In this post you will learn all about SoLoMo marketing and how it can be put to use in your business. You will learn what are the best tools to use, many of which are free, plus how you can avoid making rookie mistakes.
So firstly, lets start with the basics…
What is SoLoMo Marketing?
SoLoMo marketing is a technical term used to describe the fusion between social media, local and mobile marketing.
Consumers now spend more time than ever on mobile and smartphone devices accessing social media platforms.
Coupled with the local searches performed, such as looking for a pace to eat or have a coffee, product reviews and recommendations, means marketers and small business have to think smarter about how to win and retain business.
According to SalesForce’s 2015 Marketing Technology report, 3 of the top 5 areas for marketing spend in 2015 will be:
- Social media advertising
- Location based marketing
- Mobile applications
This shows just how important these marketing channels have become. Perfecting SoLoMo marketing can take time and careful thought to get it right.
However, even if the budgets at your disposal are limited, there are things you can do right now to take full advantage of these emerging social, local and mobile marketing trends.
Get Social, Local and Mobile Marketing Ready
1. Be Easy To Contact
Make sure your business phone number is on your website homepage and in a text format. Smart phones now recognise numbers, so a user can use just click to call.
Making a user search too hard to find a conatct will just push them into your competitor’s open arms.
A recent study by BIA/Kelsey and vSplash revealed that 60% of small business do not have their phone number on their homepage. Make sure you are one of the 40% that do and you are already ahead.
This goes the same for your email address. Whilst forms my reduce spam, some people just don’t like them and prefer to just email. Make sure you have one at hand for your customers to use and invest in a spam filter if you have to.
2. Responsive and Mobile Friendly Website
With one of the most recent Google search updates, having a mobile friendly site has become even more important than ever, especially if you hope to drive local mobile search traffic.
Unfortunately, Google can now penalise your site in its mobile search listings if it is not responsive or provides a poor mobile experience.
Given that so many local searches take place on a mobile phone, you can see why this is so important to get right if you are to be in a position to take advantage.
The study by BIA/Kelsey and vSplash also revealed that 93% of SME wesbites are not mobile friendly. Whilst this statistic would most definitely have improved since the last Google update, by going mobile friendly, you ensure you are among the SoLoMo ready.
If your site is not responsive, it may not cost the earth to change it. Free open source website CMS such as WordPress or Umbraco offer responsive websites out of the box, and with just about any theme available to buy cheaply, you can quickly and easily rebuild your site using the existing content.
Although it is no very easy, if the thought of building a website scares you and is beyond your business capabilities, then IT outsourcing websites such as UpWork (formerly Odesk) can help you hook up with a suitable website developer cheaper than you think.
3. Protect Your Social Media Profiles
Whilst it would be nearly impossible to join (and be active) on every social media site, it is important that you at least register and protect your business name on all the major ones.
Having someone impersonate your company can cause big head aches. Use Kowem to quickly register and protect your business name on 100’s of social media sites now.
Social, Mobile and Local Marketing Apps, Tools and Platforms
Once you have taken care of the basics, its time to make sure your business get as much SoLoMo visibility as possible.
There are many different platforms and apps at your disposal and depending on your business some more than others will be suitable.
Here are 3 of the most popular social and mobile marketing applications to help you get your mobile marketing started in 2015:
My Google Business
This should be your first port of call. Get set up on this and you’ll start to appear in the local business search results section.
Its completely free and will begin driving local search traffic. Google is moving more into a mobile integration with directions, reviews and click to call. Any business not taking advantage of this is missing a big trick.
Facebook is the number 1 social media site and has the lion share of traffic, especially for mobile traffic. Whilst Facebook may not be suitable for every business, the reasons to not have a Facebook page are getting smaller and smaller.
In February of 2015, Facebook announced Facebook Place Tips. This is a huge deal for SoLoMo marketers as is essentially detects where a user’s location is, places a promoted post in their news feed showing your business as nearby, and can then pull in reviews of Facebook users who have been there upon further interest being shown.
This is an incredibly powerful yet simple way to put for any small business to put SoLoMo marketing to use.
Foursquare
Foursquare is a location-based social network smartphone app where you “check in” to your favourite locations and let your friends know where you are.
Foursquare has deeper purposes than just location sharing with friends, though. Many restaurants and stores can reward loyalty and frequent check-ins with specials and coupon deals.
Retail, entertainment and eateries will benefit most from this social media platform and by placing your business on Foursquare, you will open up a whole new marketing avenues to your business.
Whilst these are just a handful of what is available, it is a good place to get started and get a feel for what can be done.
Track Your Brand and Get Involved in the Conversation
Being aware of what people are saying about you is key in social marketing. As trawling the internet for all your brand mentions would take up all your time, there are number of tools available to help you keep track.
There are paid social media brand tracking apps such as Trackur and Buzzbundle that will listen to the web and monitor mentions for you and help you pull all of your social media channels into one place. Hootsuite is especially good for this and has a free product.
However if you are on a budget, and would like to do some brand tracking, Google Alerts is very powerful tool allowing you set up daily alerts for all your brand related terms. This way, if while indexing the web, Google comes across a new piece of content with your alert terms mentioned, it will let you know. Click here for a detailed guide to getting this set this up.
Whilst you cant police what people say and people often use social media and community sites to complain, you should be looking to answer any grievances or problems and make things right.
This is a powerful tool for companies, as no one gets it right all the time, but if you can show to be listening and taking things on board, you will develop trust and real relationships with your customers.
Wrapping It Up
Whilst we have only scratched the surface of what can be achieved with social, local and mobile marketing, you should now have a good taste of what is on offer. The tips and tools provided will go a long way to helping you own your own space in the SoLoMo marketing world.
If you like this article, please share it and as usual let me know what you think or ask any questions in the comment section below.
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