Should small businesses focus more marketing dollars on mobile marketing?

Responses from a number of recent surveys have revealed a strong preference from marketers for email marketing over and above other types of digital marketing tactics. This was again confirmed by a September survey done by Ascend2 and its research partners. In this survey marketers ranked email marketing as "Most Effective" (54%), while only 11% of marketers surveyed thought email marketing was "Most Difficult." It would naturally follow then, that most marketers would highly encourage their clients to pursue email marketing tactics over other types of digital marketing. Website and blog marketing and SEO marketing were also deemed "Most Effective" by 48% and 47% respectively. Social media marketing was ranked "Most Difficult" by 49% of respondents. Mobile/SMS marketing had the lowest overall ranking with only 9% of respondents rating it "Most Effective" and 34% "Most Difficult."

It would seem, at this time, that there will not be a big push for mobile marketing coming from most marketers. From their responses, they see it as not worth the effort.

But is it wise for businesses to overlook mobile marketing given how plugged in consumers -particularly those in the Millennial and Generation X generations - are? The fact is, people of all ages, not just that coveted demographic of 18-34, are daily becoming more dependent on their smartphones and their mobile devices to navigate numerous aspects of their lives. Around half of all internet searches are done on mobile phones. And the existence of smartphones and mobile connectivity is itself spawning new industries that people are seamlessly incorporating into their lifestyles. The popular and controversial sharing economy app Uber relies upon mobile technology to function. So does Pandora.

When forecasting marketing trends for 2015, ReadyPlanet.com heavily emphasized the importance of mobile media. While some industry experts have been loudly declaring the importance of mobile marketing for years, this message appears not to have reached the marketers in the trenches. But as with all things, there is a tipping point, and it could soon be reached. Currently there is significant spending on mobile marketing among large corporations, but as of now it seems to be poorly incorporated with other marketing efforts and not a part of most's businesses overall picture.

If your business is spending on digital marketing, it is certainly worth reexamining how much of this budget is allocated to spending on mobile marketing and if mobile marketing is functioning alongside your company's marketing as a whole. This is not a fad. Next time you are out in public, look at everyone surrounding you and count the smartphones. Then ask yourself if you're focusing enough of your business's marketing budget on mobile. The answer is very likely no.

Online remarketing as a business tool

If you've (almost) purchased an item from Amazon or some other large retailer lately, you might be forgiven for thinking that the retailer is tracking you online and asking yourself, "How does the internet know I almost bought [insert item here]?"  The answer involves the computer cookies (online trackers) in your browser. They allow for remarketing, a type of advertising that gives you "a chance to reconnect with visitors who have abandoned your site without converting through Display Network advertising." 

With remarketing, an advertiser can promote specific ads related to the products or interests that online visitors have already expressed. For undecided or procrastinating visitors, remarketing can help remind them about products they previously were curious about. So for example, a visitor who abandons her shopping cart with a product in it will see the same product in a advertisement elsewhere online - with a discount coupon attached. Sellers only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it. 

People shop all the time for products they are not entirely certain about but could easily, with a bit of a nudge,  be persuaded to buy. A garden tool may seem like a pricey splurge on Amazon, perhaps, but more like a necessity when that gardener is reading a popular garden blog or chatting with fellow vegetable enthusiasts in a Facebook group.

Implementing remarketing is fairly simple. First, a business owner must sign up with Google AdWords and create an advertisement. Once this ad has been created, the retailer can target different audiences for remarketing.  So instance, a retailer can serve ads to potential customers who have visited their website as well as those who have already purchased their product. Or they may even target the former, excluding the latter. With Google Adwords, a retailer simply needs to select the audience that it would like to seek out, pinpointing for greater success. 

Remarketing is an especially effective advertising tool for those people who wish to improve their shopping cart abandonment rate. It's an unobtrusive tool. Most people will not even register this gentle reminder, making it more like a note from Mom rather than a bounty hunter's chase. But, if used correctly, it will improve your conversion rate, and it should be employed by anyone who believes AdWords is an essential part of their marketing efforts. 

Business cards - Are they worth it?

You seem them everywhere, in every business, in fishbowls in restaurants - you probably have more than a handful stuffed in a drawer somewhere in your house. But do you ever look at them? Business cards: are they just an unnecessary expense?

We asked John Potter of Grand Rapids Area Professionals for Excellence (GRAPE), a business networking group in Grand Rapids, MI, and he said, "If you're using business cards as a marketing tool, then your expectations may not be met, but if you're using them as a contacting tool, then they can be useful. It's simpler and more professional for me to hand my business card to someone I've spent a half hour talking to at an event than writing my email or phone number on a stray piece of paper. I'm glad to have business cards for that purpose. Just don't spend a great deal of money on them, because they get forgotten and tossed aside much of the time."

Business cards now come in more a lot more than just the standard form (or media). Numerous options are now easily and cheaply available to make your card, and thus its representation of your brand, stand out. But should you go for standard, unique, or full-on special snowflake? Or is this just flashy or even alienating to your potential customers?

Consider the business that you are in. How likely is your clientele to care if you don't hire a professional to design your logo? If your business is marketing, it's important to make the investment. If your business is auto repair shop management, perhaps putting your marketing dollars elsewhere may do more good for your bottom line. If a funky card would put off or even shock the majority of your clientele, it's a liability, not an asset. You may live in an area with heavy competitive for funeral home services, in which case comprehensive branding might be necessary. But probably not.

It can be fun to design and redesign and order business cards, but even if yours are original and make people comment on them and remember them, evaluate how often and how successfully they convert into leads and sales. If the answer is "not very often," rethink this part of your branding and advertising budget.

Data on Small Businesses is Hard to Collect; Internet Remains Viable Marketing Option, Regardless

It seems that the number of workers in the U.S. has risen again, pushing the unemployment level down to the lowest it has been since December 2008. By adding 162,000 jobs, employers have brought the unemployment rate down to 7.4 percent--according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Even with these detailed figures, experts are uncertain about the employment rates among small businesses. According to a report from the National Federation of Independent Business, the number of employees lost per business in July was 0.11 workers. But a conflicting report from ADP said that small businesses added 82,000 employees that month, contributing more than 40 percent of all new payrolls.

This conflict underscores the perplexity of gathering data for small businesses; it can be extremely difficult--nearly impossible, in some cases--to get a realistic estimate of the goings-on in the small business industry. With so many people opening and closing their own start-ups each year, the market is constantly in flux. An accurate picture becomes very hard to develop, especially when a number of people are operating out of their homes. Studies indicate that nearly 70 percent of entrepreneurs in the U.S. choose to start their businesses in their residence. Nearly 60 percent continue to work from home after their businesses have become established.

But with the Internet in the majority of our homes and literally a single click away, this should not be surprising. If you are running an online business and you have space to store product at home, working out of your house should be a no-brainer. There is no reason to pay extra for an unnecessary retail space when the majority of your sales are online. Not to mention the fact that you can write a home office off during tax time. Even better is the fact that, on most days, you can work in comfort because the only presentation that matters online is that of your business. When doing in-person business though, much of the game changes.

But even for the people who have an actual storefront, the Internet can be extremely helpful. Using it to bring in more customers is a great strategy as many individuals turn to their computers and smartphones for suggestions and reviews in their locale. If you happen to be an automotive repair shop that has a solid online presence--and you have good reviews, which you will if yours is a business that respects its customers--it is likely that you'll start receiving more clients in the near future. People often turn to Google to diagnose issues with their vehicle, just like they do with their bodies; if you can determine the keywords that people typically search for in the geographic location of your business, you may be able to get your business to pop up during this diagnosis period. Online marketing strategies exist for every type of small business. Using these may help grow your company into something both concrete and profitable, giving you the ability to hire more people and further contribute to the employment rate.