Expanding Your Digital Footprint with Mobile and Local Marketing

Small Businesses Need to Expand Their Digital Footprint with Mobile and Local Marketing

Just about everyone can admit that they get a bit nostalgic when they step foot into an old-fashioned, mom-and-pop local shop. These shops have focused ambition and displays of work that you just know that they have poured their heart into – something that you don’t see in many big corporation shops. You can forge a connection with these shops – something that has come to be lost in out distanced society. Currently, it is reported that are nation has about 28 million small businesses, which means they’re the life support of American business.

Small businesses have shown great resilience throughout these last several years of economic hardship, sometimes even coming out faster, tougher and better than their “bigger and better” counterparts. Why? Maybe it is because they have less management, which leads to faster and better decision-making. Whatever the case, they apparently have the leverage they need to succeed.

Think Big, Remain Small

As a small business, you can remain small, but it doesn’t mean that you have to think that way. In fact, you should always think BIG. As a general rule, unlike larger corporations, small businesses are slow at adopting digital marketing techniques, such as SEO. Unfortunately, this is a downside. The sooner you can connect the digital and physical worlds, the better off your business will be.

Believe it or not, RedShift Research conducted a survey that reported that approximately 60 percent of very small businesses (one to five individuals) do not have a website. Businesses without a website cannot be seen by consumers who are using their smartphones and computers to search for an immediate product or service. Therefore, you are hurting yourself if you do not have a website.

Once you get a website, which will help you keep your customers informed, it is important to track how consumers get to your website. This can be done with analytic tools. Some of these can be found on line for free or a nominal free. You can even find some from none other than Google. It is also important that you take steps to increase your visibility in the search engine results and with local search.

Help Your Customers Locate You

The Pew Research Center reports that there are over 90 percent of U.S. adults with mobile devices and that they normally keep those devices within arm’s reach. This mobile connectivity is a great advantage for you as a small business owner. This is because a consumer could search for “your business” while out and about. For example, let’s say that you own a local bookstore and a consumer types in bookstore in their smartphone. If you have a solid local SEO campaign at your disposal, it will guarantee that your bookstore will show up in that consumer’s search.

It is not necessary to have a search engine optimized website for the aforementioned to work for your business, although it is always recommended to have one. An expert in digital marketing can ensure that your small business pops up in local searches even if you don’t have a website. However, your business does need to be listed in online directories as well as review sites, such as Google Maps, Yelp, Bing Maps and Foursquare. You also need to ensure that your name, address and phone (NAP data) is all accurate and current.

ROI – Return on Investment

To many small businesses, digital marketing is seen as expensive and simply too complicated to even mess with. However, for those that take the time to embrace digital marketing, they quickly realize that the opposite is actually true. In fact, 40 percent of small businesses that use digital marketing techniques report significant savings.

With the mobile-first world that we live in, people are moving quickly – no longer at a snail’s pace. In fact, research suggests that more than 75 percent of consumers will visit a store within one day of a local search. In addition, retailers in the United States that are using their marketing efforts on multiple channels, such as in-store, apps, desktop and mobile, are realizing 16 percent more conversions. This goes to show that online marketing efforts really can reach new customers, produce higher conversion rates and increase purchases in-store.

Make the Jump to Digital and Local Marketing with WebDetail

As you can see, small businesses have the opportunity to further succeed if they are willing to make the jump with digital and local marketing tactics. If you feel the time is right, give us a call at WebDetail and we’ll get started.