Local Business

Mobile Marketing is here – are you ready?

Google says 2 out of every 3 local business searches now comes from a mobile device, like a phone or iPad. It's not enough to just expect people to view your current site on one of these devices. You must now have a mobile-optimized version of your site or visitors will get turned off immediately - and leave. It's frustrating to 'pinch and zoom' to see details on a site that has not been mobile-optimized.

You need to focus on the specific needs of a mobile user. First, the links should be large and preferably in the form of buttons so it's clear where they need to touch to take action. Second, it's got to load fast. All the extra data on your non-mobile-optimized site will take a lot longer to load.

Then they usually want to know just a few things, not everything that's covered on your regular site:

- Where are you located and how do I get there?

- What hours are you open?

- Are appointments needed and when can you take me (fine dining, lawyers, dentists, etc)?

- What are your services or can we see a menu (prices optional)?

Everything else is secondary. So your mobile site probably won't even closely resemble your non-mobile site, except for branding and color scheme, of course.

We can quickly set you up with a mobile-optimized version of your site. And the nice thing is, you won't even have to tell visitors how to find it. We use technology that let's them find it automatically. When they visit your regular site, this technology senses they are using a mobile device and refers them seamlessly over to the mobile version. And if they really want to, we put a link on there that still allows them to visit your non-mobile site.

If you want to see this technology in action, just visit http://pro-senergy.com from your mobile device. Or, if you" re on a desktop, it won't look quite as good but you'll get the general idea by going to http://pro-senergy.com/mobile

We also offer other mobile advertising services like QR codes and SMS marketing.

Groupon May Be Poised for a Collapse

If you know me, I'm not one for sensational headlines just for the sake of publicity.  So I chose this headline because this guy makes a strong case for exactly that.   If you're a small business owner considering doing business with Groupon, you owe it to yourself to understand more about this potential business partner - and that's what they are, in a sense.  (Disclaimer here:  I started my own Groupon competitor, a 'daily deal' site called Long Beach Deal of the Day
that I haven't promoted heavily thus far, but that's because my consulting business has kept me so busy, NOT because of competition from Groupon.  So trust me, envy or 'sour grapes' is not the motivation for this post.  It's only that I want my fellow small-business owners to be aware of what risks are posed by dealing with this leviathan.)

Groupon has what everyone understands by now is a very lucrative business model.  But this is the first time I've seen anyone break down exactly what they're doing.  And he does it now with espionage or stealth; he simply reads their own legal agreements and talks with merchants who've done business with them.    Speaking of legal agreements, he even dedicates another article to breaking down the legalese in their contract.    This is priceless, by the way, because most of us don't keep a lawyer on retainer to review our legal agreements, even though we sign them all the time.  Please be very careful before you sign one of these.  He makes a strong case for the agreement being written strongly in Groupon's favor.

He calls them essentially a loan shark.  Strong words, I know, especially for this darling of the tech investment community.  But please withold judgment till you read the very strong case he makes.  It's almost enough to make me want to put some real effort into promoting my own daily deal site just to give local merchants a decent alternative to these guys.

Local Business Is Our Focus

Prosenergy is a marketing service providing help for local businesses when they need it most.  We use the most powerful marketing medium the world has ever seen:  The Internet.

Who We Are

• marketing consultants
• solution providers

Another way of saying it: Through the use of proprietary methods and state-of-the-art tools, we leverage the explosion of video and mobile marketing and social media to boost the marketing of your business. We can now accelerate Web traffic for small business owners just like big companies have been accustomed to receiving in the past. Small business owners, take heed: Mobile marketing, combined with video and social media are a game-changer. 

And you need to know and manage what others are saying about you, your products and services - that's reputation management.

That's why we specialize in:

• mobile marketing
• video marketing
• social media marketing
• reputation management

If you are a business owner and you would like:

• more Internet traffic
• to appear on page 1 of organic search results for Google, Yahoo and Bing
• to be on the Google or Yahoo map listing for your business type
• get more 4- and 5-star ratings in the reviews you receive
• to increase profits
• all of the above done for you OR shown to you or your staff to do it yourself

contact us today.

Not sure if you can even afford us? Check out our Customer Lifetime Value Calculator and prove it to yourself!

We offer ‘done for you’ traffic generation services that boosts your business’ Web presence and increases profits.

You're good at what you do. That's what keeps you in business. So keep doing it. We're good at what we do. So let us handle your internet marketing to boost your profits.

Our approach works especially well for businesses that have a local market – like restaurants, car dealers, attorneys, chiropractors, CPAs, carpet cleaners – who have largely been ignored by the revolution in marketing that has come along with the ever-increasing popularity of the Internet and reliance upon local search to find and contact merchants for goods and services.

In this economy, if you’re like many locally-based business owners with whom we’ve talked, you have an unbelievable number of challenges…

• Decreasing numbers of new customers and clients
• Slimmer profit margins, especially prompted by bargain hunters
• Discovering that the old “tried and true” Yellow Pages (and other print and traditional media) don’t work as well anymore
• Trying to figure out how to use the every-changing Internet as an effective marketing tool
• And so on…

Some sobering facts

• "The Yellow Pages industry will lose 39% of its annual revenue over the next 5 years, amounting to a loss of $5 billion in annual revenue by 2013"  (source: Borrell Associates)
• "70% of online searchers use "local search" to find offline businesses" (source: comScore Networks)
• "60% of all local business searches now happen online  (33% happen in print Yellow Pages and 82% of the people using Local Search websites follow up their research with offline action"  (source: TMP Directional Marketing - comScore)
• "54% of Internet users have substituted Internet/Local Search to replace the phone book"  (source: comScore Networks)

Now, consider these questions

• If you're spending thousands of dollars every year on Yellow Pages ads, what kind of results have you been getting?
• How have you been measuring the results?
• Are you even measuring the results?
• Are your other traditional marketing methods getting you all the prospects and customers, clients, or patients you want and need?
• How effectively are you using the Internet to attract new prospects and customers or clients to your business or practice?
• Do you have a top Google ranking in the Local Results for the words that your prospects are typing in to find you (or your competitor)?
• Did you know you can directly measure your Internet results?
• Did you know there's a huge difference between "just having a web site" on the Internet and "New Media?"

What does all of this mean to you?

If you're in an area where people are going online to search for your local business solution, and you're not listed in the Google Local Results and have top Google ranking, you're missing out on potential business. Bluntly, you're toast!

How do you find out? Get a complimentary Opportunity Analysis AND get a website critique (if you have a site) by completing the form on the right side of this page. You'll then be positioned to know what and how much potential business is available for you. And how much you're missing.