Be1stOnline

Mobile Marketing With Social Media

Carl Draus — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:00:22 +0000

Check out this interesting video interview with Amber MacArthur. It really sums up the current state of mobile marketing with social media technology and how it is being used to bring more customers into local businesses.

Creating A Lucrative Geo-Location Marketing Campaign

Carl Draus — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:00:05 +0000

Marketing is essentially communicating your business and its product or service offerings to potential customers. It is a way of inciting interest and describing the advantages and features uniquely presented by your company. However, as valuable as marketing can be, it presents serious issues when it comes to reaching the intended consumer. Traditional marketing broadcasts or prints the message where many potential consumers will receive it, but it will applicable to very few. As such, marketing slowly has become more centered on specific demographics, enabled largely by improvements in communication. For example, it is relatively easy to develop marketing campaigns that focus on certain locations, such as advertising in a neighborhood paper, or to target a specific demographic, such as advertising your fitness center on a healthy living website. However, it can still very difficult to reach viable consumers, consumers that turn into sales, mainly because of the constraints posed by location. Location-based marketing is the missing element. Without it, over 90 percent of ad impressions are wasted on consumers who are outside your geographic area. Fortunately, technology has advanced to allow geo-location marketing. For instance, smartphones allow marketers to obtain device-location data and modern search engines, such as Google, enable consumers to find what they need based entirely on what is near them. Better targeting equals bigger demand and better conversions. Here is how to make it work for you.

Target Your Campaign As Specifically As Possible

First, make sure that your campaign is targeted specifically to the area you do business in. Search engines like Google, allow you to target your marketing campaigns based on City, ZIP codes, neighborhoods, or even a specific street intersection. This way, when you advertise your coffee shop, you can be sure that biggest percentage of consumers exposed to your campaign are within a range that would make sense for them to choose your coffee shop.

Use Your Location To Your Advantage

You can use your location to your advantage in promotions by focusing on providing consumer incentives at a hyper-local level. For example, you could provide a time-sensitive coupon to consumers within a few mile radius of your business.

Explain Your Location

With geo-location, you can also explain your location, preventing a situation where you have a customer who is interested in what your company offers but does not want to bother looking up directions. Not only could you provide a map, but you could even provide directions from the person’s location (walking, driving, or by bus).

Play Up The Novelty

Lastly, make sure that your geo-location marketing campaign plays up the novelty presented by location based marketing. Major retailers, such as Starbucks, are using programs such as Foursquare and Facebook Locations to turn location into a game. Consumers can “check in” at your location, allowing you to provide incentives for consumers to visit a specific location more frequently by offering status (e.g. mayor status, badges), points, or incentives based on the number of visits (e.g. free appetizer on your fifth visit). Local Internet Marketing is a key part of growing your business and brand, to attract local consumers. It isn't just about having a website, it includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your product or service.

Location Specific Marketing For Local Businesses

Carl Draus — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:00:29 +0000

Target Your Campaign As Specifically As Possible

Use Your Location To Your Advantage

Explain Your Location

Play Up The Novelty

Lastly, make sure that your geo-location marketing campaign plays up the novelty presented by location based marketing. Major retailers, such as Starbucks, are using programs such as Foursquare and Facebook Locations to turn location into a game. Consumers can "check in" at your location, allowing you to provide incentives for consumers to visit a specific location more frequently by offering status (e.g. mayor status, badges), points, or incentives based on the number of visits (e.g. free appetizer on your fifth visit). Local Internet Marketing is a key part of growing your business and brand to attract local consumers. It isn't just about having a website. Local Internet Marketing includes being findable in multiple places when local consumers are looking for your products or services on their computers and mobile devices.

How Search Engines Work

Carl Draus — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:55:44 +0000

For business owners that are considering spending their valuable advertising dollars on Search Engine Marketing, it is important to first understand how search engines work. Here is a short video direct from Google that give a good overview of the subject.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

How Google Search Ads Work

Carl Draus — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:48:46 +0000

For business owners that are considering doing Pay-Per-Click advertising, here is a short video direct from Google that give a good overview of the subject.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.