With the ever increasing popularity of mobile phones (Apple Inc just sold over 5 million iPhone 5′s in a few days), it is becoming essential for all local business owners to have a mobile friendly version of their website.

Unlike a ‘traditional’ website, mobile friendly sites are designed to display perfectly on the smaller screen size of a mobile device.  When a person visits your webpage, your site can determine if the user is on a mobile or desktop/laptop computer, and display the appropriate version of your site.

Contrary to popular belief, your mobile site does not have to be a smaller version of your regular site.  Mobile users are typically after specific information, namely; your contact information, location, and hours of operation.  Of course there is additional information that should be included on a mobile site, but these are the absolut must haves.

Here is a closer look at each element:

1. Contact Information
   This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at how many businesses blow this.  Your contact information needs to be front and center.  It needs to be on the home page and in the footer of every page.  Your phone number should be located in a ‘tap to call’ button so all a user has to do is tap the button and your number will appear in the phone dial pad.  If you have other contact mediums (email, social media etc…) these need to be easily found on the home page.
2. Your Business Location
   While many of your customers may know exactly where you are located, your new ones do not.  Having a interactive mobile map on your site fixes this.  The addition of a Google map will help your customers drive right to your front door.  The Google map will be able to ‘know’ the mobile users current location (provided this feature is activated on their phone) and display the exact turn by turn driving instructions to your business.  This is incredibly useful on many levels.   (1) When giving driving instructions via the phone, you can tell the customer about the mobile map.  (2) Users who land on your mobile site can easily get directions.
3. Hours of Operation
   Again, a ‘no brainer’ right?  Wrong.  Of the eight mobile local business sites I visited today, only three had their hours of operation on the site.  (Most of these sites were poorly translated versions of there regular site).  Very simple to add your business hours to your site in a place visitors can find it.

In addition to these tree elements, every business will have specific information that should also included.  A restaurent may want to have their menu and a towing company should list their service area.  Just be sure the three essential mobile site elements listed above are featured with the business specific information.

Everyday it gets easier for anybody to go online and state their opinion to the world.  When it comes to reviews about a local business, this can have a negative effect, even if most of the reviews are positive.

The online reputation for your business is only as good as what your customers are saying.  The big problem is that a negative review carries much more weight then a positive review.

Think about it…Do you remember the last time you were reading online reviews?  Maybe for a restaurent or a product review on Amazon..  When you read a negative review did it make you think twice about purchasing? It typically takes several positive reviews to undo the damage of a negative review.

If you haven’t done so recently, go visit some of the more popular review sites and see what your customers are saying about you.  Here are a few to check out:

Your Google+ Local Business Page  (Google Your city and business name to find it).

Yelp

The Urban Spoon (Restaurent/service industry specific)

The good news is, there are ways to combat negative reviews.

If you feel your business is getting a ‘Bad Rap’ online, give us a call.  We have a very specific system to restore your online reputation to what is should be.

Click Here to see what your current site looks like on a iPhone

Click Here to learn more about mobile marketing

Having a online marketing plan with strategic actions can eleviate this.  In this video I discuss four fundamental marketing platforms that just about every business can start with.

Individual businesses will typically use each method to varying degrees, but the important factor is that your message gets out to potential clients and customers.

Mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone are one of the fastest growing segments of internet users. These devices are getting more and more capable, and can do many – if not all – of the things that most people want to do on the internet.

That doesn’t mean they’re replacing computers any time soon, mind you. While they’re able to handle most of the same functions, there are a few that are much more common. In this article we’re going to look at three of the biggest uses for mobile internet devices.

Looking Up Information

Many people who access your company’s website on a mobile device are looking for one of a small number of things:

- Your company’s phone number
- Your business address
- Hours of operation
- etc.

Basically, they’re not looking for a lot of information about your products, services and other such things. They just want to get some very specific information, and they want it quickly (often when they’re on their way to visit your business).

This is why it’s important that your mobile website makes this information very easy to find. It should be no more than one click from the home page, if not on that page itself.

Social Media

Many people with these devices use them to access social media websites like Twitter and Facebook. For example, Facebook currently has over 800 million active users, and nearly half of them access the site from a mobile device on a regular basis.

Because mobile users are so active on these sites, you need to make sure that your company has a presence there. It will give you a very effective way to stay in touch with your customers, and let you not only send them information and promotions, but also interact with them directly.

Text Messaging

Text messaging isn’t really an internet-related function, but the rapid growth in the smartphone market means more and more people are carrying devices that allow them to send and receive SMS, or text messages.

You can use this to your advantage by having an SMS marketing strategy for your business. You can send promotions and other information to your customers via text message, which tends to have a much higher read-rate than email and other mediums.

When it comes down to it, the more ways you have to stay in touch with your customers, the better the chance that you will be the first company that comes to mind when they’re in need of the products or services you offer.