Are You Really Shopping Local?

I hear so many times from locally owned businesses time and time again, “I only shop local.” “I support local businesses.” “I only invest in local companies & avenues.” …etc. And then I analyze their marketing. I can’t help but be a little stumped at how someone – especially a local business owner – can preach “shop local” this and “support local businesses” that, yet they’re funneling their dollars into big name conglomerates. Confused yet? So was I, until I did some digging as to why these business owners would even think to invest even one cent outside their community! And here’s what I found:

They came into your shop – a real live person! They weren’t trying to sell or hassle you over the phone. They were friendly, selling that smile and saying, well, of course I’m local, look I’m right here!

Sure, the sales rep is local, but what about the company he/she works for?

Many of these conglomerate media companies are catching on to the shop-local bug and realizing Small Town, USA can’t stand the big city companies and their way of doing business. They’re wising up and sending in “remote” or “outside” salespersons to pose as a local company. Heck, they may even invest in a local brand name! (They’ve got enough money to do it!)

In reality your local small business is dumping its hard-earned revenue back into the big wig’s pockets. Companies worth billions and billions of dollars are city wolves in small-town sheep’s clothing.

Be careful who you do your marketing with. You can’t clearly say that you, as a local business owner, only invest in local businesses, when you’re pouring your money into the pockets of a multi-billion dollar company!!

Hey Small Business Owner! Where’s Your Website?

Obtaining your desired website design for your small business can prove to be difficult at times – especially with the ever-changing “rules” of the internet. The idea of staying relevant, appealing, and user-friendly may seem like a huge task to complete although when you follow a few simple tips and tricks, the process of staying significant to your consumers can become a breeze!

Creating a Connection

You’ve built your business around your ideals. Your website should be no different. Make sure during the building process, your business’s mission is clear in the overall message. Studies have shown consumers react more positively and are more apt to purchase from a business when they feel a connection or see a form of personalization in the website design. Just as it is for engines and cars, it is with content and websites: there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

The end goal of any website visit is a conversion; let the visitor know you want to build a relationship with them, not just their wallet. Supplying the message of building a relationship rather than just capturing “the sale” leads to continued business, and the likeliness of referrals! And this can be accomplished by the personalization and customization of your new website.

Social Media

Social media platforms should be part of your website’s inner circle! Make sure to connect all social media platforms to your website. Make sure to call attention to them as well, with the “Follow” and “Like Us On” links in obvious places to increase your web traffic and let your consumers know they can find you on their favorite social media outlets, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc. These links aide greatly in the traffic to and from your website therefor helping the ranking of your site as a whole.

Fundamental SEO

Reverting back to the engines and cars analogy: a car doesn’t run without an engine, right? Well, a website doesn’t run without SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Every site needs to be built out with the proper, effective SEO properties for the site to rank or be found at all. You can have the prettiest site in the world, but if there’s no SEO, what’s the point in even having spent the money or time on it?

Relevant Content & Updates

When building a new site, or redesigning/updating your current website, relevant content is key in the performance of the site itself. Furthermore, you must keep in mind updating the content every so often is necessary to stay relevant in the eyes of the internet. The website can’t just sit or it will get lost in the abyss of the internet. Think of content editing and updates like this: when someone you’re familiar with gets a haircut, you notice, right? Well, when you update the content on your site, search engines notice; it’s like giving your website a haircut in order for search engines to continue to pay attention to the site and re-crawl the content.

The Build Process

This is the most important tip we can give any small business owner: hire an expert. You know your business, website designers know website design. You have enough to focus on with opening, closing, payroll, inventory, appointments, clients, etc, you can’t and don’t have the time to learn how to properly build a functioning website. When trying to build a website on your own, you risk wasting time and money on these do-it-yourself platforms. There are plenty of affordable marketing agencies out there who focus solely on small businesses thus have molded their pricing to fit your budgetary needs.

Keep all these tips in mind before the site goes live as there is one statistic which is a personal favorite: you have less than 1/10^th of one second to make a first impression on a visitor based on your website design. If they remain on your site after that millisecond, you then have less than one half of one minute to create a conversion based on the quality of content, personal connection made, user-friendliness, and strength & functionality of your website as a whole.

Cheers!

Friendly vs Responsive

So, let’s say you’re a business owner and you’re finally putting your website together. You have been weighing your options with this company and that company and considering reviews and pricing and designs/experience/résumé etc. Have you been paying attention to the nitty gritty details? Not the contract’s “fine print” which of course is also very important! Although, any legit representative would tell you about the “fine print” in the initial consultation, not just leave you to find out on your own… By nitty gritty details, I’m talking mobile-friendly vs mobile-responsive. And yes, there most definitely, 100% is a difference! You have more than likely visited one of these friendly offenders and didn’t know it.

Mobile friendly sites will appear different between desktop & tablet and smart phone. And that’s another thing! For some reason mobile friendly sites discredit tablets as a mobile device although by definition tablets are a mobile device. Like, what the what?? When browsing a mobile friendly site (if you stay long enough), you’ll know it’s the same company of course (duh, the URL), but it seems like you’ve gone to separate site altogether! And guess who doesn’t like that? SERP’s. And consumers.

What you need to put together – and make sure your marketing representative says it clear as day – is a “responsive,” “100% responsive” or “mobile responsive” website. The site will appear the same across all platforms while responding to the viewport on which it is being viewed.

Just a bit of nickel advice for you, unless you’re using somebody’s Wi-Fi… then it’s free.

Best of luck to you through this journey of work and play we call life! And if you are in need of a mindful, honest, experienced digital marketing representative, I’m your girl.

Notoriety

Hello all!

It’s been a while since my last post – sorry bout that. Today I want to bring up the importance of citations. No, not the type you get speeding through a construction zone, because let’s not get those! The citations I want to talk about are online listings. When I’m speaking to a (potential) client, I always make sure to let them know, the more places you are the better. This is a half truth. Yes, the more places you are listed, and found by Google or Bing or Yahoo! the better, but you also want to make sure they are legit resources and verified citations. One of the most trusted sources Google will pick up your company is a gov’t or state agency’s listing(s), e.g. chamber of commerce site or city/county business index; it’s hard to “fake” being a member of a chamber of commerce.

Citations from well-established portals increase the degree of certainty search engines have about your business’s contact information and categorization. For instance, an online directory (online phone book) would be more “trusted” than Yelp since Yelp takes suggestions from the public; you’d be surprised how many businesses are “Closed” on Yelp that aren’t really closed – possibly the backlash of a really angry ex-employee or customer. Back to the potential clients – y’all already know my stance on the necessity of having a website (and I’m sure you share that view to some degree), I like to make sure they know about the importance of optimization which not only claims the citations that can be claimed, but corrects any conflicting information, I then offer them a spot on the local search engine/online directory hybrid site. Since it’s a local source, this helps to validate that the business is part of the community. Citations like this can dramatically improve your ranking.

In order to accomplish your business goals, your business must be found in every corner of the internet that Google and Bing and Yahoo! sends their robots. That information also must be correct. Ask your LOCAL specialist about optimization and the importance of citations, as I could go on, but this would turn into a novel. Once all your information is correct, then yes 100% the more places you are, the better. Gain a little notoriety for yourself – you’ve earned it.

Information pulled from Moz, 2016

 

Let Your Creativity Shine Through

Please for the LOVE OF GOD if your business depends on it, don’t build your own website unless you have a freakin’ degree in building websites! You like glitter and pink and blue and green and black and for some reason, after hours of building it through a freebie website builder, the site you spent hours on looks like your computer screen threw up. Yeah, that’s right, I just called your hours of hard work visual vomit. Because you had absolutely no business doing what you did. There’s a reason why you’re an HVAC contractor or a boutique owner or own a food truck, because you are not a Website Designer – it’s as simple as that.

You started your own business and that is an amazing feat in and of itself. I know it must be hard to let someone else take the reigns over an aspect of your business, but this is where you need to sit back and let someone else do it. Remember, you still get to tell them what you do and do not like. You still get to tell them which layout you like. You still get to tell them the colors you like. You still get to put your signature on it. It is your website; you’re just having someone else build it for you. In instructing these Web Designers & Developers, you really can let your creativity shine through… efficiently.

Claim your domain

Happy Hump day to you all!

Yes, claim your domain. This time I’m not talking about websites, or advertising, but I am talking about Small Businesses; that’s kind of my thing. I love to shop local and support the community and have already boycotted Wal-Mart for nearly a year now, (it’s a lot harder than you think). We’ve all heard my stance on websites and my utter disbelief that local businesses don’t have one, but get this: some of these small business owners tell me they don’t even have an email address! Like, “I’m sorry, come again?”
When I say “claim your domain,” this time I’m talking about the plethora of 100% free and easy-to-set-up email domains to choose from. There’s gmail, ymail, yahoo, aol, centurylink, ones I’ve never heard of before – the list goes on and on. I mean seriously guys, get with the program! It’s 2016!

Thoughts?

Start-up’s: Put up or Shut …down

In a world where so many people dream of being their own boss, it’s not as easy as just having the idea and the commercial space anymore. With the corporate world and big box stores overtaking the small business world, the entrepreneur needs to have an air-tight business plan; and that plan must include “How am I going to generate business?” One can’t just expect to put a shiny red ribbon on the door and think customers will come in upon passing. How will you advertise your business? Yes, I asked you how you are going to advertise. In order to thrive in today’s market, you must reach your entire targeted consumers – by advertising – and then some. And please, for the love of BBQ, don’t forget a good website! No excuses! Don’t think you don’t need one, because you do. People like looking at pretty pictures, and if you don’t have any for them, you don’t have their business*. Millenials have now outgrown Baby Boomers as the largest age group; guess who uses the internet the most? Yep, those Millenials. And businesses need to appeal to everyone.

So what have we learned so far? We can no longer rely on word-of-mouth references, even in a close-knit community, to build up business. We have to get our name out there through using the resources available to us. Free advice here: if you’re a small business/just getting started, don’t go to some corporate agency that only sees you as a number on their screen; small businesses should do business with other small businesses – they share a common interest and have been built on the same core trade values. That part should be common sense. There are plenty of successful methods of advertising, with tried and true ways of tracing the return on investment. Any specialist will help you figure out which method is best for your industry, whether you’re opening a taco stand or an HVAC co; two-step advertising, mobile ads, texting programs, print ads, and in case you forget to keep up with asking “How’d you hear about us?” tracking numbers are a great way to know if you’re advertising was well-placed.

You very well may have the best tacos in the state, but nobody’s going to know that if you don’t put yourself out there. So, get your business plan in place, call your LOCAL marketing & advertising agency, and get you on your way to turning the one taco stand in Fayetteville, NC into 50 taco stands throughout NC, VA, and SC. Can’t do that without advertising – and that’s some real world truth.

*according to market study by profitworks.ca, 2016