Places Scout – Lead Generation & Local Marketing Supertool

Places Scout is a powerful and versatile suite of tools for Local SEO and Lead Generation. If generating leads or optimising your business for local visibility is part of your Digital Marketing Strategy then Places Scout is well worth taking a closer look. Here’s our mini Places Scout review.

I have been a user of Places Scout since it came out as an online tool, (it was previously available only as a downloadable resource that you ran from your PC). The system has really come of age with the release of the online version and it comes with a strong recommendation. Places Scout gives you all the tools you need to market a local business, including citations, reviews, competitive analysis, local rank tracking and so on but it isn’t limited to local SEO – far from it.

What’s Included In Places Scout?

The primary function of Places Scout is to create contacts lists, or leads. in defined areas for defined keywords. So. if you wanted a list of locksmiths in Cambridge, or solicitors in Bath, this is the tool for you. Not only will you get the names but also email addresses, web details, MOZ & Majestic backlink and SEO details plus comprehensive social media data as well. Places Scout will tell you if the business it finds are verified with Google My business and Google+.

You can, in most cases, filter out data that you don’t need. There’s also a nice Citation research facility and good competitor analysis tools as well.

Added to that, there’s review monitoring and rank tracking plus a facility to carry out business listing audits – very handy for small SEO agencies and consultants.

In terms of value for money, it’s all down to volume. For smaller, localised jobs it’s very affordable but if you were generating big lists you would need to keep an eye on the costs as the credit system can start to rack up. Nonetheless, Places Scout is so powerful and yet simple to use  that you almost don’t mind the cost. It works and it does a great job.

There’s a free trial so I would urge you to try that if you need to do any of the things that Places Scout does. The paid plans start at $19.99/month for up to 250 leads per month. Support is very good and they get back to you quickly when anything goes wrong. If lead generation or local SEO is part of your digital marketing strategy then Places Scout is probably a must.