As small businesses, we often wonder where our advertising money is best spent… and the opportunities are endless… We even receive calls from various advertising agencies, magazines and websites promising great return on investment.
After running an online survey on Facebook, one of the major digital promotion channel after Google, here are 5 tips that should help you directing your budget and efforts spend.
Tip 1: Stick to Google for SEO / SEA
Yell, Yelp and others will all promise you the moon and that your investment will be paid as soon as you hit £X in sales coming from them, however 97% of respondents said the first place they go to look for information about a business is Google. The other 3% go to Facebook.
Then they check a business information and products mainly on Google, Facebook and Google Maps.
However, Yell and Cie can help you improve your SEO ranking on Google by placing your website URL in listings via a central point of input, the reputation manager (Yell). So although no direct business may come from these websites, your overall digital visibility becomes stronger.
Tip 2: Design your website with Smartphone experience in mind
Usually, whether it is Wix, WordPress.com or other website creation online platform, we do it from a desktop view. However, although it is more convenient to do so, the key aspect to keep in mind is the online experience of the smartphone user.
Indeed, 71% of the respondents use their smartphones to browse the internet, 18% use a laptop / computer and 11% use their tablet , therefore if you smartphone version of the website is crap, this would mean a bad experience for 70% of your visitors!
Tip 3: Get and display customer reviews
Having customer reviews is very important today as it is some kind of online word of mouth and new visitors always check reviews from their peers. It is a good idea to systematically ask for customer reviews as building those will enhance your credibility.
In facts, 90% of respondents think that customer reviews are important or very important.
Also, Google and Facebook reviews are the most read, with 40% for Google Reviews and 32% for Facebook reviews. 20% of respondents are checking both as they like to be thorough!
Tip 4: On social Media, focus on Picture & Text, then videos
With the free opportunities to reach out on social media dwindling as algorithms evolve, it is key to invest resources in building the right kind of content.
75% of respondents declared reading / watching content featuring a picture and text the most. Whether inspirational or a meme it is up to you to decide… Maybe an inspirational meme?
21% declared watching videos the most, so to your cameras…err, smartphones!
An additional tip is to choose wisely your social media platform, here, 93% of respondents declared mainly using Facebook with the rest split equally between Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus.
Tip 5: Invest in your website!
Websites can be the first point of contact a customer experiences with your business. In fact, 93% of respondents think websites are important!
Also, for the beauty industry, 54% of customers would like to have the opportunity to book their session online, and 36% prefer to book over the phone, with the remaining 10% by email.
However, regarding the booking system, 75% of respondents prefer to pay after the session. It is therefore wise to get an online booking system where the customer has the option to pay upfront or after the session.
That’s all for today folks!
Thank you for reading!
Instant Results Acupuncture 