How Text Message Marketing Can Boost Sales

Posted by Tom Melton on October 21, 2012 in Text Marketing with No Comments Yet

How Text Message Marketing Can Boost Sales

Mobile technology is moving at an extremely fast pace and the world has embraced the use of text messaging (or sms text message marketing) which is being integrated in all aspects of life; including marketing. Local businesses are slowly adapting to the use of mobile phones as a new and innovative way to market to their target audience.

If you are in an industry where you have to share your local customers with direct competitors, then you should employ the best ways possible to get a bigger share of the pie. This is another marketing strategy you can use.

Text messages may be short, but they pack just enough power to remind your target audience that your business exists. You can send messages to notify them of promotions, special offers, coupons or any information that would be important in their eyes.

One important thing to keep in mind is that you should only send messages that would be seen as “valuable” by your list. In order to achieve your campaign goals, the audience should find your messages interesting, informative, and fulfilling. This way, they will easily remain attracted to your business and stay on your mobile list. It is important to integrate these strategies.

For instance, if you keep your customers informed on important news, tips, and advice revolving around your industry, they will become loyal. With loyal customers, you will be able to get repeat sales and referrals, which will ultimately boost your profits.

Text message marketing will keep your brand name at the forefront of their minds so when they need to purchase a product or service related to your industry, they will think of your business first.

Keep in mind that you should respect your mobile list by only sending them messages every once in a while – not every single day. The frequency of your messages is somewhat dependent on your type of business, but if you overdo it, you risk losing some members of your list because they will unsubscribe.

Mobile marketing is gaining massive attention from businesses all over the world today due to the fact that mobile phones have gone from being a “luxury” to a “necessity” for most people. Ignoring this powerful marketing tool is as bad as giving up and letting your competitors steal all your customers.

The effectiveness of text messages is impressive because most people will read the messages within minutes of receiving them. In addition, most people who willingly handed their mobile phone number to a business will usually take action on the offers sent to them via text message marketing.

To take your business to the next level with your own text message marketing strategies and campaigns and increase customer loyalty, contact us, Local SEO Ranking Services at (616) 824-0121, or e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com. To add one more marketing channel that may just get you the extra customers and income you are looking for.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

5 Reasons Your Facebook Store is Struggling

Posted by Tom Melton on October 12, 2012 in Facebook with No Comments Yet

5 Reasons Your Facebook Store is Struggling

If you have a business, then you really cannot afford to miss out on the myriad opportunities available via the world-wide web. When it comes to developing a strong Internet presence, having a web site is not enough. Social media is where it’s at, and social networking sites are making a concerted effort to cater to your business’ marketing needs, in a big way. One such development in social media that could revolutionize the way you do business is Facebook commerce (or, F-commerce). That’s right – you can actually run a successful store on Facebook. If you already run a Facebook store for your business, and if your store is not yet successful, it is likely that you need to make some changes. Here are five reasons your Facebook store is struggling:

Your social media director. If you aren’t taking your social media direction seriously, then you are making a big mistake. Many uninformed businesses hire (or intern) young, fun college students who will work for peanuts. The problem is these employees tend to show up to work less often and put less serious effort in than seasoned professionals. Don’t skimp on your help.
The wrong social commerce provider. Look, no two social commerce providers are the same. Sure, you got into the whole F-commerce venture when it was still hot off the coals, and it is therefore understandable that you didn’t necessarily understand what to look for in a social commerce provider. But that is no excuse not to do your research now to figure out if your provider is truly the best fit for your unique needs. Shop around. Talk to other business owners who engage in F-commerce.
Inactivity. Facebook is a fast-moving medium, plain and simple. You have to be consistently active on Facebook to maintain your presence. Again, your social media director should be doing this.
Engagement. Don’t talk AT your Facebook customers. Converse WITH them. Engage them in mutually beneficial interactions. Provide entertaining, informative, and interesting posts, and invite your fans to contribute. Experiment with surveys and contests – anything to increase engagement.
Give them what they want. Your Facebook customers are a finicky bunch. If they feel the sole purpose of your Facebook presence is to sell to them, they’ll snub you. Provide them with incentives. Coupons and special, Facebook-only deals are nice.

Facebook commerce can elevate your business transactions to the next level, if you do it correctly. To make the most of your social media marketing, contact the professionals. We at Local SEO Ranking Services can help take your Internet presence to the next level. Contact us by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

5 Ways Your Local Business Will Benefit from Facebook Advertising

Posted by Tom Melton on October 7, 2012 in Facebook with No Comments Yet

5 Ways Your Local Business Will Benefit from Facebook Advertising

As a business in today’s techno-centric market, it is imperative that you have a strong Internet presence, and that you learn to use the web to its full marketing capacity. One of the best things you can do to increase your business’ Internet performance is to participate in the world of social media. Facebook is your best place to start, as it offers a lot of features that are especially helpful for business owners like yourself. If you aren’t making use of Facebook fan pages and advertising, then you should be, no matter how small or localized your business is. Here are five ways your local business will benefit from Facebook advertising:

Highly targeted marketing. One of the best things about Facebook ads is that you can specify exactly who you want to view your ads, based on things like age, interests, and geographic location. For example, if you run a mobile salon business, you may opt to target your ads to women in your area who have expressed an interest in beauty, hair care, fashion, and salons.
The snowball effect. Basically, any time someone clicks on your ad and lands on your page, they have the option of “liking” your page if they are pleased with what they find. Any time someone likes your page, that activity shows up in that person’s newsfeed. This means that all of that person’s friends are exposed to your page and have the option of liking it themselves. Facebook ads are a great way to attract attention to your page and gain fans on an exponential level.
Reach. The numbers don’t lie: Facebook is the world’s highest ranking website, and is viewed on a global scale. You may have a small local business, but there is no question that if you sell a product, your business could benefit greatly from having a broader reach.
Smart phone users. Most people these days access the web from their smart phones on a regular basis. By using Facebook advertising, you are making your presence known to local smart phone users who only search for businesses while on the go.
Customization. In addition to the previously mentioned targeting, Facebook ads also allow for a lot of freedom when it comes to customizing ads to your liking, especially when compared to Google ads (a very common advertising platform that you are likely already using). For example, the extra allowance for text length and the ability to add images allows you create ads that best suit your needs and marketing goals.

To make the most of your social media marketing, contact the professionals. We at Local SEO Ranking Services can help take your Internet presence to the next level. Contact us by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

5 Ways to Use Facebook GeoTargeting for Your Business

Posted by Tom Melton on September 29, 2012 in Facebook with No Comments Yet

5 Ways to Use Facebook GeoTargeting for Your Business

Facebook’s geotargeting feature now makes it possible for you to pick and choose the exact target location of your audience, on a per-post basis. This has many useful implications when it comes to business marketing, so it’s a good idea for you to learn how to use geotargeting to maximize the effectiveness of your business’ fan page. Need some tips? Here are five ways to use Facebook geotargetingfor your business:

Time zone effectiveness. If you understand the ins and outs of social media marketing, then you know that your posts are most effective when they are live – that is, when other people see them fresh on the newsfeed. News travels quickly, and fades just as quickly, when it appears on a rapidly shifting newsfeed, so it is important that you get your posts out to all of your customers in real time, no matter where they live, and without clogging everyone’s newsfeeds. You can do this by sending your posts to the appropriate time zones at the appropriate times, and geotracking enables you to do this.
Keeping it local. If you are sponsoring a local event or offering a special that is only relevant to your local customers, then it is pointless (and a nuisance) to repeatedly advertise it to people who are not in your target area. Use geotracking to keep local news local, and to spare everyone else of wasteful posting.
Targeting photos and videos. You can really customize your targeted marketing campaigns by posting geographically-specific photos and videos to areas of your choosing. This is a great way to create a memorable, interactive experience for customers all over the globe, on a per-location basis, and that means loyal customers all around.
Multi-lingual opportunities. If your business caters to a mixed crowd who speaks a variety of languages, then you can use geotargeting when you post language-specific posts that might otherwise crowd your fans’ newsfeeds with text they can’t read or understand.
Comparison testing. You can use geotargeting to gauge your fans’ responses in different geographic locations. That way, you can identify market trends that are location-specific, and can create campaigns to target specific zones that you know will be most responsive.

As you can see, Facebook geotargeting can be a very useful tool in your marketing grab-bag, and it may be used to size up your social media market for other marketing outlets outside of the Internet. To take advantage of all social media can do for you, contact the professionals. We at Local SEO Ranking Services can be reached by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Insights to Grow Your Fans

Posted by Tom Melton on September 21, 2012 in Facebook with No Comments Yet

5 Ways You Can Use Facebook Insights to Grow Your Fans

More and more businesses are using Facebook fan pages as a marketing tool, and with great results. If you are one of those businesses, then congratulations! You are at the head of the pack, and have taken a giant step toward expanding the reach of your Internet presence. Now that you are using Facebook’s fan page feature to your advantage, you need a way to measure the success of your efforts so that you can fine tune your fan page accordingly. Fortunately for you, Facebook is one step ahead (as always), and has developed an interface to help you use your fan page to its fullest. This interface is called Insights, and it can greatly improve the way you manage your Facebook fan page account. Want to know how? Here are five ways you can use Facebook Insights to grow your fans:

Learning to use Insights. Facebook Insights is basically a way for you to monitor the performance of your fan page. When you access Insights, you can view a variety of metrics that, literally, give you clear insight into how your fans and other Facebook users are interacting with (or even reacting to) your fan page. To access Insights features, click on the Insights link, found in the left sidebar right under your profile picture. Once you click on the link, a new set of options will be displayed in a drop down menu.
Main Insights. Some posts are more effective than others; some posts will get attention and win you new fans, while others may inspire fans to unlike your page altogether. Therefore, you need to know which types of posts are stimulating what kind of action. You can see exactly how people are responding/reacting to your posts in the Main Insights area.
Interactions. This Insights metric basically tells you when your posts are reaching the most people “live,” and thus getting some fan page interactions. By tailoring your post times to your busiest interaction times, you can be sure to get your fresh posts in front of the most people possible.
Users. When you know who your target market is, you can customize your posts to them and win even more fans like them over to your fan page. The Insights Users metric shows you the exact demographics of the people who are most interested in your page.
External referrers. This metric shows you where your fans are coming from. They may either be directly from Facebook, or they may be clicking on a link from your website. Knowing how your fans are finding you is a great way to identify areas of your Internet marketing that might need some work.

Of course, there is a lot more to Facebook Insights than can be covered in one short article. To learn how to use your social media presence to its fullest, contact Local SEO Ranking Services. We can be reached by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

Top 10 Stats You Should Know about Mobile

Posted by Tom Melton on September 19, 2012 in Mobile Marketing with No Comments Yet

Top 10 Stats You Should Know about Mobile

1. 85% of mobile devices will be web enabled by next year.

Source: Google “Understanding Mobile Users”

2. 9 out of 10 smartphone users use their phone on a daily basis.

Source: Go-Gulf.com Smartphone Users in the World Infographic

3. Mobile searches have QUADRUPLED in the last year

Source: Google “Understanding Mobile Users”

4. 30% of restaurant searches are from mobile devices.

Source: Google “Understanding Mobile Users”

5. 61% of smart phone users call a business after searching and 59% visit the location

Source: Go-Gulf.com Smartphone Users in the World Infographic

6. 91% of people keep their phone within 3 feet of themselves 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Source: Morgan Stanley

7. 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour

Source: Mobile Marketer

8. Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons.

Source: Borrell Associates

9. 60% of humans (4.2 billion) are active texters.

Source: MBAOnline.com Planet Text Infographic

10. Over 193,000 text messages are sent every second.

Source: MBAOnline.com Planet Text Infographic

Link to Go-Gulf.com “Smartphone Users in the World” Infographic Click Here,

Link to Google “Understanding Mobile Users” Click Here

Link to MBAOnline.com “Planet Text” Infographic Click Here

7 Tips to Create a Social Media Policy for Your Business

Posted by Tom Melton on September 14, 2012 in Social Media with No Comments Yet

7 Tips to Create a Social Media Policy for Your Business

In today’s market, just about any and every business is linked to the Internet in some form or another. Whether your business has a high-powered website and runs an aggressive Internet marketing campaign, or if it merely has a Google Places listing, your business’ reputation relies on what goes on in virtual reality – perhaps much more than you even know. For that reason, many businesses are placing formal social media policies into their standard employee manuals. If you run a business, then you should be doing that same thing. Here are seven tips to create a social media policy for your business:

Cover all your bases. There are number of different social media platforms on the world-wide web, and your policy needs to specify which sites it covers. Consider including references to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and/or LinkedIn. If you are in doubt as to whether or not a social media site pertains to your business, your best bet is to include it in your policy.
Personal versus professional. Your policy should clearly state that it applies to both personal and professional use of social media outlets. Basically, any time your business is mentioned in social media by an employee, that communication needs to fall inside of your policy guidelines.
Proprietary information. Many businesses require that their employees sign confidentiality agreements. Even if your business doesn’t, your social media policy should state that the mention of any and all confidential or proprietary information regarding your business operations on social media sites is strictly prohibited.
Social media use at work. This is up to your discretion, but whatever your business’ social media usage guidelines are; they need to be thoroughly outlined in your social media policy.
Protecting your brand. Your social media policy should state that employees are not allowed to use the company logo, or other unique brand identifiers, in social media postings without your prior approval.
Your business perspective. Your employees should never post on the company’s behalf without your prior approval. Any personal posts having to do with your business need to clearly state that any opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the business.
Rights reserved. One way of protecting your online reputation even after the fact of a faulty social media post is to include a section in your social media policy that assigns you, the business, with the right to remove or alter business-related social media posts that don’t meet your social media policy guidelines.

Creating a social media policy for your business is no small task, but it is a very important one. For guidance and professional consulting when it comes to your business’ social media presence, contact us at Local SEO Ranking Services. We can be reached by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net

What Your Local Business Needs To Know About Pinterest!

Posted by Tom Melton on September 14, 2012 in Pinterest with No Comments Yet

What Your Local Business Needs To Know About Pinterest!

Three Facebook Applications that Can Help Your Business

Posted by Tom Melton on September 7, 2012 in Facebook with No Comments Yet

Three Facebook Applications that Can Help Your Business

Sure, you know that social media is a great free way to market your business, and Facebook is right at the center of that. But there is a lot more to Facebook than you might know. In addition to setting up profiles and fan pages on Facebook, there are also a number of ready-made tools that you can plug in to your Facebook account in order to increase your page’s functionality. This is possible through developer applications, and there are specific applications that can go a long way in increasing your business’s Internet effectiveness. Here are three Facebook applications that can help your business:

Networked Blogs. If you don’t maintain a blog for your business website, you should . . . but that’s another article altogether. Networked Blogs actually works on both profile and fan pages, and is a great way to get your blog from point A to point B so that all of your Facebook friends and followers will receive notice of, and get the chance to read, your blog posts as you submit them to your site. In addition to uploading your blog posts to Facebook, this great app also maintains a visible blog roll on your fan page for easy access.
Slideshare. Take your Facebook business marketing to the next level by using a multimedia approach. Slideshare is just the app to help you do that, with features that enable you to post portfolios, conference talks, PDFs, PowerPoint and Keynote presentations, and much more right on your Facebook fan page for all your followers to see. Using slideshare is a great way to create an interactive experience for your Facebook following, and to attract new “likes.”
YouTube Channels. It is an undisputed fact that people tend to prefer video over any other medium while surfing the web for information. If your business already has a YouTube Channel (and, again, it should!), then adding the YouTube Channels app to your Facebook fan page is a super easy way to add a video element to your Facebook presence. YouTube Channels also works on profile pages, as well as application pages!

To sum it all up, Facebook is a hotbed of marketing opportunity, and Facebook applications make it possible for you to kick your social media marketing up to a whole new level. Try these awesome Facebook apps out for size. For help making the most out of your business’ social media marketing efforts, contact us, Local SEO Ranking Services. We can be reached by phone, at (616) 824-0121, or via email: tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com.

Call us at (616) 824-0121 or by e-mail at tom.localseorankingservices@gmail.com or tom@localseoranking.net