Yodle, a local online marketing company recently released a report titled Yodle Insights: What Consumers Want from Local Businesses that surveyed over 6,000 consumers.  Yodle found that 82% of US consumers use local businesses and that they use them more than national chains.  More importantly, 47% of consumers stated that they used local businesses more this year than last year and 48% planned to use local businesses even more over the next 12 months. Virtually no one expressed that they would use local businesses less (1-2%).

This growth in consumer dollars spent locally is a huge opportunity for marketers to help small business.  Yodle’s data on what consumers want from local businesses is key to understanding how to take advantage of this opportunity and market in a way that distinguishes local businesses in their areas of strength.

Check out 5 ways to use what consumers want to help boost your marketing, search and SEO strategy in this month’s Search Engine Land column.