Are you using mobile marketing to grow your customer base and increase your revenues?  Did you know that 30% of all restaurant searches are from a mobile device?  And that number is getting bigger, not smaller, as more smart phones hit the market.

People are using their smart phones to do just about everything.  If you have one, you know what I mean.  There are so many options available on a smart phone with an internet connection.

Mobile marketing is critical to your restaurant's future success.

Are you still advertising in the phone book?  If so, your reach to potential customers is limited, especially to those people that use their phones for just about everything they do.  That yellow page ad you have may never see the light of day!

If a customer pulls up your website on their mobile phone, will they see your full website on their screen, or will they see a scaled-down, mobile-friendly version?  If the full site comes up and they have to scroll around and zoom the images and links, then they'll probably just navigate away and go somewhere else.  But if you have a mobile site with links that can quickly be found and clicked on, they'll stick around.  Some of these might include a menu link and a click-to-call button.

If you're ready to take the next step on a mobile marketing campaign for your restaurant or business, contact me.

When I first heard about Facebook years ago, it was off limits to me since I was already out of school.  It was designed to be used just by college students.

After a short while, it opened up to the rest of the crowd.  Like everyone else, I jumped in and discovered this popular social media site.

And if you use Facebook on a regular basis, you'll notice that things are always changing.  Just when you get used to a familiar layout, it gets changed again.  Actually, I like this since it keeps it more interesting to me.  It's not a huge effort to keep up with some of these subtle changes.

But more and more now, businesses are getting their brands and presence on Facebook.  That's one area of major change from the original concept of Facebook.  Take a look around and you'll see that it's not just for individuals any more.

So, do you still just have a website as your business presence on the internet?

As of this entry, Facebook has over 750 million users.  It's the place to be for both individuals, and businesses.  Your business can jump into the fray and join the conversation taking place about your products and services.

If you're interested in getting a fan page set up for your business, contact me.  Your competitors are jumping in head first.  Don't get left out!

When people are shopping online for your products and services, they pay attention to the reviews that you're getting from your previous customers.  If your company is represented by lots of positive reviews, chances are those shoppers will click over to your website for more information, and to make a purchase.  But on the other hand, if your business has been getting negative reviews from your customers, this works the other way around.  There's less incentive to purchase from you and your competition gets their attention.

I have a unique system at whirLocal.com that proactively gathers positive reviews from your happy customers, and posts these to your social media network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and your website or blog.  The process is automated and creates those necessary backlinks back to your website.  As you probably know, the more backlinks your website gets, the higher its ranking in the search engines.  When you rank higher in the search engines for your products and services, you jump ahead of your competition.

So, put your best face forward and get your business ranked ahead of the competition using the unique abilities that whirLocal offers.  Contact me to discuss the system and just how it works.  Depending on when you call, I may be able to issue you a discount code to use for your purchase.  Either way, it's a great value.  This system is so unique, the website it creates may even rank you higher than your existing website due to the fresh content that comes in on a regular basis.

One of the best ways to stay in touch with your customers is with a mobile marketing campaign. Let's use this as an example: suppose your business is a restaurant. Your customers come and go, you have some regular ones, as well as ones that come one time only and never return. What if you had a way to capture the contact information of all your customers when they come in to eat?

If you had that information you could contact them and let them know of any specials that you're offering, or just to remind them to come in for a meal. What's the incentive? You can offer your customers a two-for-one discount for example. How would you notify them? They would receive a text message on their cell phone at the time you wanted to have your promotion. The text message might say something like: "20% discount on any entrée tonight. Show this text to your waiter to receive the discount."

Does your restaurant experience any slow times during the week, or even during the day? Chances are it does. Sending out a text message to your customers letting them know of a special is a good way to bring them into the restaurant. Surely not every one of your customers will respond to the offer, but a certain percentage will respond and come in. Over time as you collect more contact information, you can offer promotions to a larger base of customers.

How do you get these customers to join your list in the first place? One way would be to put a small table tent on their table for them to see. This ad might say something like, "text TACO to 41242 to receive a free entrée today". Once the customer sends this text, they will receive a confirmation, which they will show to their waiter to receive the entrée.

From my own experience, one time I did this and showed the waiter my confirmation text. He had to look at it closely because he wasn't familiar with the program! So it goes without saying, if you're putting this program into place, notify all personnel about it first!

If you'd like to get more information about starting up the program for your own company or business, visit http://mikeswebmarketing.com/mobile

Has your business claimed its listing yet on Google Places?

Google makes a free listing available to any business. You just need to go in and "claim" your listing. After doing this, you can make enhancements to it such as adding pictures and videos.

Your business probably already shows up on Google, but you should verify it to make sure the existing information is accurate.

The more information you add to your listing, the more relevant it becomes, giving it a higher ranking in Google's search engine. This higher ranking makes it easier for your customers to find your business when they're looking for you. Whether you have a website or not, you can claim and modify this listing. In fact, you can add your website to the listing, which will link back to it.

Checking into your listing allows you do see what comments users have left for your business, as well as allowing you to answer their comments.

Watch the video above to get some ideas for your business.

Contact me if you'd like any help getting your business set up on Google Places.

Building an email list is the key to long term profits for any business.  Most online business owners know that the money is in the list.

Most OFFLINE businesses are spending large amounts on advertising and marketing, and they have a lot of foot traffic moving through their business premises.  Yet most of them don't do any serious list building.

Here’s an example of the power of list building:

Let’s assume an average retail business gets 200 people walking through their store every day.  These potential customers are highly targeted prospects.  In a month's time, that's up to 6,000 prospects walking through the store.

Some of them are regular customers and some are coming through just one time.  Why not capture their attention through regular emails that are sent out in an automated program?  This will keep them coming back for more and help them remember you when it comes to needing one of the products your store offers.

How do you get them to sign up for your list?

You could offer a prize drawing each week or month.  Anyone signing up on the list gets a chance to win the prize.  You could even give away a pen, keychain, or something similar with your company’s logo on it.

When the store has a sale, or offers discounts on merchandise, another email goes out to everyone notifying them.

Keeping in contact with the members on this list is invaluable for building relationships.  Regularly sending out information to keep the readers engaged is vital to maintaining that relationship.

And in the process, you’ll be converting shoppers to customers that will come back again and again, as well as referring you to other people they know.

Would you like to learn more about the power of list building for your business?

Contact me here