When it comes to mobile, the numbers get interesting. There are over 1 million more mobile devices activated every day across the world than there are babies born.
In the US, 25% of Internet users are mobile only. 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7
Most of us agree that in order to survive, our business must embrace mobile.
Different Strokes, Still The Same Folks
But, there is another surprising element. The latest research from Google tells us that “90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV.”
They may begin reading content and viewing videos from their desktop computers at work, and then look for the same business on their smartphones during lunch where they can continue their research into products and services uninterrupted.
With a responsive website, businesses can be in front of consumers at every step of their online journey.
Responsive websites mean that the same website will present an optimized layout regardless of which device it finds itself being loaded in.
Responsive Design in the Future
One thing is certain, you don’t want to fall behind and watch your competitors launch responsive websites while yours is still stuck in 2010. The time to get responsive with your web design is now.
A Testing Tool
See how your site looks on small phones, iPhones, small tablets and iPads (portrait & landscape)
http://www.studiopress.com/responsive/
– By Marcia Coffey
Call Marcia, WordPress web designer, at 561.906.3436.
How Generate Pro Theme Can Build Your Business
In the end, it all comes down to your list. Your email list. You need to generate more and better email leads.
Next. You need to reach your prospective customers wherever they are during the day … in the supermarket, in the car, in bed at home 🙂
These days email marketing is mobile marketing. Reason: Email is the single most-used application on a mobile device. It’s following your readers wherever they go.
Solution?
The new mobile-responsive Generate Pro Theme by Studio Press with the power and flexibility to lead your site traffic to one action – join your email list.
Why mobile responsive?
A mobile-responsive theme is the latest evolution in creating sites that look great across all kinds of devices — including the mobile phones and tablets that are becoming some of the most common ways our readers see our sites.
Conclusion.
In test after test, email comes out on top for influencing reader behavior. Ahead of social media, even ahead of blogs.
The Generate Pro child theme was designed specifically to meet this need – to help you build your list so you can capture the email addresses of people who want to know more about you, your services and your products.
Click here to demo the Generate Pro Theme.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, WordPress Web Design, Inbound Marketing, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
Wonder Why No One Returns Your Phone Calls? A Guest Post.
This is frustrating.
The client is already doing business with you. You feel you have a good relationship . . .
. . . yet your voicemail messages go unanswered. You do not get return calls.
Is that rude – or just the way business has changed in this fast-moving technological landscape?
My clients tell me they often get an email in response to their voice mail message.
But why not a return call?
Could be one of four reasons:
1.) The client is crazy busy with numerous projects.
2.) They are afraid a phone call will take up too much of their precious time.
3.) Your voice mail message is not giving the client an important enough reason to return your call.
4.) They feel email is more convenient that returning a phone call.
Three tips I share with clients:
• Know what you want as a result of your voicemail message, in addition to a return phone call.
• Organize your message so that you state the most important and attention-getting information first, since you may be cut off at any time.
• Don’t leave a message lasting more than 30 seconds because most of us have very short attention spans.
A recent survey by ExactTarget.com was revealing.
From MarketingLand.com: “ExactTarget asked almost 1,500 US online consumers (age 15 and up) about how they prefer to get permission-based marketing messages and a whopping 77 percent said email — a number that dwarfs all other options in the survey. Direct mail was second at nine percent and text messaging was third at five percent.”
You may not consider your voicemail messages to be marketing messages, yet this survey is still relevant as it applies to communicating with clients using a method they prefer.
But don’t stop using the telephone! A telephone call and a good voicemail message still work and in my opinion have great value, even though you may not always get a call back.
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This is a guest post by Ann Barr, a Telesales Coach who believes that you can successfully connect with future loyal clients without being rejected. You can connect with Ann at www.annbarr.com .
5 Reasons Why The Little Guy Needs eCommerce
Small or local businesses can’t compete online, they say … so why be involved with eCommerce and online sales?
Another common misconception. Consider these benefits:
Reach New Customers
How much more could you sell if you could reach customers across the country or around the world? What if all those customers could purchase from you at any time? Online selling makes all of this possible, opening your business to more customers and purchases than ever before.
Give Local Customers a Convenient Alternative
People love convenience and there’s nothing more convenient than an online shopping cart. Many of your loyal customers would appreciate being able to buy from the comfort of their own home.
Get a Competitive Edge
eCommerce can be a competitive feature for smaller stores in local markets. It can also give a small seller a leg up on the giant retailers like Walmart and Amazon.
Look Bigger Than You Are
Look like a larger company employing hundreds with a professional website and shopping cart.
Build Your Brand Image
Creating a website allows a company to tell its story to consumers with photos, videos and blog posts. You can share your firm’s history, philosophy, ethics, community involvement, employee culture – all of this can help bring your brand to life. When you combine these standard web content features with the power of an online store, your brand becomes far more than just a local player in a local market.
Creating an online store is not only a valuable step for virtually any business with products to sell, but it’s also much easier than you might think. Tools that were previously available only to large corporations are now within the reach of most any retail business. Why not take advantage of all that online selling has to offer?
Get your own store up and running in no time with BigCommerce. Start your free BigCommerce trial, no credit card required HERE.
– By Marcia Coffey
Or, call Marcia, WordPress & Bigcommerce web designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
4 Ways To Update Your Posts and Jab the Competition
Little things mean a lot, especially when it comes to presenting your image and expertise to the online world.
That’s what a blog post is. Your calling card. Your first impression. You strutting your stuff 🙂
So here are four super simple tricks of the trade that will immediately elevate your status. The first two involve wordpress.com’s Jetpack 2.9, a powerful plugin that hooks your self-hosted WordPress site to WordPress.com’s infrastructure with great features such as robust stats, easy social sharing, and much more. Jetpack comes preloaded with your WordPress installation, you simply need to activate its various settings and follow the directions.
1. Jetpack Related Posts
In many cases, we don’t need to resort to third-party plugins to get the job done. The Related Posts feature by Jetpack is a fine example. It pulls relevant content from your blog to display at the bottom of your posts. If the feature is enabled, a section of related posts appears just underneath your Sharing Buttons.
2. Jetpack Sharing Buttons
There are lots of sharing button plugins for WordPress. But, for simplicity nothing beats Jetpack’s Sharing Buttons which are built-in features. Recommended: Place your buttons at the top of the post. You will need to download the Jetpack Extras plugin to accomplish this task.
3. Twitter Follow Button
If you’re a Twitter aficionado like me, the Follow Button is a neat trick … a small widget that allows users to easily follow a Twitter account from any webpage. It’s very easy to implement. Below is Brian Gardner’s explanation of the code you can use to display various “Follow” buttons.
http://www.studiopress.com/design/twitter-follow-button.htm
4. Starbox
Push your content marketing with the Author Starbox plugin which lets you add author information to each of your WordPress posts. Link to as many as 11 social networks, customizable with various themes, Google and Facebook authorship friendly, all the bells & whistles. Your readers will feel like they know you better, feel a connection and most important … return more often.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, WordPress Web Design, Inbound Marketing, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign