There have been a lot of statistics coming out lately and we have put together a roundup of the ones we felt were helpful for businesses (and one that was just stupidly weird). For the infographic scroll down, here it is summed up in text form.
Design. It matters more than you think.
We have always known that good design matters, but it has become even more important to have a great looking and great working website. Stats show that if you don’t have a great looking website, you are going to lose business.
Now, if they get to your website and find it poorly designed, statistics say that they are going to hit that almighty back button and find a better-looking company to work with. And when comparing businesses before choosing, users will gauge whether that company is reputable based on the design of its website.
Mobile dominates the searches. This is great for local businesses.
One big change in the last year is Google’s change in splitting its database and focusing on mobile (as it gets 60% of the searches). This is great for businesses that are locally based, as they can leverage having a great website and mobile presence.
A great looking and high ranking website have become even more important for certain industries. If you have a restaurant, cafe, hotel, B&B or a clothing shop, people look at not only your website but for reviews about them. And if a user searches for you on their mobile they are 85% of the time going to contact you straight away.
Social is growing, so get on board.
Moving onto social, if you aren’t using it… you’re missing out. Social media’s king is still Facebook, holding well above its competition. Something I have been telling my clients for years was based on common sense marketing and is now backed up with solid statistics. To get more traction to your posts do the following:
1. Your most important posts on social media should be done mid-week in the afternoon (after lunch). I have been recommending the Wednesday post 1 pm slot for many years. This is because people are in the middle of their week and are bored after lunch, and take a break from work.
2. A lot of people post too much. Post what is important and what will be useful or fun for your audience. If people aren’t engaging with your content, then it’s not the content that you should be posting. Quality is better than quantity.
3. Get a content strategy in place. You can plan it out in advance, write the articles and then post them to the appropriate networks.
4. React. If something happens in the news that is applicable to your business, do reactive marketing and write the piece to gain the most traction for you that day.
5. To save you time, use a free (really free) service like If Then Than That (IFTTT). You can set up ‘recipes’ that allow you to post on one social account (say FB), and then it will repost it to Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. There are thousands of recipes you can make.
6. Stay on top of the trends and where your target audience is more likely to read your posts. If you are marketing to tweens and fashion-forward 20 somethings, then Instagram is your friend. If you are a restaurant, bar, tradesman, FB is key, and make sure you get the all-important Google Local reviews. And for any business, it’s best practice to repost everything to Twitter and LinkedIn (Thank you If Then Than That).
If you have a great website, you can leverage the web to work for you, outshine your competition and ultimately get more business.
Posted by: Jean Paldan
Oct 24, 2017