Chapter 4: Mobile Marketing for
Locally Focused Businesses
A “locally-focused business” is one whose customers are local to their physical location(s). For example, a restaurant is locally-focused. They’re not looking for customers two states over to come and eat. A multi- location business is locally-focused, with each location focused on their area. A company that sells only online would NOT be locally-focused. Their customers can be all around the world.
Mobile marketing works very well and shows great results for locally-focused businesses. Don’t ever forget, mobile marketing is also very personal. Think about how you like to be marketed to. Your customers will likely feel the same way.
Mobile marketing is not about fancy new technology.
Don’t get caught in that trap. It is simply a set of new and more effective tools for connecting with your customers. Remember what I wrote in Chapter 1:
The KEY to future marketing success is building lists of happy, loyal customers (email addresses or phone numbers) who look forward to receiving info from your company, share that info with their friends, and keep coming back, and that you can continue to market to in the future.
Here is a list of the most effective mobile marketing products and services for locally-focused businesses with brief descriptions (Don’t freak out! You won’t need all of them!):
A Mobile-Optimized Website
You have probably seen this before; a website that looks fabulous on a big screen laptop, but terrible when viewed on a smartphone. Nowadays, if a user has to pinch or expand the page or scroll around trying to find something, they’re off to your competitor’s site. Without getting all techy there are 4 types of websites:
Static – This is the old school type made for a computer screen. It does not change when viewed on a mobile device. Pros: none for most small businesses Cons: Looks terrible on mobile devices. No customers want to use it. Responsive – This type of site is designed to re–size itself to the screen it is being viewed on. The pages shrink down, so they have to be designed to look good when they are small. Pros: Easily translates to different sized screens, easy to design. Cons: Expensive, usually existing sites have to be totally scrapped, can be a bad compromise for viewing on a big screen. Reactive - This type of site detects what type of device it is being viewed on and loads totally different pages designed specifically for each device. Pros: A seamless user experience, looks good on all screens. Cons: VERY expensive since it requires a completely new website built from the ground up.
Dedicated Mobile – This is a website completely independent of a static site, designed specifically to be easy to navigate on mobile devices. Pros – Inexpensive, quickly and easily built and activated, does not require redesigning existing static website, designed for ease of navigation and giving only essential info (what users want). Cons – Since the mobile site is completely separate, anytime content changes are needed they must be made on both sites, each site must be hosted and maintained independently.
The bottom line here is that if you have gobs of money laying around, hire a great web design team to build you a beautiful reactive site that works on everything. If your budget is limited, your site may be able to be adapted to a responsive site, or you may want to have a dedicated mobile site. Each business is very different so I suggest consulting with a professional marketer to help make this decision. Whatever you do it is critical that you have something that looks decent and is easily used on a mobile device. If you don’t I guarantee you’re losing some business.
Text Message Marketing
Using text messages is a great way to market to existing customers and even attract new ones, if done properly (see Chapter 3). It is a direct communication tool to your customers. You can decide what to send them (appointment reminders, mobile coupons, info about your product/services, related content that is valuable to them, pictures, videos, and more!). Also, you can dictate when exactly to send them; remember most text messages are opened right away. Do you want your restaurant coupon to arrive on your customers’ phone at 4pm on a Thursday? No problem with text messaging. Non-profit and religious organizations can use Text-to-Donate to solicit and receive donations.
NOTE: NEVER EVER buy a list of phone numbers somewhere and shoot out a text to them. This is ILLEGAL! Don’t let some shyster come in and sell you something that is unethical and could cost you big time. Call me anytime if you need clarification on this, whether you want my services or not. I’ll be glad to help.
Mobile Apps
Ok, I’m going to get in trouble with app developers for this, but here goes! Most small businesses do not need a mobile app. An app is not a webpage. It is a software application. Here’s how it works for a business. First you have to “build” it in different versions for different platforms (iPads/Phones, Android, Windows Mobile, etc.). This gets very complicated and/or expensive. Then it has to be submitted to both iTunes and the Google Play Store for approval and to be listed. Then you have to get your customer to download and install it on their phone. Then they have to KEEP it on their phone for as long as they want to use it. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are good reasons to have an app. Facebook and Twitter are apps and they need to be. Apps have more interactive functionality than websites. If you want to offer games or contests directly to your customers, apps are the way to go.
But again let me stress that for most small businesses they are not necessary. Consult a professional (NOT an app salesperson) for advice.
Search Engine Optimization for Local (Local SEO)
SEO encompasses a big old bag of complicated actions to get your business listing to rank higher in Google searches organically (not a paid ad). Huh? OK simpler; when you do a Google search for a business do you ever look past the first page of results? Rarely I bet. Well would it be any different for people looking for your business? If you have an auto repair shop and it shows up on page three of local search engine results, do you think many customers will find you? Nope. There are a LOT of different things to be done to improve your search rankings including content marketing, directory listings, blogging and much, much more. I’m not trying to scare you, just being realistic and honest. Good SEO requires consistent time and effort and never ends. It can be expensive but doesn’t have to be. There are many techniques used. If you’re not a computer nerd with time to do all that is required, then consult a professional. Your search ranking is definitely important and there are many ways to achieve results.
NOTE: If someone tells you they can improve your ranking quickly and easily, RUN! They’re either lying to you or using techniques that are unethical and can get you banned from search engines. Yes BANNED! You do not want this, ever. Improved ranking requires weeks if not months (depending on your market segment and location) of consistent effort in many areas. Whole books are written about this subject so I can’t get into all the details here. Being ranked highly in searches is certainly worth the effort, just don’t underestimate it. Either take the proper time to learn it, or hire someone to do it for you. The ROI will pay off for you, if done properly.
Mobile-Optimized eMail
Chapter 1 when I stated that over 60% of emails are now opened on mobile devices?
Kudos if you do! Here’s the deal. What most mobile users do now is “screen” their emails on their phone or tablet. They keep or read the ones that are important or valuable, delete the junk, and read them on their laptop later when they have time. “So what?” you say. Think about it. Do you want your emails deleted? No! How to get your emails opened and read by people is part science and part art. First, they must be formatted for mobile devices. Then how the headline reads, the colors in the body of the email, the type of text, when the email is sent, and more are all factors in making those emails effective and of value to your customer. And making them effective for mobile is different than for computers! Yikes this is complicated sometimes. As a businessperson, I would recommend you treat email marketing like SEO. It is worth the effort and shows great results, but either learn the proper methods yourself or hire someone to do it right. If you’re going to be sending emails that can’t be read on a smart phone you are wasting money.
Loyalty & Rewards Programs
Does your business lend itself to increasing profits by offering your customers rewards for their loyalty? Do you already have a program in place? Still using punch cards? If so, a digital program might be great for you. The short description is that customers “opt- in” to the program and then a system for keeping track of their return visits is put in place. It can be through a tablet based kiosk on your counter where they check-in each time they visit or they can be entered by your employees on a POS or counter computer. They simply punch in their mobile number. Then both you and the customer have a record of their status in the program, how many visits they need for a reward and more. You also capture their info for future marketing efforts. I know we’ve said this twice already but it is the most important thing in this book:
The KEY to future marketing success is building lists of happy, loyal customers (email addresses or phone numbers) who look forward to receiving info from your company, share that info with their friends, and keep coming back, and that you can continue to market to in the future.
(Is this sounding familiar yet? I must think it’s important huh?)
A loyalty & rewards program using a kiosk for customers to opt-in and check-in is the easiest method for gaining the best results. NOTE: This type of program requires a wireless internet connection for the tablet to connect to.
Customers love rewards programs. Compare the costs to something like a deal-of-the-day website coupon like Groupon and you’ll be amazed how much more ROI a rewards program will return. It’s different for every business, depending on your product, average sale, and amount of the “freebie.” Give me a call and I can run an ROI report for your business.
Social Media Sharing
This is brilliant! I didn’t think of it but I sure do use it. So now you agree that reaching out to and engaging with your customers is a good and profitable idea. But let’s take it further. What if you can get those customers to advertise FOR you? Most of them, especially millennials and younger, are on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter all the time, sharing all kinds of things with their friends. What if we can get them to share the value of your products and services with them?
Try this for a “what if?” You own a steak house. A nice couple have become semi-regular customers of yours. They like your place, your food and maybe even you personally. They decide to check-in on Foursquare while dining one night and say great things about you. They might even go to UrbanSpoon and give you a full-on awesome review. They post on Facebook about how great your food is. The last time I checked, adult Facebook users had an average of 338 friends. Do you think some of the 338 friends of that nice couple will see their posts and give your place a try? Of course! This is like of “word of mouth” advertising on steroids!
How about we try some “Incentivized Social Media Sharing?” I know, I know stop with the marketing jargon. OK, but it’s really simple. We give customers an incentive to tell their social media family about how great you are. Maybe we tell that nice young couple they get a free entrée if they bring another couple with them next time. Or we give them a free dessert for giving you an online review. The possibilities are endless. Your cost is minimal and the results are phenomenal. There’s a reason they say word-of-mouth is the best advertisement, and social media sharing just expands the reach of it. And of course we get all these new customers to like, follow and share on their pages and it grows even more.
Very cool.
You can also have some fun with social media sharing. Run a photo contest for your customers. Set up a board for it on your Pinterest business page, have them take pics of things in your restaurant and post them to the board, then pick a winner at the end and give them a free meal. I guarantee your customers will love it and the pics will be shared on Pinterest to even more potential new customers. I love these new mobile devices!
The end game is to get your customers sharing with their friends however you can. Expand the reach of your good name and products or services. The more people that find out about you, especially if a friend recommends you to them, the more business you attract. Do it however you can on social media.
QR Codes
Quick Response Codes (that’s the QR) are funky looking black & white squares that can be scanned by cameras in smartphones and tablets. They are typically used to link to a web page url. They’re just an alternative way to get a customer to check out something you want them to see, like a landing page, special offer, or whatever you choose. They are just a code, like barcodes at the grocery store, to link to something easily. They look like this:
You’ve probably seen them but maybe never actually scanned one. Here’s how they work. Let’s say you’re at the big orange home improvement store and there’s a plant in the garden section that you would like info about. There’s a little tag attached with a QR code on it. The first thing you do is download a QR code reader app to your device, if you don’t yet have one. There are plenty of free ones in the Play Store or on iTunes. Then once it’s loaded you have to open it and using the camera on your device, scan the code. It should automatically send you to a webpage with all sorts of information about that plant. Businesses can use them to link to anything they want. Kinda cool huh?
Well, there’s one little problem – people don’t seem to use them much. When they first started appearing they were “the new thing” but they haven’t really caught on in the USA. Consumers seem to be more apt to text a code to get a link, or just type a short link into their browser. QR codes do have an upside; they’re easy to generate and can be printed on virtually anything and they are completely tracked.
You can sign up for a service that will capture info like when or how many times the code was scanned, and provide it to you in a handy report form. It’s a great tool for analysis of your marketing campaigns but if people don’t use the codes it’s all for naught.
I won’t say that QR codes are “dead” – there are still good uses for them. But I will say for most small businesses QR codes are in a “coma.” Ask your marketing guru if your business can use them efficiently.
Paid Ads
Like most marketing, digital internet marketing allows you to pay for ads. The cool thing is that now you can target those ads very effectively. You can set up with Google, Facebook, Twitter or any number of other sites, to have an ad for your business pop up in the
paid ad section on their site. Typically you have the ad send them to your website when clicked, but you can set it to link to whatever you want. Also, you can target exactly where you want your ads to show. For example, if you own an auto repair shop in Las Vegas, you can tell Google to only pop your ad in when someone in Vegas does a search for auto repair. You can filter by location, search keywords and many other factors. On Facebook you can filter by things like the searchers’ age, sex or interests. The benefit is that you can target your ads precisely to the market you want to attract. The bad news is that you pay a fee every time someone clicks on that ad, whether they make a purchase or not. You are paying to link them to you but that’s all. An added benefit is that all this activity is captured by the site (Google for instance) for you to analyze. You can see what works and what doesn’t. Quite a bit better than the “old days” when you put an ad in the local newspaper and waited for people to show up!
The act of placing the ads is quite simple. They are usually text based ads (no design work needed), and the site you want to put the ad on will tell you everything you need to know to get it done. NOTE: Give serious consideration to which site you want to try. Don’t just place an ad on Google. Go where your customers are. If you provide services to other businesses, a site like LinkedIn may give much better results than other sites. An internet marketing pro could help you here.
Paid ads can get great results for some businesses but may not be a good fit for others. Factors to consider are; the vertical your company is in (oops more jargon – I mean the type of product or service you provide), your local market and competition, your marketing goals and budget. I would suggest consulting with an internet marketing pro for some advice. You can always start with a small trial and just give it a shot. You never know what might generate traffic for you!