MyFanMachine

Making Your Business Social

How Will You Handle Social and Mobile in 2012?

by

Businesses who listen to their customers should be making plans for mobile and social marketing in 2012. Businesses who ignore what’s going on in these areas risk becoming out of touch and losing their customers to other businesses who “get it”.

Just the other day I was looking up information on where to get a Valentine’s Day gift for my wife. I had limited time and I was away from my computer so I used my phone to look up the hours for a local chocolate shop.

The website barely worked on my phone. It took several minutes on scrolling around and trying to tap on buttons to get to the information I was looking for. What was this elusive piece of information? Simple: their business hours.

That goes to a two-fold problem: proper website design (putting most requested information front and center) and a technology issue (getting the website to work correctly on mobile).

Fortunately for them, this is a business I go to often and I like the people there. But if I was new to the area or didn’t know them, I might leave a negative review on a social review site and their Google page, and maybe talk about my experience on Facebook.

None of this is good for the business. And it can all be avoided with just a bit of planning.

By thinking about how their customers behave, and how they get found, businesses can avoid nasty surprises and get ahead of the curve when it comes to social networks and mobile websites.

Social and mobile are not going away.

This article on SocialMediaToday does a good job of going into how people are using social sites and their mobile phones. It also shows how this usage is growing and how people are getting more comfortable making purchases right from their phones.

Businesses can go ahead and keep doing what they’re doing. Everything will seem fine for the time being. But when the other businesses in a market start taking advantage of what social and mobile can do for them, it may be too late for the other businesses to catch up.

Here’s a question: if you don’t own or run a business, what would you like to see on the mobile version of your favorite local business’ website?

If you run a local business, what do you think about social and mobile and how it relates to your business?

Three Simple Concepts of SMS Messaging for Business

by

As local businesses discover the power of text messaging to their customers, they need to treat this new technology responsibly. So far they have been responsible about it (for the most part). If SMS messages keep delivering value to customers, businesses will continue to see excellent returns. But if a business abuses the inbox of their SMS subscribers they can lose that value quickly.

Personally, the local businesses that I’ve seen put an SMS campaign into practice have gone just the opposite. Instead of sending out too many messages, they seem to forget they have the system and don’t get anything out of it. Even some larger chains are not doing it correctly.

Doing SMS Marketing Correctly

If you happy customers, they do want to hear when you have something cool going on. That could be a lunch special, a special event, or a photo of your latest culinary creation.

The first rule to make your SMS system work for you is to get employees in on it. Offer a gift certificate or other incentive each month to the employee who gets the most people to opt in for SMS messages. This helps build your list of SMS subscribers so you actually have customers to send messages out to.

Help your employees out on this point by offering customers a discount coupon when they opt in. This coupon can be sent automatically right when they sign up or it can be delayed for a day so they can use it next time they come in.

The critical point once you have a few hundred subscribers is to use the system, but don’t abuse your inbox privileges. Send out a message once or twice a week. If your slow day is on a Monday or Tuesday, send a message just before lunch letting your customers know if they come in before 1pm they get a free drink with their lunch.

If you have a special event coming up on the weekend, remind them it’s coming and help get them excited about it!

One of the cautionary tales about SMS messaging for business involves signing up mobile numbers without permission. That’s a big no-no. Subscribers should always sign up from their own phone and know they will be getting a certain number of a messages each month.

Is SMS Marketing in Bellingham worth it?

Sure, you see just about everyone walking around with cell phones and texting, but is it good for business? It turns out that if mobile marketing is done correctly it can help you bring in 25% to 100% more in sales just from your existing customers.

To put a number on how many people actually use text messaging, 81% of mobile users have sent or received a text in the last 30 days. And people 55 years and older are the fastest growing group of texters, so it’s not just the kids doing it!

When I first looked in to providing SMS services for local business I knew it was a great idea. Not only because I love mobile technology, but because I see so many other people looking for information through their mobile phone. People want to hear from the business they love through text messaging, mobile websites, and Facebook.

Still, I know that it’s still an unknown for many business owners. So I’m ready to remove the risk. For a limited time I’m helping set up a small number of businesses with the text messaging technology free for 30 days. Give me (Roger) a call at 360-733-9727 and mention that you read this blog post and I will help get you set up! You can also contact me here if email is more your style.

What are your thoughts on SMS messaging for business. Is it right for your kind of business? Are you not sure? Leave a comment with the line of business you’re in and I’ll be sure to give you an answer!

Have You Googled Yourself Lately?

by

If you run a local business in Bellingham it might be worth it for you check out what people are saying about you online. For example, I just did a search for “bellingham mexican restaurant”. In this case, being at the top of that search isn’t necessarily a great thing, especially if you read the customer feedback.

One restaurant at the top of that search result, Dos Padres, has 2.5 stars out of 5 on the Google reviews. When you read the actual reviews, it’s pretty clear people are not happy. The entry at the top of the review page says:

Food was WAY over priced, Rice tasted like it came from a box, tortillas were not homemade, beans tasted like the can version etc…

The rest of that review, as well as all the others on that review page, do not make this restaurant look like a good place to bring your family for dinner.

Another restaurant a little further down is Pepper Sisters. That happens to be one of my favorites in town, and I always get the “Pinky Blue”.

So I was a little surprised to see all the negative reviews that have floated to the top of their Google places page. There are positive reviews there too, but they are older and fewer than the negative reviews.

What can a business do about this?

First of all, if the criticism hits the mark, then do something to fix the problem. This social aspect of business is not going away. It’s only getting bigger and businesses that do not serve their customers well are being called out on it publicly.

Next, let the people who left the review know that you appreciate the feedback and are working to fix the problem. Even offer a free meal or some other gift to help make up for the poor experience. Business have the ability to respond publicily to reviews right on the same review page. Future customers can see that you really do appreciate their business and want them to have a good experience.

Finally, ask and encourage your customers to review your businesses online. This could be through the Google places reviews, your business’s Facebook page, Yelp, or some other online social tool.

Now go Google yourself and let me know what you find!

Is Your Business Making The Mobile Connection?

by

 

Living in Bellingham these days requires a bit more patience than it used to. When you combine holiday shopping with the now regular swarms of Canadians coming down for a “good deal” you have the potential for the nominally laid back Bellinghamster to really lose it.

It’s a good thing I have two small children that have clued me in to what real frustration is like.

However, if you’re a local retailer or restaurant you’re likely pretty happy with all the new customers coming down to pick up a few things, eh?

But are you getting all the business you could be from out of town travellers?

When someone comes in from out of town, they are not going to be carrying a full sized computer around with them to figure out where to shop and eat. They probably are not going to be using  a laptop computer either.

They will be using an iPhone or other type of smart phone to help them get around and figure out where they are going.

Hopefully not while they are driving – it’s bad enough as it is!

So while the Canadians and other visitors are looking for the kinds of products and services you offer on their smartphones, what do they see when they visit your site?

Your website may look great on a big high resolution monitor, but when it gets shrunk down to a few inches on a side how does it perform? Are visitors able to click on a phone number to call you? Can they easily find out where you are? Is it simple for them to navigate and find out what you offer?

Most of the time even a very expensive website will not work well, if at all, when a person tries to use it on a mobile phone.

And it’s not just a problem with people who are from out of town and don’t have access to their regular computer. Increasing numbers of locals are using smartphones more than regular computers to do their web browsing and email. If a site does not work properly on mobile it’s going to get ignored and the potential customer will go elsewhere.

But there is a solution!

Building a site for your mobile visitors can be as easy as having a few simple pages that give your location and a “tap to call” phone nubmer. It can also get more complex, even having a mobile website work like an “app” that is compatible with any smartphone (not just iPhone or Android).

A mobile friendly site is typically built separately, but along side, your existing website. The only modification that needs to happen with your existing site is to add a bit of code that will detect when a visitor is on a smart phone. This bit of code will send them to the mobile friendly version of your site so they can continue to shop, find out where you are, and pay you visit. Hopefully without causing any frustration to other drivers along the way. 🙂

Questions about how mobile and social help local businesses connect with more customers? Leave a note in the comments area and I’ll do my best to answer!

SMS For The Holidays?

by

The holiday shopping season always seems to sneak up on us, doesn’t it?

Here it’s only Halloween, but as business people we need to be thinking about “Black Friday” and the final days before Christmas.

SMS Is A Gift For Your Business

Many stores and shops started gearing up over the summer. Every year it’s the same guessing game on what’s going to be popular and what’s going to just sit on the shelves.

Of course, you want to try and bend your customers’ buying decisions in the direction of whatever makes you the most profit. As Christmas gets closer you want to try and guide that buying decision on whatever you have most in stock.

As the final frenzied days get closer, you have less time to run ads to bring in customers. What if you could reach out to them individually?

This is what text message (SMS) marketing lets you do. When a person signs up to receive text messages from your business, it gives you direct access to their mobile phone.

This lets you get very creative on what you can do next. You can send out coupons and offers that are only valid for a certain number of hours or on certain days. This drives people to your store when you what them there!

The technology works a lot like email marketing, but is much more effective. Most people actually read their text messages, whereas email messages are more often ignored even if they are received on a mobile.

You can try it out for yourself.

On the right side of this page you can see a short form where you can enter your mobile phone number. When you do, you will get an automatic response back from the system. Imagine having this on your own site for your customers!