Where Your Small Business Should Focus in the New Year
MOBILE: The Train has Almost Left the Station… Get Aboard!
Mobile will remain one of the largest areas of opportunity for small businesses in 2015. Results from the 2014 Mobile Behavior Report from Salesforce show that 85 percent of the study respondents said that mobile devices are a central part of everyday life – and 90 percent of those aged 18 to 24 agreed.
With mobile becoming a lifestyle rather than just a tool, it’s important that small businesses ensure their information is available and optimized for the mobile consumer.
This includes:
- Responsive (mobile-friendly and optimized) websites and content.
TIP: Include your hours of operation and a “click to call” feature on your mobile site to accommodate the local customer that wants to get in touch or quickly check if you’re open before stopping in. - Improved mobile-focused advertising as part of your marketing mix.
- Improving social marketing and considering some paid promotion, as organic efforts continue to decline in efficacy.
Small businesses who have yet to get on the mobile train, there is no more waiting, unless they want to be left behind at the station.
Here’s how a few smart hustle businesses we contacted are planning to increase their mobile visibility and why:
Crown & Caliber
Hamilton Powell, Founder & CEO
Crown & Caliber is the premier online website that sells valuable, high-end luxury watches such as Rolex, Breitling, Cartier, and Patek Philippe for prices ranging from $750 to $250,000. Their CEO, Hamilton Powell shared that, in reviewing their year end reports, they noticed that 40 percent of their site traffic is mobile and believe that will continue to grow in 2015.
“This coming year, we will focus on making our site as mobile-friendly as possible. We also plan to invest heavily in mobile advertising, as many people do a significant amount of their online shopping on their smart phones. Analyzing trends from the current year helped us to identify this important and telling trend, and taking advantage of it will us to continue to grow our company,” shares Powell.
Spreadshirt
Philip Rooke, CEO
Spreadshirt is an e-commerce platform for creating, selling and buying ideas related to things that consumers love to share, use and carry. Spreadshirt’s focus for 2015 will be to go mobile and expand globally.
“Going global, while acting local is my approach to Spreadshirt’s international expansion. It is the most effective and entrepreneurial method for bringing a product or idea to a global audience. And it’s working: we will hit $100M in global revenue in 2014, while some of our competitors are struggling,” says Rooke. “Additionally, we understand that mobile is not going away. By 2018 mobile is predicted to reach the volume of sales as today’s traditional web-based e-commerce. Consumers already demand a quick, simple and fast checkout experience that is secure and can handle multiple currencies. At Spreadshirt, we have a one-step process. Consumers will expect and demand this, or they will take their business elsewhere.”