Mobile Marketing Opportunity For Local Business Growth

I wanted to take some time today to share a little bit about the status of mobile marketing as we head into 2012. Mobile marketing is completely different than internet marketing in some regards, and in other ways it is exactly the same.

How Mobile Marketing Is Similar To Web Based Internet Marketing

When discussing the ways these two types of marketing are the same we include things like link building to get your site to come up in the search engines, you need to use appropriate keywords and content on your site that is connected to those keywords and related to the other content on your site.

There are all kinds of things to learn about that.

The same thing is true about email marketing which is utilized to bring in more money for your site, to help you bring in more money for your site, whether it’s through affiliate marketing or promoting other products of your own, doing sells, and that kind of thing. But it kind of fits in with mobile marketing too, because since people are on their cell phones a lot, they check their email on their cell phones and they are browsing the internet on their cell phones. Because of this your emails need to be formatted in such a way that they are useful and navigable by those who are on their cell phones.

I don’t think web owners are thinking about that. In fact, I know they’re not. In fact I get emails all the time that are completely illegible and useless on a cell phone. So, that’s something to consider.

How Mobile Marketing Is Different Than Web Based Internet Marketing

But where I really wanted to go today was the ways in which mobile marketing is different than your regular website marketing. Although you can do autoresponder series and email marketing and link bait, just like you can on your other site, you need to understand that SEO is different for your mobile site. The search engines that you are targeting and trying to rank in are different.

I think that’s something that just about nobody seems to get. Just because you are doing well in the search engines for your website does not mean you are doing well in the search engines on mobile search. People really need to think about that, and start monitoring that and keeping up with that.

Did you know that in your Google Analytics reports show mobile stats, and if you don’t use Google Analytics you really should, or some kind of analytics for sure. Google Analytics has just got everything I’ve ever found I needed, and they are constantly updating it and making it a better service. So, I really do recommend that folks use that. It will show not only how many people are accessing your site from mobile search as opposed to web based search, but it also will tell you what kind of phones they are using, what kind of platforms they are using, and keep up with all kinds of stats related to it. So you really need to think about that. You also really need to find a process for your business that shows you how to monitor how you are doing in the search engines for mobile.

You Have To Have A Mobile Optimized Site For Mobile Search Engine Rankings

Now, first of all, get this because it is absolutely essential. If you do not have a mobile site, or a mobile optimized site, a mobile friendly site, you don’t qualify to even show up in the mobile search engine results. That’s huge.

Your competitors don’t know this yet. You probably didn’t know it. If you are the first one there, you are really going to be doing a huge service for your own company by getting yourself listed simply by having a mobile site and getting Google to acknowledge that you exist.

That’s going to help you a lot in the mobile search engines right there. There are very few competitors there, especially on a local level.

Folks, mobile is really marketing gold for local businesses. Mobile search engines are geared towards, designed to be beneficial to local businesses, small businesses like yours.

Heretofore pretty much everything on the internet, the opportunities for growth on the internet for business, bypassed small and local businesses.

For example, Pay Per Click, like Google Adwords, where you could pay to show up in the search results there over on the side and more recently at the top. But there wasn’t a way to target that locally, at least not easily. Then they added that functionality, but it wasn’t easy to compete with Walmart, Best Buy and Target!

If you are selling the same types of products they are, let’s face it they are selling pretty much all the products there are to be sold, locally businesses  have a hard time competing with them.

Then you had the same issue for small businesses in the organic search results. Again, because small businesses, local companies, were competing against the big corporations. The big guys have more staff, more money to play with. They had tons and tons of content on their site, which Google loves. They love content.

There was just really an easy way for a local pizza company, you know, a pizza place, a hamburger dive, some nail salon or tanning salon, even a local lawyer, to really compete in that arena with every other lawyer or every other nail salon. But, when you start talking about mobile, it’s another story.

Mobile Marketing Is For Local Folks And Local Businesses

Mobile is first of all by nature more inclined to be local. And the folks that are using it, and this is what is really important. You have to get this if you are going to be successful in the mobile arena, and let’s face it, that’s half you customers, half your business right now pretty much is mobile. So, you’ve got to get this. It’s essential.

If you are going to be successful in your mobile marketing, you have to understand that the people searching there are local folks. They are looking for a place to go eat pizza right now. They are looking for a place to go get their nail fixed right now because they are about to go to a wedding or do some kind of presentation or whatever, be in court. And they want someone to fix their nail right now.

This is a huge opportunity for local businesses. About 50% of all searches (40% right now according to Google, but growing rapidly) are done on a cell phone.

Meaning about 50% of all searches are local related. They are looking for local information, local places they can go to right now. The conversion  rate is really high. Why?

Because if you are looking for a pizza place, you want to go eat! You aren’t looking for a pizza place to do research on them, probably. You are not looking for a pizza place to find out, you know, if they offer gluten free pizza, or other kinds of cerebral kinds of academic approaches to pizza. People who are looking on their cell phones for pizza right now, want to go eat some!

They want to meet up with their friends. They want to tell their family, hey, this is where it’s at. Let’s go. It’s a huge opportunity for pizza places and nail salons, car detailers, towing companies and that kind of thing. It’s local businesses who have been floundering.

Let’s face it. Local businesses, small businesses are the backbone of this country, and they have been floundering. And because they have been floundering our country has been floundering. Mobile is the opportunity to turn that around.

I make it part of my service to this community to help small businesses regain the vision that they are important to our country. They have been trodden upon and overlooked and out priced. And they have been slowly dying.

Don’t Ignore Or Even Shun A Third To A Half Of Your Customers By Ignoring Mobile

Small and local companies are ignoring 1 out of every 3 customers if they don’t have a mobile optimized site. And soon it will be 1 out of every 2 customers. Think about that. We cannot afford, you cannot afford, to ignore them.

People who are searching on mobile phones are local folks. They are looking for local businesses to come and hand them their dollars. I believe, and it is part of my personal mission, to help local folks hook up with local companies through mobile. That is the perfect avenue for these relationships to be built. They are already looking. You just have to position yourself to show up. If you don’t have a mobile optimized site, you can’t show up. We need you to show up. We need you to quit floundering and start flourishing. You have to go mobile.

If you haven’t gotten our Free Going Mobile Report, get it today and find out how you can get started now.