Communicate your proximity
By Deborah Sweeney
Local marketing has, thankfully, evolved past direct mailers and physical signage as efforts have shifted towards building an online presence. However, local marketing campaigns still woefully neglect mobile users — despite the fact that mobile use now accounts for more total online engagement than both desktops and laptops!
Twenty percent of local business surveyed by ReachLocal still lacked a mobile-ready version of their site, and only about 15 percent of businesses even planned to use mobile, in-app marketing in 2016. That’s a shame. Why?
If your local business is not targeting mobile users, you are losing out on a lot of potential customers.
People don’t shop like they did five or 10 years ago, and modern consumer behavior is served served well by local, mobile marketing for a few reasons.
Locally based mobile campaigns foster exploration
The biggest change to consumer buying habits is, easily, the emergence of exploration and research. The overall cost of exploring before purchase is a lot lower, thanks to the Internet. Today’s consumers don’t have to seek out and ask for recommendations; they just spend some time online and read reviews. (more…)