Understanding micro-moments for online small business success
Remember how you used to spend hours casually surfing the Internet? Those long, online sessions have been replaced by thousands of “micro-moments” on our mobile devices – mostly on our smartphones. Understanding this changed behavior is critical to your small business online marketing and advertising success. Google is probably the single biggest driving force behind describing micro-moments and that’s not surprising since its search engine and ad-revenue models depend entirely on understanding how we consume digital content. And let me follow that up with a big “truth” that you should internalize: Anything that’s important to Google can be decisive to small business marketers. We have seen small businesses wake up one morning and have almost all of their website traffic disappear because overnight Google tweaked its search algorithm. As Google grasps the import of micro-moments, I don’t believe we’ll see earth-shaking changes like that, but we will see a continuing evolution – and the small businesses that understand the direction of this evolution will ultimately become the industry or at least the local leaders. What are micro-moments? We are all familiar with these micro-moments. Many of them occur when we get the sudden urge to see what our Facebook friends are doing, or check on tomorrow’s weather, or see what text message just popped onto our screen and caused our phone to vibrate. However, as Google says, there are other, more commercially important, micro-moments, such as: I want-to-know moments, I want-to-go moments, I want-to-do moments, and I want-to-buy moments. I suggest that you start with these four micro-moments as you plan your small business online marketing strategy. All of these may not apply to every small business, but many will. Turn these moments around into these questions: When prospects have an “I want-to-know moment,” have I created content to answer their questions? Is that content search engine optimized? When prospects have an “I want-to-go moment,” do I make it easy for them to get to me? Does my website have a functional map and easily understandable directions? When prospects have an “I want-to-do moment,” have I communicated everything that they can do through my small business? When prospects have an “I want-to-buy moment,” does my mobile online presence make it easy for them to buy from me? Does information about my products rank highly in search results? Micro-moments impact purchases I can’t stress too strongly how important these micro-moment concepts are. Let me relate some statistics that Google pulled together: 69 percent of all leisure travelers search for travel ideas when they have a few spare moments, 91 percent of all smartphone users look up information while they’re in the middle of doing something, and 82 percent of all smartphone users search for information while they’re in a store still deciding which product to purchase, and some 10 percent change their minds and buy something different than they had originally planned on buying. We have been pleading the case for mobile marketing for quite some time and offering tips to get your virtual presence in shape. I think that once you understand micro-moments and how they overlap the objectives of your small business plan, you’ll be able to make even smarter decisions about your content marketing, mobile website design, geo-fencing strategy and ad...
read more5 Safety issues cause 65 percent of workplace injuries. Are you prepared?
Are you a betting person? Whether or not you play the lottery or hit Vegas on occasion, you should know what the odds are for any of your employees to get injured on the job and take all the smart steps you can to prevent those injuries. Counting up workplace injuries reveals these give heavy hitters that, when taken together, account for about 65 percent of all workplace injuries (definitions by the Bureau of Labor Statistics): Overexertion involving outside source: 24.4 percent. (Overexertion in lifting, pushing, pulling, turning, throwing, and catching.) Falls on same level: 16.4 percent. (Fall on same level while climbing stairs or steps, fall on same level due to uneven surface, fall on same level due to object, fall to same level due to tripping over self.) Falls to lower level: 8.7 percent. (Fall from collapsing structure or equipment, fall through surface, other fall to lower level.) Struck by object or equipment: 8.6 percent. (Struck by nontransport powered vehicle, struck by rolling object or equipment, struck by falling object or equipment, struck by discharged or flying object, injured by handheld object or equipment, injured by object breaking in hand, injured by slipping or swinging object held by injured worker or other worker.) Other exertions or bodily reactions: 6.7 percent. (Bending, crawling, reaching, twisting, climbing, stepping, kneeling, sitting, standing, walking, running, boarding, alighting.) You’ll immediately see that if you take good measures to prevent the first two items on this list, you’re doing a lot to improve your chances at having an injury-free workplace. Further, we need to take special care training and reinforcing correct lifting procedures and eliminating manual lifting as much as possible. I also think the “falls on same level” category is one where small business owners can do a lot to improve safety. Many small business owners and employees alike are too prone to leaving boxes and other items in places where they can be easily tripped over. And, as a small business owner, you need to take great care that your facility is in excellent condition regarding evenness of stairs and walkways. And this brings us around to one of the biggest challenges for small business owners. While larger businesses can afford to have an individual or even a department assigned the responsibility of monitoring and assuring workplace safety, this job often falls to the small business owner or is made an adjunct to one employee’s duties. This can be good in one way – it clarifies communications – but it can be bad if the safety duties are seen as “secondary” to other responsibilities. With this data in mind, your action items are to systemize and prioritize your safety program and be sure that you have analyzed, trained and retrained your team in appropriate ways so you can minimize these injuries in the workplace. Unfortunately, it’s easy for a “careless” culture to take over a casual workplace, and the beauty of many small businesses is that they are casual and comfortable places to work. Keep in mind that your company culture starts at the top. If you consistently demonstrate that safety is number one on your list of priorities, that attitude will eventually permeate the majority of your employees. Finally, as you consider what you must do in your safety program,...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Cloud apps to boost your small biz and a cloudy economic crystal ball…
Get your head – or at least your small business – in the clouds, get a better understanding of virtual teams, and decide if the U.S. economy is a basket case or Mr. Reliable. All of these topics, and much more, are explored in this week’s collection of curated content. Leadership, management and productivity If you haven’t jumped on the cloud services bandwagon yet, you owe it to yourself to read this article on six services for growing your small business. Check out these four easy ways to brand yourself as an industry expert. Looking for a loyalty program? Here are 13 loyalty/referral programs you need to consider for your small business. Get inspired by the four success stories these small business owners have had using PayPal. Hackers aren’t stopping at taking websites hostage, they are also taking control of Facebook small business pages. In this “Open For Business” Article, Dionne Lew gives 11 compelling reasons social media need to be part of your business strategy. An engaged employee is involved in his or her work, enthusiastic, and committed to contributing to the company and its vision. Here’s how to better engage those valuable team members. You see the term bandied about a lot, but really, what is a “virtual team”? Marketing and sales Marketing automation helps your organization increase operational efficiency to grow revenue and reach strategic business goals faster…and it’s not just for the big guys anymore. They looked at data from 10,000 articles and found that content marketing really works! Thirty-nine experts weigh in on the best ways to promote your website. And this article explores which social media platform is best for boosting your WordPress website. If you want to grow organic traffic through content, you need to be doing the seven things outlined by Robert Kramers. Julie May takes us on a “voyage” to describe five tools every marketer needs. Have a good anchor? It’s important to create personas to automate and segment your marketing. This article focuses on B2B marketers. For effective Facebook ads, you need to understand the science of testing. Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation Bigger isn’t always better. Hiring on with a small business or startup offers a lot of advantages. Ja-Naé Duane goes over five steps for a startup marketing plan from her book, “The Startup Equation.” Politics, government and the economy The landscape of online information is changing and Americans are moving away from the wired home Internet model and relying more and more on their phones. Christine Emba explores the question, “Has our economy become too ‘financialized’?” in this Washington Post article. It can be painful to look at, but you probably should check out this article that outlines the cost of small business health insurance by state. If you think the American economy is basically strong and want to bolster your view >> click here. If you fear otherwise >> click...
read more8 Stress Control Tips for Small Business Owners
One of the most important parts of learning how to manage a small business is learning how to manage stress. Because small businesses are by definition “small” it makes ownership and management one of the most challenging jobs on the planet – virtually every issue and decision rests on your shoulders. With those truths in mind, let’s step back from the fire for a moment and toss out some tips for managing stress in your small business. But as we do this, let’s start with the understanding that we’re all wired differently, so one person’s top tip for managing stress may not work at all for the next person. (And if I’ve missed your best tip for managing stress, please take a moment and share it in a comments below!) Jettison the small stuff. One of the most important concepts in successfully dealing with stress is to get rid of those pesky little issues that command a lot of attention, yet don’t pay off with significant improvements. Just drop these items completely or off load them to others! Be realistic about what you can control. As a small business owner you probably have a very “can-do” attitude; and that’s a good thing. However, there are things that you can neither control nor change. Accept those facts and move on. Spend a night at a comedy club. Okay, it doesn’t have to be a comedy club, but find entertainment that will result in some big belly laughs. The old saying about laughter being “the best medicine” is very true. And by the way, if you can laugh at yourself and your foibles, it’s even better; that helps you accept the things you can’t change. Make progress on your biggest problem. Now that you’ve got rid of the small stuff and no longer worry about the things you cannot change, make some progress – any progress – on your biggest challenge. Further, resolve to make a little more progress on it tomorrow. You know what they say about a diamond: It’s just a piece of coal that hung in there. Hang in there, chipping away at the biggest obstacle that’s holding back your small business. Pick up a self-help book on meditation or find a local class that will get you started. There are a variety of techniques, but the main thing is that meditation allows you to turn down the volume on the problems that are shouting at you all day long. For many, meditation is the way to find calm in the middle of the storm. Work out. While meditation brings calmness through controlling the mind, exercise can do the same thing by tiring the muscles. We’re talking about stress relief here, right? Physical exercise results in physical relief and usually your mind goes along for the ride as well. Of course, with aerobic activities and other intense exercises such as running, there’s the famous endorphin release. When your brain releases endorphins you get the benefit of a natural drug designed to relieve your stress. Hang out with a mentor. No small business owner is an island…or at least shouldn’t be. A trusted mentor will have experienced many of the same challenges you’re dealing with. Talking to someone who has seen and maneuvered beyond the “light at the end...
read moreHow to use your loyalty program for savvy market research
Most small business owners appreciate the value of a loyalty program. However, the word “loyalty” often blinds them to other benefits they can enjoy from these strategies. They think that if they can squeeze a few extra sales each year out of a punch card or some similar gimmick, that they’re doing okay. Frankly, they’ve only started to scratch the surface of what a good loyalty program can do for a small business. Consider the issue of market research. It’s no secret that small business owners don’t have the funds to do the kind of market research that large corporations are able to afford. However, if you step up your loyalty program, you can use it to mine some very valuable market research. With this information in hand you can then make some very smart plans for the future of your business. However, you need to go beyond the paper punch card and get your program into a database. Central to gathering actionable market research is to collect the demographics of your customers. If your small business loyalty program is card based or smartphone based, you can have your participants register online. During the online registration process you can collect the important demographics that will allow you to really understand the buying habits and preferences of your customers. With that information in your database you can begin to target future sales, adapt merchandising priorities and maybe even come up with new business ideas. For example, if you saw that your younger customers overwhelmingly buy a certain subset of what you offer and there’s an area of your community that matches that demographic, you might consider opening a business in that location that specializes in those items. The flip side of that coin is to discover the things you sell that certain demographics seldom or never buy. With this knowledge, you can better segment email sale flyers for example by omitting items that won’t be of interest to certain groups. The possibilities are endless, but if your loyalty program is still living in the punch card era, you’ll never enjoy its full potential. Be sure you’re getting all the value you can from your small business loyalty...
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