The digital revolution is here. Today, over 2 billion people use smartphones across the globe and the numbers continue to rapidly grow. As a result, smartphones are opening fresh new opportunities for commerce. If you examine the Google Analytics data of your business website, chances are you’ll notice that most of your traffic comes from a mobile device. A small business looking for growth can take advantage of this massive number of potential clients by creating digital marketing platforms that are mobile friendly and suit the needs of these users. We’ll explore why your veteran-owned business needs to be mobile friendly and how you can take advantage of this technology to continue to grow your business.
Use A Responsive Design
How mobile responsive is your website? If you aren’t sure, the good news is that building a responsive website is generally not an expensive venture. There are many professionals who can do a splendid job for you within your budget, as well as many platforms that allow you to do it yourself using an easy-to-customize template.
What does mobile responsive mean? You know a website is responsive if it can seamlessly resize elements based on the device you’re using to view them (for example, a smartphone, tablet, or laptop) Why does your site need to be responsive? If your site is unresponsive on their device, users can find it difficult to navigate through its features- which can lose your business valuable conversions.
Optimize For Mobile
You need to optimize your website specifically for mobile users. Why? Since multitasking on amobile device can be challenging, a user is less patient than they are when they’re browsing from a computer. Proof of that can be seen in research conducted by Google which found that 53 percent of mobile users are likely to abandon your site if it takes over three seconds to load.
You also need to consider enlarging buttons to make it easier for the user to press on a tablet or smartphone. If you want to include forms on your website, then you really need to work on making them brief and concise. Also important to remember is including contact information like your address and phone number on your website. This will go a long way in enabling search engines to identify your business location so that your site is likely to show up in search engine results within your locality.
Use Business Listings
Besides your website, business listings play a significant role in facilitating web searches on mobile devices. This is because when a mobile device user is trying to find something on a search engine- for example, if they search “comic book shops in Cityville,” business listings will generally rank high on the page. Also, a lot of directory listings link to mobile apps that your potential clients can use to locate you and shop from you. Therefore, you should add your contact information and address to as many business listings as possible. The most common online business directories include Google Places, Yelp, Yahoo, and Bing.
Add an App
While it’s not necessarily something that every small business actually needs, adding a company app to your customer-facing efforts can make a dramatic improvement on mobile interactions. According to a recent study conducted by comScore, Americans over the age of 18 spend almost three hours every day on their smartphones. That’s a lot of phone time, but it’s also a lot of opportunity for your business to be seen through potential mobile interactions.
What’s the best way to harness this to ensure that your company actually does get a slice of that time spent on mobile? Create an app that not only provides the information on your website, but also provides a service that your customers will want to use. If you’re selling a product, make sure you can order, customize and save by ordering through your app. If you are selling a service, make sure your app provides all the necessary information to make an informed choice to buy your service in juxtaposition to your competitors. Whatever your company does, create an app that makes it easier to interact with your services and products- and that ease of use alone will improve your bottom line and overall mobile interaction.
Use Social Media
Social media is growing at warp speed, and your prospects and customers are already regularly using these sites through their mobile devices. Integrating your business to social media sites enables you to directly interact and connect with your target customers. By being active, your business is likely to show up on their news feeds, alongside favorite brands and updates from their close friends and family.
See also: 8 Social Media Marketing Strategies to Foster Your Veteran-owned Small Business.
Mobile devices have made accessibility of the global markets even easier. That’s why if you aim to continually engage your current customers while also increasing your client base, then the mobile-friendly method is the way to go. If your website isn’t already mobile friendly, then you might want to consider upgrading it- there’s potentially a tremendous untapped avenue for business growth that you could be pursuing.
While many of these solutions are time and cost-efficient, you may still find your business needing a cash boost to catch up to these mobile times. If that’s the case, it’s time to look at what types of financing are available. We take a deeper dive into the topic in this ebook, “The Basics of Small Business Financing.” Learn more about how to apply for a small business loan, how to open a business line of credit, or how to acquire government contract financing.
This communication is provided for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be an advertisement, a solicitation, or constitute professional advice, including legal, financial, or tax advice, nor is StreetShares providing advice on any particular situation.
