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website value

Top 7 Things to Do Now to Maximize Website Value

What do I mean by “maximize website value?” I mean now is a good time to look at how to maximize the business value of your website.

I recently needed to shop for new homeowner’s insurance on my home island of Kauai. Being a digital marketing guy I started searching with Google for who might be local agents that I would want to speak with. I was surprised to find that not all local agents had a website. I was also surprised to find that some gave no information on their website as to whether they could assist with the type of insurance I was looking for. And even more surprising was that some of the websites failed to have basic contact information, like email, phone, and address!

I assume that if you don’t have accurate contact information on your website then you may not be a very professional agent to handle my insurance needs. (One insurance company that did have a professional looking website asked me to leave a voicemail for a return call and they didn’t call me back for over two weeks!…..but that’s a different business issue….)

So if you are a small business without a website, the number one thing to do is to get one. You are missing out on new business!

If you do have a website, it’s a good time to check over updates you may need to make to maximize its marketing value to your business. You may have spent money to have a website that really isn’t driving business value. Here I have compiled what research and my own personal experience have shown to be the top 7 things you should do now, if you haven’t already. Now is the time to check the list and make any updates!

1. Content is up to date, accurate, and informative

Does your website clearly lay out the value proposition for your prospective customers? Does it clearly communicate the benefits to them of doing business with you? For example, in my business a web design is not a benefit. Being found online and growing your client base is a customer benefit.

Does your website clearly communicate what differentiates your company. Why should a prospect do business with you versus your competitors?

Does your website make it easy and clear to contact you via email, phone, and social media? Does it have your address if you serve customers at a brick and mortar location?

Does your website have lots of photos? Most people don’t read very much. They are scanning and absorbing visual information before they may read any text. Are you posting to a blog on your website that helps to provide insights and demonstrate your expertise in your particular business? It also signals to search engines that you are a relevant and up to date source for key words related to your business. It’s a business blog, not what you had for breakfast or the fun thing you did on Saturday night.

2. Responsive for mobile devices

Half of all Google searches are done on mobile devices. More than 60% of emails are read on mobile devices. Younger generations live on their mobile devices. Your website now should be using responsive technology to adapt to various devices.

If you are found in a search, but your web page is not easily readable, your prospective customer may just move on to the next company. And Google has started to tighten down and penalize some pages in ranking if they are not mobile-friendly. Expect that to get even tighter in the next couple of years.

See my related blog posts: Mobile First Marketing, Responsive Web Design Critical to Your Bottom Line, and How to Avoid Mobile Website Meltdown.

3. It is easy to find information and navigate your website

If your website still looks like it’s 2010 or before, you’re cheapening your brand image and dissuading potential customers from contacting you. The look and feel of websites is evolving. If you haven’t already, it’s time to declutter. White space is in! Focus on relevant images and key information. Make it simple, clear, and relevant. Your menu and navigation should be simple and easy for people to follow.

4. Social Sharing should be enabled and easy to use

Your website should be the content hub about your business. Social Media is a channel to help drive prospective customers to your content. And it should also be easy for people to share content from your website to social media. They will actually help you to market and spread awareness with their family and friends if they find interesting and useful content and an easy share button.

5. Email capture

Someone who visits your website today may or may not be ready to make an immediate purchase. But they have shown interest in your brand. Give them an incentive on your web page to opt-in to your email list. If you offer them some information of value in return for opting-in, you will see a much higher signup rate. By opting-in they are giving you permission to market to them over time in a personal way. They are much more likely to open your email than they are to see one of your social media posts.

6. Speed and performance should be optimized

If your website is too slow to load, you may lose a prospective customer. There is a trade-off between lots of images that tell your story and the speed and performance of your site. A tool set like Google PageSpeed Tools will analyze your speed and give specific recommendations for improvement. Make sure you are using a web host with adequate performance relative to others. Also make sure that all images are highly compressed.

7. Optimize for search engines

Check Google Search Console to make sure there are neither errors nor resource blocking for your site. Follow best practices for focus keywords, titles, snippets, photo alt text, and text so that search engines will recognize and reward your valuable content with higher rankings. Reach out to other relevant high value websites to request a link back to your site. Create relevant links between different pages of your website. Make sure your address and contact information are consistent across all sites and social media. Search Engine Optimization experts may chuckle at this simplified list, but these are good first steps to address or to discuss with your web designer.

Maximize website value

If you started the new year without updating your marketing plan and checking the health of your website, now is the time to maximize website value!

facebook ads results

Did Your Facebook Ads Not Produce Results?

Many small businesses have tried Facebook ads that did not produce results. Others are using them to drive significant business results. What is different?

Facebook generates $4B. in ad revenue and over 1 million small businesses use Facebook ads. When I speak with people about online marketing, I often highlight the opportunities to use Facebook (and now Instagram) for cost-effective advertising. I also highlight that you can no longer rely on organic reach to get to existing followers of your business.

Several people have recently told me they tried Facebook ads and they “didn’t work.” So they stopped. That usually means that they did not see an immediate, short-term uptick in sales.

Advertising can generate awareness and it can induce someone to look more closely at your product or service. It may not produce an immediate sale. It depends on your product/service and where the reader is in the buying cycle.

In Facebook, People Are Not Actively Looking to Buy Things

[Tweet theme=”basic-full”]In Facebook, people are not actively looking to buy things.[/Tweet]

In Facebook, they are likely not actively looking to buy something right now. Google ads based on certain keywords may be aligned with immediate purchase intent, but Facebook ads have another complementary role to play.

Facebook advertising is usually a longer-term investment. It helps you to generate demand with people who weren’t already looking for you. It helps you to build an audience to market to over time.

There are exceptions. Some products or services may be impulse purchases that can show immediate sales results. Certainly Facebook and other social media networks are hoping that is the case as they all continue to invest in social commerce capabilities. But most of the value of your Facebook ads is to generate awareness and to build an audience to sell multiple things over time.

Common Reasons Your Facebook Ads Didn't Work

There are some common reasons why your Facebook ads didn’t produce the desired results or “didn’t work.” I have compiled my top ten things to look at and adjust in your approach:

  1. Wrong Objectives. People on Facebook are primarily looking to connect with friends and family and to be exposed to interesting content. They are not primarily there to find and buy products. If you have a relatively inexpensive product that someone can make a fast purchase decision about, then maybe you will see product sales directly from ads. I get a lot of ads for T-shirts in my News Feed and I might click to purchase one that I found particularly interesting. People may have an interest in your products, but are not currently ready to make a purchase. Or your target audience may need additional information before they are ready to make a purchase from you. Facebook is primarily a place for you to create awareness and induce people to do something to start a relationship with your business to learn more. Ask people to sign up for something rather than make an immediate purchase.
  2. Incorrect targeting. The power of Facebook advertising is in targeting your audience. First you have to define the personas of the buyers of your product or service. Then look at the Facebook targeting options to match those personas. You don’t want to target too broadly. You want your ad to display to the person who will have the most interest in your products and services. If you only rely on targeting by location or by interests, you may have wasted your ad dollars. Use Facebook Ad Manager or Power Editor to get the most targeting options, including location, age, gender, interests, connections, relationships, language, education, and workplace. You may also be able to make use of custom audiences to target people from your email list or lookalike audiences based on people who liked your page or visited your website.
  3. Uninteresting Image. Facebook is a visual platform. If your image does not stop the user’s eye and grab attention, they will scroll right past your ad. Generally, images with people grab the most attention. Or your image needs to stand out in some other way. It might be brightly colored. Or it might be funny. Sometimes the images that I think are good turn out to be duds and ones I think are marginal turn out to be stars. You have to try multiple images and test to see which ones work the best.
  4. Dull headline or unclear value/benefits.  Headlines with emotion get the most attention and response. Words like “easy” or “free” or “simple” or numbers or brackets in the headline generate more clicks. Clearly stating the value or benefits you provide also will drive clicks. If the reader is unclear what the the value or benefit is to them, they simply scroll to the next thing. The value proposition needs to be aligned specifically to the target audience for the ad.
  5. Going after quantity versus quality. Going after the most ad impressions or the most page likes or most website clicks is simple and enticing. But it may not be capturing the people who are most likely to engage with your business and eventually make a purchase. Set your objectives and targeting to go after the people who are most likely to be interested and engaged. Big numbers of uninterested or marginally interested people won’t lead to results.
  6. Not capturing and nurturing prospects in email. Someone may read your ad and have some interest, but they are not ready to make an immediate purchase. But they are a valuable prospect for you to capture and nurture until they are ready to buy. The most effective way to do that is to capture their email address. By opting-in they are giving your permission to do personalized, 1-1 marketing to them over time. What a tremendous value. You may need to offer them a bribe to sign up and give their email. Offer something of value – some information or a contest – that creates an incentive for them to spend a minute filling out a web form.
  7. Relying only on Boosted Posts. Since Facebook now only shows your posts to 2-6% of your page followers, I think the Boosted Post has a role to play in getting key content posts to display to your followers (or your followers and their friends.) Beyond that use Facebook Ad Manager or Power Editor to create and target ads. The Boosted Post gives you more space for text and a link, but fewer options for targeting and bidding. It also won’t enable you to do A/B testing to find out what works well with your target audience.
  8. Unclear Call to Action or No Landing Page. An “aha” moment came to me a couple of years ago when I learned that people only do what you tell them to do. I had previously assumed that people would take action on their own. It doesn’t happen. If you want someone to sign up for email or to follow you on social media or call you or take some other action, you have to ask them to do it. When you ask them to take action, they do, if you make it easy. Make sure you have a focused landing page that is simple and clear for them to take the desired action.
  9. No Retargeting. Retargeting works by keeping track of people who visit your site and displaying your retargeting ads to them as they visit other sites. Someone may have visited your web site, but was not ready to make a purchase. Retargeting keeps your business front and center to bring people back when they are ready to buy. Retargeting helps to increase conversions after they have visited your site.
  10. Failure to constantly be testing. One well known web site had a call to action button that was colored green and blended into the overall color palette of the page. They found when they changed the color to red that their click-through rate skyrocketed. It leapt off the page, captured the eye, and more people took action. Test alternative images, headlines, and colors to find out what works best. Constantly monitor and re-test new ad variations to find what works best for your audience.

 

small business website

Will Your Facebook Page Replace Your Small Business Website?

Facebook is making it easier for your small business to engage with customers on mobile devices. They recently announced some interesting new features for Facebook business pages. As they begin to roll out, some people think they could eventually replace your small business website. Others think that they are just a more effective way to drive traffic to your website.

Facebook reports that a billion people visit their business pages every month. And they also report that there are 45 million active businesses on Facebook. The numbers are huge. At the same time (as I’ve blogged about before) more that 50% of Google searches are now done on mobile devices. Also, about 25% of people search for local businesses on Facebook. Facebook is making it easier for your business to be found and accessible on mobile devices.

New features

Not long ago Facebook announced new messaging features to enhance communications with people who like and comment on your business page. Now, rather than having to reply publicly, you can private message the poster. Then last week Facebook announced additional new features particularly targeted at small businesses:

  • More prominent call to action button – They are testing new buttons for Call Now, Send Message, and Contact Us. The call to action button will also be placed just under the cover photo on a mobile device.
  • New sections for Shop and for Services – Retailers will be able to list and feature products for sale. Service providers will be able to showcase a list of offerings at the top of the page. Additional sections are still under development.
  • Mobile-oriented layout – The mobile display of your page will be designed for less scrolling and clicking. It will also introduce section tabs to quickly select what section you want to look at.

The features are starting to show up for some business page managers now and will be rolling out to others over the coming weeks.

Separately, Mark Zuckerberg also confirmed that they are working on:

  • A Dislike button – He says people have been asking for this a long time. He now sees it as a feature to enable people to express empathy with particular posts. But will it be available on business pages? And will it be an easy way for people to express a negative review?

Why Your Facebook Page Should Replace Your Website

If you are a small business person, you know it’s sometimes complex and time consuming to either build your own website on a hosting service like Wix or Squarespace or to hire a web designer to create and maintain a custom website.  On the other hand, Facebook business pages are pretty simple to create, maintain, and update. Facebook pages are already integrated with messaging and with advertising. You don’t need a technical expert.

With the addition of the Shop section, Facebook may be offering an alternative to keep you from going to Shopify or other competitors. Depending on your target audience, Facebook’s Shop section may be as valuable to you as the integration of Shopify and Pinterest with Buy buttons. There is an evolution toward Social eCommerce and Facebook also wants to enable that.

Google and other search engines can index and rank your Facebook page. Then you don’t need to worry about the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your website.

You don’t need to worry about the mobile display of your business, since Facebook will do that for you.

Why Your Facebook Page Should Not Replace Your Website

If you don’t use Facebook to drive traffic to your website, then you are giving up control. You are at the mercy of Facebook’s terms and conditions and future features. Do you want to be locked into their platform rather than pick and choose the best ways to target your audience? And will their features be sufficient to communicate the unique value proposition of your business and to express your business culture and values? Even with these new features, your options are still fairly limited.

Will the Dislike button be an asset for expressing empathy with your business posts? Or will it become the bane of your existence when misused by an unhappy client or competitor?

What if Social eCommerce on mobile devices doesn’t really work for your business? Can and will your customers make a purchase decision from a small photo and description on a mobile device inside the Facebook app?

Facebook still only displays your posts to 2-6% of your followers unless you have extremely engaged followers or you pay Facebook to boost your posts. You may be locking yourself into a lot of payments to get your content seen.

Risks Outweigh Benefits

I think the risks outweigh the benefits at this stage. While you could rely on Facebook with these new features, I still think the cons outweigh the pros.

What do you think about Facebook’s newly announced features? I know many small businesses who started with a Facebook page and then later built a website. But that was before Facebook became pay to play. Would you be willing to rely on Facebook moving forward for the simplicity instead of doing a simple, small business website?

If you haven’t already, please like us on Facebook!

 

 

 

 

mobile

Easy Steps to Create Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

The way we look for information continues to evolve quickly. A few years ago a mobile marketing strategy was nice-to-have. Now it is a must-have. In fact, it should be your marketing strategy, not an addition to it.

Customers are on the go and inundated with possible sources of information. To succeed now and into the future you need to be able to engage them seamlessly across social media, your website, and email. You also need consistency across all the devices they use. For small and mid-sized business people that can be a big, complex task.

Your customers may be at home on a desktop, traveling with a tablet, or walking or driving in your neighborhood with a smartphone. Will they find you? Will their experience with your brand be good on each device and each touch-point? Let’s try to boil it down into a some easy steps to think about to create your (mobile) marketing strategy.

  • Get insights into your customers’ buying behaviors. Marketing and strategy start with understanding exactly who your target customers are and their behavior for making a purchase decision.
    • Who are they?
    • What kind of devices do they use when?
    • When do they make a decision to contact you or come into your business?
    • What information is most helpful to them to engage with your business?
    • How do they most often contact you?
    • What times of day do they look for information about you?

Answering these questions will help to guide your strategy. Don’t know the answer to these questions? Then it’s time to start asking. Ask your customers individually. Conduct an online survey. Look for market research online relevant to your location and industry.

  • Only invest in a mobile app if you have business justification. Most small and mid-sized businesses will find the cost and usage of a mobile app to have a negative return on investment. While smartphone users spend a lot of time using apps, they primarily use about five very popular ones, like Facebook, Google, etc. Don’t worry if you don’t have a mobile app. Many people prefer to use a mobile web browser rather than load up their device with niche apps.
  • Create a consistent experience across channels. Your brand image and value proposition should be the same across the web and social media platforms. Your customers interact with you across multiple channels even for one purchase decision. Make sure they can easily link back and forth. And make sure the key information about location, phone number, and email are consistent.
  • Time some content posts to customer behavior. Do you have customers streaming off a cruise ship at certain times? Do you see most of your business late afternoon and early evening?  Timing some of your content posts to those times may engage people in social media or email at just the time they want or need to interact with your business.
  • Run mobile ads on social media. Facebook is now a pay-to-play platform for businesses and other are moving that direction. But you can reach your on-the-go audience by running pay per click mobile ads on the social media platforms where they spend their time.
  • Test and refine. Try out your strategy. Use the data on what works and what doesn’t work to refine or modify your strategy. Ask customers for feedback in person and online to guide what adjustments you may need to make.
responsive web design

Responsive Web Design Critical to Your Bottom Line

Have you re-designed your web site in the past couple of years? If not,  you are likely in urgent need to update it to a responsive web design. If you’re a digital marketing person, you already know what that is. If you’re not, you may be wondering what I’m talking about and why I say it is critical to your bottom line.

Why Responsive Web Design Is So Important

A while ago I shared data on the shift of consumers to mobile devices to find information. I blogged about it in Mobile First Marketing. I also blogged about what I called Mobile Meltdown Day earlier this year when Google was updating their mobile search rankings. (Others called it Mobilegeddon.) Mobile Meltdown is just beginning. The reality of the initial impact was less than expected. About 17% of non mobile-friendly sites saw their mobile search ranking decline significantly from page 1 results. But that shouldn’t make you complacent about mobile-friendly sites that use responsive web design.. Mobile searches are already over 50% of total searches and continue to increase.

Failure to make responsive web design a priority will put your business at risk moving forward. You will be missing out on customers if they do not have good experience with your web site on mobile devices. In the short-term they may continue to find you in search results. But they will likely abandon you when your site is shrunken, un-optimized, unreadable, and difficult to use. Depending on your business and the typical age ranges of your customers you may already be at risk of losing new customers. The potential impact to your bottom line is huge.

What is Responsive Web Design?

I primarily use three different devices for accessing information on the Internet. I have standardized on Apple (don’t get me started on my poor experiences with past Microsoft products!). So I use an iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro at different times and locations. At work I am using my desktop browser(s) on a large screen. If I’m relaxing in the family room, I usually have my iPad open checking social media, reading news, using apps, and searching for information using the browser. If I am not at home I am using apps and searching for information on my iPhone while I am on the move. You may have fewer or more devices than me, but you get the idea. No matter what device size I am using I want to be able to read and interact with information from your business. If it’s unreadable, too slow, requiring me to go to a separate mobile site, or otherwise difficult to use, I just go to the next of your competitors. I personally don’t have time or patience to deal with your business if you don’t make it easy for me to learn about or find you. And I’m not alone!

Responsive web design is the approach to deal with this situation of multiple devices to have a consistently satisfying customer experience. It is a way of designing and developing web sites so that they are easy to read, interact with, and navigate across a wide range of devices. It is an approach for your web site to adapt and adjust to the customer, based on which device they are using at the time. There should be minimal re-sizing and side-to-side scrolling required. Mobile customer experiences should be optimized for speed and for minimal page switching.

How You or Your Web Designer Implement Responsive Web Design

You may use tools or frameworks such as Webflow, Bootstrap, Foundation, or Skeleton if you are Web developer into the technical details. For a WordPress-based web site, I like to start with a theme that already incorporates principles of good, responsive design. That way I can focus more on the customer experience and compelling marketing content.

Principles and best practices continue to emerge for Responsive Web Design, but these are some to consider now:

  • Start by designing for the mobile customer
  • Use images that are flexible and workable on retina displays from small to very large
  • Compress images and videos to improve performance
  • Get rid of non-essential content and site decorations
  • Present more information that can be seen scrolling downward rather than requiring a lot of back and forth between pages
  • Get rid of Flash on your site
  • Minimize navigation menus
  • Have important information at the top of your site
  • Use bigger buttons
  • Look at whether you should have an app in addition to a web site

Small and mid-sized businesses are particularly lagging in the move to responsive web design. If your web site is not yet using responsive web design it needs to be on your priority list of things to do. You’re probably already losing some customers who are trying to interact with you on mobile devices. But this will increase significantly over the next 1-2 years. The time to act is now before you see a negative impact to your bottom line.

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Let me know any comments or questions.

kauai marketing

Kauai Business: Using Kauai Marketing Talent?

I have been blessed to meet many wonderful and talented people on my home island of Kauai. One of the things that has also frustrated me is that I have also met business people who went off-island or to the mainland to hire marketing projects and services rather than use Kauai marketing resources.

One of the weaknesses of our collective culture with word of mouth referrals for awareness is that you may be missing out on a great marketing partner in your own backyard.

Yes, with the Internet, we are a global village and web design and other digital marketing work can technically be performed from anywhere. So there is no technical reason not to hire your sister-in-law in Oregon, your friend’s cousin in Minnesota, or a marketing agency in Honolulu.

However, I would argue that their marketing expertise can also be found on Kauai. And they likely lack the day to day intimacy with our culture, values, and unique characteristics.

I understand that in past years there may not have been the maturity and wealth of digital marketing expertise that there is now. Some of it is home grown and some of it has been imported.

Through the Kauai Chamber of Commerce and in other venues I have met a number of the other people on Kauai who have marketing, web design, graphics, email marketing, blogging, and social media marketing expertise.

I would hope after speaking with me that I might be a good fit to assist you with your marketing. But in some cases, I understand there may be a better fit with one of my competitors.

I encourage you to do some web searches, talk with Chamber of Commerce members, and have exploratory conversations with some marketing people you may not have met before. You might be surprised at the wealth of talent you will find!

Did you know there is:

  • a former Fortune 500 worldwide marketing executive providing consulting, training, and a range of digital marketing services?
  • an Emmy-winning graphic designer on our island?
  • someone who was the CEO of Japanese subsidiaries for major companies?
  • a marketing executive with specific expertise in ecommerce?

For a small island I have found there are actually a lot of us who can design custom web sites at affordable prices. Which one is right for you depends on factors such as

  • time constraints and availability
  • integration with other external systems
  • a one-off web site project versus ongoing marketing assistance
  • personality and fit in working styles and vision
  • recommendations on how to develop a brand and a marketing strategy and plan
  • is up to date with latest web design and online marketing trends

I believe a rising tide lifts all boats. Wouldn’t it be great if local Kauai businesses supported other local Kauai businesses and independent contractors? We also provide world-class freelance marketing projects and ongoing marketing services.

Let’s market Kauai with Kauai marketing…..

Kauai Web Design

Who Owns Your Kauai Web Design?

I have been in business a long time now. I have seen and heard a lot of different situations and worked through many challenges. But I was shocked by a couple of stories in the past month from business people located here on Kauai. In both cases, they had learned that their domain name registration and Kauai web design were not owned by them. Do you know who owns your domain and web design? Is it you or someone else?

Two Stories of Unclear Ownership

One of my clients was recently telling me how she used a web designer in the past who also registered her domain name and set up web hosting for her. When she wanted to change the web design, web designer, and hosting, the original web designer refused to transfer her domain name to an account in her name. He told her that he “owned” her domain. Eventually she got him to change the name servers so that she could create a new site and use a different hosting company. And she created her new web design without him. But she is still beholden to him to pay her domain registration to him each year and hope that he will continue to update name servers when needed.

Another local business manager told me the story of why they had to change their domain name a few years ago. Today when you type in the name of their business with a .com, you are redirected to the blog of someone who no longer lives on Kauai or focuses on web design. When they wanted to create a new website a few years ago with a different web designer, the original web designer told them he “owned” their domain name. He also refused to transfer the domain registration to an account in their name. He did offer to sell them their own domain name for several tens of thousands of dollars. Rather than pay ransom for their own domain name they made the hard decision to change it and use a longer name. He still maintains the domain registration of their name and has it redirecting traffic to his personal blog. How is that for vindictive?!

Business Components of Setting Up a Website

You may recall that there are three major components to having a website for your business. First, you need a domain name registered. This is your URL, your brand on the Internet, and the way people access your web site. You have to find an available domain name and pay a yearly registration fee for you to “own” and use it.

Second, you need a company to host your website. This is the company running the computers and network for your web site. You want a hosting company that has stable, secure, and high performing servers that are optimized for serving website content.

Third, you want a web designer or web design company that has both the graphic and marketing skills to develop a web site look, feel, plus the content that creates a great user experience for your customers and prospects. It also provides the navigation to support your customers and prospects wherever they are in their purchase decision making process.

These three things may be supplied by one, two, or three different companies. Or one person or company may arrange all three on your behalf using other vendors for one or more of the three major components.

There are lot of free lance graphics people who offer web design. They may or may not be good business and marketing partners to help you grow your particular business. And they may or may not be advising you and looking out for your business interests in addition to their own.

How to Protect Your Brand

There are a couple of things you can do:

  1. Set up your own domain registration and web hosting accounts in your company name and separately from engaging your web designer. Many companies offer both domain registration and web hosting. You may not run into a problem with that if you are dealing with a large company with ethical leadership and well defined contract terms. But to really protect yourself it is a recommended best practice to have your domain registration and web hosting with two different companies. If you find you need to change web hosting, then you have the control instead of the company you are trying to sever ties with.
  2. Make sure you have a written contract with your web designer or web design company that outlines not only the scope of work to be done but also who owns what. The time to ensure you will maintain ownership of your domain, hosting relationship, and website content is before you sign an agreement and begin work. I would not set up a domain or web host on  a client’s behalf and then tell them I own it. But obviously there are people out there who do. They may not even give you access to the content in your website if you decide to terminate the relationship with them. A written contract will protect you if in the future something goes wrong in your relationship with your web design company.

On the beautiful island of Kaui it seems that the spirit of Aloha doesn’t always hold true in business relationships that fail. Your domain, your website security and performance, and your website look and content are all part of your brand. They determine the experience of your customers and prospects. They either help or hinder your ability to gain new customers or maintain your existing customers. It is critical that you ensure these elements of your brand are owned and controlled by you.

Have you run into difficulties with domain or website content ownership? Do you know who owns your domain, hosting relationships, and web design?

mobile local search

Drive More Business with Mobile Local Search Marketing

As some of you know I live on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.  Our largest industry is tourism. Every day we have more than 23,000 visitors with mobile devices looking for local business information.  On top of that we have daily visitors streaming off cruise ships with their mobile devices.  And we have 65,000 full-time residents that need to find information about local goods and services. After all, you can’t just drive off the island to buy something! These consumers are increasingly using mobile local search to find information. And people searching on a mobile device are closer to a purchase and more likely to take action than with traditional desktop searches.

Mobile Search and Local Search Marketing are Converging

It’s imperative for most of the local businesses that I serve to be optimized for both mobile and local search. But it’s not just for local, small businesses on my island. Large brands such as Ace Hardware in the U.S. and Argos in the U.K. are using mobile combined with local search marketing to drive customers into their stores. It’s no longer a nice-to-have. Mobile Local Search Marketing is a must-have!

Google has reported that more than 50% of searches are now done on mobile devices. On-the-go consumers are looking for local information.

  • 52% of searches on smartphones are done in the car or away from home and work (source: Thrive Analytics)
  • 60% of consumers use a smartphone while shopping and this number is growing over time (source: Thrive Analytics)
  • 37% of all consumers use mobile search to look for local products and services, but the percentages are much, much higher for Gen X and Y consumers (source: Thrive Analytics)
  • 70%  of consumers prefer a mobile website over a mobile app for local information (source: LSA Local Media Tracking Study 2014)
  • 56% of smartphone searches on the go or in a store have local intent (source: Google)
  • 63% of consumers use multiple devices to find a local business and 79% of them are smartphone users and 81% are tablet owners (source: comScore study)
  • 24% of local searches done via a mobile app are done through Facebook (they are number two behind Google Maps – source: comScore study)

The data are compelling. These are trends that will continue to increase.

How to Optimize for Converged Mobile Local Search Marketing

So how do you optimize for Mobile Local Search Marketing? I’ve blogged before about Mobile First Marketing and about Mobile Meltdown Day (that some other bloggers have also called Mobilegeddon!) Those posts also still apply here. But let’s look specifically at some things your business can do to be found on the first screen of a local search on a mobile device:

  • Have a mobile friendly web site that passes Google’s test – If your web site on a smartphone requires someone to scroll left and right or to pinch and zoom to be able to read something, then you need to update your web site now.  As of April 21, 2015, Google started penalizing you in mobile search ranking.
  • Ensure your Google My Business listing is up to date – If you haven’t registered on Google My Business, do it! If you have, make sure information is up to date and that your business name, address, and phone number are consistent with other places you are listed on the Web. Having a Google My Business listing gives you a better mobile local search position and gives you a listing in Google Maps.
  • Include images in Google My Business – Make it easy for consumers to identify you and your products/services
  • Make location prominent on your web site – Have your location in relevant places such as title tags, description, and in your content
  • Ensure images on your web site are compressed and consolidated – Load time for your site is important, so make sure your images are optimized.
  • Get listed on other relevant business directories – Get a profile on Yelp, Yahoo, Bing Local, other local directories, plus directories relevant to your industry
  • Make sure your NAP (name, address, phone) are consistent everywhere on the Web – Google wants to know you are real, accurate, valuable and nearby to its customers in search results
  • Get reviews and recommendations – Reviews on Google and Yelp will also help your mobile local search ranking (make sure they’re positive!)
  • Create local content in your blog – Local content in your blog will also help to position you for mobile local search
  • Create a business Facebook page – For consumers doing mobile local search in the Facebook mobile app, be sure you have a business page with name, address, and phone number

These are some highlights for optimizing for mobile local search, but for a very detailed list of factors and weights specific to Google local search ranking take a look at Moz’s 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors.

Besides the basics, there are some other things you may want to consider to increase the amount of business you get from mobile local search. It may also be a good idea to have a click to call button so people can easily reach you. And you may want to consider other geolocation features that attract people who are nearby.

You may also want to consider PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising on mobile devices. These ads typically display at the top or bottom of the screen. If you are not highly optimized for mobile local search, this can be a way to make your business visible on the first screen. And if you are optimized, you could potentially have your business displayed three times on the first screen:

  • Google My Business listing
  • Mobile Local Search results
  • PPC ad

Are you optimized for mobile, but not for local search? Are you optimized for local, but not mobile search? Or are you not optimized for either? An investment in mobile local search, possibly combined with PPC mobile ads, will help today’s consumer to find you. Because they are closer to an action or purchase decision than a desktop searcher, this is an investment that will drive real business results.

What do you think? What have you done with local and mobile search optimization? What have you learned? Are there other tips you would share?

social media for business

7 Key Success Factors for Social Media for Business

I recently got back from the Social Media Marketing World conference. Marketers from 49 countries gathered to network and learn from each other about best practices for social media for business. Some of the information was confirmation of things I am already doing and posting about. But there were also some new tips, tools, and techniques. Equally important was interacting with other marketers to understand their businesses and learn about their successes, challenges, and failures. The world of social media continues to evolve and change quickly. (It was also great to go to a conference for the first time in 25 years that I was just an attendee and not working!)

After some reflection on the conference and recent research I have identified seven key success factors for using social media for business:

  1. Content is your hub: It’s your compelling content that will engage your audience and cause them to interact with your business or brand.  (See our related blog post on compelling content.) And people will pay for your knowledge and expertise if you package it up and distribute it in ways they can easily consume it. It may be a product, but it also may be a service or other format. If you have content that answers a question or solves a problem that others have, you have a hub of knowledge to grow your business. Don’t just think about promoting your product or service on social media. Think holistically about your content. How can you help people? How can you answer their questions? How can you help them save time, be more effective, reduce costs, have more fun, etc?
  2. Re-purpose your content for multiple platforms of distribution: Once you have compelling content, you can leverage, re-purpose, and package it in multiple ways for people to consume it. You may be using your compelling content to create a lead funnel for a product or service, or you may be a consultant selling your knowledge. Know your core message and let people experience that in multiple ways. You may use it for live events. You may use it for videos and webinars. You may use it for blog posts. You may share parts of it on social media platforms. You may re-package it into speaking engagements. You may write an e-book. You may create a guide or recipes. You may record a podcast. It’s NOT a sales pitch. It’s helping people to answer a question or solve a problem or be entertained in a way that they want to share with others. Think about how you can reach your target customers in various formats on various platforms.
  3. Use videos and photos – Visual content gains attention on crowded social media platforms. The data show the most engaging Facebook posts are now videos, ahead of photos and status updates. Not only is visual content eye-catching, a picture really is worth a thousand words. People are looking to consume information quickly and easily. Sometimes that is seeing a picture or watching a short video or listening to a podcast while traveling or driving.
  4. Don’t be on social media, be social: In recent years there was tremendous attention on increasing your number of followers or fans. That didn’t necessarily produce business results. While you want to increase the number of potential customers you interact with, the critical success factor is engaging your audience with your business and brand. Being social makes your business human. People do business with other people who can help them. When your audience interacts, they will see more of your posts organically. They also are more likely to share your compelling content with their friends and followers to extend your reach.
  5. Participate and leverage others’ audiences: Beyond being social on your own Facebook page or Pinterest Board, host or participate in social media groups. Demonstrate your expertise, compassion, and humor. Your reputations and abilities become visible to the audiences of others hosting the group.
  6. Email is still the most effective and the most direct: Social media is great for engaging your audience and extending your reach. But the people most likely to become your customers are the ones who are interested enough in your content to opt-in and give you their email address. Email is still the most personal marketing. People are more likely to see and open your email than they are to see your Tweets or Facebook posts. One of the mantras at Social Media Marketing World was “Content is King and Social Media is Queen.” Maybe we should add, “And Email is still the Ace.” Use your compelling content and social media to extend your reach, but also to give you their email addresses.
  7. Don’t assume people will take action: This was an aha! moment for me when I heard from someone running a YouTube channel. He shared that in the beginning he assumed listeners would subscribe to his channel if they listened to the programs and liked them and got value. It wasn’t happening. So he added an explicit call to action asking his viewers to subscribe to his channel. Immediately there was a spike in subscribers. People don’t take action unless you ask them to! In past job roles I was sometimes amazed working with sales people. I would get the prospect engaged with some compelling content and the sales people would not think to ask for the order as the next step. Sometimes I had to prompt them and then the sale would be made. Don’t assume people will take action on their own. Always have a question, next step, or call to action – visit a web page, share the post, subscribe to the channel, etc.

A final thought: If I have just followed you on Twitter or liked your Facebook page or connected with you on LinkedIn, don’t immediately send me an advertisement or try to sell me something. If someone is just starting to engage with you on social media, it does not mean they are ready to purchase something from you right away. It means that there was some interest in learning more and seeing how you might be able to help them. I think this a key point for many businesses and marketers. The objective of social media for business is not direct sales – although stay tuned as Facebook and others add more ecommerce functionality.

Let me know your experience. Do any of these success factors resonate with you? Have you identified other success factors? If you would like to regularly receive updates, please follow Kauai Digital Marketing on LinkedIn or sign up for our email list on our web site.

 

 

facebook ads mafia boss

The Facebook Ads Mafia Shakedown: Pay or Suffer the Consequences

Facebook ads can be a very effective way to gain awareness of potential customers and to engage customers and prospects over time.  It is a critical digital marketing tool for most businesses to establish and nurture profitable customer relationships over time (there’s that definition of marketing again!).  Facebook used to be the village square where people and merchants met freely to exchange information and goods.  On the small island of Kauai where I live we do this at the local Costco.  But Facebook allowed us to do this globally.

The Start of the Shakedown

Ah, the good old days.  But then the Facebook ads mafia decided the village square didn’t have to be free for merchants and businesses.  They could cleverly extort money from them in order to stay in place or else be relegated to the back alleys.  This shakedown scheme began a couple of years ago now.  If you were a business on Facebook back in February 2012, you saw an average organic fan reach of 16% with your posts.  By March of 2014 you saw an average organic fan reach of 6.51%.  (Source: Social@Ogilvy study.)  It was even worse for pages with more than 500 likes.  In other words, if you didn’t pay up, your reach and performance suffered.  If you are a new business developing your social media marketing strategy, be prepared to pay up and pay for advertising to achieve results that were previously free.

Back in 2012 Facebook started changing their algorithm about what would be displayed in News Feeds.  So while you still may see that casserole recipe post from Aunt Mary on a regular basis, you are not seeing all the photos posted by a big box store you follow.  Many businesses have tried increasing the number of posts in order to tread water with the total reach that they previously had.  But is that achieving the desired business result?  Is your objective just to get something in front of a person with your business name associated, or is your business objective for them to do something (click your website, signup for a newsletter, go to your ecommerce site, contact you, etc.).  Most of us would say the latter.  So where it used to matter how many “likes” you had to establish a fan base, now what matters is the cost per desired engagement.  Note that I say “desired engagement” as opposed to Facebook’s “engagement” defined as like, comment, or share.

Engagement in Facebook’s terms means that someone reacted to the photo or status

Note that Facebook’s reported metrics may still not be accurate for either reach or engagement, although they continue to improve.  I know from my own Facebook ads that in auditing some engagements on posts, I found that the person was not at all in my defined target audience.  So there is still plenty of room for improvement.  Your mileage may vary.

What Can You Do?

You really have two primary alternatives:

1. Create extremely engaging content that will be widely shared within your target audience so that Facebook displays your posts more often.

OR

2. Pay up or suffer the consequences – buy ads and pay for boost posts to your specific targeted audience or be sidelined by Facebook

Extremely Engaging Content

According to TechCrunch, Facebook’s algorithm takes a large number of factors into consideration when deciding how much to display your content.  But the main factors for News Feed Visibility are:

  • Interest – Has the user expressed interest in you before or your type of business/content?
  • Post performance – How well did this post perform with other users?
  • Creator – How has other content you created before performed with users?
  • Type – Is it a photo, status, video, or other, and does this match the type preferred by this user?
  • Recency – Is it new or stale?
  • and about 100 other factors

If you already have a lot of “likes” then you have an advantage, but no guarantee of success.

Pay Up - Buy Facebook Ads and Boost Posts

If you’re new to the game or you want to do more than just tread water with your fans/prospects/customers, then it’s time to pay up.  But first make sure you are clear on your business objective and on your target audience.  Otherwise you will be wasting money.  Back in December 2014 Facebook announced a new feature of Call to Action buttons on business pages.  This will help move someone to action if they actually visit your Facebook page.  But how many will?  And how many will just look at your post and move on?  So think carefully about your target audience, what post content will engage them, and what desired action they should take as a result?  In my case, having someone “like” my post isn’t very valuable to my business.  I don’t know if that person will do anything else or remember my company of if they just like the photo that I posted.  I want them to come to my web site, learn more, and either sign up for a newsletter to stay in touch or contact us.  It’s good if they like our page as a secondary objective to have some connection to us.   Your objectives may be different in order to grow your business.

Besides having a Facebook page with a Call to Action button and a page full of interesting content, what makes an individual post compelling for someone to take action?

First, you have to capture their attention visually as they scan through a News Feed or sidebar:

  • An eye catching image
  • A video
  • A compelling quote or status update (some people argue that text posts are now cutting through the clutter of picture posts in order to get more attention)

Once you have captured their attention, you need to have some compelling content that causes them to take action, whether that is to like your post, click through to your web site, like your page, or start shopping.  See our related blog post on compelling content for some ideas on how to keep attention once you have grabbed it!

Finally, be sure to create more than one ad to test and measure.  Be prepared to make modifications based on performance metrics.  It is not a “set it and forget it” system.  Monitor your dashboard and be prepared to cancel, revise, or kill ads based on your testing and results.

Do you have a Facebook page that the reach has declined?  Have you done Facebook advertising?  How did it compare to Google Ad Words for you?  What have been the business results?  Please share.

 

digital marketing strategy

7 Advantages of Digital Marketing Strategy over Traditional

You’re a business owner or executive looking for ways to grow your business.  How do you come up with an effective marketing strategy?  What is the role of advertising as part of your marketing strategy?  Should it be traditional marketing?  Should it be online, digital marketing?  Or should it be some combination of the two?

The Modern Customer Purchase Funnel

The purpose of marketing is to enable and drive sales.  In my many years of experience as a marketing executive, I believe effective marketing starts with an understanding of your target customer’s buying behavior.  Market research and feedback helps you to refine this.  But there are some useful customer purchase models to help organize your thinking and idenitify where you may need to gather further information or do testing.  A classic customer purchase model was the AIDA one:

  • Awareness
  • Interest
  • Desire
  • Action

But the Internet has changed that.  It is no longer sufficient.  A modern customer purchase model that I find useful is:

  • Awareness
  • Research and familiarity
  • Opinion and Shortlist
  • Consideration
  • Purchasing
  • Champion/Repurchase OR Defect/Detract

Think about this with regard to your own buying behavior for different products and services.  For example, I am planning to build a house and need kitchen appliances.  I have some general awareness of appliance brands, but I have become aware of newer ones through ads and web sites and store visits.  I started to research the brands and how they will meet our needs.  I asked people in stores.  They offered a little insight, but I found a lot more insight and information on the Web.  This is a major purchase that we will live with for a long time so I want to make sure we get it right.  On the Web, I can also see customer reviews and lab tests of products to understand what other people have experienced.  I can see video demos of the products being used.  We have formed some opinions and narrowed down the list of brands we are interested in.  Now we’re drilling down on those two brands to consider features, pricing, reliability, style, etc. to decide which ones we will purchase.  Once we purchase and begin to use those products, we will either be satisfied customers who will champion them to others online and offline and eventually repurchase OR we will be dissatisfied customers who will make that known and detract from the brand.

Traditional vs. Digital Marketing

Customer buying behavior has shifted and so should your marketing mix.  Should it be all traditional or all online?  It depends on your business and your customers.  For many businesses the answer may be somewhere in the middle.  But the 4 Ps (product, price, place, promotion) are no longer sufficient.

What are the advantages of online, digital marketing strategy over traditional marketing?

  1. Lower costs –Traditional marketing is expensive.  It takes a lot of people, lead time, and materials.  Trade shows, direct mail, TV or radio ads are all costly.  Digital marketing is much less expensive.  The cost to create and maintain a web site is much lower.  The cost to write a blog or send an email newsletter is minimal. The cost to run PPC ads on Google or Facebook is much less.  The cost to make changes is dramatically less.
  2. Target your message –  Your targeting is limited with traditional marketing.  Many of your tools are broadcast to a wide audience rather than narrowcast to someone getting ready to make a purchase decision.  You can target the right message to the right person and based on where they are in the customer purchase decision process.
  3. Measure ROI – In traditional marketing you are often guessing which marketing elements contributed to return on investment because it would cost too much to find out.  With digital marketing feedback is immediate and measurable.  Analytics give us data on the performance and conversions associated by different online marketing activities.
  4. Change or refine strategy easily – It’s difficult and time consuming to make changes to traditional marketing elements.  Re-designing and re-printing a brochure takes time.  Re-shooting a television ad takes time.  Digital marketing is much faster to test and refine.  You can do A/B testing and get immediate feedback.  You can see where you are spending money with results and without results.  You can stop and/or change things with less effort and shorter lead times.  Real-time feedback and analytics tell you when and how to change your strategy.
  5. Engage prospects longer – Nobody reads a long brochure.  A TV or radio ad is usually 30 seconds.  A trade show may yield a brief conversation.  But online marketing can grab and hold attention.  It can help to start building a relationship with a prospect or reinforce a relationship with an existing customer.  Online, digital marketing is informative.  It is not just PPC ads.  It is educating and informing your audience so they can take the next step in their purchase decision process.  They can interact with your business via text, images, video, chat.  They can see what others have experienced with your business.  They can learn more about the values of your business or how you work behind the scenes.
  6. Be available 24/7 – If I wake up in the middle of the night I can still engage with your business as part of my purchase decision process.  I don’t have to wait for a store to open or a sales person to call.  And the content is long lasting.  A blog post I write this year may be just as valuable to new prospects next year.   Or it can easily be updated to be always accessible over time.
  7. Be less intrusive – Most of us don’t want to be sold on something.  We want to come to our own conclusions.  We value advice and a small set of alternatives that are tailored to our particular needs and wants.  But we don’t like people pushing something to us based on features and functions that we may or may not need.  Online, digital marketing is available when I want it.  It is informative.  It helps me move through my decision process at my pace.

On the island of Kauai we have many businesses that are targeted to visitors.  One of those businesses is selling activities to enjoy while on vacation (ziplines, fishing trips, snorkeling, etc.)  It used to be that visitors almost always arrived and then met in person with a concierge at a hotel or a shop to be told what the offers and recommendations are and to make their purchase decisions.  But that business model has been shifting rapidly.  Now a large proportion of visitors arrive on the island having already researched activities online, reviewed customer reviews, shopped for discounts and promotions, and made a purchase before they ever got here.

Is the answer today all traditional marketing or all digital marketing?  For a startup business in particular industries all digital may be the right answer.  For some more traditional industries, traditional marketing may still dominate overall marketing investment.  But for many businesses the shift is occurring between the two.  You may still need traditional elements for that face to face connection via trade shows and an outside sales force.  It depends on your product/service and your target customers’ buying behaviors.  But chances are your marketing mix will need to shift increasingly toward online, digital marketing.

What do you think?  Have you shifted your marketing mix or is it all traditional or all digital?  Have you seen customer buying behavior changing in your business?  Please share for the benefit of others working on their marketing strategies.

 

 

free website no such thing

There ain’t no such thing as a free website!

Many small businesses looking at web design on Kauai or anywhere else in Hawaii or around the world are finding free website alternatives online.  But what does free really mean?  Are you being smart and economical or are you locking into something with other implications and challenges?  Over 6 million people and businesses have joined Weebly and have set up many more million websites on their platform.  Websiteooltester.com covers the pros and cons of many of the free website providers.  So wouldn’t that be the way to go?  With them or one of their competitors?  Not necessarily.

In economics the principle that there is no such thing as a free lunch is used to denote that everything has an opportunity cost.  The phrase was used early on in the U.S. in the days of saloons that offered a “free lunch” if you purchased at least one drink.  It was also used to talk about government corruption.  But in modern times the economist Milton Friedman helped to make the phrase really popular by using it as the title of his 1975 book.

The concept that nothing is free serves to remind us that there is an opportunity cost to everything.  By choosing one investment you have an opportunity cost of what the alternative would have been.  Even if someone does invite you for a free lunch, there may be some other agenda or obligation on your part.  At the very least there is an opportunity cost of the alternative ways that you could have used your time while eating the free lunch.  Your time has value and that value is determined by how you use it.

What does free lunch have to do with a free website?

There is opportunity cost to accepting a free website.  You are choosing a set of parameters, design styles, contracts, and timeframes for a free website that may sound good in the short term, but have other costs.  After all, who doesn’t want free?  You’re starting a new small business and you’re looking to do everything economically.  However, being economical may not automatically mean taking the free alternative.

What are some of the advantages of the free website?

  • It’s free! (well, mostly anyway)
  • The tools are simple and easy to use
  • It’s fast to do
  • You can do it yourself
  • The complexity of web design tools, domain names and web hosting are masked to you
  • There are a lot of pre-loaded designs available
  • The sites are large and growing and adding features over time

What to look out for with free website providers

  • Is the domain name registered in your name?  Can you take it with you?
  • Are you obligated/required to purchase other services from the free website provider?
  • How long is the hosting contract with the free provider?
  • Is the free part limited to a certain time period?
  • Will they display ads on your site?  Will you be able to control the type and placement?
  • Will they add other external links to your site?
  • What level of support do they provide and in your time zone?
  • Do they provide any system availability guarantees?
  • Do they run regular backups of your site in case of a crash?
  • Do they require a setup fee or other admin fee?
  • Do they charge for monthly hosting and is it a higher fee than the industry average?
  • If you decide to switch later to a custom site can you take the site with you and transfer it to another host?
  • They may say they will submit your site to search engines, but are there any tools or guidelines to optimize your site for search engines to rank highly?
  • Do they provide a branded email address with your domain or is that an additional charge?
  • How much space do they provide?  How expensive will it be to upgrade if your business grows?
  • You have access only to the features they provide
  • There are limits to what you can customize to your business
  • What happens to your site if the company is acquired or goes out of business?

You may be thinking I’ll start out with this free website and then switch to a custom one later.  That may not be possible to do or it may be costly.  You may be disappointed when you are not showing up in search engine rankings, but another web designer can’t help you without building a new website.

Is a free website good marketing?

Free websites continue to improve and add features, but it may still be apparent to your prospective customers that it is a free website.  How serious are you about your business?  Do you look like a business that is investing to succeed?  Or do you look like thousands of other Weebly sites who have chosen the same design template?

Your web site is one of the key marketing tools to reach your new and existing customers.  Are you able to provide compelling content in a way that makes sense to them and that reflects the unqueness of your company?

If upfront cost is the issue, you may be able to work with your web designer or digital marketing partner to bundle the cost into a year long contract that could include web hosting or other social media services.  If they are open to that alternative, you may be able to spread part or all of the upfront cost over a longer contract with them.  You may want to consider alternatives other than just looking at the upfront price and making that your sole decision criterion.

After all, there ain’t no such thing as a free website!

 

 

 

Aulii Luau dancers at Kauai Chamber of Commerce

Kauai Chamber of Commerce Case Study

I was honored last evening to be featured as a new member at the Kauai Chamber of Commerce Annual General Membership Meeting.  I am so pleased to be a part of these talented business professionals, to get acquainted, and to become part of the community.  There is so much entrepreneurial spirit here across a number of industries.

As a new member I had a display table to do some traditional event marketing with other local businesses.  It was great to meet new people and to learn about their business ventures.  I was in between the dancers from ‘Auli’i Lu’au and the Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas.  While I focus now on digital, online marketing, I have also done a lot of traditional marketing in my prior roles in technology and consulting companies.  You may have a business where you can rely solely on digital marketing, but many businesses still need a mix of both.  As a business and marketing professional, I would not hesitate to recommend a mix if it were the right fit.  There is still a huge value to connect with others in your own industry as well as in others and to form those relationships both in person and online.

One of the things that I love about being located on the island of Kauai is the common view that we are all in this canoe together.  The canoe is such an important part of Hawaiian history and culture.  It is such a powerful symbol to me that when we row and steer in a common direction we all reach our destination faster and safer.  This is part of the culture and values of Kauai that drew me to locate here.  For the canoe to move forward, we need to work together.  All as one.  One canoe, one ohana, one community. And I believe it is a strong value to guide our business interactions.

KaiKini Case Study of Traditional and Digital Marketing

In learning about the business ventures of others based here, I was especially struck by the story of the founder and CEO of KaiKini Bikinis.  She shared with me how she started with an idea and vision and acquired the skills she needed along the way.  She envisioned designing and making bikinis in her unique style and optimized for wear while being active.  She did not know how to sew, but she bought some commercial sewing machines, experimented, and taught herself to not only design but also to manufacture the pieces.  She used traditional marketing and selling to get some local stores to carry her pieces as part of starting her business.  She also focused on digital marketing and began social media marketing to engage her customers and to gain further visibility.  She got additional retailers on other islands to stock her products.  As the business started to grow, she hired others to train to sew.  And she taught herself to set up a website.  She now has several employees and continues to grow her business as a manufacturer and wholesaler while also selling directly worldwide via her ecommerce website at kaikini.com.  She uses blogs and social media marketing as well as Google Adwords PPC ads in her digital marketing mix.  A consultant manages her PPC ads for her so she can devote her time to other business initiatives.  She uses BigCommerce as her web hosting and tools provider.  What an inspiration that she has built a business to market and sell Hawaiian-made products all over the world.  And the digital marketing and sales are a key growth area of her business!

What a great evening with the Kauai Chamber of Commerce!

mobile first

Mobile First!

Today it is about being mobile first!  If people cannot access your content easily and clearly on mobile devices, you are missing the boat!  This is true all over, but on the island of Kauai, this can be a literal statement.  I was recently chatting with the owner of a rental shop near the port where cruise ships come in.  He was telling me that he had developed a web site, but he had not thought about it being mobile first.  But his target customers all arrive with mobile devices.  He said, “I see them coming off the ship all looking at their smartphone or tablets.”  The same is true of nearby hotel and timeshare visitors.

Nielson reports that over the past year, the average consumer spent nearly seven hours more per month with their mobile phones, and more than 70% of mobile users use smartphones.

Mobile first email marketing

According to Movable Ink’s Q1 2014 US Consumer Device Preference Report email opens continue to migrate away from the desktop.  In fact, two thirds of emails are opened on a mobile device.   Within that, the tablet share of email opens continues to grow.

Movable Ink said that 66 percent of emails were opened on either a smartphone (47.2 percent) or tablet (18.5 percent) in Q1 2014. That’s up slightly from the 65 percent in Q4. By contrast PC email opens were down to 34 percent.

What an opportunity for online, digital marketing.  This means that your email reaches your target audience anytime and anyplace.  Think about that.  But also think about how it must be designed for the customer on the go.  If you don’t grab him/her with the title and the first five lines of your email, they will move on to the next one.   It has to be attention grabbing, get quickly to the value for your customer, and then to the call to action.  In a previous role, I wrote many such emails to be used by the salespeople in our company.  Many of them were surprised that they got a quick response from a senior executive.  It was because it was targeted at them, designed to be read on a mobile device, with a clearly stated value proposition and an easy call to action.

Mobile First Blogs

Don’t be surprised if mobile devices are soon the primary way that people read your blog posts.  You can use Google Analytics to see how they are being accessed today and what the trend line is for mobile devices for your particular site.  Have you looked at and thought about how someone will access your blog from a mobile device?  Do your sharing icons work on the mobile device?  Can users comment?  Is there far too much scrolling to the right required?

The best way to find out is to test your site on a variety of devices. But Google also provides a website called Make Your Website Work Across Multiple Devices which helps you test your mobile website for mobile compatibility.  There is also a link to their PageSpeed Insights tool where you can test performance on mobile and desktop devices and get suggestions for improvement.

Mobile First Design

How do you get mobile first design?  If you are designing a new web site, make sure your developer is enabling responsive design.  There are many tools and themes available now to automatically enable web sites to be responsive to mobile devices and to optimize the display and performance.  If you have an existing web site that is not designed for mobile, you have a few choices:

  • Do nothing – your customers will have to enlarge and scroll on a mobile device
  • Re-design to be responsive – if your web site is a few years old, it may be due for a re-design anyway
  • Create a separate mobile site – you could have a separate mobile site, but then you have to maintain two sites

Mobile First Features

The rise in use of mobile devices also opens new opportunities to think about exploiting unique features of those devices.  A common example is being able to link to mobile turn-by-turn directions.  Not only can they find your business online, their device can guide them to you.  They can touch the screen and immediately call or email you.  They can check back in with you during the day and at different locations.  You may also want to make use of location awareness to push certain information or promotions.  And mobile devices are also good for social media integration.  Making it easy to share on social media directly from a mobile device may increase your reach.

So it really is a new world.  I now carry the Internet in my pocket via my smartphone.  When I travel, I stay connected with my tablet to use in the airport, on the plane, and in my hotel room.  I may search for information about a business anytime and anywhere that I have a connection.  If you are not mobile first, you are missing the boat! (maybe literally!)

 

 

Kauai small business landmark Na Pali coast

Does a Kauai small business need social media marketing?

I have heard the question of whether a Kauai small business needs social media marketing.  On the island of Kauai we have a small town culture.  People take time to talk story with each other.  People know people who know people.  There are a lot of word of mouth business referrals.  But there are also many businesses whose target customers include not only locals, but also visitors.  Small businesses here and in other parts of the world are wondering what to do about social media marketing and whether it is worth the time and effort.  As a small business owner your goal should not be excellence at social media.  Your goal should be to increase your business by picking and choosing some social media marketing that will reach your customers and prospects cost effectively.  You could get social media training to do it yourself or you could hire someone to write and manage marketing content for you.

Why Kauai small business social media marketing matters

  • Gain awareness of your target audience, whether locals, transplants, or visitors: People increasingly look for information online and on the go.  There are local Facebook groups for causes and for rants and raves.  There are locals, transplants, and visitors not only searching the web, but also searching social media for Kauai information, products, and services.  Kauai small business is fortunate to have many repeat visitors.  What are you doing to stay in touch with them and make sure they do business with you on their next visit?  What are you doing to encourage them to share information about your business with friends and neighbors who may also visit sometime?   Social media is another place to find out about your small business and to stay connected over time.  It is also a fast and affordable place to do A/B testing of content to see what your target customers responds to most and where they do it from.
  • Drive traffic to your web site:  Having a web site is a basic start for online marketing.  Getting your web site noticed, though, is the goal for attracting new business.  Social media visibility and sharing useful content for your target audience can help to drive people to your web site for more information and to take action.  Or it may cause their friends and neighbors to become aware of your web site by seeing a “like” or share.
  • Capture contact info for email marketing and newsletters:  Sharing interesting content in social media may be the hook to get someone interested in your Kauai small business.  You now have a reason for them to give you their contact info and to sign up for email updates or a newsletter.  They may become aware of your blog posts and updated useful content that will cause them to come to your web site and fill out a form to contact you.  Yes, it’s good to have this on your web site.  But you can use social media to interest people in contacting you.
  • Induce trial of your product or service:  In addition to generating awareness through social media, you may also be able to induce a trial of your product or service.  Providing useful, interesting content can cause them to take action to request more information or to visit your shop.  You might also offer a special promotion on social media for a free sample at a certain time that creates an urgency and excitement to be shared with other friends and neighbors.
  • Foster customer relationships and repeat business:  Social media marketing is also a great way to retain customers, to deepen customer relationships, and re-inforce their buying behavior with you.  We feel proud as consumers when we see an ad or promotion for a brand that we use and with which we have a positive relationship.  Your customers will feel a much stronger connection to your business by also knowing more about you, your suppliers, your employees, your locations, etc.  We all like a peak behind the scenes and to feel like we are insider.
  • Create social media referrals in addition to word of mouth referrals:  This is a real strength of social media marketing.  Humorous, emotional, or just useful content doesn’t have to go viral to benefit your business.  But having your customers’ friends and contacts seeing and hearing about your brand is an online word of mouth that can spread much faster and certainly much wider than just talking story at the farmer’s market or other local gathering spot.  What are the chances that your small business will come up in conversation?  But if there is useful or interesting information on social media, that can be seen by or shared with others.

How a Kauai small business can get started

Social media marketing for a Kauai small business takes some time and effort.  But you don’t have to be everywhere.  Work with an advisor to pick and choose the platforms that make the most sense for your target customers.  Focus on one or a few.  Don’t try to be an expert on every social media platform.  Focus on the content to be interesting, humorous, emotional, useful (see our other blog posts on compelling content).  It’s not about selling.  It’s about communicating, gaining awareness, inducing trial, and fostering customer relationships.  Test to see what works and to focus your efforts on those that produce real results to grow your business.

So if you are a Kauai small business, you can likely survive without social media marketing, but will you thrive?

 

online marketing

What is Online Marketing? Inbound? Digital? Content?

When I moved from the mainland to Kauai, I needed to find new resources to assist me.  I didn’t listen to broadcast ads or read a newspaper.  I went online and searched for information.  In the process of searching for information, I formed impressions of service providers based on what I was learning from them.  I also was looking for providers who had simple, well laid out web sites, with up to date information.  Not only did I search the worldwide web, I also searched on Facebook for local businesses.  I “liked” some that I found interesting.  I signed up for email newsletters.  I read blogs and learned a great deal that influenced how I planned my move and possible vendors for me to contact that would fit my needs.

It’s a new world for marketing your business. Consumer and business behavior is evolving to be much more like my personal experience above.  Will your potential customers find you and be compelled to engage with you?  Will your online, digital content show up high in their searches?  Will your existing customers feel that they have an ongoing relationship with you, recommend you to others, and do more business with you over time?

If you are presenting no online information or stale, out of date information, I would not probably contact you.  I would look to your competitors who provide me with information and insight and who show they want to have an ongoing relationship.

If you already have a Web site for your business, that’s great.  Is it easy to find information?  Is it regularly updated?  Do you have a blog that provides background, context, information, and insight?  Are you educating your audience, not just selling to them?  It’s a new model of marketing that goes by different names such as online marketing, digital marketing, and inbound marketing.  It’s not just a technology project. It’s a new way of engaging prospects and customers for your unique business.

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