Online Marketing Lessons # 47
Why target long tail keywords: Less Competition & Higher Conversion Rate
Only 20-30% of the potential customers are ready to buy your services today or considering to buy in near future. Over 70% are doing their research. This study from Hubspot clearly outlines what drives majority of organic traffic for local websites.
Here is another study showing the numbers:
Tools and resources to find long tail keywords for FREE:
#1 Through using Google search suggestions:
#2: Using Google Suggestions:

Longtail keywords for local service providers
#3 Use Soovle.com to mine longtail keywords

Finding longtail keywords using Soovle.com
#4 Instakeywords.com (Both Quick search and full slow search available)
#5 Keyword Tool Dominator (Paid Tool, but you can use it for free)
It not only tells you google search data, but it also collects data from Youtube, Amazon, Ebay, Bing, Google shopping etc.
#6 Hittail (Goes beyond then just suggesting longtail keywords)
This tool goes beyond then just suggesting you keywords to target, it also tells you how to optimize a page in order to rank #1 for that specific keyword.
#7 Wordstream Free keyword tool
#8 Moz Keyword Explorer (Free use with limitations and paid version)