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Who’s Got Smartphones and Apps? Gen Y

February 1st, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky
It may not be a surprise, but Gen Y is leading the way when it comes to adoption of smartphones and smartphone and tablet apps, eMarketer reports. A study by Forrester, cited in eMarketer, found that consumers aged 24 to 32 are the most likely to own smartphones. Ninety-seven percent of Gen Y consumers have a mobile phone, and 72 percent have smartphones, higher than any other age group.

Overall, 93 percent of Americans owned mobile phones; however, only 50% have smartphones. Gen Z (age 18-23) was the second most likely group to own a smartphone, at 64 percent, followed by Gen X at 61 percent. After that, smartphone use declines rather drastically, with just 39 percent of younger boomers (47-56) owning them, 28 percent of older boomers (57-67) owning them, and 16 percent of those over 68 owning them.

Gen Y consumers are also more likely than any other age group to use smartphone and tablet apps, a different study by Flurry found. (This study defined Gen Y as 25 to 34.) Of the Gen Y users surveyed, 33 percent used smartphone apps and 26 percent used tablet apps. The 35-to-54 age group was next most likely to use apps.

You might be surprised that Gen Y are bigger users of smartphones than the younger generations, but eMarketer notes this group is in the “sweet spot” in terms of being old enough that they can afford more expensive smartphones, but young enough to want them and know how to make the most of them. In fact, the biggest reason younger customers cited for not having a smartphone was that they couldn’t afford it, while the top reason cited by older consumers was that they didn’t think it was useful or necessary for their lives.

What do these stats mean to you?

  • If your target market falls in the younger end of the spectrum, you’ll want to make sure your business website is mobile-friendly.
  • You’ll also want to consider developing useful, relevant and/or fun apps for your business that encourage sharing with friends.
  • Keep in mind that Gen Y is most likely to own iPhones, while in other age groups and overall, Samsung phones dominate.
  • Finally, keep in mind that Gen Y’s smartphone-dependency isn’t going away. As these customers move into their prime buying years, they’ll rely on their devices even more—so be ready to grow with them.

Image by Flickr user milesopie (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Generational Marketing, Marketing, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Your 3-Step Plan for a Business Website That Drives Sales

January 29th, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Is your small business website driving the leads, customer engagement and sales you want? If it’s falling short of your goals, how can you help your business website perform better? Here are three steps to take.

  1. Focus on your target customers. If your website isn’t attracting enough customers, maybe it’s too vague and general. No business, or website, can succeed by trying to be all things to all people. Instead of casting a wide net, narrow your focus. Try developing a couple of “personas” that represent your target customer. Be as specific as you can. If your target customer is a busy mom, is she a working mom or a stay-at-home mom? How old are her children? What products is she looking for? Get as specific as you can; this will help you focus on the keywords that will drive that exact customer to your site. By pinpointing the specific groups you’re hoping to reach, you can develop a website that reaches out to those people.
  2. Focus on your customers’ pain points. A website is first and foremost a marketing tool, but sometimes small business owners forget this. Just like your other marketing materials, your small business website should show prospects that your business understands their pain points and is trying to solve them. Going back to the busy mom customer we mentioned above, if she is a working mom with an infant at home, one pain point might be the need to keep stocked up on diapers in order to avoid midnight runs to the convenience store. Your website and keywords should focus on solutions such as diaper delivery, diapers shipped to your home, auto-reorder of diapers and similar options.
  3. Focus on a call to action. Sometimes your business website is working well at attracting customers, but when they’re on your site, they just click around for a bit and leave. If customers aren’t taking action on your site, it’s probably because you’re not showing them a clear call to action. Every page on your site should drive customers to take a specific step, whether that’s “Buy now,” “Shop,” “Call us,” “Click to get a quote,” or “Chat with our operators.” If your product or service is one that doesn’t require a lot of thought, your call to action could be simple, such as “Buy now.” If it’s a product such as business equipment that requires a lot of hand-holding before a decision is made, there will be more steps involved, but you still need a call to action for each of those steps: “Click for more information,” “Request a quote,” etc. This is not the time to be subtle. Use action-oriented words that are very specific as to what you want customers to do. Emphasize them with color, hyperlinks and graphics.

Last, but not least, be sure that you test all the changes you make to your site by monitoring your analytics to see what users are doing. By making these changes, you’ll find your small business website driving a lot more business.

Image by Flickr user FutUndBeidl (Creative Commons)

 

 

 

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Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Affluent Men Are From Mars, Affluent Women Are From Venus

January 23rd, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

Both affluent men and affluent women have optimistic outlooks about their personal financial situations in 2013, a new report from Shullman Research found. However, there are significant differences in the optimism levels of men and women that could affect how you market to these wealthy consumers.

The Shullman Luxury and Affluence Monthly Pulse conducted in December found that 48 percent of U.S. adults with a household income of over $250,000 believe the U.S. economy is doing better today than it was a year ago. About one-third (34 percent) thought the economy was doing the same as 12 months ago.

However, when you dig down into the men’s vs. the women’s responses, some key differences emerge:

  • Some 45 percent of men are very optimistic or optimistic about the economy, compared to just 35 percent of women.
  • About 42 percent of female respondents say that the economy is essentially the same today as it was 12 months ago, compared to just 26 percent of male respondents.
  • While men and women generally felt positive about their current financial situations, with 78 percent of men and 73 percent of women describing themselves as financially stable, men were more positive about the future. Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of men believe they will definitely or most likely be better off financially one year from now than they are today, compared to 64 percent of women.
  • Overall, 90 percent of those surveyed reporting that as long as the economy keeps improving, they will spend either more than they did in 2012, or the same amount. However, men were more likely to spend more; 43 percent of men said they will spend a lot more or slightly more than they did last year. Just 36 percent of women said the same.

Shullman Research Center founder Bob Shullman says women tend to take a more cautious approach to their finances than do men. What do these numbers mean to your business?

If you’re targeting upscale women, your marketing message will need to work harder to reach them and overcome that inclination to be conservative in their spending. Use marketing messaging that will calm their financial concerns, such as emphasizing the value of your product or service, how it will benefit them or their families, and how it’s a smart investment.

If you’re targeting upscale men, marketing messages that focus more on “fun” and rewarding oneself may be more effective. Affluent men are more willing to boost their spending and feeling more confident, so tap into their pent-up desires to spend a little more by playing up the desirable features of your product or service.

Image by Flickr user ToGa Wanderings (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business | No Comments »

How to Sell to Top Executives

January 22nd, 2013 ::

Rolls Royce in ItalyI recently ran across an excerpt from a new book called Influencing Up by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford, which details how to partner with senior management and other powerful people, persuade key decision makers, and turn a difficult boss into an ally.

Chapter 11, the chapter I downloaded, focuses on what the powerful people care about. If top executives are part of your target market, here’s what you need to know about successfully selling to them:

Just like any other group you sell to, you have to know what pain points the group has. Powerful people – whether it’s a CEO, movie studio head, or public figure – can be a little harder to understand, as their assumptions and values – sometime their entire world – can be very different from your own.

First things first: understand what top executives care about. In general, it is:

  • Keeping the organization’s costs, growth/innovation, and building future capacities in balance
  • Major economic forces, especially during a downturn, like inflation, deflation, interest rates, and demand
  • Innovation, products, and processes
  • Competition, especially from overseas
  • Outsourcing to contain costs
  • Searching for new markets
  • Talent acquisition and retention
  • Supply sources
  • Integrity, ethics and company reputation
  • Their relationship to stakeholders, the media, and peers
  • Government regulations

Do your research beforehand so you can link your proposal to current strategic efforts or preoccupations. The best information to look for includes:

  • Their public statements
  • What the press says about them and the company
  • Company strategy, vision, and values, which you can find on the company’s website
  • Educational and professional backgrounds
  • Whether they care more about risks or results (this might be trickier to uncover)

Now that you’ve done your homework, it’s time to put together a proposal, which might be structured quite differently than others you normally create. It should be:

  • Concise
  • Start with the conclusions and implications to grab attention right away
  • Include major assumptions
  • Explain all benefits

If you sell to top executives, how do you build relationships and gain credibility? Share your tips below!

Image courtesy of bmwblog.com

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What Marketing Strategies Are You Spending on in 2013?

January 22nd, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

How does your small business’s marketing budget for 2013 compare to that of your competitors? A new survey by StrongMail has some insights. Overall, businesses are bullish on marketing for 2013, with a total of 89 percent saying they will either increase or maintain their level of marketing spending in the coming year. (Some 45 percent will increase their marketing budgets and 44 percent will keep them the same.)

Email marketing, social media and mobile marketing will be the main focus of investment this year. More than half (55.5 percent) of marketing executives report plans to spend more on email marketing campaigns in 2013; 51.8 percent say they will spend more on social media; 42.8 percent say they will increase spending on mobile marketing; and 39.8 percent will boost spending on search marketing.

Two-thirds of the companies in the survey report they will spend more on mobile marketing programs such as mobile apps (39 percent) and SMS alerts (21 percent). Overall, mobile marketing spending will increase by 11 percent compared to 2012.

When it comes to social media, where are marketers putting most of their efforts? Facebook dominates, with 60 percent of businesses saying Facebook is the most valuable social media channel for them. Twitter and YouTube ranked second and third, respectively. Google and Pinterest were somewhere in the middle, cited by 31 percent of marketers, while Yelp, Instagram and LinkedIn brought up the rear.

Email is a strong area of growth for marketers, who plan to use it for a variety of purposes this year. While at one point some experts were predicting that social media would make email obsolete, marketers are figuring out email’s value in growing their social media presence and customer engagement. That’s reflected in the 46 percent who say they will spend more on emails to drive growth to their social media channels, such as Facebook or Twitter. In addition, 38.8 percent will spend more on promotional emails, and 34.7 percent will spend more on email newsletters.

Where aren’t marketers spending? Direct mail, trade show participation and traditional advertising will take the biggest hits. Some 37.4 percent report they plan to cut spending on direct mail, 33.6 percent will cut back on trade show spending and 23 percent will decrease spending on advertising in 2013.

You can view a PDF of the full survey results here.

Image by Flickr user Jay Freshuk (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Web Design | No Comments »

Are You Leaving Money in Customers’ Online Shopping Carts?

January 16th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

The holiday shopping season resulted in as much as $43.4 billion in sales for online retailers. But a study performed by The Adcom Group for Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) suggests that number could have been much higher if consumers hadn’t struggled with a variety of obstacles to completing the online sale.

The study found that more than three-fourths of online shoppers ran into shopping roadblocks when they had a problem completing the purchase, but couldn’t find help online. A similar number reported that this frustration led them to give up entirely and abandon their online shopping cart.

What specific issues were causing problems?

  • Problems correctly reading and using the captcha – 80.3 percent
  • Trouble using promo codes, gift card redemption, or with other discount – 46 percent
  • Product was back-ordered – 32.5 percent
  • Had questions about product features and had difficulty finding answers  - 31 percent
  • The site timed out (or appeared to) – 30.5 percent
  • Had problems logging onto the site, setting up your account or remembering your password – 29.3 percent
  • Had questions about shipping and had difficulty finding answers – 24.7 percent
  • Had problems entering  credit card data or with credit card acceptance -22.6 percent
  • Had questions about product availability and had difficulty finding answers – 20.1 percent
  • Had problems re-setting your password – 18.9 percent
  • Had questions about the return policy and had difficulty finding answers – 15.9 percent

Here’s the really scary part: When faced with these problems, more than 37 percent of customers just give up, and 25.5 percent head to a competitor.

How could online retailers help combat the problem of abandoned shopping carts? Rapidly resolving the problems that get in the way of buying was the number-one answer. Customers overwhelmingly said they would buy more from a site that offered the ability to click or tap to get immediate customer service assistance. In fact, more than three-fourths said they would prefer a site that offered this convenience to a competing site that didn’t.

Providing better customer service would not only drive customers to complete purchases, but also inspire new business. Over half of survey respondents said they would become promoters of brands that offered the ability to click or tap for customer service, and that they would refer others to the brand, website or mobile app.

Of course, many of the issues mentioned above could be solved with a robust set of FAQs that’s easy to find on your site. Make sure FAQs about issues such as shipping, return policies and more are clearly visible on every page of your site navigation.

You can download the full results of the study at www.virtualhold.com/onlineshopping.

Image by Flickr user zion fiction (Creative Commons)

 

 

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Posted in Business Development, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Are You Marketing to Asian Americans?

January 11th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

What’s the fastest-growing consumer group you may not be targeting yet? The answer might surprise you. In the last 10 years, the Asian American population has grown at double-digit rates in 49 of 50 states, according to Nielsen’s State of the Asian American Consumer Q3 2012 report. That’s good news for marketers, since many Asian American consumers are affluent, well-educated, tech-savvy and have lots of purchasing power.

The Asian American population has increased by more than 50 percent since 2000, to approximately 18.2 million, and is projected to reach 20.9 million in the next five years. Asian Americans come from many different countries of origin, including China, India, Philippines, Vietnam, Korea and Japan. The largest overall group is Chinese Americans, who make up 22 percent of the Asian American population.

The Asian American population is actually growing a little bit faster than the Hispanic population in the U.S. However, unlike growth in the Hispanic population, which is primarily fueled by babies being born in the U.S., currently growth in the Asian American population is fueled by immigration. In 2010, about 430,000 new immigrants, or 36 percent of the total immigrant population, was from Asian nations, and in the last 10 years, 3.6 million Asian immigrants came to the United States

What are some demographic characteristics of this population? Overall, Asian Americans skew younger than the average American (41 years vs. 45 years) and their household size is slightly larger than average (3.1 vs. 2.6). Adult, native-born Asians skew much younger than adult immigrants (median age of 30 vs. 44).

The median income for Asian American households is higher than average ($63,420 vs. $49,580 in 2012). More than one-fourth (28 percent) of Asian American households have incomes of more than $100K; among overall households, only 18 percent boast this income level.

What are the most effective ways to market to Asian Americans? The number of Asian media outlets increased by more than 1,000 percent from 1999 to 2010, so there’s no shortage of options. However, one of the best (and most affordable) ways to reach this market is online, since Asian Americans have high tech adoption rates.

Specifically, Asian Americans spend an average of 80 hours online each month; view 3,600 Web pages monthly (1,000 pages more than any other demographic group) and visit computer and consumer electronics sites 36 percent more often than the average population. Using search engine optimization and online advertising targeted to these consumers are effective methods to reach this growing market.

Image by Flickr user Cea (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Marketing, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Lettuce (Order Management Tool)

January 10th, 2013 ::

Lettuce

Keeping track of orders is a necessary evil of small business management that becomes even harder if you don’t have a good system in place. Finding a good order management system for a small business, however, can also prove to be a challenge. The creators of Lettuce also had that issue, so they developed an app to track your order and automate the entire process. Since the app is mobile you can capture orders anywhere and focus less on paperwork and more on the sale. Then use the analytics tools Lettuce provides to gain valuable insight into your business’s bestselling (and worst-selling) products.

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Posted in Accounting and Taxes, Business Development, Compliance, Resources, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

10 Ways to Stay Competitive in 2013

January 9th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

Is your small business doing all it can be to stay competitive in 2013 and beyond? The latest Citibank Small Business Pulse survey spotlighted 10 actions the most successful small business owners take to keep their companies competitive. Are you doing them?

1: Do your research and get educated. Some 88 percent of small businesses surveyed say they regularly work to stay up to date and knowledgeable about their industry and changes in the market.

2: Work hard and do what needs to get done. Successful small business owners are dedicated—so much so that more than half (53 percent) say they didn’t take a vacation last summer.

3: Update or upgrade technology. Nearly 70 percent of respondents say they recently updated or upgraded their computer systems, and 51 percent have made a major change to their business technology.

4: Know your clients. More than two-thirds (67 percent) say they are spending more “face time” with customers to keep their businesses ahead of the pack. Such client relationships also help entrepreneurs stay on top of industry and market trends.

5: Keep a close eye on cash and budgets. Many small businesses say they are keeping cash in reserves and spending cautiously. No wonder: Some 58 percent admit that cash flow issues have been a major challenge in the past few years. However, 73 percent feel they are doing a good job of managing their cash effectively.

6: Be involved. Small business owners are taking part in their business and local communities: 51 percent have built a network of suppliers and partner companies, and 47 percent say they have become more active in the community and local organizations.

7. Be prepared. If another economic downturn occurred, 80 percent of survey respondents say they could handle it. They’ve learned from the recent recession, in which many of them took steps such as running leaner, cutting operating costs and renegotiating contracts.

8: Plan ahead. Some 27 percent of small business owners say they can predict their cash situation four to six months ahead, which enables them to plan for the future.

9: Stick with your aspirations. Despite the challenges of entrepreneurship, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of business owners polled say they are living their dream; three-fourths say they would do it all over again.

10: Market, market, market. More than half (53 percent) of small business owners say they’ve upped social media and online advertising in the last year, while 54 percent improved their websites and search engine presence.

Image by Flickr user Generationbass (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Accounting and Taxes, Business Development, Compliance, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Networking, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Clipix (Bookmarking Tool)

January 8th, 2013 ::

Clipix

Black Friday online sales numbers prove ecommerce is alive and thriving, but why would consumers pick your website over a competitor’s? Clipix can help consumers remember your site and keep them coming back to shop again. For consumers, Clipix is a private bookmarking tool that lets consumers set Price Drop Alerts, an innovative feature that monitors real-time discounts on the items sold on your website. By adding the Clipix icon to your site, you’re encouraging shoppers to bookmark your page to their personal shopping lists. And if a Price Drop Alert is received, the customer is linked directly to your checkout page at no cost to you (the online retailer).

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