Traditionally, a person would choose a local business depending on how well-known it is, where it is located, and whether he or she received recommendations. The consumer could stumble upon a storefront while walking around, receive a suggestion from someone else, and return to a business that he or she was aware of. All these things remain relevant, but they exist together with the significantly expanded digital discovery process.
A consumer can come across a local business before seeing its physical location. The restaurant can be found in the directory, the repair company can appear after a search, and the small retailer can be recommended by someone else via the Internet. The first contact becomes scattered throughout the web instead of concentrated within one predictable channel.
It is important to remember that business directories are still part of the discovery process since they help to navigate among businesses according to the categories that consumers find interesting. Restaurants, automotive, healthcare, real estate, and professional services provide users with the possibility to browse various businesses without necessarily knowing them beforehand. In this case, the directory becomes the point of discovery and not just a database of business information.
Search engines provide consumers with another possibility. A consumer who needs an accountant or some service may start looking for it using a broad search instead of specifying the company. The results of this search will define which businesses will be considered by this person. However, it is still crucial to create the website that will interest him or her.
Recommendations become one more element since consumers do not necessarily search for businesses online. People may come across one business while reading something online, participating in discussions, comparing different services, and finding the recommendations on another website. It makes the discovery process much more diverse since consumers need to go through several websites and gather various information in order to reach the decision.
Links between websites become another part of the unpredictable routes people follow when discovering new businesses. A consumer may begin on one website and eventually arrive at the website of a particular business simply by following a relevant link.
This shows how helpful the connection between websites can be when people move between different online sources. For the consumer, the link simply creates another possible route to a relevant destination.
Social media platforms and online communities make these routes even more varied. Consumers can start following a particular business without even planning to purchase anything. At the same time, he or she can then search for the company, visit its website, and find some more information. In this sense, the discovery and the decision-making processes do not always coincide.
It also becomes important for the local businesses to understand what the role of the website is. A website becomes an important destination, but it no longer has to be the first place where the user comes across the business. Instead, it becomes one element of a broader system of touchpoints. At this point, clear information, contact details, content, and navigational structure become the keys to converting the awareness into decisions.
Consistency becomes important as the number of touchpoints increases. Consumers should be able to recognize that they deal with the same business when coming across it on several websites. Conflicting, outdated, or incorrect information can create confusion, especially when the consumer tries to choose among several local businesses.
In this regard, the changing discovery process does not mean that the traditional recommendations or the physical visibility disappear. They only coexist with directories, search engines, websites, online recommendations, social platforms, and other sources. Therefore, different consumers can come across the same local business through very different routes.
For local businesses, it becomes important to understand that visibility becomes the presence within this environment instead of reliance on a single attention source. While the storefront provides a chance to attract a person, a directory listing, search result, recommendation, or link can become the equivalent of it. Routes may differ, but the consumer behavior remains unchanged – people find businesses through the places they use and make their choice.
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