Commentary

More Than Half Of Local Businesses Still Lack Mobile Strategy

When it comes to their favorite local shops, people will forgive a lot: higher prices for products and services; odd hours of operation; and maybe even less cleanliness than they’d allow  a chain store.

Still, no mobile presence is apparently where a lot of folks draw the line, according to fresh findings from Facebook and Factworks.

The market research firm surveyed more than 6,000 local businesses and over 10,000 people in the United States, along with Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland.

What the researchers found was that having a mobile strategy is crucial for both attracting new customers to a local business and retaining existing customers.

That’s a problem considering that less than half of local businesses are optimizing their marketing for mobile.

On the bright side, marketers clearly have an opportunity to help bridge this gap between themselves and consumers.

One strategy involved engaging organically grown, local “brand ambassadors” willing to create online conversations and commentary about a local business.

As Facebook is happy to note, its platform offers ready access to billions of potential customers.  

Already, more than 1.6 billion of its users are connected to a small business, the social network boasts.

As for messaging, marketers should keep in mind that price is the main driver of overall purchase decisions, but for local shopping, main drivers are more personal.

In fact, over 85% of the people surveyed said “trust and security” was the main motivator for local purchases.

No doubt, small business adds up to big dollars.  

Among those folks surveyed by Factworks, the average consumer currently spends between 40%-55% of their total monthly budgets on local products and services.
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