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Meet the Mobile Super-Shoppers

March 1st, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

Is your small business reaching out to Hispanic consumers on their mobile devices? If not, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. New research reported by eMarketer shows that Hispanic consumers are not only far more likely than non-Hispanics to use mobile devices, but are also far more likely to use them to shop.

A study from Acosta Sales & Marketing found that Hispanic consumers, in particular, are more likely than the average shopper to use a smartphone (51 percent of Hispanics vs. 41 percent of all consumers), regularly use text messaging (47 percent vs. 42 percent) and use mobile apps (19 percent vs. 14 percent).

According to a study from Leo Burnett and Lapiz, Hispanic consumers are 7 percent more likely than non-Hispanic consumers to use their mobile phones to shop (56 percent vs. 33 percent of non-Hispanics). They’re also more likely to shop with a tablet (43 percent of Hispanics do so, vs. 25 percent of non-Hispanics).

The same Leo Burnett/Lapiz study reports that Hispanics are far more likely than non-Hispanics to make shopping a social activity, whether they’re shopping online or off:

Nearly half (48 percent) of Hispanics use social networking sites as part of their shopping activities, while only 31 percent of non-Hispanics do so.
Hispanics are twice as likely to share their opinions of products or brands and write product reviews on social media sites (36 percent of Hispanics do so, vs. 18 percent of Non-Hispanics).
Hispanics are more than twice as likely to reach out to friends and family for help with shopping decisions (37 percent of Hispanics do so, vs. 17 percent of non-Hispanics).

What do these numbers mean to you? First, with Hispanics a growing segment of the U.S. population, there’s scarcely a business out there that shouldn’t be reaching out to them. To attract these super-shoppers, consider:

Creating a mobile app for your business that lets customers do something more easily, whether that’s getting product quotes or making purchases directly on their phones.
Making it easy for consumers to share information from your website or ecommerce site or social media accounts with friends and family, whether via email, social media or text messaging.
Have an active presence in social media and make sure your business is represented on ratings and review sites.
Taking advantage of text messaging, since Hispanic consumers are actively engaged in it. But be careful: Don’t overstep your welcome or send too many texts.

Image by Flickr user moodboard photography (Creative Commons)

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Tags: hispanics, Marketing, Search Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Branding, Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Technology | No Comments »

Maybe Showrooming Isn’t as Scary as You Think

February 28th, 2013 :: Karen Axelton

By Karen Axelton

During this past holiday shopping season, media reports were full of stories about how brick-and-mortar shoppers were “showrooming”—viewing products in-store, then checking their mobile phones to find lower prices at other retailers or online. The trend struck fear into the hearts of retailers, but those fears may be unfounded, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Consumers are using mobile phones while shopping like never before—that much is true. The report, In-Store Mobile Commerce During the 2012 Holiday Season, found that nearly six in 10 cell owners used their phone inside a physical store for assistance or guidance in making a purchasing decision during the 2012 holiday season. But they’re not just comparing prices. Here’s what they’re doing:

46 percent of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to call a friend or family member for advice about a purchase they were considering. Women and young adults (age 18 to 29) are more likely to do this.
28 percent of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to look up product reviews to help them decide whether to buy a product it or not. Young adults (18 to 29), smartphone owners, and those with at least some college experience are more likely than average to use their phones to search for product reviews in-store.
27 percent of cell owners used their phone while inside a store to look up the price of a product and see if they could get a better price either online or at another retail store. Young adults, smartphone owners and those with some college experience were most likely to do price comparisons.

Altogether, more than half (58 percent) of cell owners used their phone for at least one of these purposes. As you might expect, young adults and smartphone owners led the way, with 78 percent of those aged 18-29 and 72 percent of smartphone owners using their phones for at least one of these purposes in the 2012 holiday season.

But here’s the good news: Even among those who look up prices in-store, a majority end up either buying the item in the store or not buying it at all. Some 46 percent of “mobile price matchers” report they ultimately bought the product in that store. That’s an 11-point increase from the 35 percent who said this in last year’s study. Just 12 percent ended up buying the product online, compared to 19 percent who did so in last year’s survey. So while consumers are becoming more sophisticated in using their cell phones to become savvier shoppers, what they learn from doing so is persuading more of them to make purchases in-store.

Image by Flickr user Rebecca L. Daily (Creative Commons)

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Tags: Customer Service, sales process, small business, social media
Posted in Business Development, Customer Service, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Facebook Boost (Customer Relationship Manager)

February 22nd, 2013 :: Maria Valdez Haubrich

Facebook Boost

Just getting your Facebook page published isn’t going to help you build fans and market your business—unless you do it right. Facebook Boost gives you a dedicated social media analyst to help you build buzz for your business on Facebook, plus create customized Facebook advertising to help you increase “likes” to your page. Thanks to its detailed reporting on your social media accounts’ activity, you’ll never be in the dark as to whether your efforts are working. With Facebook Boost, you’ll get help in managing all areas of your page, including posts, how many people are talking about your page and fan interactions.

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Tags: Facebook, Marketing, Resources, small business, social media
Posted in Marketing, Resources, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media | No Comments »

Marketers Are From Mars, Consumers Are From Venus

February 21st, 2013 :: Maria Valdez Haubrich

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Social media is growing by leaps and bounds, but email is still the best way to reach out to the most customers and gain their loyalty, reports a new study by ExactTarget. Called Marketers from Mars, the study found significant gaps between how marketers think customers want to be marketed to, and how customers actually want to interact with brands.

The clear winner? Email, which was named as the most valuable marketing tool for building loyalty by both customers and marketers. Ninety-three percent of consumers subscribe to at least one brand’s email, while about half (49 percent) have made a purchase as a direct result of email messages. One-third of consumers want marketers to invest more in email marketing.

However, while marketers were highly focused on mobile marketing, customers aren’t quite there yet. About one-fourth of marketers thought mobile apps were an effective marketing tool, but just 7 percent of consumers thought so. Instead, consumers were more likely to want brands to invest more in marketing on their traditional websites.

Consumers were more likely than marketers to want to interact with brands on Facebook. More than half (58 percent) of consumers have “Liked” a brand on Facebook, up 20 percent from the prior survey in 2010. About one-third of consumers with a smartphone and one-fourth of consumers who do not own a smartphone say they prefer to interact with brands on Facebook, making it the second most common place consumers go to connect with businesses online.

While just 21 percent of consumers have made a purchase as a direct result of a Facebook message, 22 percent of consumers say they want marketers to invest in creating a better Facebook experience. This suggests that there is great potential for Facebook to grow as a sales and marketing channel.

While marketers are highly engaged with Twitter, consumers are far less so. Some 61 percent of marketers follow at least once brand on Twitter, but only 12 percent of consumers do. That was an increase of just 7 percent from the prior survey in 2010.

What’s the takeaway? If you’re involved in small business marketing, you’re on the cutting edge of new trends and technologies—so don’t make the mistake of assuming your habits mirror those of the average consumer. Always do your research to understand exactly what your target customers are doing and how they want you to market to them—it may not be how you’d like to be marketed to yourself.

You can download the complimentary research from Exact Target or view an infographic of the survey.

Image by Flickr user (Creative Commons)

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Tags: Email marketing, Marketing, sales process, small business, social media
Posted in Branding, Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Thought Leadership, Web Design | No Comments »

7 Marketing Trends That Benefit Small Businesses

February 19th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen

Now that we’ve gotten comfortable writing 2013 rather than 2012, I revisited all the “top trends for 2013” blog posts and articles I saved over the past two months to see what stood out the most and could potentially have the biggest impact on small businesses. Here’s what I found:

1 – Loyalty

Loyalty programs are shifting. Traditionally, you reward your customers for spending, but now consumers expect rewards for taking certain actions and sharing their activities with others. Additionally, consumers are responding to more variety in redemption options, so think about the “near-cash” rewards you can offer.

2 – SEO

SEO, social media, and content used to be completely separate areas in marketing. Now, they’re overlapping thanks to changes in search engines, which reward social sharing and linking, and content-focused marketing strategies (an active blog and fresh content). Continue to focus on engaging your customers through social media and valuable content to see benefits around SEO.

3 – Local

Local will continue to grow, especially since local businesses know their local customers and are as good at – or better than – engaging with them online as big companies. If you don’t already, use location in your online advertising, and continue to focus on customer service.

4 – Partnerships

Big companies (airlines and hotels, for example) continue to create partnerships to reach more customers. I have seen a lot of small businesses partnering together, based on neighborhood or industry, to increase their reach as well. Who can you partner with?

5 – Ecommerce

Online consumer spending is soaring. According to comScore $304 billion was spent via ecommerce in the U.S. during 2012. It almost goes without saying, but if you sell products, now is the time to consider putting together an ecommerce site.

6 – Mobile Devices

Smartphones and tablet usage soared in 2012 – more than 120 million people in the U.S. own a smartphone and more than 48 million people own a tablet (again, those stats are courtesy of comScore). Aside from having mobile-friendly sites, take advantage of geo-targeted marketing by “pushing” relevant information to your audience if they are in your area.

7 – Real-Time Analytics

By using a social media dashboard (like Hootsuite) and Google Analytics for your website, it is dead-simple to get real-time insights on what is going on online – from conversations about your brand to a blog post that is getting shared like crazy. With this information readily available, you can make quick changes to improve your marketing and customer service.

What trend do you think will impact you the most? Why?

Image courtesy of allspammedup.com

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

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Tags: analytics, e-commerce, local marketing, loyalty, Marketing, marketing trends, seo, social media
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Social Shopping Isn’t Taking Off Just Yet

February 19th, 2013 :: Karen Axelton

By Karen Axelton

While the idea of shopping directly through social media (such as making a purchase from within Facebook) is frequently touted as the next big development in retail, it’s still got a long way to go, a new study from PwC reports.

Last year just 12 percent of shoppers globally made a purchase directly via social media. And even social media’s much-touted ability to drive sales is not so strong as you might expect: Just 18 percent of shoppers who are active social media users were driven to make a purchase as a direct result of social media, PwC found.

However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t strong potential for social media to drive purchases going forward. The study found that consumers are rapidly growing more willing to interact with businesses on social media. Fifty-nine percent say they follow brands on social media, compared to 49 percent last year, and 27 percent report having discovered new brands via social media, up from 17 percent last year.

PwC’s report divides shoppers into three categories and assesses each group’s likelihood of becoming social shoppers. Here’s what they found:

Brand lovers: Accounting for 38 percent of consumers, Brand Lovers follow brands on social media and are also voracious multichannel shoppers. More than half (53 percent) actually go into a physical store at least once a week and 45 percent buy something online at least once a week. PwC says this group has the most potential to become social shoppers.
Deal hunters: Accounting for about half of consumers, this group is savings-motivated and social media will drive them to click through and purchase if the offer is good enough.
Social addicts: This small group is most active interacting with brands on social media, which they use to share shopping experiences, find information and reviews, ask their friends for recommendations and directly give feedback to companies. “These very active online users tend to have huge social media networks and wield an outsized influence,” the report concludes.

Conclusion? While social shopping isn’t yet a major force, it’s likely to become one—so keep working your social media tools.

Image by Flickr user birgerking (Creative Commons)

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Tags: Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Technology | No Comments »

5 Ways Facebook’s Graph Search Could Help Your Social Media Marketing

February 11th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen

By now you’ve heard about Facebook’s new Graph Search feature, which is still in beta (you can add your name to their wait list if you want to give it a try before it goes public).

Graph Search basically puts your social graph – your connections – to use by making it easy to find people, photos, places, and interests that are relevant to you. Your search results will be unique to you, as everyone’s social graph is different.

Since Facebook tends to get the beatdown pretty often about privacy, it’s worth noting that your results will only include what you could already view elsewhere on Facebook.

Let’s take a look at how Facebook Graph Search could help your social media marketing (I say “could” because we don’t know yet how people will use it):

1. Learn More About Your Fans

This, for me, is the most obvious benefit. Facebook brand’s Facebook fans which will then help them create more relevant content. This will benefit Facebook users by giving them content they want to see, which will then in turn benefit brands by boosting the levels of Facebook engagement.

2. Find New Customers

Because of its detailed search capabilities, you could use Graph Search to find potential new customers. Just use the same demographic and interest criteria you would use for an ad, and ask for introductions from your shared connections. (Yes, this is a lot like LinkedIn.)

3. Likes = Visibility

Likes will become even more important for your page – the more likes you have, the more visibility you will get. Let’s say you are a photographer. When the friend of one of your fans conducts a search for “wedding photographers,” you will pop up.

4. Ad Opportunities

Since Facebook depends on ads for revenue, it only makes sense that they would extend advertising opportunities to Graph Search. Your targeted ads would reach people looking for your product or service – a really great lead generation opportunity.

5. Location Will Matter

Besides encouraging likes, local businesses should encourage check-ins. If Graph Search uses EdgeRank, the more activity you have on your page, the more you could potentially show up in search results.

One small caveat: If Graph Search is to work for your business, you will have to actively use Facebook, share engaging and relevant content, and encourage likes and shares.

How else do you think this new search capability will affect your social media marketing?

Image courtesy of techcrunch.com

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Tags: Facebook, Graph Search, Marketing, social media
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Web.com Small Business Toolkit: TrendSpottr (Social Trend Tracker)

February 7th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez Haubrich

TrendSpottr

Keeping up on the trends affecting your industry could be your full-time job, so it’s good to know TrendSpottr wants to make the process easier for you. TrendSpottr works like a search engine, so it’s easy to navigate and find what topic or trend you’re looking for. TrendSpottr researches the top Twitter feeds in a specific category to tell you what is being said on a particular topic in real time. The algorithms used by TrendSpottr identify real-time trends at their acceleration point in order to provide early and predictive insights. You can also just click on any of the “Popular Topics” and “Popular Searches” to see what people are talking about in general. Subscribing to the dashboard costs $99 per month.

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Tags: Resources, small business, social media, Technology, trends
Posted in Resources, Small Business, small business, social media, Technology | No Comments »

B2B Marketing Budgets Are on the Rise in 2013—Is Yours?

February 6th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

If your small business markets products or services to other businesses, you may want to consider boosting your marketing budget for 2013 if you haven’t already. A new survey from BtoB Online found that nearly half of B2B companies are increasing their marketing spending for this year.

BtoB’s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans report polled over 300 B2B marketers and found:

What are marketers spending?

Some 48.7 percent of marketers say they will increase their budgets this year, up from 40.1 percent last year. About 41 percent will keep their budgets the same, down from 48.4 percent last year. Meanwhile, 9.5 percent will cut their budgets, down from 10.8 percent in 2012.

Where are they spending it?

Some 67.2 percent of marketers say they will increase their spending on digital marketing this year. Of those, 70.1 percent will spend more on website development, 61.9 percent on email marketing, 56 percent on social media, 55.8 percent on online video and 52.5 percent on search.

In addition, 72.2 percent of B2B marketers say content marketing is part of their marketing plan. The most popular platforms for content marketing are websites (93 percent), social media (65.4 percent), print (47.5 percent) and mobile (20.9 percent).

What do marketers hope to achieve?

B2B marketers report their number-one marketing goal this year is demand generation/customer acquisition, cited by 69.3 percent. The second most important goal, increasing brand awareness, was way behind, cited by 17.6 percent. In third place: customer retention, cited by 13.1 percent.

Who’s going mobile?

More B2B marketers are integrating mobile marketing, but there’s still a way to go. Some 32.7 percent of respondents say they currently use mobile in their marketing strategy, while 35.5 percent say they plan to spend more on mobile marketing this year.

What are they automating?

Better aligning marketing and sales is a key goal for B2B marketers this year. Some 52.3 percent say they will spend money on sales enablement platforms, while 50.8 percent plan to invest in marketing automation systems.

What old-fashioned marketing method still matters?

It’s not all digital and mobile. For many B2B companies, events are still crucial to their marketing strategy. In fact, some 41.5 percent of survey respondents say they will increase their event budgets for 2013.

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 Andy Roberts Images (Creative Commons)

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Tags: B2B marketing, Marketing, Search Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Branding, Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, Web Design | No Comments »

Luxury Marketing Goes Digital

February 4th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

Surveys have shown that luxury consumers spend more time and money online than the average consumer. No wonder, then, that marketers of luxury products and services are expanding their focus on digital marketing in 2013.

eMarketer recently reported the results of a study by Worldwide Business Research and ShopIgniter that polled more than 130 worldwide luxury marketing executives. Some 85 percent say they plan to increase their digital marketing spending in 2013. Of those, 72 percent are planning to spend more on social media, making social the biggest overall area of focus.

The most popular social media platform for luxury marketers is Facebook, where 95 percent of luxury marketers are actively engaging with their customers. Next most popular is Twitter, used by 85 percent; then come Pinterest (used by 60 percent) and YouTube (used by 59 percent).

In fact, Luxury marketers are more likely to engage with customers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube than they are on ecommerce sites. However, more than half (52 percent) are connecting with customers on ecommerce sites as well.

Since luxury products tend to be highly visually focused, it’s perhaps not surprising that luxury marketers are using visual-focused social sites to reach out to customers and prospects. As mentioned, Pinterest and YouTube have high penetration, and even relative newcomer Instagram is used by 29 percent of luxury marketers.

Luxury marketers’ top content and product promotion tactics were posting images of products (81 percent), posting video (75 percent) and creating content about new product launches (60 percent).

One surprising area where luxury marketers are falling short is in their mobile presence. While the visual focus of luxury marketers could make it a challenge for them to translate their marketing efforts onto the smaller screen of smartphones, the crisp displays of tablets should be a natural for luxury marketing imagery. Still, just 35 percent of luxury marketers report using mobile apps, while a mere 26 percent say they currently use mobile commerce.

Another area of untapped opportunity for luxury marketers, according to the survey, is loyalty programs. Only 20 percent of companies currently use loyalty campaigns to reward customers.

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 Mauro Cateb (Creative Commons)

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Tags: Marketing, mobile marketing, small business, social media, Web Design
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