Business Owners: Nearly 80% of U.S. Subscribers Are Now Searching for You on a Smartphone - So Are Y
Last month we at Smart Business Insider warned you that “If you're one of the millions of businesses across America that have been dragging your feet when it comes to having a mobile website created, or, if you just haven’t thought that having a mobile site is important because you already have a desktop site, pay very close attention to what is about to happen. The life of your business presence on the Internet now depends on it!”
Are You Prepared to Keep Your Customers? Here is How to Know for Certain
Business Owners have been approached by SMS-Text Solutions and Mobile Marketing Companies in the US for a few years now, with it being a newer idea and communications marketing method here than in the EU and Pacific Rim where these technologies have been common-place and the most effective model for years.
An interesting albeit incorrect response that often comes from the dismissive business owner is, “I don’t need to do that because I’ve already got these customers.” That rationale is understandable. Some businesses have been handed down for generations and have a loyal following. Some businesses just feel secure in their predictable recurring monthly revenue.
Some business owners just don’t want to spend any money to acquire and/or keep customers.
And of those that do invest in marketing campaigns, it’s usually with outdated methods such as newsletters, city paper ads, or companies now struggling to stay relevant like the famous blue neighborhood envelope mailers or the deal of the day Internet based coupon marketers.
But like it or not, or agree with it or not, that revenue, and those customers are now all migrating to mobile en masse. And for the up and comers, which represent the future for all businesses, that age group under 35; if you’re not communicating via mobile, then your marketing is about as relevant to them as The Carol Burnett Show. The bottom line is that unless the main component of your marketing and advertising is mobile dominated you’re driving a Chevy Vega.
Specific tactics can make a big difference in campaign performance resulting in REAL revenue loss or gain. Whether it’s ignorance, stubbornness or just plain indifference to the ‘all things mobile’ tsunami now occurring, there will be very few businesses not negatively impacted if they don’t take advantage of every area of mobile and social networking and communication.
There are simply too many examples that prove this. Consider brands that at one time were way bigger, more advertised and with much larger reach than the local restaurant, dry cleaners, spa, retail boutique and others, have now or are heading toward the “Too Big to Fail” junkyard!
If You Are Not Planning Properly, Then Your Plan Will Eventually Fail!
Mark Skovron, Editor in Chief of Smart Business Insider has issued the indictment for years that the moment the business owner or controlling executives of a larger corporation begin to think that THEY are the one’s setting the rules as opposed to the consumer the first death knell has been sounded.
Attention all businesses: You future is based on how well you serve the purchaser, no exceptions. Think that to be an exaggeration? Consider these titans of industry:
Compaq Computer - At one time, one of the largest sellers of PC’s in the world, now gone.
E.F. Hutton - Their famous slogan, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen,” evidently no longer.
Merry-Go-Round - One of the top retailers in the US isn’t very merry or going round any more.
MCI Worldcom –Their left over carcass was absorbed by Verizon years ago for a pittance.
Eastern Airlines - Started as a US Postal mail carrier in the 1920’s, was a “Big Four” in the 1970’s and completely dominated the east coast for many years is now forever off the radar.
Woolworth’s, Pan Am, Standard Oil, Arthur Andersen, TWA, and most recently, in case you can’t remember those on the previous list, Radio Shack is effectively now on life-support at your local hospice, and not predicted to make a comeback.
Of course not all of these companies were put out of business for ‘not going mobile’ because their demise was before mobile (except for Radio Shack). And while you could argue that their individual deaths all had different mitigating factors, the ONE CONSTANT in every story is that they blinked, and either didn’t pay attention to or keep up with, or make the changes that consumers expected and in fact demanded. Again it is the dollar spent the will decide.
You see, it is ultimately the buyer with the wallet that determines how great, how profitable and how long you as a business will last. It won’t be how many generations your business has been around, how good your products are, or even your famous family recipe for your signature dish.
Consumers are people and people are fickle. But consumers all want what they want when they want it. Don’t give it them, fine. They won’t complain much, or at all because they will simply change their purchasing patterns. Absolutely no business can be certain that what worked ten years ago, or even last quarter will be effective today.
Dare you market to a 30-something with an outdated method when what they do is search, decide and make buying decisions based on mobile, and you don’t get a “do-over.” Statistics show more than ever in our history that people are impatient, and they simply won’t come back.
Mobile Best Practices Can Boost Campaign Performance
Smartphones Reach Nearly 77% Penetration in US – So What Does That Mean to You?
According to the Mobile Marketing Association, which is the definitive and final authority on all things mobile worldwide, on Friday (April 10, 2015) comScore released its latest US smartphone market-share data (February 2015). It asserts that 76.6 percent of the US mobile subscriber population now owns a smartphone. That will easily take us to 80 percent or beyond by year end. Get it? In 2016 80%+ of all buyers will search and decide on purchasing via mobile!
Henry Kim, contributing writer for Entrepreneur Magazine notes, “With 2 billion smartphone or tablet users expected to engage in some form of mobile commerce transactions by 2017, brands can’t afford to not be mobile.”
SMS-Text to Mobile technology when properly implemented can increase your revenue anywhere from 5% as a low to almost 30% as a high in about six months or less. And if your desktop website isn’t up to date, with all links working, and key search word as well as meta-tag enabled for SEO, and if you don’t have a mobile tab driven version as well, you will be viewed as the Flintstones as far as those who hold the purse-strings are concerned.
“Every business owner that is serious today about not just keeping market share, but increasing their revenues will do whatever it takes to reallocate their budget to incorporate a multi-integrated all things mobile marketing plan,” explains Jeff Peltin, Chief Training & Marketing Officer for MaxGroup Business Solutions (www.MaxGroupBusiness.com) one of the Top 25 Mobile Implementation companies in the US. “It’s the combination of all of the things that we do that can increase business revenues and profits more than any other medium.”
Peltin breaks it down, “Business today must understand that there have been fundamental shifts going on for a while in the buyer-seller relationship. Business today must implement combined marketing strategies that include having a great and functional website, a mobile site that is fully tab-enabled, a SMS-Text Marketing campaign to frequently push notifications to customers with features such as a digital-mobile loyalty program (because sorry, but no one wants to carry your cardboard punch cards anymore). And all of this must be designed by someone who truly understands key word implementation, meta tags, placement, the new Google analytics being released this month on the 21st, SEO and social integration with Facebook, Twitter and other platforms.”
“That’s why we have over 100 people working for us in I.T., graphics, design, copywriting, editing, and the best SEO experts in the country with dedicated project managers overseeing every step of each campaign along with compliance, and a dedicated customer care department that is available literally 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” boasts Jeff representing one of the most respected names in the ‘all things mobile space.’
EDITORS NOTE: For business owners committed to bringing their marketing efforts up to current trending for maximum return you should immediately contact a reputable All-Things-Mobile Company.