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Business Tips

Posted by Shannon Goodell

Why Small Businesses Should Have A Mobile App

Business, Business Tips, Mobile, Web Design 0

If you think that only the giant retailers bother to create their own business apps, there are a few facts which you should consider that might affect your thinking. For instance, approximately 85% of the time that users spend on their mobile phones is dedicated to operating a mobile app. That fact alone should make you reconsider, but there are other compelling reasons listed below. Don’t dismiss the idea simply because you lack the expertise in-house – a great San Diego web design agency like MySMN can provide you with the perfect app for your business.

You can be constantly visible to your customers

When your app is downloaded to users’ phones, it’s always there on the screen, even if the individual doesn’t intend to use it right at that moment. The fact of its presence on-screen causes it to be etched into the memory of the person for later recall and usage.

Availability of useful information

Any information posted on your mobile website is instantly available to users who have your app on their phones. Whatever information that you’d like your customers to know is right at their fingertips, ready for immediate retrieval. You’ll have a constant line of communication open to your customers and potential customers.

Convenience breeds loyalty

The more convenient you make it for your customers to interact with your business, the more loyal they will become. One example is in collecting and redeeming rewards or discounts that you offer. By providing customers with more reasons to do business with you, their loyalty should increase toward your company.

Building your brand is easier

Your own mobile app provides the perfect vehicle for conveying the kind of image and message that you want your company to project. You basically have a blank palette which you can populate with the core values and philosophy important to your business.

Increase brand recognition

Building on the ease of branding, you can increase the recognition factor of your brand by getting more users engaged with your brand, and on a more frequent basis. And of course, along with that frequency of engagement, you can expect increased sales and customer loyalty.

Better overall customer engagement

Since most customers would rather text a company than talk to a representative, having some kind of messaging platform will give them a method of contacting you which most of them prefer. It can improve your customer service, and defuse any issues before they develop into a negative.

Get a leg up on the competition

Since most small businesses don’t yet have their own apps, this would be one very beneficial way for you to get ahead of the game, by providing users with your own app. It will lend credibility to your company, and make you look more professional and modern.

Increasing customer loyalty

Probably the most critical reason to build your own app is to establish and improve on customer loyalty. There is such a flood of new marketing and advertising being used these days, that maintaining contact with your customer base has become a real challenge. That makes it more important than ever to make a real connection with customers, and mobile apps will help you do that by keeping your business right at your customers’ fingertips.

Want to learn more? Contact mobile app specialists, like MySMN, that will create a mobile app which fully embodies visual appeal, relevant content, rock-solid functionality, and your company’s critical branding message. Contact us today, and start increasing your mobile presence through a customized business app!

Posted by Shannon Goodell

It May Be Time For Your Business Website To Be Updated

Business, Business Tips, Web Design 0

Your website does something that no single employee or any group of employees could possibly do – it promotes your business 24 hours a day to all Internet users. Business website design in San Diego needs to reflect the changing attitudes and needs of users, rather than remaining static for long periods of time. Below are some reasons why you might want to avail yourself of the skills and knowledge provided by a San Diego website design company, to keep your site fresh and relevant. After reading why it’s highly beneficial to keep your site current, you’ll have no trouble finding a good firm for outstanding web design in San Diego.

Your site has become outdated

The tools, themes, and technology used to build website change every few months, and users’ tastes change right along with them. A site that’s even two years old probably can’t match up well with more current ones, in terms of loading speed, functionality, and aesthetic appeal. You may also be missing out on some of the newest factors being evaluated by search engines for site ranking.

Your site no longer reflects your brand adequately

If your company has undergone any kind of shift in philosophy recently, and your branding message has been changed, this should be reflected on your website. For your customers and potential customers, your branding message is whatever is conveyed through your website, so your site should be synchronized with the new company outlook.

The right clients are not attracted to your site

Over time, it can easily happen that your site no longer attracts the kind of target audience you’re looking for, i.e. those who are most likely to purchase from you. There are a number of reasons why this might happen, but the first places to look for specific customer appeal are the content on your site, and any galleries or images shown.

Not mobile-friendly

Since there are now more mobile users than desktop users browsing the Internet, it’s an absolute must that your site is displayed clearly and intelligently on mobile devices. If a user has to scroll left, right, up, and down just to read a page of content, you’ll probably be losing out on a huge segment of your market.

Slow load speed

If the pages of your site load too slowly, it might well prompt a user to abandon and visit another site. Pages might load slowly because of numerous images or images that are too large, an outdated theme, or possibly inadequate powering from your host provider.

Inadequate calls-to-action

Without a doubt, your site needs one or more calls to action, but they have to be placed optimally, in locations right after you’ve gotten the user’s attention, and you’ve piqued their curiosity to find out more.

Your site needs more effective, updated content

While a good-looking site might initially attract visitors, it’s great content that keeps them there. Most users are looking for relevant and useful information from a site, not visual appeal. There are tools you can use to determine which kind of content holds user attention, and you should use this information to include more effective, updated content on your site.

New apps and integrations

New and useful apps emerge daily on the Internet, and users have come to expect having all that capability at their fingertips. Then too, your business could be helped significantly by including more back-end integrations with processes such as order fulfillment and tracking, and CRM. It’s worth the time and effort to include these capabilities both for users and for yourself.

This may all sound a little overwhelming, but you don’t have to go it alone. Take advantage of the expertise of the best website design company in the area, and contact MySMN for great San Diego web design. In addition to helping you with improved content, SEO, and functionality, MySMN also has the reputation for being a responsive website design company, so you’ll be sure to capture the mobile market. Contact us to learn how we can help your business!

facebook marketing
Posted by Patrick

What Does Facebook’s News Feed Change Mean for Your Business? 

Advertising, B2B Social Media, Business Tips, Content Marketing, Facebook, Marketing Campaigns, ROI in Social Media, Social Good, Social Media for Consumer Products, Social Media Marketing, Technology, Trends

What Does Facebook’s News Feed Change Mean for Your Business? 

The change in Facebook’s news feeds revolves around the social media giant’s intention to supply less news from the world of business, entertainment, and publishers, while focusing more on the kind of meaningful exchanges which users might have with family and friends. The motivation behind this paradigm shift is apparently CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s change of heart about how Facebook may have been negatively impacting its legions of followers.

The kind of malicious or abusive content supplied by other contentious nations and groups will be targeted in particular, with greater attention to be paid to those who misuse the tools and benefits provided by the social medium. Facing a storm of recent backlash over this kind of meddling and interference, Facebook is apparently choosing to proactively make these changes, rather than having them enforced through regulatory means. 

facebook marketing services

Impact on businesses

Facebook executives fully expect this shift toward more friendly user engagement and less business-sponsored involvement to result in reduced user involvement, at least temporarily. The hope is that after the initial shift impact is over, Facebook users will be happier with the new format, and will return to spending more time online. In the short term however, it will impact publishers and businesses because there is likely to be a diminished audience receiving their notifications and ads, at no cost and via the easiest delivery approach imaginable.

Those businesses and publishers which count on Facebook as their primary delivery method are likely to be the ones who feel the greatest impact, along with those which have made huge investments on developing Facebook videos for mass consumption. With far fewer of these being displayed, the audience for all those messages simply won’t be there anymore, at least not in the numbers that companies have grown accustomed to.

The Facebook Goal

The goal of these coming changes is to make Facebook users happier, according to Mr. Zuckerberg, and not as argumentative about all the material which has been allowed through in the past. Assuming that users will be ‘happier’ because they are exposed to fewer opposing views (from ‘meddlers’ and interfering parties), the expectation is that Facebook users will make more real friends, and interact benignly with them.

Since the company’s research has shown that Facebook users have been exposed to far more diverse opinions within the medium than they otherwise would have been, it is thought that reducing this divergence of opinion will make for more contented users. Interestingly, the company’s own research has also shown that the format changes are likely to result in reduced participation of users. Part of that has to do with the fact that the number of video productions will be decreased, and everyone knows how effective video has been at retaining user interest and engagement.

A Happier Facebook

Will users really be happier on Facebook when there are less business ads and videos, and more happy posts from friends and relatives? While no one can really know for sure, Facebook execs are confident that even if there is a short-term lapse in user involvement and engagement, that the new-look happy medium will eventually win over former users as well as newcomers, and that the entire community will continue to grow again. Business executives and publishing companies however, would be well advised to begin pursuing other alternatives in their marketing campaigns.

Contact Us to learn more!

Posted by Patrick

5 recent changes in social media you should be taking advantage of

Business Tips, Content Marketing, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter 0

The only thing consistent about social media is the fact that it is constantly changing. Facebook, for example, has changed several times since it first launched. Buttons, functions, and the placement of them, are constantly moving and changing. It takes a social media expert just to keep up with these many changes that happen several times per year. Many of these changes are unannounced, and marketers are simply stumbling upon them as they occur. Through our research of the ever-changing social media landscape, we’ve identified 5 important changes that all marketers and operators of small business can appreciate and take advantage of.

Facebook Targeting Options

Facebook advertising is something that is constantly changing at a rapid pace, and in October of 2016 they began offering a targeting option for marketers to target people who had shared links to their content in the past. They call this target audience “link sharing.” This is huge, and will likely create many new opportunities for marketers and entrepreneurs alike. While this option was only available on the site for a week last fall, Facebook is likely still testing it with a limited audience, and we should hope to see this option available for Facebook ads very soon.

Twitter Replies Count

Now, when you’re looking through your Twitter feed, you can see not only the basic data for the tweet, but also a list of those who have retweeted, and also a list of those who have liked the tweet at the bottom. This is accompanied by thumbnail images of the Twitter users who have interacted with the tweet. Twitter has also been experimenting with showing the total replies for each tweet, and have allowed this option for a select group of users in its trial stage. This option would be the equivalent of Facebook showing comments under each post. This could encourage users to interact more with tweets.

Twitter Scratch Reel

GIFs are a social media phenomenon that have taken us by storm, and growing in popularity as of late. Twitter has introduced a “scratch reel” option to indulge users in GIF fun by allowing them to fast forward and reverse a GIF my swiping their finger (or curser) to the left or the right. When this option was first made available, it wasn’t possible for Twitter users to create their own unique scratch reels, but the company has opened this option up so that users can now create their own unique and interactive, custom GIFs. In order to access this option, you either need to compose a scratch reel in your Twitter ads, or have access to Media Studio.

LinkedIn Update Insights

Without even announcing its addition, LinkedIn now provides a new insights option for its mobile app. This is useful in that it allows users to see who is seeing their content, and how. These insights are similar to what you would see with LinkedIn Publisher posts, and they give valuable insights for new connections and opportunities. While these insights are first only available via mobile, LinkedIn is sure to include insights on their newly designed desktop site.

LinkedIn Secret Job Search

LinkedIn is making searching for a new job much easier with a new option that allows users to alert others that they are open to new opportunities discreetly, without their current employer knowing about it. It’s a small tab that users can turn on that says “let recruiters know you’re open.”

Whether you work at a San Diego website design firm, a search engine optimization firm, or simply a marketing firm, these five changes are sure to help the way your market yourself and your firm. For more information on social media marketing, or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

5 Social Media Trends We’re Excited to See in 2017

Advertising, Business Tips, Content Marketing, Social Good, Social Media, Social Media for Consumer Products, Uncategorized 0

TRENDS 2017 businessman work hard hand touch

2017 is here, and that means there are sure to be a whole slew of brand new technologies, trends and innovative ways in which marketers will be promoting their business this year. We’ve scoured the web to find out more in terms of what we’re to expect this year, and we’ve found some exciting new trends that we’d love to share with you so that you too are in the loop with the latest and greatest in digital marketing to date.

AI Lenses for Instagram and Facebook

Much like the Snapchat filters, Instagram and Facebook are now working on AI Lenses for profile pictures that are sure to rival the ever-popular filters on Snapchat, according to Sprout Social. Thanks to the popular Snapchat stories, this trend isn’t going away anytime soon, and we should be seeing much more of it overall social media platforms this year.

More Growth for Snapchat

Last year Snapchat experienced an enormous amount of growth to reach a total of 150 million daily users in 2016, with 41% of US adults aged 18-34 being users.

Automation Turns into Social Media Management

Businesses are starting to see the value in real-time posting and engagement for their social media platforms across the board. This is showing business owners and marketers alike that there is much more value in hiring a social media management firm to actively manage all social media accounts in more real-time than setting up everything with automation, so that it is basically on auto-pilot. Opportunities for reaching more people, getting in on what’s most current, trending and up to date, and being more responsive to followers in real-time is going to be essential in 2017.

Paid Content is King

2017 Trends

Navigating the ever-changing algorithms over Facebook and Instagram have forced marketers into boosting and promoting content in order to reach more people. This trend isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. If businesses want to reach more people, advertising their content over platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are going to be essential. It will also help to pair this effort with the expertise of a local search engine optimization firm to reach even more people over the Internet, and gain maximum exposure for not only your content, but your company website as well.

Social Media Expertise Demand at an All-Time High

Nine out of ten companies currently report that their employees lack the skill sets needed to effectively execute social media management and marketing in an overall effective way. This is going to push companies to start considering outsourcing their social media management to an experienced marketing firm. This will save companies time, and even money when it comes to managing their social media efforts in a manner that will not only drive sales, leads and ROI, but build a loyal following that is sure to stick with them for years to come.

Social media is constantly changing, which is also changing the way that businesses must market themselves. Gone will be the days of in-house marketing if companies truly want to get an edge above their competition and become power houses over social media and the Internet. For more information, or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

Our Top Marketing Predictions for 2017

Business Tips, Content Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media predictions 0

 

2017 is just around the corner, so while you’re planning your New Year’s Eve parties, your San Diego SEO experts have been gathering together the top marketing predictions we see coming to fruition for 2017, and planning our strategies accordingly. So just what do we see happening in a big way for digital marketing in 2017? Many, many things. Here are some of our top predictions.

Automation Will Be Mandatory

Automation is no longer an option of convenience if you want to succeed in marketing your small business in 2017. Instagram just rolled out a new API which will allow for automation of ads, and hopefully all posts on the platform will follow suit. Pretty much every other social media site has the API for automating posts, and this is going to be key. San Diego small businesses are going to rely on planning and strategizing their content, and scheduling it out via Facebook, Hootsuite, etc. This isn’t going to completely overshadow live posting, but it’s definitely going to be a must if companies want to keep up with content marketing competition.

Snapchat Will Continue to Grow

This social media platform has been growing at a rapid rate, as it should be. Large and small businesses alike are going to have to jump on the bandwagon, or miss out on a very large potential target market.

Targeting Will Be Data Driven

The collection of data by large social media platforms such as Facebook has completely transformed the way customers are targeted and marketed to. Marketing is going to be client-driven and all-inclusive pertaining to their lifestyle as a whole. How do we get this information? Facebook, Instagram, email, personal shopping history, etc. All of this data is going to be used in a cumulative way to really paint a picture of each consumer individually, so that targeting will only become smarter–giving each consumer exactly what they want when they want it.

Investing in Your Marketing Team Will Be Mandatory

If you own a San Diego marketing firm–or employ one to conduct the marketing for your business–a bit of investment into your team is going to be essential in 2017. This is because the heat will be turned up, and the pressure will be on to not only produce great content, but to really engage with your target audience and build a following that is not only interacting with said content, but loyal to your brand. Instilling passion and loyalty in your digital following is a bit of an art combined with science that takes time, blood, sweat and tears, so if you’re not investing in your team, a bigger, better competitor will.

For more information or a detailed quote call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

6 Digital Marketing Tips for the Holidays

Business Tips, Content Marketing, Social Media 0

With the holiday season in full swing there are several marketing strategies available to tap into the season and the increased web traffic and internet shopping that is happening right now. Below are our top digital marketing tips for your business this season.

Research Keywords Based on Buyer Intent

The best way to reel in more customers is by giving them what they want and fulfilling their unmet needs. This can be done by looking into what they are searching for. You can add a search bar to your own website to help with this, and be sure to deliver. It also helps to know who your buyers are, and to make sure they can find you. This can be done with the help of a San Diego SEO or search engine optimization firm.

Create Social Media Buzz

Whether it’s products or services you provide, be sure to create buzz about it over social media. This includes not only advertising, but offering contests, buyer incentives and deals, and holiday themes surrounding the products and/or services you provide. This can be done through custom graphics, links to products/services on your website, and blogs.

Post Content that Your Holiday Customers Value

Whether it’s a blog, a social media post or a website link, be sure that the content you are posting is valuable to your target market. It doesn’t even have to be product/service specific so long as it is bringing viewers to your social media sites, and website. Reeling them in with a great piece that is relevant to their needs, what you offer and the holidays is a great way to attract more sales.

Decorate your Website with Holiday Themed Additions

This doesn’t mean that you need a complete website overhaul, just some simple add ons that will get your viewers in the holiday spirit and thinking about what they need for their holiday celebrations, gifts for others, etc. This could be done with simple additions to the designs you already have, or a couple of extra landing pages. If you’re not sure how to best execute this, contact a San Diego website design firm.

Retarget Abandoned Cart Shoppers

There are likely to be many abandoned carts this season, and this doesn’t necessarily mean that these potential sales are lost. A great way to bring back these shoppers is through the use of retargeting ads. Show them the items they left in their cart while they browse other websites, or simply send them an email reminding them of all the goodies they left. Many shoppers just want some time to mull over the items they were tempted to buy, and will come back to make a purchase.

Offer Holiday Incentives

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference for buyers. Offering free shipping, gift receipts, holiday wrapping or special holiday sales are often times all it takes to set yourself apart from the competition. This can create a loyal customer base that keeps coming back each and every year. And don’t forget about these valuable customers once the holidays pass. Identify their unmet needs for the new year and market to them in a way that will bring them back each and every month.

If you’d like some more help in executing your holiday campaigns, we’d love to help. For more information or a detailed quote call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

Email Marketing Tips to Increase Leads

Business Tips, Social Media 0

E-mail marketing post it in business man hand

 

As technology forges ahead and marketing strategies become more sophisticated behind that wave of technology, it’s still one of the first online strategies that has remained the most effective at generating leads and reaching targeted customers. That somewhat surprising fact should tell you something about the enormous staying power of email marketing, and the comfort level that marketing strategists have developed for it.

It’s true that email marketing has evolved to become far more sophisticated than broadcasting unsolicited messages, but the fact remains that email is still at the forefront of digital marketing, and is still used to great effect by San Diego digital marketers, San Diego website design firms, and San Diego SEO optimization consultants, among others.

What are business leads?

A lead is an individual has who has indicated at least some initial interest in your company or your product lines in one of several ways. It could have been by downloading an e-book posted online by your company, or someone who filled out a form on the company website, or possibly even someone who attended a huge trade seminar and simply dropped a business card into the fishbowl.

This is way at the beginning of the purchase cycle, and doesn’t amount to much more than simple curiosity. Still, there is a possibility that this curiosity can be fanned into the flames of something much more like genuine interest. Having discovered that initial curiosity, it is the task of the sales and marketing group to gently nudge the lead further and further along the purchase cycle path, until an actual sale is made.

Tips for effective email marketing

The way that marketing strategists can achieve the goal of gently pushing the lead toward the sales funnel is by employing proven techniques related to email design, and to the kind of content which should be included in the email text. If you adopt some of these tips and techniques, you should be able to convert a lot more leads into actual sales.

  • Email subject– the subject of your email is much more important than you might think, and very often cues the lead in on whether or not to continue reading. For this reason, you should craft your subject heading carefully and grab attention quickly. Some suggestions for doing this are by using subjects which call for action, personalizing a subject line, or addressing a specific problem your lead has.
  • Be brief– long, windy emails are almost guaranteed to end up in the circular file, so keep your message concise and appealing.
  • Evoke imagery– whenever possible, try to generate an image in your lead’s mind, because it will give you a much greater chance of success than simple text.
  • Include social media– by including social media links in your emails, you can get readers to share your content with people in their network.
  • Call to action– the best way to keep the lead going forward in the purchase cycle is to be very informative about your products and services. This means your email needs to effectively make use of action words like attend, read, try now, register, and download. If you can get the lead to read your company content about products and services, you will have educated them about what you have to offer.

More information on digital marketing 

MySMN is a digital marketing agency that also does website design, and is a search engine optimization firm in San Diego which can help you with all your design and marketing concern. For more information or a detailed quote, call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Patrick

Best Practices to Grow Your Social Following Organically

Business Tips, Social Media 0

How To Grow Your Following, Man Running On Steps

Growing your social media presence is something that can find you loads of new customers and bring in tons of business for your company, but only if it’s done in the right manner, which is as part of an organized and integrated strategy. The driving factor behind your whole approach should be to give customers exactly what they want, after having made a thorough examination of their needs and desires. With this in mind, your social media strategy should pay big dividends as you grow your social following.

Here are some steps you should be taking to accomplish that objective purposefully and organically.

Social media following growth tips

  • Establish platform objectives– before you start posting anywhere, make sure you have a good understanding of how each of the social media platforms works, and which types of users can be reached on each of them.
  • Be active– for whichever platforms you have chosen to establish a presence, make sure that you engage with other users frequently. It’s not enough to just include links with your articles or tweets and expect that other users will follow and be interested. By interacting with as many others as possible, you will be demonstrating that you are accessible, and that you are genuinely interested in connecting.
  • Understand your audience– you’ll be able to interact with your intended audience in a much more meaningful way if you know what they want to read about, and in a larger sense, what their life needs and desires.
  • Create a marketing calendar– you can establish an integrated strategy by ensuring the each platform you’re active on serves a useful purpose, and one of the best ways to do this is to create a calendar which includes all of your upcoming business events, blog posts, product announcements, and anything else you might want to publicize.
  • Attach icons to your website– even your personal website should have the social media icons attached, because you want to make it easy for users to like and follow you.
  • Connect profiles to your website– profiles that you establish on any of the social media should be linked to your website, to make it easy for people to find out more about you and your company.
  • Provide benefit to your following– people won’t want to visit your website or your social media page unless there’s some benefit to them in doing so. One good way to accomplish this is to offer giveaways that draw users into your business and get them acquainted with the products and services you have to offer.
  • Expand your horizons– don’t limit yourself to the four or five most popular social media platforms, because there really are a great many others which can help you reach even more potential customers. Once you’ve covered your bases with the bigger platforms, you should broaden your approach and get involved on some of the alternative social media outlets.

More social media expertise

To make the greatest use of your social media presence, it would be worth your while to consult with a digital marketing agency, like MySMN, with a solid reputation for SEO in San Diego, and for San Diego website design. As digital marketing experts and as a search engine optimization firm, we have the tools you need to grow your business. For more information, or a detailed quote call (619) 291-8181 or fill out our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.

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