With 2015 fast approaching, Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) shares predictions on what lies ahead for small businesses in the New Year. Mobile will be a dominating factor, as small businesses aggressively accelerate their mobile marketing and take advantage of an uber-local approach to better compete against national competitors.
Small Business Wins the “Local” War
In a web-based world,
businesses were battling to win the search war – a war that small
businesses, with small budgets, would never win. In 2015, it’s about
being found locally, and geo-targeting will make it possible for small
businesses to win the local war. The merging of social and mobile
channels is allowing small businesses to grow in new ways. Mobile
technology continues to be creatively woven into social networking, such
as photo geo-tagging on Instagram and Facebook®’s “Nearby Friends”
feature. More
than 70 percent of social activity is happening on a mobile device
and the idea of “nearby” is embedded into every experience, making it
possible for small businesses to capture the attention of consumers as
they walk by their storefront.
Small Businesses as “Real-Time” Mobile Marketers
With social
media channels such as Facebook limiting organic reach for businesses in
favor of promoted posts, small businesses will continue to rely heavily
on email, which is emerging as the one channel a small business can
“own” – controlling the content, who it is sent to, and when it is sent.
While many reported its impending death, email marketing continues to
grow (in fact, Constant Contact recorded its largest
email send day on Cyber Monday 2014, when it sent more than
365,000,000 emails). When coupled with the fact that more than half of
all emails are read on a mobile device, it is easy to appreciate how
well this longstanding marketing channel adapts to newer technologies.
“2015 will mark the year that mobile devices will become the marketing tool of choice for small businesses,” said Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. “They will seamlessly create and track their email and social media campaigns right on their mobile devices, while simultaneously reaping the benefits of mobile search. As they see the benefits of creating campaigns ‘on-the-go,’ the level of marketing that time-starved small business owners conduct on their mobile devices will soar.”
Mobile marketing also provides more authentic reasons to engage with the consumer, which is where small businesses excel, and they will exploit this advantage in 2015 in the simplest of ways.
When an unexpected snowfall occurs, the local diner can use their smartphone to take a photo of their homemade beef stew and include it in an email inviting people to come in and enjoy a warm bite on a snowy day. A local commercial real estate agent can tweet a picture of a just-listed property on Main Street. Where small businesses can be spontaneous and post timely content on what’s going on right now, a national store is more removed from local happenings and often has to navigate an approvals process. With their ability to be nimble and develop authentic customer relationships, small businesses can achieve greater context with their mobile marketing – and context (delivering the right message, at the right time, to the right people) will rule the day.
Device Technology Cracks the Context Code
While mobile
device screen sizes shrink (think smart watches and other wearables)
user context will grow. Smartphone apps like Google Now™ (the Google
equivalent of Siri®) will further advance local search with predictive
search capabilities, sharing results with users by taking into account
user location, previous searches, and social circles/reviews to deliver
search results outside of a typical search listing. These advances,
coupled with the proliferation of wearables, make local SEO all the more
important for small businesses. They will need to have a mobile version
of their website and ensure that their information is listed accurately
across search engines, as well as ratings and review sites.
Small Businesses Hold Off on Mobile Payments
This is one
area of the mobile arena where small businesses will take a “wait and
see” approach in 2015. While there is a lot of buzz around the
transformative potential of Apple Pay™ and Google Wallet™, the reality
is that both need adoption by small businesses to be successful. Small
businesses account for more than half of all U.S. sales and they are not
typically early adopters of new technologies. Square, PayPal Here,
Intuit Go Payment, and others have made it very easy for small
businesses to take credit cards, so until customers start demanding the
convenience and added security of mobile payment services, or the impact
of the pending late 2015 mandate shifting the liability for fraudulent
credit card purchases from the card issuer to the merchant is felt,
small businesses will stick with the payments methods they currently
have.
For information on the latest trends and tips on small business marketing follow the Constant Contact blog: http://blogs.constantcontact.com/.
About Constant Contact®, Inc.
Constant Contact helps small
businesses do more business. We have been revolutionizing the success
formula for small businesses, nonprofits, and associations since 1998,
and today work with more than 600,000 customers worldwide. The company
offers the only all-in-one online marketing platform that helps small
businesses drive repeat business and find new customers. It features
multi-channel marketing campaigns (newsletters/announcements,
offers/promotions, online listings, events/registration, and feedback)
combined with shared content, contacts, and reporting; free
award-winning coaching and product support; and integrations with
critical business tools – all from a single login. The company’s
extensive network of educators, consultants/resellers, technology
providers, franchises, and national associations offer further support
to help small organizations succeed and grow. Through its Innovation
Loft, Constant Contact is fueling the next generation of small business
technology.
Constant Contact and the Constant Contact Logo are registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All Constant Contact product names and other brand names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Constant Contact, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.
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Contacts:
Media Contact:
Erika Tower,
781-482-7039
pr@constantcontact.com
or
Investor
Contact:
Jeremiah Sisitsky, 339-222-5740
ir@constantcontact.com