Five great Marketing tips for 2013

Getting started: 1. Make profit from your website
Businesses spend lots of money developing their websites and more often than not, they forget about them. They fail to promote them and understand their real value. The investment in a website should be making you money, shouldn't it be paying for itself? A website is a powerful marketing tool that helps your prospects understand who you are and what you can do for them, while making it easy for them to contact you. Help them to find it. Extra tip: Take some time to decide how you can get more visitors to your website. Read on, for more help here...

2. Increase your Internet exposure with Google
Many businesses believe that getting to the top of Google is still beyond them without spending a small fortune. But, there are many things that you can still do. Firstly optimise your web content with the keywords you want to be found with. Change your content regularly as Google loves fresh content! Tweet often, and in your Twitter Bio say what you do and where you are. Google loves twitter too. Finally, start that blog this year. Blogging can increase your search engine ranking. Extra tip: If you have a Wordpress website install a plugin called WordPress SEO and spend some time learning how to use it. This robust plugin helps you walk through the SEO process for every page or post on your website.

3. Use Social Media and meet your customers in their own environment
I can bet a million-to-one that not all your customers are outside your business premises right now; however, many thousands of them are on Facebook and Twitter as we speak. People and customers need to be found and social media is where they hang out. There are three ways to use Social media 1) Update your status with what you do (don't over do this though) 2) Share articles and tips with others or 3) just chat with people. Number three is my personal favorite. Remember, before your friends were your friends they were just people that you did not know, but then you began a conversation with them, which in turn, led to friendship, trust and admiration. The same applies to your customers. By softly interacting with them they’ll learn to respect you, gain knowledge about your business and gain trust in you. These things are important ingredient when we all buy. Extra tip: If you are still not on Twitter, make this year the year you start picking up business from one of the most powerful FREE marketing tools, ever.

4. Use text messages to keep in contact
E-mail marketing has its place, but nothing gets opened quicker than a Text message. To quote Sales expert, Phil Jones, "Text messages are like heat-seeking missiles; people consider them so important that they will even open them in the middle of a meeting." You can legitimately collect a customer’s mobile number and freely text them from time to time by asking them for it in return for keeping them notified of special offers and promotions. If you are a restaurant, this can be used effectively; a timely text message on Saturday afternoon could result in more reservations on Saturday evening. Extra tip: insert a web link in a text message to a mobile-friendly web page with pictures and more information -  to bring the message home with colour.

5. Mobile Websites Are Required
One in three Google searches are done on a Smartphone today. If you want to increase brand engagement, your business will need a mobile-friendly website connected to your existing website so you don’t miss out on this opportunity. If you want to increase customer care and show that you appreciate your mobile customers give them a mobile friendly website they can read off their Smartphones. Smartphone Internet users often complain when they land on a website not optimised for a mobile phone that they can’t find contact information, but touchscreen phones can incorporate a "one touch" Find us, E-mail or “Click to call” button! Problem solved. Extra tip: Allow an expert to guide you about how mobile users use the Internet on a Smartphone and what key features they want to see in order for them to buy from you.

How to get a Mobile App for your business.

1) Decide which Smartphone you want an app for. Be specific because all Smartphones are generally different and don't always perform in the same way.

Here's the list of the main Smartphone suppliers or makes:

• iPhone, reach 51% of your potential customers,
• Android Smartphones, reach 28% of your potential customers,
• Blackberry Smartphones, reach 20% of your customers, and
• Others, reach just 2% of your customers.

2) Pay a Mobile App developer £700-£1,000, dependent on what Smartphone you have it designed for, iPhone, Android, etc.

3) Allow up to 3-6 months from concept to the launch of your App.

Have we got that?

To Recap:

- Reach up to 51% max of your potential customers with a Mobile App, reach even less, dependent on Smartphone Supplier/make,

- Pay up to £1,000,

- Wait for up to 3-6 months for your App to go live

Or, you could get a Mobile Website

- Pay much less than the normal cost of a Mobile App and get a Smartphone Website that can be viewed on any Smartphone that has access to the Internet,

- Reach 100 per cent of your customers regardless of the Smartphone supplier,

- Have it launched and live, ready to go, within 2 weeks

- And, if that isn't enough, get FREE mobile detection, so that when your customers use a Smartphone to view your ordinary desktop website, they're instantly re-directed to your Smartphone Website for clear, concise information with no need for pinching and zooming.

Why a Mobile Website?

Our eye-catching Smartphone Mobile Websites can be navigated with thumbs and fingers. No zooming required, just a simple layout for smartphone screens with ease of use. 

Included is ”click to call” technology; so your business telephone number can be called from a smartphone by clicking the touchscreen once, thus speeding up the Sales Conversion Process.

Finally, a Smartphone Website can provide your mobile customers with the relevant information that they need on a user-friendly screen for a fraction of the cost of a Mobile App and reach every potential customer while "they're on the go."

Think about how it could transform your business.

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Smartphone addiction is good news for smart businesses

How many people do you know that are addicted to their Smartphones? Quite a few I’m guessing. It’s no coincidence that because of this more businesses are using mobile marketing to advertise their products and services. After all, this is where people are hanging out, where they are interacting on Social media, checking emails and browsing the internet. In fact PC sales are falling in the wake of Smartphones sales and if you don't have a mobile website it is only going to get worse for your business.

The explosion of Social Media in the last 24 months has been great for the businesses that have harnessed it's power. With consumers liking and preferring the recommendation of their peers this way, Facebook and Twitter has become the arena where businesses have been very successful at reaching their targeted audience. The same is true of mobile marketing today. Smartphone users spend hours a day using them to solve of all their problems, although the majority of businesses are not exploiting this enough. Many business websites are not mobile-friendly and appear too small on a Smartphone. The alternative is to develop a clear and easy to read, interactive mobile site that caters for the screen size of a Smartphone.

A mobile site aids a Smartphone owner to have a better user experience, giving them the tools to find what they want fast; that is clear, with readable easy to understand navigation, able to interact freely and make contact within a few clicks on their touchscreen.

Smart web Apps based in the Midlands,UK are urging Businesses that don’t already have a mobile-friendly site to smarten up to the mobile web and to deliver an acceptable mobile user experience to improve customer care and increse sales enquiries. Paul Wykes, owner of Smart Web Apps, said that if you don’t have a mobile site, your business might as well not exist to Smartphone owners.”

The rate at which people are acquiring Smartphones and browsing the internet on them is increasing year on year and it’s estimated that by 2013, browsing the internet this way will exceed the amount of time that people spend browsing the internet on standard desktop computers. Smartphones are replacing normal computers; it’s becoming the norm for consumers to own Smartphones and busineseses need to worry about what their website looks like on a hand-held device.

In order to meet this challenge Paul Wykes gave this advice to businesses that recognise that they need to keep up with this fast-paced echnology for fear of being left behind.

1)    Develop a mobile-friendly site with the user in mind. What features do you think they would find most useful. The internet experience on a hand-held device is going to be far different to how people use normal desktop computers.

2)    Make sure that you develop a mobile friendly site that mirrors your standard website. It should include your logo, icon/buttons that match your colour scheme and imparticularly your branding.

3)    Work with Mobile web experts that are keen to understand your business, how your customers behave and can deliver all of the points so far.

4)    Finally, the investment you make to develop a mobile site for Smartphones needs to be matched by the endeavour of the mobile web expert to help you market it by using an appropriate data collection method to track customers, SMS messaging, QR Codes and Social Media marketing.

Some final thoughts that Paul Wykes gives is, if you don’t have a Smartphone friendly website soon this will become a barrier for your business and if you’re not using mobile as part of your business marketing strategy, you will exit this year behind and lose ground to your competitors who do.

Why bother with the Mobile Web ?

Smartphones And The Internet

Have you ever thought why anyone would want to bother viewing the Internet on their Smartphone? Most websites take an age to load and are primarily designed for desktop or laptop computers, aren't they? Why should businesses be alarmed if more Smartphones are being sold than desktop computers and laptops put together? Why should they consider that according to BBC News* almost 50 per cent of Internet users are going on-line using their Smartphones to search for products and services. Apart from big brands like M&S, the Financial Times and a host of other Blue-Chip companies why should SME's bother to jump on the band wagon? They shouldn't and here's why.

 Speed

Most Smartphones these days have Wi-Fi built-in as standard and Wi-Fi hotspots are easy to find. They're in pubs, hotels and even McDonalds.  Although you don’t need a Wi-Fi connection to browse the internet when you're out and about, most Smartphones come equipped with 3G technology.

And so what if we have faster access to downloading data on our phones; normal websites, designed for desktops still take an age to load on a Smartphone. To fix this shouldn't companies have a Mobile Website an App or something, that requires less data and appears within seconds, but still has all the relevant information a user would be looking for when they used a mobile phone to go on-line.

Websites On A Smartphone Are As Good As A Broken Link 

Is this not 2012? When I visit a website on my Smartphone, like thousands of others, why do I have to zoom and pinch to view the information that I need. In fact, it’s like a poorly designed desktop website that I can't find my way around. If the truth be told, I actually like being treated as if I'm stupid. I want to be signposted to the information I need within seconds. However, I'll much more likely leave the website altogether, if I can’t find what I want quickly, and that's another potential customer lost. Don't companies care?

Mobile Screens Are Too Small

Desktop websites for...well...desktops, so what is the point of showcasing them on a screen that is about 2" square? The old adage of “its best to have a poorly presented website than no website at all” just doesn't cut it when businesses know they could give their visitors a greater mobile experience, but often they don't. Thousands like me want to see clear text and graphics on their Smartphones. I don't want to feel like I live in a retirement village in Eastbourne and have to get my bifocals out to see a webpage on my Smartphone. I'm a customer, have you thought about my experience?

What's The Point In The Mobile Web ?

If I am out and about, in my car or on the train and I want to book a romantic meal with my wife, I don't get the Yellow pages out of my bag or get my laptop out just to book a table. I am not even going to use the one portable device that I and millions of others carry everywhere, my mobile phone! And why?  Because most business websites on my Smartphone don’t have a button I can immediately call to book a table. When I have found the Contact Us details on a page, I then have to get out a pen (that works) and a piece of paper (because my memory is not what it used to be) to write down the telephone number and then type the number in to call. Where is the logic? I have a powerful Smartphone in my hands, why can’t I just click one button from a Mobile Web App to call a restaurant and hey presto, be talking to someone taking my booking.

Conclusion

Millions of people carry their Smartphones everywhere. We use them and look at them more times throughout the day than any other electronic device, and they are always with us. People demand that Smartphones solve their every problem. They are powerful computers and yet 79% of UK companies have not developed a Mobile Web App or any Mobile Website strategy to catch the growing army of Smartphones users; many of whom, can't put them down. Increasingly we're also becoming more reliant on our phones to shop and update our Social networking sites. I'm sure there is a marketing opportunity there for businesses to lead consumers to a clearer Mobile platform retelling what they do and sell, but sadly few see it.


Although these very forward-thinking organisations did. Some of our clients: 

* BBC NEWS Mobile internet use nearing 50%

Author: Paul Wykes E-mail paul@smartwebapps.co.uk    

Smartphones and the Mobile Web. What do they mean for business in 2012?

For many years now the world has been getting smaller, more mobile and as a result more personal. The Internet has played a huge part, but today it is shifting. With the increasing sales of Smartphones, more and more people are using their mobile phones to solve their everyday problems. Such as, sending e-mails, updating Facebook or Twitter and to search for local products and services on the internet via the only electronic device that they carry everywhere - their Mobile phones.

Smartphones, such as iPhone, Blackberry and Android, are changing attitudes of how we all interact and how we spend our money. More Smartphones are being sold than PC’s and Laptops and it’s estimated that very soon the Mobile web will eclipse the desktop web altogther. This means that it is massively important for companies to develop a mobile strategy so that their customers can easily view company information on a mobile phone and connect with them.

Most Websites can appear broken when viewed on a Smartphone

Ordinary websites designed for desktop computers, when viewed on a mobile phone, appear too small and unreadable. Even then the information is scattered and the site is arguable unusable. Mobile users want to find information fast and take action. What does your current website look like when viewed on a Smartphone and what does it say about your company?

According to a June 2011 Google Survey, “A poor Mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of your brand or your company altogether.” Smartphones users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing, but they are more likely to stay and interact or buy from a company that has catered for their User experience (UX) and given them a User Interface (UI) that they can actually use.

“Speed” is the word

You won’t have to wait much longer than 6 seconds for a Mobile website to load, but you could wait up to 30 seconds for an ordinary website to on a Smartphone. How many mobile customers are going to wait that long?

Do you want your mobile customers to know more about you, your opening hours and how to find you? Smartphones are touch sensitive and mobile websites are built in such a way as to only give a user the information that they need – fast.  Furthermore, a “click to call” button can open a line to telephone your company with just a touch on the Smartphone screen and a similar e-mail button can open up the users e-mail client for another way to connect with you. 

Businesses are already seeing the benefits of the Mobile web and no business is excluded. From Plumbers to Accountants, and from Solicitors to Retailers, all need to develop a mobile website strategy. Consumers are increasingly doing and spending more time on their Smartphones. A BBC News article recently stressed that 50% of all searches for local products and services are done from a mobile phone. If 2011 belonged to the importance of being on Twitter and Facebook, 2012 will be your company’s time to get on the Mobile web to catch the growing army of Smartphone addicts and turn their habits into pounds. 


http://www.smartwebapps.co.uk