REVEALED - The 7 Key Internet Marketing Strategies Every Local Business Must Know

KEY TAKEAWAY –  New prospects and current customers are visiting your website using small portable devices.  Is your website even readable?

Usage of mobile devices continues to explode and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  

“Mobile internet usage on smartphones & tablets surpassed desktop internet usage in 2014 for the first time ever.”   – comScore

This is HUGE.
 
This means more and more of your new prospects are using mobile devices like smartphones to go online every day & search for your business. 

What kind of experience will they have?

Bad reviews will kill your business.  Are they?  Find out now…

Your website may look great and be fully functional on a desktop PC or laptop, but how will it look – and behave – on a prospect’s small 10” iPad tablet display or tiny 4” Samsung smartphone screen?

Websites used to be designed to be seen on large computer screens.  Now, they must also be readable on a smartphone’s small display that fits in your pocket.
 
Don’t force your visitors to scroll their display from side to side to read it.  Don’t force them to shrink the screen to make everything fit.  That’s NOT user-friendly.
 
Business owners should take notice of this and make sure nothing like that gets in between your prospects & your message to them.

With an average “bounce rate” of only 6 seconds, your message must be delivered quickly and easily.  That won’t happen if you force them to manipulate their device in any way.
 
Here are 6 key design suggestions to help make your mobile-friendly website work seamlessly with your prospects’ smartphones & tablets, ensuring they have a great experience which improves your conversion chances:
 
1.  Optimize your website for display on mobile devices.  Offer a “lighter” alternate version of your website with appropriately-sized text sizes and images, or use “responsive” website software that detects and automatically adjusts itself to the type of mobile device being used to view your website.  Using a responsive theme is the best way to go for new websites.

2.  Make sure your content is in a “shareable” format in addition to being in a “findable”, keyword-rich format for search engines because consumers will soon be coming to your website from your social media properties as much as they do from online search.  Most “shareable” content today is:

   •  Long copy: the longer the sales copy, the better
   •  Narcissistic: it feeds the viewers egos (e.g. quizzes, puzzles, contests)
   •  Re-promotable: content that you can use repeatedly
   •  In a List: People love lists.  10 items are favored the most, then 23, 16, 24.
   •  Shared most frequently on Tuesdays than any other day of the week

3.  Display 5-star reviews on your mobile website’s homepage and Contact page.  Regardless of the type of device your new prospects are using to search for you with, you should always leverage the power of social proof – your 5-star online reputation, visibly front and center – to any and all of your visitors or prospects.
 
4.  Design your smartphone-friendly website with a “click to call” feature allowing the visitor to call you with the single press of a button, because many times mobile users will simply want to call and talk to you.  Most are also looking for the phone number or street address of your business, and don’t intend to read any other website content.
 
5.  Embed the GPS coordinates of your business storefront in a clickable link on your website so that your prospects can simply click the link, automatically opening a map showing your exact business location and the detailed directions to get them there.
 
6.  Add your business contact info to your mobile-friendly website so that, with a simple click of a button, your prospect can download it into their smartphone’s address book, making them much more likely to remember you and your company when a future buying situation arises.
 
NEXT UP:   We’ll take a close look at how important a video marketing strategy is for your business and how to implement one.

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