See Why Mobile Marketing Matters Even more Now to Local Search

Almost everyone knows that having a mobile marketing strategy is no longer optional, but somehow the concept is slower being adopted among local businesses.

More than ever before, local business owners need to realize the incredible opportunity that being active in mobile marketing offers them, and how best to take advantage of that. Here are several reasons why this is important, plus some things you can do about it.

Reasons why you need a mobile marketing presence

Part of this is based on being aware of what your market is doing with their mobile devices. Here are a few eye-opening statistics to help all of us get a grasp on just how important this is:

• 97 percent of consumers go browsing in search of products or services in their local area.
• 73 percent of mobile searches bring about store visits and/or conversions.
• They're quick: 70 percent of those consumers search who locally on their mobile device act upon it within one hour.
• 15 percent of consumers will actively use their smartphone to compare prices once they're in your store!

So how best to take advantage of mobile marketing for local search?

There a number of things you can do to ensure that your business is ready and available for mobile visitors and customers.

Get your site mobile ready – There is some adjustment needed with regards to ensuring your site renders well on mobile devices. Don't leave this to chance, thinking it will show up “good enough”. You've got precious little time to make a great impression, by some accounts fewer than ten seconds, and if they spent all of that loading your page, the result is going to be that most people will exit before even seeing your page.

Take care with font and button sizes – Since your screen is a great deal smaller, you have to make the demands on your readers less taxing. Don't overburden them with big sections of small text, and also, be sure any buttons you would like clicked are big enough to easily touch.

Initiate an engagement strategy – Don't leave them hanging: reply promptly to comments and concerns, and especially complaints. Also, make regular connections with those who want to engage your brand.

Claim and optimize any directory listings – Be sure to optimize any local search directory listings you find or create with consistent names, addresses and phone numbers. Some of these sites can really help you, if you just take the time.