Marketing Tips that Can Make a Difference

As the business environment gets more difficult, especially for small businesses, you want to look for almost every advantage possible.

Here’s two you should consider: video and mobile compatibility.

It’s possible you haven’t heard of these, although you may be saying to yourself, “Yeah buddy, tell me something I don’t know!” If you’re in the latter group, please go ahead. And congratulations.

Becoming Standard

Both are relatively niche marketing issues, but these niches are so important you can’t afford to ignore them if you have. Let’s break them down.

You probably know videos, but have you thought about it for your website and social media? Weekly or at least monthly?

Mobile compatibility is formatting a website so that it is easily readable on a desktop, laptop AND a mobile phone or tablet. The page adapts – kind of like an accordion – to the size of the screen. Phone users don’t have to scroll sideways to see an entire page and desktop users aren’t looking at a small patch of info and graphics surrounded by empty space.

Measurable Difference

So why are these good marketing tips? There are a lot of technical perspectives, but the biggest reason is human nature. People like convenience and they like things that grab attention. These do both, and more.

Video is the easiest to explain. If you have a brick-and-mortar business, you’ve likely hired a photographer (even it if it was your brother-in-law), marched the staff outside and taken a “our team” photo in front of your building. Maybe you got creative and went to a local landmark instead. But unless you have something more, that still photo is not likely to turn any heads.

Grab Attention

But say yours is a landscaping company and you hire a videographer with a drone, and get a video of your team from above, closing in as a narrator talks about your business? That’s going to grab some attention.

These are simple examples, but you get the idea!

With or without a drone, this needs to be professional. It’s probably not something you’re going to do with your iPhone. Editing in captions, charts, or anything else to give it depth requires software and skills you shouldn’t assume you have. The results will be worth it.

Subtle, But Significant

The benefits of mobile compatible websites are a little more difficult to describe. Odds are you have a website and there’s probably a 50-50 chance it’s not mobile compatible. Some platforms make this easy (Wix is one) but others can’t do it easily or require you to select (and often buy) a template that is mobile compatible. If you sit all day at a computer, it might seem an unnecessary expense and complexity.

But here’s the thing: depending on demographics, some markets will see over half their website traffic coming from smart phone users. And if they aren’t serving up a mobile compatible site, they’re probably running off potential customers by making it hard for them to use the site. You can bet some of the competition won’t make that mistake.

Neither one of these options is inexpensive, but they increasingly cost less than you’d imagine. And while going from a standard website to a mobile friendly version usually requires a complete website replacement, if you’re in the market for an upgrade that’s the time to make the switch.

Agove all, these are the types of strategies that can separate you from the pack and the sooner you make the move, the better!