Foursquare For Business App Launched |  |
- Foursquare For Business App Launched
- New AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: 5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know
- 2013: The Year Small Business E-commerce Sites Strike Gold
- 10 Local Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today
- Startups and Investors Can Find Trending Startups on AngelList
- Small Businesses Have Big Plans, But Might Be Falling Short
- Entrepreneur Tips Arise from Dell Purchase
| Foursquare For Business App Launched Posted: 06 Feb 2013 03:00 PM PST Foursquare has just released a new mobile app, Foursquare for Business, to serve as an extension to the existing merchant dashboard, giving businesses the ability to manage specials and view recent activity and analytics from their mobile devices. Foursquare for Business promises to help businesses attract customers, drive traffic and learn more about customer habits and behavior. The app allows business owners to post Foursquare updates including photos to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, view recent check-ins, and manage Foursquare specials.
The photos above show the app dashboard, where business owners can view their location's all time check-ins and check-ins for the day, as well as customer likes and top customers. The photo on the right shows how businesses can create updates for their Foursquare account and then automatically post them to Facebook and Twitter as well. To use the app, you need to have already signed up for a Foursquare account and claimed your business's location. Merchants can also use the app to manage businesses that have multiple locations. However, the app won't allow you to post updates to more than one location at once. Businesses using Foursquare online could already run specials, post updates to their local Foursquare followers, see recent customer check-ins, and do pretty much everything they can do on the new mobile apps. But even though the app doesn't necessarily give business owners any brand new functions, the ability to manage your Foursquare account from a mobile app when the consumer experience on Foursquare mainly takes place in a mobile app may be beneficial for businesses. It can also simply save time and make life a little bit easier for business owners who have a lot of tasks to manage already. There are currently about one million business owners using Foursquare to reach out to customers. The app is free and available in the App Store and Google Play. The post Foursquare For Business App Launched appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| New AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: 5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know Posted: 06 Feb 2013 01:03 PM PST
Here are five things that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to know about the new Enhanced Campaigns and how they'll affect your PPC marketing efforts. 1. Mobile Campaign Management Will be Drastically Easier The best news to come out of this announcement is that Enhanced Campaigns will be significantly easier to manage. Previously, only the most sophisticated advertisers were really taking advantage of mobile PPC. This is because it was far too complicated and time-consuming for the average advertiser to create separate campaigns for every possible device and location combination. At WordStream, we estimate that currently only 1 in 25 SMBs are running a mobile-specific campaign! With Enhanced Campaigns, all that goes away. Now you can essentially mark a checkbox that says "I want this ad to run on mobile." If you just have one ad in an ad group, and you check the box, then it's going to run across all devices. But if you have an ad group that has the new universal ads and mobile ads in the same ad group, Google will always display your mobile ad to run on the mobile devices. Basically, mobile and desktop ads can now live together, in the same campaigns! It's going to be a big improvement and time-saver. 2. Your PPC Ads Will be Smarter Enhanced Campaigns give you the ability to adjust bids based on time of day, location, as well as device (mobile versus desktop). These bidding options mean that you can bid more or less when you ads appear on mobile. You will be able to specify a bid adjustment between -100% and +300% for mobile devices. If you want to opt out of mobile for some reason, you can bid it down by -100%, which effectively turns off mobile search. Of course, optimizing for mobile is about more than just keyword bids, so Google is also rolling out new ad extension management features. These include checkboxes for various ad extensions, enabling you to specify that you only want your extension to run on mobile or desktop. This way, advertisers can continue to customize the ad experience for mobile versus desktop users. In addition, Google will automatically serve up the right ad based on user context, rather than you having to build out a mobile-specific campaign on your own. 3. Reporting on Mobile Search Got Way Easier and is Now Free Google has introduced a new conversion type for mobile calls. Traditional conversion tracking, which depends on users reaching a designated web page after completing a goal, doesn't work well for mobile because the goal completion so often involves placing an order over the phone. So Google is introducing a new mobile advertising conversion type, based on call duration. As an added bonus, Google will no longer charge an extra fee to use advanced mobile call reporting features. 4. Mobile CPCs Will Go Up In addition to increasing adoption of mobile advertising, Google wants to close the gap between the cost per click on mobile and the higher CPCs on desktop search. In the past, mobile CPCs have been significantly lower. This was a nice advantage for those larger advertisers and agencies that had the time and expertise to set up and manage mobile campaigns. Now that mobile advertising will be easier and more accessible, competition will increase and costs will inevitably go up. I predict that mobile CPCs will be similar to desktop CPCs by the end of the year. 5. You Don't Have to Do Anything Now – by Mid-year This Will be Default Google will make Enhanced Campaigns available as an upgrade later this month. That means you don't need to do anything right now, if you don't want to. However, Enhanced Campaigns will become the default around June. All your campaigns will be automatically upgraded at that time. So it's important to be prepared for the change. If you're like most small advertisers and you never created separate mobile campaigns in the first place, the upgrade path will be seamless and painless for you. You'll basically just get a bunch of new options and features in your existing campaigns. Editor’s Note: We found more about enhanced campaigns on the WordStream blog which has additional detail. You will also find a tutorial on how to create video and mobile ads in AdWords today, as well as a guide on AdWords ad extensions. The post New AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: 5 Things Small Businesses Need to Know appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 2013: The Year Small Business E-commerce Sites Strike Gold Posted: 06 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST
Regardless, many businesses still handle transactions with point-of-sale systems that look no different than they did over a decade ago. Payments are one of the last core business technologies that's still begging for the mainstream adoption of a more mobile and user friendly alternative, and e-commerce has swooped in to alleviate the cashier's pain. Early returns from the 2012 holiday season indicate that e-commerce's demand and potential is going exponentially. Cyber Monday pulled in a hefty $1.46 billion last year – more than any other year in history. A reality where our nation does the vast majority of its shopping on screens is not far off, and we're seeing systematic industry shifts that prove e-commerce will soon be ubiquitous. Almost all major corporations are already on board, but 2013 is teed up to be the year small businesses untether themselves from dated POS systems and bring their businesses to where their customers are most – online. And here's why: Mobile Payments Open a New Realm for E-commerce 2012 yielded an explosion in the mobile payments services. This busy space is pioneered by Square, but apps like Google Wallet and ISIS are also popularizing the idea of ditching cash and plastic in droves of paying by screen. Many have speculated that the mobile payments space is fragmented and cluttered (and we can't say we disagree), but there’s no denying that this new avenue for displaced purchasing has brought e-commerce further into the mainstream. As major brands like Starbucks and Walgreens continue to push their remote payments solutions, the sheer prevalence of online purchasing will eclipse small businesses relying solely on the cash register. Customers are more comfortable than ever paying remotely, increasing the demand for e-commerce options across all businesses selling goods and services. Sophisticated – Yet Simple – Web Tools Developing a money-maker site is now easier and cheaper than ever. A host of online marketing technologies now offer freemium versions, and thanks to advancements in tag management, adding a 'Pay Now' button to your website is as easy as adding an app to your smartphone. With simple website applications available at little to no cost, small businesses are running low on excuses for dated, stagnant sites that don't serve their businesses. A few tools that make implementing e-commerce options fast and easy include:
A Leveled Playing Field We are now entering our third decade of the Web, and it continues to evolve at a neck-breaking pace, generally set by enterprises like Amazon. These companies continue to set the standard for the consumer online experience by enlisting strategies that not only drive traffic, but conversions. This year will be the year that the small business takes advantage of these strategies in order to stay competitive. Website personalization, which includes tailoring the website based on things like age, location and interests; loyalty programs and unique offers will be easier and cheaper to implement than it ever has before. All of these strategies are important to a strong Web presence, and in unison, help you build a brand as professional and compelling as the giants in your space. A few great options for getting started include LevelUp and Belly, great loyalty program apps, and personalization / optimization solutions Optimizely and Visual Website Optimizer. While taking your business online was once a complicated process, we've reached a tipping point in website technology where it's easier than ever for small businesses to have a robust, personalized online presence. These industry developments and the democratization of e-commerce tools have poised 2013 to be the year the emerging businesses meet their customers on the screen with a digital presence as dynamic as their storefront. Gold Photo via Shutterstock The post 2013: The Year Small Business E-commerce Sites Strike Gold appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 10 Local Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today Posted: 06 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST
However, you have to go above and beyond it to make the Web a real game changer for your small local business. There are thousands of different ways to market your business on the Internet. But we know you’re very busy so today, we chose these 10 tips listed below: 1. Google+ Local Even if your business was founded under a cave and you only started it last year, it is likely that it will have a presence on Google+ Local. Your mission is to make sure that the information on your page is accurate. To do that, you just need to claim it and make sure that you build a great listing. Google can guide you through the verification process. They will even help you make your listing great. 2. Check Business Data Aggregators For Accuracy And Consistency Google, as well as almost every local search platform and a directory, uses business data from one or more of these data aggregators: Don't forget to check for any mistakes as they would be duplicated across the Internet. 3. Merge Your Google+ Business Page With Your Local Page Unless you are a business that operates within a service area, you should merge your Google+ Business Page with your Local Page. If you do operate within a certain service area, then you can use the old Google Places Dashboard to manage your listing. 4. Remember That Bing And Yahoo! Have Their Own Local Search Platforms Bing Local and Yahoo! Local might not be as big as Google's local search platform, but they can still drive business your way. Check out Lisa Barone’s post about how to verify a Bing listing. 5. Spread The Word On Other Local Directories You might think that you will not get any business from YellowPages.com or Local.com, but you are probably wrong. There are dozens of sites like these with hundreds of thousands of visitors – some of them, like InsiderPages.com, have millions of visitors per month. As an added bonus, accurate and consistent presence will strengthen your rankings in Google+ Local. 6. Get Reviewed In As Many Websites As Possible You can't openly solicit reviews and you can't fake them either. What you can do is integrate the "review process" into your daily business operations. Include a message that asks for public feedback in your email signature. You can also make sure you get reviewed in websites other than Google. This will provide you with additional credibility and a ranking boost in Google+ Local. 7. Seize The Day On Twitter It's possible to build a following on Twitter even if you got your business license only a month ago. Your goal on Twitter should be to connect with other local business and people in your local market. Don't sell anything to your Twitter followers – help them instead. They will remember you when they need help with something you do or sell. Just make sure you don't sound like a broken record. 8. Your Business Needs Friends On Facebook You can start by making an awesome Facebook Business Page. However, don’t stop there. Offer exclusive discounts and deals on your Facebook Page (be sure to follow the terms and guidelines), and promote them in your everyday business operations. Engage your Facebook community, but don't suffocate them with dozens of daily updates. 9. Make Friends With Local Journalists I apologize for misleading you. You can't implement this tip today. But you can start your journey by commenting on a story that your future journalist friend wrote. Be insightful. You don't have to flatter them. Make them think. Add value. Send them a story idea that has nothing to do with your business. Have coffee with them. Write a blog post about something they covered and reference their writing. Oh yeah – don't stop doing newsworthy things that journalists care about the most. 10. Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce I know. This one comes with a price tag. Before you dismiss this tip completely, consider that there are only a few marketing decisions you can make today that have the potential to get you more business, save you money and provide a solid benefit in local search – joining your local Chamber of Commerce would be one of those decisions. If you implement even just half of these tips, your local business is likely to grow. Remember to take care of your customers and engage with them. Local Photo via Shutterstock The post 10 Local Marketing Tips You Can Implement Today appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Startups and Investors Can Find Trending Startups on AngelList Posted: 06 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST AngelList, the online service that matches startups with investors, just announced a new feature that shows customer counts and startups that are "trending" by gaining the most customers over the course of the month. The photo below on the left shows the current list of trending startups, including the startup name, a short description, investors, past funding rounds, and how many new customers they've gained so far this month. Users can also choose to view how many new followers each startup has received on AngelList over the week.
In addition to seeing how many customers have been added throughout the month, you can also view who those customers are. And the customers can confirm that they are in fact using the startups products or services and even leave feedback about their experience. Once you click on a startup in the Trending section, you can view its entire profile page, which includes a customer list, shown in the photo on the right. You can also see the reviews of the products or services that confirmed customers have received from the startup. This new feature simply gives potential investors even more ways to browse and find startups on AngelList. Those startups that are doing well and gaining customers have a way to leverage that progress into even more potential funding and contacts. It can also give investors more relevant data about their potential investments, since they might want to know about the startup's reputation and success with its current customer base. This isn't the only new tool that AngelList has added recently. The site also added Docs that allow seed-stage startups to close their investment rounds online, Valuations, and an investing platform that gives smaller accredited investors the ability to support AngelList startups. AngelList is a mix between a crowdsourcing platform and a social network that gives startups an avenue to reach investors and vice versa. The site was launched in 2010 by the team from Venture Hacks, an advice site for startups. The post Startups and Investors Can Find Trending Startups on AngelList appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Small Businesses Have Big Plans, But Might Be Falling Short Posted: 06 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST
The 2013 Small Business Game Plan, a survey conducted in December by Alibaba, Vendio and Auctiva, polled small businesses about their outlook and plans for the coming year and found that despite economic challenges, small business owners are taking action to grow their businesses in 2013. At the same time, a significant majority are missing out on some key opportunities that could make or break their businesses in the coming years. Four out of five small businesses surveyed are online-only businesses, with 92 percent having five or fewer employees. Although these companies are feeling the pinch of economic uncertainty, citing cost-cutting and streamlining as their number one goal for 2013, they aren't letting a cash crunch slow down their plans for growth. The top five ways small businesses plan to grow are: 1. Create a new ecommerce website (49 percent) 2. Import new products (30 percent) 3. Export to additional countries (23 percent) 4. Build a mobile website (14 percent) 5. Build a new location (10 percent) Their top three most important tasks for 2013 are: 1. Cost reductions, streamlining (78 percent) 2. Expand product offerings in different customer segments (75 percent) 3. Develop new products (71 percent) Where are small businesses planning to export? More than half (52 percent) say the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are high on their lists. The U.K. was cited by 29 percent of the respondents. That's a smart choice, since exporting to countries with similar cultures and languages simplifies the process of international trade immensely. Although it's exciting to see so many small businesses looking to global opportunities, market expansion and new product development, 59 percent of companies in the survey say they have no plans to conduct business globally this year. What's holding them back?
Many of the companies also believe they are too small to do business overseas. In reality, however, I've known one-person companies that managed to successfully leverage overseas sales — so size is no excuse. The report notes that small businesses are using their time more efficiently by automating daily tasks and then using the time they save to market their businesses with word-of-mouth and social media being their most effective marketing tactics. One area where these online businesses are still falling short, however, is mobile marketing. More than 80 percent admit they haven't yet optimized their websites for m-commerce or mobile use. Lack of time and expertise, along with a belief that creating a mobile-ready site is too expensive, were the top reasons for not being mobile ready. With U.S. customers increasingly turning to mobile devices for shopping and browsing, failing to provide a mobile ready site could put you behind the eight ball in terms of future sales. If you're not going global and you're not going mobile, you're cutting off two major avenues of potential growth. How are you planning to expand your business this year? Global Photo via Shutterstock The post Small Businesses Have Big Plans, But Might Be Falling Short appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Entrepreneur Tips Arise from Dell Purchase Posted: 06 Feb 2013 02:30 AM PST Entrepreneur tips arise from the recently announced buyback of Dell. Founder Michael Dell and global technology investment firm Silver Lake plan to buy the publicly held company for $24 billion in an effort to take it private. The purchase is part of Dell’s strategy to streamline the company, making it more competitive. Entrepreneurs can learn much from this historic move. Entrepreneur Tips from Michael DellTake responsibility. Some might see Dell’s move as a step in the wrong direction. After all, tech firms usually start with an entrepreneur and an investment firm at the helm, with the ultimate goal that they will eventually go public and bring on investors. In this case, Dell is taking back direct responsibility for the operation of his company. Dell Inc. Connect with your people. In a memo to his staff, Dell described the plan to buy back his company as an “exciting new chapter” for the business. Once you have come to a decision, it’s important to reach out to your people. Their support can be crucial when dealing with big changes. The Wall Street Journal Ask for help. Dell also reached out to another interested party for help in making his buyback effort. Software giant Microsoft, a major supplier for the computer maker, will loan the company $2 billion to help Dell buy back his company. Microsoft sees Dell’s survival as critical to its competition with Google and Apple. Bloomberg More Entrepreneur Tips for YouMake better decisions. Decision making is critical for entrepreneurs. Fortunately, the ability is not something you must be born with…it can be learned too. Pam Johnson explains three exercises that will help you make better decisions for your business. The Work at Home Woman Build deep connections. Networking is another skill entrepreneurs are often expected to cultivate. But developing the kinds of deep connections needed to build a truly successful organization may require more than simply being social. Martin Zwilling shares tips for developing the right kinds of connections and some networking myths to be avoided. Startup Professionals Musings Get better at hiring. Entrepreneurs must be good at building a team, and this means getting better at hiring. But bringing new people into your organization may not be as easy as it sounds. Kevin Nye shares some tips for hiring the right talent even when your initial recruiting efforts have failed to bring in any candidates who satisfy your needs. New Hire Avoid too many entrepreneur tips. It might seem like a contradiction to mention a post about avoiding too much advice in a roundup about entrepreneur tips. Here, Arthur Piccio makes a good case for avoiding too much “fantasy” from the self-help industry when building your business. Certainly some tips can be invaluable, but be sure you take action too. UPrinting The post Entrepreneur Tips Arise from Dell Purchase appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
Google today announced a major change to the way AdWords PPC campaigns are structured, which will fundamentally alter how mobile PPC works. The change, dubbed AdWords Enhanced Campaigns, kills the former "best practice" of creating separate campaigns for desktop and mobile. Going forward, advertisers will be able to target different devices within the same campaigns.
Technologies from the 1990's are nearing extinction. Just think, how often do you see people using pagers, flip phones and dial-up modems?
Have you ever wondered why some local businesses seem to be thriving by marketing themselves only on the Internet? So did we. And we discovered that you must start with Google.
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