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With 87% of Americans using the internet and 80% of people online owning a smart phone, a mobile marketing strategy for businesses shouldn’t be ignored. However, there’s more to an effective mobile strategy than a mobile-friendly website. As the digital universe expands, so do marketing strategies, and that’s one reason why many businesses are seeing tremendous results through customizing their own mobile app.
You may be thinking mobile apps are only useful for the big time players, brands like Amazon and Target, but have you not noticed that even your local coffee shop now has an app for its customers? Why do they bother, you might ask? Because they’ve recognized the value that mobile apps can bring to the table. Mobile apps have become very affordable for small businesses, and the advantages of incorporating a mobile app into your marketing arsenal are very enticing.
Imagine you run a golf course in Gulf Shores, Alabama. How awesome would it be to allow your golfers to record their scores and see the golf range through a map in the mobile app?
What if you’re in the mortgage business and you develop a free app that has a mortgage calculator on it for real estate agents and potential homebuyers to use? That would certainly get people talking about your company.
A company can incentivize those who have downloaded the app to share it with their friends on social media in order to get referral points. Our minds have a way of gravitating towards the familiar, so the more the catchy icon is seen on a user’s phone as they scroll past it or in the App Store or Google Play, the more likely they will be to choose you when the need arises.
Do your competitors offer apps to help their customers? If they do, then it’s time for you to take it up a notch! If they don’t, then this is an excellent time for you to stand out by offering such a service.
By providing a personalized experience, businesses can interact with their customers efficiently which effectively generates repeat business. You can drive repeat business through rewarding customers for their patronage. Apps allow you to send push notifications to remind customers of deals, specials and events. Loyalty solutions can also consist of having digital stamp cards, digital coupons, and other loyalty reward programs. No more paper stamp cards (which everyone loses)!
Depending on your industry, certain businesses see a big increase through in-app purchases by offering revenue generating solutions such as mobile food ordering, shopping carts or a reservation system.
Apps allow you to set up push notifications that can target specific user demographics, even based on their location. For example, customers will receive a coupon if they’re near your business. Additionally, you can send in-app messages to those who have the app.
People are using their phones all day long and the customer relationship is becoming more and more digital in nature. Self-service technologies through the internet are becoming how businesses interact with their customers, and a mobile app is essentially the path of least resistance.
Mobile apps used to only be reserved for the type of businesses that could fork out $50,000 to have one developed. Those days are gone. Now every business can have one through advances in app development technology.
• Promoting Events: Showcasing key info on events & promotions, tracking attendees, and posting comments. • Ordering Food: Seamless ordering with in-app payments. • Geo-targeting Customers with GPS Coupons: Allowing users to check in at your location to unlock coupons or use geo-fencing when they’re in your area. • Rewarding Loyalty: Providing highly customizable mobile stamp cards. • Selling Merchandise: Selling products and taking payments right through the app. • Taking Reservations: Offering mobile booking features which allow users to set up appointments through the app. • Referring Friends: Incentivizing easy app-sharing by email, social media, or text.
BIS Designs, a local marketing company, now offers mobile apps for small to medium sized businesses all along the Gulf Coast, from Pensacola, Florida to Biloxi, Mississippi. We believe a multi-channel marketing platform is needed for businesses to effectively market themselves to get positive results. Our mobile apps can provide your customers with a wide range of services that can generate more revenue and increase your brand visibility. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation to see how a mobile app can benefit your business!
A landing page can be your business’ biggest advocate. By creating high-converting and SEO-optimized landing pages, these pages can effectively run your business while you’re away by having the convincing power to appeal to your customers in your absence.
Typically, it is a standalone page not available to access from the navigation menu. It’s created to fulfill a single purpose to get visitors to take a particular action on the page.
Example goals for landing pages include: • Capture email addresses for future leads • Get attendants to an event or seminar • Promote a special offer • Make an announcement • Build your brand • Make a profit
Since landing pages are separate from your website’s visible pages, they are the perfect platform to send all campaign traffic. This separation makes testing and measuring through web analytics incredibly easier to track.
Headlines serve the most important purpose on a landing page: to convince a visitor to stay. There’s a famous quote by advertising legend David Ogilvy that says, “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.” Since your headline is the first thing people see when they land on your site, it’s imperative to make a good impression. That’s why we always suggest A/B or split testing to figure out which one will get higher engagement.
Some elements you can test for are: (This is something we love to do!) • A short versus long headline • A headline that states benefits versus features • The color scheme of the headline • Headline transposed over a background image versus negative space
Source: Vivino
This wine news and review site uses an appealing solution-oriented strategy in their captivating headline.
A unique value proposition (UVP) should be the first thing your visitors see when they land on your landing page. It is not a slogan. It’s a promise you’re telling customers about what your product/service will do for them while also conveying how it is better than the competition. It can be a single statement or 2-3 lines that hit home with your target audience.
Source: Karma Mobility, Inc.
The unique value this brand offers is clearly stated in the byline letting viewers know they can get online anywhere with their product with affordable data plans.
Even though you now have a compelling UVP and an impactful headline, visitors often still need that extra push, and a CTA form or button can be exactly what gets them on board. An effective CTA should be prominently placed, not too small, and placed above the fold so visitors won’t need to go searching for it.
Our client Magnolia Dental was looking for web design services in Mobile, Alabama and their home page illustrates how sometimes depending on your service, it’s beneficial to use multiple calls to action on one page.
Because web visitors are scanners by nature, your text should be simple and minimal, using images as much as possible while ensuring the relevant features or benefits are succinctly highlighted.
Source: H. Bloom
This flower company does a lovely job in illustrating the simple process for their subscription service.
Potential customers want to know they’re making a good choice in choosing your business. Social proof can help seal the deal by reinforcing trust and establishing credibility. This can often create an emotional response, ultimately turning visitors into customers. Examples of social proof can include: • Testimonials from clients (with images and names) • Social media share buttons (showing the number of shares) • Logos from well-respected businesses that use you • Business or product reviews • Trust seals, i.e. BBB, VeriSign, TRUSTe (see image below)
One client of ours in Daphne, Alabama does a great job of providing social proof on their landing page for a new program they’ve launched. The Mar-Kee Group uses testimonials, video demos, and social media icons that play well with their call to action sign-up forms and buttons.
This is especially important when using PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads as the link associated with your Google ad will need to direct users to a page built specifically for that service or promotion being offered.
Source: Frank & Oak
If someone who clicked on an ad in Google that advertised a “30% off your next purchase promotion” but ended up on the home page, they likely would get inundated with way more information than they wanted, get a bit overwhelmed that they didn’t see that coupon, and leave the site out of frustration.
By no means do landing pages need to include all of these elements, and in some cases, the more minimal a landing page is the more results a site can see. Figuring out what kind of landing page your marketing campaign needs will depend on many factors. Above all else, research into what types of personas make up your target audience should be the first step. This article is meant as a general overview, as there are many more components to a successful landing page that are not mentioned here, such as the need for an integrative design (see BEOPLAY’s experiential design) or adding video, which can lead to 86% more conversions.
At BIS Designs, our goal is to create a website and subsequent landing pages that will support your goals and accurately reflect your brand for businesses not just in Baldwin County and Mobile County, but also extending to Biloxi, Gulfport, and Pensacola, Florida. From our pre-project meeting to content development and design, we keep your website goals at the forefront of everything we do. Through combining search engine optimization, social media marketing and cutting edge web design, our integrative approach for your business provides successful results. Contact us today to hear more about our new comprehensive packages!
Read Our January 2017 Newsletter Here!
Robertsdale, AL (December 13, 2016) – BIS Designs, experienced web design and digital marketing firm on the Gulf Coast, launches new premium website hosting packages to assist clients with website edits. This will allow businesses the option of having the BIS Designs team make necessary updates to their website as needed.
Businesses will now have an option to receive unlimited website support and maintenance including updates to website content and adding/deleting/managing website pages. For organizations with a lesser demand, there are other options available such as packages with six or twelve hours of website edits per year.
In addition to the above features, every package will receive reliable hosting and security maintenance of their current website.
Phillip Long, CEO of BIS Designs, stated, “We’re excited to be able to offer this to our clients. Now, we’ll be able to better meet the needs of our busy and growing clients.”
To learn more about BIS Designs, call 251.410.7601 or visit www.askbisdesigns.com.
About BIS Designs BIS Designs provides web design and digital marketing services to hundreds of small and medium businesses in the local market. With the solid understanding that marketing is vital to the success of your business, BIS Designs is de-bunking the “if you build it, they will come” myth by providing the highest quality web design and digital marketing solutions available. Headquartered in Robertsdale, Alabama, BIS Designs has been serving Gulf Coast businesses for over 6 years. Learn more at www.askbisdesigns.com.
About BIS Technology Group BIS Technology Group is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: information technology, web design & digital marketing, office equipment and business consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to grow to their full potential while minimizing risks. BIS is located in Robertsdale, AL. To learn more about BIS Technology Group, visit bistechnologygroup.com.
By now, you’ve probably heard that video marketing is all the rage. It’s evidently more impactful and can engage many more people on social media networks than a post with an image alone could. You may be saying, “Yeah, that sounds great, but I don’t have the time and the resources to make a video!” Well, don’t throw the idea away just yet.
What if we told you that within just a few hours, you could have enough video content for almost a whole year to dole out each month? There are many styles of videos for marketing and some will take much longer to make. However, a simple Q& A style video can be done relatively quickly and provides numerous beneficial results to your marketing.
Before you take your first stab at making a video, keep in mind the following pointers to get the most out of your work:
Ideally within 1st 10 seconds or less, appeal to the viewers’ emotions by addressing particular pain points, concerns, or other impassioned viewpoints.
Determine what your ultimate goal is for the video, i.e. visiting your website, sharing the video, etc. and incorporate that into a straightforward CTA usually toward the end of the video, such as “Learn more at (insert url).”
What you write about in the text for the video post is very important and should be used as the bait & hook to the video. Be sure to not spam it with hashtags.
One study found that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. The video needs to be able to attract attention without sound, meaning an aesthetically pleasing background and camera quality is important, but so is the need for subtitles. Facebook offers this as an option now. Contact us if you want more specifics!
Depending on the platform the video is posted on, make sure you know how to read the metrics, i.e. the number of shares, the amount of engagement, and the number of clicks to your site.
Make sure you have a good audio (lavaliere wireless microphone), a clear and aesthetically pleasing, but not distracting background, and that you’re discussing something that you are passionate about.
While it would certainly be easier to share the same link across all channels, Facebook’s algorithm favors videos placed directly onto their platform more than links. Doing it this way will create greater organic reach, especially on Facebook.
The text you include in your post about the video won’t be searchable, but the headline and descriptions you post with your video will. Try to include those keywords or phrases you think viewers would be searching for to help them find your content, and include a couple relevant hashtags on platforms like Twitter and Instagram to boost search results.
It’s important to keep the video short, so if it’s a visual “How-To”, use the speed-up feature in your video editing software to shorten the duration.
Give brief answers to a few of the main questions you know your audience is interested in. This is a great way to establish your business’s expert credibility.
This is a powerful brand-building tool as users on social media follow companies typically because they have an affinity for the business and want to learn more about what the brand really is and what it stands for. Show viewers how something works or how something is made and this can lead to major increases in brand loyalty.
By creating a story with a beginning, middle, and end that fits into a 30-second video, you’re bound to easily connect with viewers. Telling stories about real people is ideal, but even telling a story about your customers, your business, or a cause you want to raise awareness on are dynamic tools to build and sustain loyal relationships.
If you’re pressed for time, but feel video marketing is an excellent strategy you want to give a try, start out with the Answering Questions format.
If you schedule a day on your calendar that you can sit down and record 20 videos back to back, you can have 10 months of videos ready to go that get posted online every two weeks. Pretty efficient, right?
BIS Designs is more than happy to come to your location or schedule time in our studio to record video tutorials, testimonials, or any such video as described above. Our comprehensive marketing services can integrate your video marketing with your website, social media, and print marketing endeavors, all the while ensuring your videos are efficiently optimized to help your search engine rankings. Contact our Designs team to learn more about our video marketing services and how we can increase your brand’s recognition, reinforce your business’s credibility, and boost both your search rankings and social engagement.
Read Our December 2016 Newsletter Here!
At the end of each year, we like to pull together the marketing community’s top digital marketing trends to look out for in the upcoming year. By keeping our finger on the pulse, we hope to be able to provide our clients with valuable insights that will sustain their growth and keep them ahead of the curve.
Beacons are another hot new trend that is expected in increase heavily in 2017. BLE Beacons are used within brick-and-mortar stores to “hypertarget” customers through new levels of proximity awareness. They are low-cost transmitters that use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to provide smart devices with valuable location-based information. Beacons can be installed throughout entire buildings and can be used in a variety of ways. These include:
• Sending coupons and notifications when someone is near a specific retail display. • Serving as a store guide by providing a virtual map of a store. • Educating visitors on specific exhibits as they tour a museum. • Alerting people of the arrival and departure times of specific bus routes or plane delays.
Beacons are already being used by 85% of the top US retailers, and it’s estimated that 500 million beacons will be in use by 2021.
With all of the fascinating advancements in technology and the pervasive infiltration of the IoT lifestyles, 2017 looks to be a year that will go down in history as marketing tactics take a giant leap forward and hit their stride.
If you’re ready to explore what makes your target audience tick, give us a call and let’s talk. Our web designers and analysts will work with you to create intriguing and conversion-inducing websites that will be consistently monitored and optimized for the best possible outcomes. Our goal at BIS Designs is your success. Let’s get you back on track! Schedule your free consultation & quote today.
For many businesses, it’s already starting to look a lot like Christmas—and with good reason.
Online sales showed significant gains in 2015, but brick-and-mortar sales fell during this peak shopping period. Why? This is possibly due to businesses extending the holiday sales from Thanksgiving Day to the Cyber Monday finale. Online retailers typically have strong digital marketing strategies in place to promote their seasonal sales. Brick-and-mortar stores should also be taking advantage of how digital marketing can increase their foot traffic.