online will be less scary and it should speed up online ad adoption for SMBs.

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