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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 »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Documents.Me (Document Access Dashboard)

January 31st, 2013 ::

Documents.Me

If you prefer working on your tablet or smartphone, but run into problems when you need to access files stored on a laptop or other computer, your life just got a little bit easier. With Documents.Me, you can leave the laptop at home. Documents.Me is a free business tool for iPads and iPhones that makes accessing your documents as easy as touching one button. Whether your files are on a remote PC, Mac, or stored in a cloud application such as Google Drive, iCloud or Dropbox, Documents.Me allows you to access the file and then edit it, email it or add another document to a project.

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Posted in Resources, Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: TalkToTheManager (Business Review Solution)

January 30th, 2013 ::

TalkToTheManager

Why wait to see the Yelp review to know what customers think of your business when you can find out instantly with TalkToTheManager? You post a phone number and customers can text you anonymous reviews of your service, products, food or whatever your business does well or not so well. The text is then forwarded to your cell phone and you may choose to respond or not. Your cell number is kept private at all times. TalkToTheManager costs $29 per month and you can cancel at any time. You can also receive preprinted signs with your assigned number for displaying in your store or restaurant.

 

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Posted in Customer Service, Resources, Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

Why Your Emails Must Be Mobile-Optimized

January 30th, 2013 ::

By RIeva Lesonsky

Are your email marketing messages optimized for mobile? They’d better be. According to the latest Return Path global bi-annual mobile email report, 37 percent of U.S. respondents surveyed now open their email on mobile devices, compared with the 30 percent opening them through webmail in a browser. The percentage of emails opened on mobile devices has increased 300 percent since 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down, says the report. Here’s some more of what you need to know:

 

Platform matters: While Android mobile phones still dominate in the U.S., Apple device users are more likely to open and read email on a mobile device than any other group. Although Windows Mobile saw an 85 percent increase in email opens since April 2012, it still accounts for just 0.3 percent of total email opens on smartphones.

Industry variation: Certain industries’ emails are more likely to get opened on a mobile device than others. The retail (40 percent), consumer product (40 percent) and real estate (38 percent) industries lead the way.

Is it safe? The information being sent via email is also a concern. For example, banking-related emails were less likely to be opened on mobile devices due to security worries.

Desktops aren’t obsolete…yet: Users check email more often on a desktop than on a mobile device during the day. I’d surmise that’s probably because they are sitting in front of their computers at work, but as more workplaces incorporate tablets into the work day, the desktop is likely to become less and less dominant.

Mobile sitting still: It’s a myth that mobile purchasing is taking place out of home. Just 22 percent of mobile purchases take place on the go; 18 percent occur at work and more than half (51 percent) take place at home. Your customers are more likely to be opening that email in bed or on the couch than in the car, so keep that in mind when designing your message.

If you doubt optimizing email for mobile matters, keep these facts in mind: Return Path found that email marketing messages drive twice as many conversions as social media or search. In addition, the average order value is higher on mobile devices, whether tablet or smartphone.  However, since even those who open their emails on mobile devices still make most of their purchases on the desktop, you need to make sure your emails are optimized for both platforms.

Image by Flickr user Brad Flickinger (Creative Commons)

 

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Posted in Email Marketing, Marketing, 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 »

Mobile Commerce, Mobile Payments: What’s the Future?

January 28th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

While mobile payments and m-commerce have generated a lot of buzz in the media recently, both have been slow to take off and still comprise a very small percentage of payments and sales in the U.S. However, that may soon change, as two separate studies by Forrester reported in MediaPost project that mobile payments and m-commerce will surge in the U.S. in the next few years.

Payment Predictions

The first study projects mobile payments will increase from $18.2 billion this year to $90 billion in 2017—growth of nearly 50 percent. The study looked at three kinds of mobile payments. Mobile proximity, or in-store, payments are expected to grow fastest, increasing 137% to $41 billion by 2017, and going from 6% of mobile payments to 45%.

Much of the proximity payment growth is predicted to come next year, when Forrester says “early adopters” will begin using mobile payment solutions. This will force retail businesses to play catch-up and offer more mobile payment alternatives, as well as to incorporate Near Field Communication (NFC) technology into their point-of-sale systems.

Mobile Matters

The second study predicts that m-commerce will rise from $12 billion in 2013 to $31 billion in 2017, but its growth rate of 31 percent will be low compared to that of mobile payments. What’s holding m-commerce back? Currently, Forrester says, consumers are worried about security issues related to mobile transactions; m-commerce still isn’t well integrated with other ways to shop; and the checkout process needs to be simplified. (Both reports focused solely on the use of smartphones for payments and m-commerce, not on tablets.)

Currently, just 3 percent of ecommerce sales occur on smartphones, compared to some 57 percent that take place on tablets. Because of this wide discrepancy, Forrester’s report suggests that instead of worrying about how to encourage shopping on smartphones, retailers might be wise to focus on creating a better tablet shopping experience. After all, as tablet prices drop and tablets become even more widely adopted, it’s likely consumers will gravitate to them over smartphones when they want to browse or buy.

Image by Flickr user loupiote (Creative Commons)

 

 

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Posted in Small Business, small business, Technology | 1 Comment »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Lemon Wallet (Digital Credit Card App)

January 25th, 2013 ::

Lemon Wallet

Ever forget to bring the right credit card when you’re out with a client? Or perhaps you’ve had your wallet lost or stolen and have had to spend hours on the phone canceling and replacing all your cards. Lemon Wallet allows you to scan and digitize all the information on your credit cards for easy retrieval on your phone. Merchants can then scan the image on your phone to download your card information for your purchases. Lemon Wallet also keeps your credit card balance handy and allows you to store your receipts digitally so you aren’t in danger of losing track of expense receipts. Lemon Wallet works on all mobile devices.

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Posted in Accounting and Taxes, Compliance, Resources, Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Heyo (Social Marketing Tool)

January 24th, 2013 ::

Heyo

Want a better Facebook page? How about a mobile app for your business? Heyo is a social marketing tool that lets businesses do all that and more–all with easy drag-and-drop steps that don’t take a lot of time. If you’ve ever run across a Facebook fan page you admire and wish you could create one, too, Heyo can help with attractive templates or custom design tools. You can choose from over 30 widgets ranging from coupons and “Buy” buttons to contest and email opt-ins. Then Heyo takes your fan page and creates a mobile app based on your social data complete with photos and fan page tabs so your customers can see your page on their smartphones or mobile devices.

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Posted in Marketing, Resources, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Where Will Businesses Spend on IT in 2013?

January 24th, 2013 ::

By Karen Axelton

What will businesses be spending their IT dollars on for 2013? Until now, global uncertainty about the economy has been affecting IT spending, TechCrunch reports. Research firm Gartner’s projects worldwide spending on devices, including PCs, tablets, mobile phones and printers, to hit $666 billion this year, a 6.3 percent increase compared to 2012. However, the rise is still a significant cutback from Gartner’s prior forecast that 2013 would see $706 billion in global device spending or 7.9 percent growth.

For small business owners, however, the decreased spending may actually be good news. That’s because much of the reason for the shrinkage is lower prices thanks to cheaper Android devices. Another factor? PC purchasing is dropping drastically as consumers and businesses switch to tablet computers, for which there are many inexpensive options available.

Meanwhile, Forrester’s newest IT spending projections forecast 5.4 percent growth in 2013, but predict that 2014 is when growth will really ramp up. The company predicts that pent-up demand for mobile devices, cloud computing and smart computing will boost IT spending by 6.4 percent in 2014.

Other trends worth noting:

  • Storage devices and peripherals are also seeing slowing growth, with that trend expected to continue as more consumers and businesses move storage to the cloud.
  • PC and server vendors were hard hit in 2012 as these technologies became less used, and the industries’ decline in sales is projected to continue.
  • Apple bucked the trend of decreasing desktop/PC sales. The company saw strong growth in sales of PCs and laptops, and that is projected to continue through 2013 and 2014.
  • Windows 8 devices will see 8 percent growth in 2014, but will still be far outpaced by the double-digit increase in sales of Linux, Android and Apple products.

Overall, Forrester and Gartner both see 2013 as a transitional year when many technologies are becoming obsolete as new, less expensive ones take hold. For small businesses on tight IT budgets, that could be very good news.

Image by Flickr user Andrew Turner (Creative Commons)

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Posted in Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

Why Your Business Website Must Be Mobile-Friendly—and How to Do It

January 21st, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

There’s no question that consumer and business use of tablet computers is growing by leaps and bounds. The recent holiday shopping season put millions more tablets into consumers’ hands. Meanwhile, a recent report by Gartner notes that businesses are buying fewer PCs and instead turning to tablet computers.

Given all this, it’s clear why your small business website needs to be mobile-friendly, if it isn’t already. What are some factors to consider when optimizing your website for mobile use?

Use images wisely. The ability to display high-resolution photographs is a key part of the appeal of tablet computers like the iPad, but you need to make sure photos load quickly on a tablet or smartphone. Widely cited stats from Google say 60 percent of users expect mobile sites to load in 3 seconds or less, so don’t let photos slow you down.

Consider responsive design. The new trend in Web design, responsive design means creating sites in such a way that they “adapt” to the device being used and display differently depending on screen orientation, screen size and other factors. This can be a simpler option than the older method of developing different websites for each type of device or browser.

Use consistent elements. Your site should have the same overall look and feel whether it is viewed on a smartphone, tablet or desktop/laptop. Sure, there will be fewer and simpler elements on the smaller displays, but your website’s logo, colors, fonts and other elements of your brand image should carry over from one device to the next so that your site is instantly recognizable.

Develop simple navigation. Navigation on a touchscreen of a tablet or smartphone is different than mouse or trackpad navigation on a laptop or desktop. Account for the “fat-finger” factor; make sure users can easily tap, touch or swipe the icons they need to without hitting the wrong command by mistake.

Consider the competition. Before revamping your website for mobile use, check out what your key competitors are doing. Pay attention to what you like and don’t like when you access their sites on mobile devices. What seems to be missing that you could add to your site? Or what’s unnecessary on their site that you can eliminate from yours?

Borrow from the pros. Are there websites you frequently access on mobile devices that have a fantastic user experience? Whether or not these companies are competitors or even in your industry, take note of what makes them so enjoyable, and copy some of the same design, navigation and usability features on your own mobile site.

Editor’s Note : Network Solutions offers an easy way to build a website for mobile devices in mere minutes goMobi™, powered by dotMobi

Image by Flickr user muir.ceardach (Creative Commons)

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