A "Jim Croce" Moment for Small Local Businesses

There's good news and bad news.  The good news is that like certain "pine trees", you too, Mr. or Ms. Small Local Business Owner, have "got a name".  It's "VSB".  Not exactly an acronym, it's a designation we just came across for "Very Small Businesses".

Congratulations!  Your existence has been validated.  It's out there, and we found it.

The bad news is that the Street Fight article we found it in discusses a staggering statistic: apparently, 59% of you  "still don't have websites", and this is "becoming" a problem. Cost and "lack of technical expertise" are typical reasons.  The answer suggested is for you small local businesses (sorry, "VSBs") without websites to "get listed" on directory sites, so that you can still be found online by potential customers.

That could work.  It does have the potential benefit of being "free".  But we all know that "free" has inherent costs.  First, you, the small local business owner  (<sigh> "VSB" - we'll get used to it) have to make sure the directories you choose 'get lots of traffic...in your vertical" (that means visits from people looking for what you have or do).  That can be time-consuming.  Next, you have to "make sure your data is correct".  That sounds pretty simple, except that you, like most people, would probably think that "123 Any Street" and "123 Any St." - in the same city, in the same state - are the same business.  The search engines don't. And if you have more than one phone number...  Again, time consuming.  And time is money.

Let us build a website that will do you justice no matter what device it's viewed on.  It doesn't have to be expensive.  Let us show you how to manage it.  It doesn't have to be difficult.  When people look for you, they'll find you.

All it takes is a call.  You know where to find us.

The New, Shiny Toy

Powerful words and phrases: "tectonic shift"; "a necessity"; "more appropriate for visualizers".  

And Eric Hinson's Convince and Convert article might be right that "video is not a silver bullet."  But those powerful phrases from the slideshow by Explainify (and Eric Hinson) above have a more definitive end in mind, and numbers to support the urgent language.

It comes as no surprise to me that video is 10 times more engaging than blogs or social.  I'm a little surprised that "bounce rate" - the rate at which people arrive at a site only to leave near immediately - decreased.  I'm a little more surprised that "time on site" actually doubled.

"Positive mood lift" makes sense.  I haven't personally seen the research that says "the brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text", but I now "think in milliseconds".  And really; if you've ever read a book, and then seen "the movie", it's easy to "see" a scene pages and pages long in a second, with most details. (I actually did a "whiteboard video" last year pointing out that if Confucius was right, 1 minute of video (at 30 frames per second) equates to 1,800,000 words.)  As for that comparison, visual storytelling has always been more efficient.  And the data show that "stories are 22x more memorable than facts".

But "video conversion rates consistently outperform other marketing" and "watching a video can impact  buying decisions" strike me as a little insulting.  Have these guys never actually watched television?

The numbers are impressive, and scary.

76% of marketers plan to use video to boost their brand awareness campaigns

52% of marketing professionals name video as the best type of content
96% of B2B companies are planning to use video in their content marketing over the next year

Your turn.  Look up "mobile video".  Then CALL US.  Because these guys still aren't writing for local business.

Wake Up Calls

Laughing is a great way to start your day.

The first email I opened this morning was from Business Intelligence:

Only for those who view disruption as an opportunity

What could it be about if not "mobile marketing"?

It was funny.  Hilarious, in fact. But Business Intelligence didn't intend the humor I saw in getting an email - from a respected business publication - about "mobile... overtaking desktop"; "social...beating search"; "on demand... undercutting T.V.", etc., but only the left half of it is visible.  The email wasn't "designed for mobile"! 

Even when I turned my smartphone sideways, I still had to "shrink" it, to avoid horizontal scroll.

I'll be elaborating on this particular experience next week, because that great start to my day continued when I saw my morning email from the Phoenix Business Journal and the subject line:

Why Arizona jobs are growing (but pay isn't)

I know what came to my mind, but I opened it because I wanted to see their "why".  I'll be elaborating on this next week, too, because before I could even get to the article, I saw the "First Look" page (with this week's headlines), and the headline immediately below seemed to tie right in:

Why consumers haven’t saved the Valley economy

If "consumers haven't saved the Valley economy", the likely reason is that "jobs are growing (but pay isn't)".

What does this have to do with Local Motive Marketing?  Everything.  Local Motive Marketing was created (as was it's "sister" website, Phoenix Day and Night) for one purpose, and one purpose only: to motivate “local customers” to spend what they can at “local businesses”, owned by “locals”, who hire “locals”, who then have money to spend at “local businesses”.

The "movers and shakers" have plans they believe will raise paychecks, and maybe that will "save the Valley economy".

That suits our purposes.

Ask the Wrong Question, Get the Wrong Answer

The headline was mildly disappointing, but nowhere near surprising:

Some Small Business Websites Are Still Not Mobile

The article, published yesterday, covers the results of a "last year's" survey, compared to results from "last year's" "last year's" survey.  And it borders on disheartening.

Let me be clear.  I respect the publisher of this information.  That's why I get their articles in my email.  They, along with a few others, are my "go to sources" for what's going on in mobile marketing.  But even those who are "on top of it" generally have no control over exactly what "it" is that they're "on top of".

It's their sources that provided 7-month-old data, compared to 19-month-old data.  And before you say "things take time" you should know that "last year's" survey,

polled 400 US small businesses...

Two multi-million dollar, international companies, and they didn't even as the right questions.

"Last year's" survey celebrated that 52% said their website is mobile-optimized; that 14% built mobile-optimized emails; and 11% market with SMS. That's the good news.

The bad news is that "mobile-optimized" hadn't been enough for "the mobile web" for six months - count 'em, 6, - before that.

Once you-know-who decided to change their algorithms to look for "mobile first", it pretty much ceased to matter that a snippet of code could make your entire (designed for desktop) home page appear on a 2.5" x 3.5" mobile screen.  

And, while I'm sure it's true that you-know-who isn't "penalizing" websites that are "mobile-optimized" but not "mobile first", their algorithms are going to find the most exact match to what they're looking for: websites designed to be easy to view, and easy to navigate "on-the-go", on a 2.5" x 3.5" mobile screen, first; a 7" x 9" tablet screen next; websites designed to still look good on desktop.

Because *they* - you-know-who - know just how "mobile" we as a society have become.  

They know - and announced at approximately the same time that the "last year's" survey compared results from "last year's" "last year's" survey, that

More than 50% of local searches happen on mobile devices.

For more on how “Marketers” neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here, here, and here.

How Local Is Your Small Business?

Most people automatically assume, when they hear the words "local business" (or, especially, "local marketing"), that the phrase means "local to this city" (or, as in the case of Phoenix, "this metropolitan area").  But - and this is important - in general use those terms may just as well mean "brick and mortar nationwide chain with a physical location in or around Phoenix".  

And sometimes it just means "an online business that sells and delivers products or services to Phoenix without even having a brick and mortar location".

Think about this:  When those who write articles about "local business" or "local marketing" do that writing, it's more likely that they aren't writing about an actual "local business", owned by "locals", who've hired "locals",  to sell products or services to "locals".  Here's a prime example, quoted verbatim:

If you’re just in Yelp or the Yellow Pages, you’re not truly “local” yet. You’re missing out on audiences native to a particular city.

Yes, you have to be in these big directories. But marketing in the true local web means creating campaigns relevant to audiences where they live.

GOT THAT?  This article wasn't written to advise you, the  "local owner(s)", of "local businesses", that hire "locals" to sell products or services to "locals".  

It was written for people who apparently don't even understand time zones; or that it's not a good idea to text a marketing message at the start of day "Eastern Daylight Time" (see yesterday's post).  

And you can bet "creating campaigns relevant to audiences" where "hot" means over 110 degrees" is a skill they haven't quite mastered yet.  Because they want Phoenicians - Arizonans - to *spend* somewhere else.

Local Motive Marketing IS a "local business" - created in Phoenix - to bring "local customers" to "local businesses", owned by "locals", who hire "locals".  We support our own, first.

For more on how “Marketers” neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here and here. For insight on how those factors relate to engagement, and  SMS text marketing, click here, and here.

"That Ain't How We Do Things Here"

You'd think "the experts" would know better.    And as a local expert, it stunned me when I read that 63 percent of "marketers" (worldwide!) to  are sending messages at the wrong time of day.  

This particular article was about mobile "push notifications".  But, apparently, this *disconnect* applies to more than just "smartphones";  "the experts" don't know when to send text-marketing messages, either.  Turns out that "many marketers do not factor in time zones".

How about that.

These are the people that have compiled the "big data"!  These are the people that have calculated when the best "engagement" will be most likely.

If they don't know how to use the information, who would?

We would.  We do.  Because we focus our expertise on local small businesses.  OUR market is Phoenix, and the Valley of the Sun.  And Local Motive Marketing understands local; understands small business; and understands locals. Because we live here.

"Marketers are failing to take into account how culture impacts likely times of engagement"

simply doesn't apply to us.  And because our purpose is to drive local customers to local small businesses, we have no need to

"merge the SMS numbers with the credit card and loyalty program to determine the time zone."

This is Arizona.  We know what time it is.  All year long.  And we don't need your customers' credit cards.

So we can send "push notifications" that are part of our local loyalty programs to local customers of  local small businesses.  We can send opt-in text-marketing messages to local customers of  local small businesses during the times of day when the best "engagement" is most likely.  We know when those times of day are.  Because we read the "big data".

Imagine your local small business offers, directed to your local customers, because you have Local Motive Marketing.

For another example how "Marketers" neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here.  For insight on how those factors relate to engagement, and  SMS text marketing, click here, and here.

What Customers Want, When They Want

"Providing your customers with what they want, when they want it..." began a great opening sentence of a great subtitle. 
http://marketingland.com/brick-mortar-revitalizing-omnichannel-success-171286
But then it went "off the rails" where small, local businesses are concerned:  "...sometimes means going offline."  But he small, local business probably never got farther than the headline, and certainly didn't go past "...it's not just about bricks and mortar; it's about having a consistent omnichannel presence."  The information in what was otherwise a very instructive article had gone into a deep, dark canyon, where small, local business owners never saw it.

First, most small, local businesses exist "offline".  "Brick and mortar" are where they are, and most owners of small, local businesses simply don't have time to keep up with "marketing news".  They're busy providing "...what they want, when they want it..." to their customers, the best way they know how.    Too many of them no longer really know "what customers want" (because customers, as a rule, don't really know, themselves), and only know "when customers want it" at the moment "the customer" shows up.  That they might prompt the customer's "want", or trigger the customer's decision to want it now, simply does not occur to them.

And it doesn't occur to the good people that write such instructive articles that the one thing they most instruct is that they could not care less about small, local businesses.  Using terms like "omnichannel", "martech", and "adtech" makes it crystal clear to those small, local business owners that those good people are writing for “the likes of Google, Facebook, Turn, Adobe, MediaMath, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and other household names”, not for  small, local businesses; for "brands"; not for those selling the "brands" in small, local businesses.

That's why we exist.

To let your customers know:  What your small business has, that your customers want, the moment they know they want it.