Marchex' lead search architect shares the key takeaways for marketers from a new report on the local internet.

Over the last several years, a great deal has been written and speculated about regarding the opportunity surrounding local search and locally-focused online advertising. Through it all, there is an intensifying consensus that the local opportunity is one that will be measured in the billions of dollars, and that even more fundamentally, local will be an important catalyst associated with the growth of online advertising as a whole.

But what does all this mean for marketers? Who are the players in the local space? In what direction are we headed?

To address these and other common questions, Marchex recently released a 12-page report, "Unlocking the Potential of the Local Internet." We developed the report with an eye toward giving marketers an easy-to-reference guide to local search and local online advertising.

Here are some important takeaways for marketers:

Think globally and act locally
Sound familiar? No, this isn't an environmental credo this time around, but does provide some important context for marketers, especially as it relates to understanding and executing local online marketing programs. For example, if you are developing a marketing campaign for an insurance provider based in Seattle, does it make more sense to engage in a bidding war on Google or Yahoo! for paid search listings for the general term "insurance," or would it be more useful, cost-effective and results-focused to direct your efforts toward more locally focused and granular terms such as "Seattle health insurance"? The same thing applies, even if you're representing a major retailer with multiple locations: In addition to focusing on key product offerings, remember that a big part of the ultimate goal is to drive physical purchases and commerce locally. More on that in just a bit.

Be hungry to know more about local
The opportunity is upon us now and it is rapidly growing, so marketers should take advantage of information that is readily available. In addition to our report, there are many excellent and publicly available resources on the web, including such avenues as analyst Greg Sterling's regularly updated blog, The Kelsey Group's local media blog, local analyst Peter Krasliovsky's blog and Marchex's own Localpoint blog.

Demand that your agencies think more about addressing the local opportunity, too
Too often, "pure" marketers and traditional agencies are intimidated by local search and local online advertising because it can seem so "techy." Techy or not, the fact is that local search is the second most common use of the internet, trailing only email.

Local, as with all other forms of marketing, largely comes down to driving real people into real physical storefronts
As Greg Sterling has rightly pointed out several times, local is much more than a "nice to have" item or a vertical or a niche type of search. Sterling and others maintain that local search is about the "last mile" of search (and online branding): getting the user from the internet to the physical store. The better job that marketers do of addressing the local opportunity, the more effective their campaigns will ultimately be.

Understanding the opportunity and its challenges is an important first step.

Matthew Berk is lead search architect for Marchex, Inc. Read full bio.