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After Tax Time: What’s Next for Your Business?
Apr 19th
Another April 15 (or April 18 this year) has come and gone, and you’ve dutifully sent in your tax forms for one more year.
If you’re self-employed operating as a sole proprietor, tax time can be yet another reminder that you haven’t addressed your business structure yet. Maybe you started your business as a side project, and a sole proprietorship made sense. But now, filling out that Schedule SE and paying all those self-employment taxes make you cringe. And maybe your tax advisor has mentioned that you could reduce your taxes by forming an S Corporation.
The end of tax time is a perfect time to reassess what’s next for your business. Is it time to take that next step and create a legal structure? Here are some things to consider:
Are you looking to lower your payroll taxes (self-employment taxes)?
The S Corporation can help business owners reduce their self-employment or Social Security/Medicare taxes. As an S Corporation, you’re able to split your profits into two payment types: salary and S Corp distributions. You pay Social Security/Medicare tax (i.e. 15.3 percent) only on the salary portion. Meaning, if your business made $100,000 in profit and you pay yourself $50,000 in salary (and then $50,000 in distributions), you’ll only need to pay the Social Security tax on the first $50,000.
Of course, you can’t just go ahead and pay yourself $5,000 in salary and $95,000 in distribution. The IRS looks for “reasonable compensation” for any shareholder who is employed by the business. And they do watch this closely. This means you need to make sure you’re paying yourself market rate for the services you provide to the S Corporation.
Bear in mind that every business has a unique financial situation and it’s always wise to consult with a tax advisor or CPA on your own situation.
Do you want to protect your personal assets?
Without incorporating your business or forming a Limited Liability Company (LLC), your own personal savings and property are at risk to settle any debts of the business. Once your business is an S Corporation, C Corporation or LLC, it becomes a separate legal entity. This means that the corporation or LLC (and not you) is responsible for all of its debts and liabilities.
I know you don’t anticipate angering clients or defaulting on any payments. And most likely, you’ll never encounter this kind of trouble. But things do happen. A legal business structure gives you peace of mind that your retirement savings won’t be wiped out by your business venture. And since creditor judgments can actually last a total of 22 years, forming an LLC or corporation can protect the assets you’ll have in the future, not just what you own today.
When’s the right time to incorporate?
Your corporation’s “start date” is not retroactive. Any tax benefits you might receive apply from the date you incorporated. If your corporation receives a filing date of April 30, 2011, you’ll still be required to file your taxes as a sole proprietor for the first few months of the year up till April 30, 2011; then you’ll file a corporate tax return for the remainder of the year.
However, if you’re concerned about liability protection or your CPA is advising you to incorporate, there’s simply no reason to wait. Now’s a great time to invest a little effort in getting your legal structure squared away and your business set for many tax days to come.
After Tax Time: What’s Next for Your Business?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Are Small Private Social Networks the Next Layer?
Mar 30th
Are Small Private Social Networks the Next Layer?
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
As business people get in the habit of participating in online social networks and engaging in social behavior as part of their everyday routine, the next waves of online innovation won’t necessarily come in the form of a Facebook killer or Google launch, as they will in little adaptations of tools and apps that let us do more of what we’ve grown used to doing.
To me, a great case in point is the growing buzz around group texting apps. Group text apps such as GroupMe, Beluga and Disco allow users to form groups that can send and receive text messages in a sort of reply and read all manner. You can think of it like group chat or reply all emails, but on the go and on a mobile device. You can also launch group conference calls from the service. (Right now most are limited to US carriers as sorting out International texting is going to prove trickier.)
For our increasingly mobile world this application fills a couple interesting gaps. Texting with your friends lacks the obvious reply all function, so if you want to tell twelve people what you are doing you have to enter the list each time. Email can get this done, but it’s a little clunkier on the phone and requires folks on the list to sync up with their email. Anyone with text capability on a phone can now participate in the group. (I’m guessing that’s getting to near 100% these days.)
To some degree, Twitter was created with this kind of functionality in mind and I recall people using it like this when it caught fire at SXSW 2007, but then we got all these followers and actually reading a stream fully became impossible, not to mention public.
I think group text apps can add a layer to our increasing habit of social communication, but allow us to create small, private social networks that communicate through our mobile devices. The fact that Facebook recently purchased Beluga and Disco is a Google creation, should be signal enough that this is a growing communication option.
The obvious use, and one that first introduced me to group text apps, is a small tight knit group like a family. My four daughters are grown and spread around the country and through the use of a group text app we routinely strike up impromptu chats and send updates and everyday life kinds of photos that happen on the go and wouldn’t happen if we relied on Facebook.
The business uses of a small, private social network seem increasingly obvious as well.
A group that contained staff members would make it very easy to send alerts, quick updates and even throw out topics for debate while including all in an instant loop that could be captured for later reading. There are other tools that can make this happen as well, but there’s something very instantly participatory about SMS. Departments and far flung teams could create on the go alerts and discussions.
Now, some might bemoan the fact that their phone is now going to start buzzing away with insidious group chatter from the office clown that now has yet another way to show off pictures of his cat, but like all things, you’ll need to manage the tools and create process that works for this to be a viable new communication channel.
What about creating select groups of clients that agree to offer occasional opinions about new marketing initiatives. Or, allowing clients to opt in to your referral group and use the tool to educate them about your referral contest. Or, creating a small, private social network of strategic partners that could share information about potential opportunities and leads exclusively.
Because groups can be created and deleted almost on the fly, group text apps are becoming a huge hit at conferences and events as a way for people to get up to the minute updates on what’s happening now. I’m already seeing people splintering off social networks by location and creating on the fly groups when they travel to a city with friends.
Group text apps are easy to set up and allow the group creator or administrator and participants a great deal of flexibility in managing the group. There are opportunities to create public groups, but it’s the private function that offers the most promise. You can be certain that things like advertising and recommended brand led groups based on your interests are likely monetization options for these free tools, but for now, I think it’s a category worthy of consideration.
Shares some ways that you see using this technology in your business?
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Small Business News: Tips For Your Next Venture
Mar 15th
There are probably as many tips and helpful hints out there for starting your next small business venture as there are ventures to start and the truth is there are no simple, foolproof formulas. We’ve assembled some of the more helpful basics here, however, collected from across the Web in recent days and weeks to get you started. Best of luck!
Trends
Embrace social media. You’ve no doubt heard the buzz. Social media is not just a fad. It is quite simply the cheapest simplest way to connect with your customers on a global or local level today. The question is not, why should your business be using social media, but why not. You’re the Boss.
Forget about Groupon? Many tools create a potential for attracting new customers, but not all may be good for your small business. Offering merchandise and services at too low a cost may not help you long run and some offers may bring in more orders than expected at deep discount leading headaches. Many merchants have found success with Groupon and similar services but some experts say they aren’t right for everyone. Bloomberg Businessweek
Bookshelf
What guitar playing can teach you about small business startup. Pierre DeBois reviews Guitar Lessons: A Life’s Journey Turning Passion Into Business by Bob Taylor, founder of Taylor Guitars. Taylor turned his passion for the instrument into a globally recognized brand and is on a mission to teach other entrepreneurs to do the same. Small Business Trends
How to enchant your customers. Ivana Taylor wraps this review of Guy Kawasaki’s book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions around an interview with the author for a discussion on how to make your customers fall in love with you. Small Business Trends
Motivation
How to tell whether you’re excited. Specifically we’re talking about a business idea here. Creating a business means you have a sustainable idea that can keep you motivated even during the tough times. Here are nine plus sure signs (some via a brief video) that you are on the right track. TimoKiander.com
Self-development
The importance of blood, sweat and tears. Small Business Trendseditor and CEO Anita Campbell explains the importance of perseverance in building a small business as one of the most important tips for entrepreneurs. Anita started her online publishing business in 2003 with a Blogger account and grew it slowly to become one of the most influential sites of its kind. Check out the interview. Rise to the Top
See what entrepreneurial traits you possess. Starting a new venture can be a great time to revisit your basic strengths and weaknesses making improvements where possible. Here Martin Zwilling has assembled a number of what he believes to be shared traits of many entrepreneurs. Don’t worry if you don’t possess all of these. Just use them as a starting point on your entrepreneurial endeavors. Stratup Professionals Musings
Sales
Creating resources for your team. Building a business that can grow requires more than just creating a sales team. It also requires a set of resources (like a clearly defined sales process) that will help support them. Understanding the tools your sales force needs will help you build a sales process with predictable sales and revenue and a means for improvement over time. WealthNet
Issues
Understanding the swipe fee issue. If you’re already involved with a small business, you may have already taken a side of the contentious swipe fee issue where banks and big retailers have lined up on one side and many small businesses on the other. But both sides have clear motivations and which is right? Boomberg Businessweek
Is a swipe fee cap really best? Small businesses seem firmly behind purposed federal regulation of swipe card fees, but is this really what is better for business or only what’s best for some businesses. Small Business Trends CEO and editor Anita Campbell gave this analysis a few months ago of the true issue at stake. Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Tips For Your Next Venture
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Don’t Make This Mistake at Your Next Networking Event
Feb 17th
If you were sitting in an important meeting with your biggest client and you got a text message, would you stop listening to your client and completely tune him out in order to respond to the text message? What if you got a phone call . . . would you stop mid-presentation as you were pitching your most important client about your newest product in order to answer the call?? Of course you wouldn’t! That would be a blatantly rude move on your part and it would put your most valued client relationship at risk. So, why in the world …
View full post on Business Networking | Dr. Ivan Misner
Want to Franchise a Business? 5 Sacred Rules to Become the Next Great Franchise
Jan 20th
I’ve recently been engaged to help sell a very successful national franchise company and been able to observe firsthand many reasons why a franchise company grows to $10 million in sales through 600 nationwide locations. Last year I also worked on the other end of the spectrum, helping two business owners locate the necessary capital and expertise to begin the journey of becoming the next great franchise company.
These two experiences have helped deepen my understanding of the five Sacred Rules that distinguish great franchise opportunities. I offer them here, in case you are considering converting your business into a franchise company.
Rule #1: Make your partners profitable.
This first rule sounds easy, but it often gets obscured by the economic pressures you will begin to feel preparing your financial projections. First and foremost, your concept must allow your franchisees to make a significant profit. The more the better.
Yes, a unique, exciting concept is helpful in attracting attention and selling franchises, but the business process and procedures, both operations and marketing, must give your future business partners (franchisees) the opportunity to be successful financially. The more successful they can be, the more successful your franchise company will become. If you maintain focus on this rule, many of your other challenges will become much smaller.
Rule #2: Have a great answer for the question, “What have you done for me lately?”
Creating ongoing value is critical for a successful franchise relationship. Once you have trained your franchisees and helped them establish their businesses, the value the franchisor contributes to their future success will diminish with time, at least conceptually. Are your recipes unique and always changing? Does your scheduling system make your franchisees more efficient and profitable? Is your marketing process effective and inexpensive? Is your budgeting software critical to profitable projects? Does your real estate department help find great locations? These and other questions are ones franchisees will ask.
While a strong franchise agreement will protect the franchisor, the objective is to create a win-win relationship, and to continually innovate to make your business, service, marketing and products better.
Rule #3: Quit or hire.
Keep in mind you are embarking on an entirely new business endeavor in which you have no practical experience: franchising. You are no longer running your business and training others how to do the same; you are the CEO of what you hope will become a successful national franchise company.
I’ve seen many companies fail and wind up entangled in the legal system because they never make the full commitment to their franchise company. Hiring a franchise development company to create marketing and sales documents and prepare your Federal Disclosure Document is enough to help you sell a couple of franchisees. But if you want to become a meaningful and successful company, you have to support your earliest partners and make sure they are successful.
Christian Faulconer, CEO of Franchise Foundry, offers some good advice here: Remember, if you decide to build a franchise system around your successful business, it’s like starting a second business. Selling your products or services to your customers will still require significant time and effort, but now you also have to find time to build the franchising infrastructure and market and sell your franchise opportunity. It can seem like you are running two separate businesses, and the demands can become overwhelming without the right partners.
Keeping your current full-time job as president of your business and then working in your startup franchise company almost never works out. Consultants don’t cut it, either. Make a commitment and either quit your job as president or hire someone to run the franchise business, but recognize you probably cannot be successful at both jobs at the same time.
Rule #4: Raise capital.
There are two reasons for this sacred requirement. First, it is a great reality check and screening mechanism. When you begin to talk with others, friends, customers and especially franchise consultants, you’ll hear only positive feedback. If you want to really hear the truth, ask for a check.
Consultants will tell you the idea is a sure success because they have a hammer and you are the nail. Friends want to support you and it is always easier to praise and encourage than provide constructive feedback. Your customers already love your service, so they are not the best ones to offer feedback on the viability of national expansion.
Kert Gennings is the COO of Boardwalk Fresh Burgers and Fries and has grown two large food-service franchise companies. He offers this thought: “Preparing a formal business plan for converting your company into a franchise company is a very enlightening exercise as it will help you crystallize your thinking. Once complete, use that document to raise the money you will surely need to have a fair chance at success. If you cannot raise the money, listen to what the marketplace is telling you. Not that you have a bad business, but that perhaps it is not ready for national expansion.”
Secondly, you will need the money you raise to help with marketing, sales, franchise support, registration in states that require it, and hiring a person to help run your old or new business (see point 3).
Rule #5: You must have a great selling process (selling is service and vice-versa).
You must have a process to sell your franchise to people you do not know. Ninety-five percent of your customers who tell you they are interested in becoming a franchisee will never write you a check. And even if all of them do, it is not enough to create a viable business. You need to sell to people you do not know. All successful sales are the natural outcome of a successful process. If you want a great example of an automated process, you can visit Process Peak.
Keep in mind, your initial franchisees will be early adopter personalities, risk takers. They will become franchisees because they like ground-floor opportunities and are easier to sell based on a concept and an opportunity. However, when you update your FDD, you are required to list your current franchisees (with contact info). Those people will become a critical part of your sales process weather you like it or not. The key to your long term-success is how happy you make those early franchisees, and if you are cutting corners to save money or because you are not committed to the idea of franchising your business, their negative comments to prospective franchisees will really hurt future sales.
Keep in mind that franchising is a heavily regulated industry. The IFA has developed a process for selling franchises called FranGuard. Your sales team should be familiar with that process and the steps you need to take to protect your system as you sell franchises.
Becoming the next great American franchise is a worthy goal, but there are many challenges along the way. Make sure you’ve done all of your research and identify partners who are truly vested in your future success.
Want to Franchise a Business? 5 Sacred Rules to Become the Next Great Franchise
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
How To Kill Your Next Social Media Promotion
Jan 19th
One common way small business owner’s work to build up their social media profiles is through online promotions. They may hold a Twitter contest or a Facebook giveaway in the hopes that it will help them catch a user’s eye and provide incentive to get them engaging with the brand. However, that doesn’t mean they’re always successful or they go about it in the right way. Far too often SMB owners fall victim to innocent (and very preventable) marketing mistakes that cause them to lose potential customers without even realizing it.
Below are some tip for running a social media promotion if you WANT people to completely ignore it.
- Make sure no one knows about it: Even though you may be running the contest to build brand awareness and get users engaging with you, don’t worry about actually promoting it. You wouldn’t want to create a graphic to put on your Web site, tweet about the contest daily, Facebook it, mention it in store, and definitely don’t put it in your email newsletter. Your perfect customers will naturally find you all on their own. You just come up with your great idea and then lock it in the basement. Your customers will use their magic to find it.
- Be unsure about it yourself: When launching that promotion, don’t worry about having a specific marketing goal in mind or setting up metrics to track what you’re doing. You wouldn’t want to waste valuable tweeting time by outlining why it is you’re running the promotion, what you hope to attain from it, and how it’s going to help the brand meet its larger goals. That stuff will just naturally fall into place. Again, like magic.
- Don’t do any research about prior promotions: Sure you could enter [contest] into Facebook or Twitter and see immediate examples of what people are doing, what’s working, and what’s dead in the water, but don’t worry about all that. I’m sure you won’t repeat other people’s mistakes or that you don’t need any help. You’re smarter than everyone else who came before you.
- Pick a really uninteresting prize/angle: Most social media promotions include giving your customers some sort of prize or reward for their participation. For example, you may offer a discount for the customer who creates the best video montage about your company or offer a free product to the winner of your trivia contest. When coming up with prizes, make sure you pick something completely uninteresting and, if you can, really self-serving (like a free copy of your book, perhaps). Using interesting, exciting prizes will attract the wrong kind of person and may get you too much attention. Stick to boring stuff.
- Make it impossible to enter: Before someone is allowed to take part in your promotion, you should require that they give you their full name, address, phone number, email address, social security number, shoe size, and at least offer legal rights to your first child. They should also need a Master’s Degree to understand your content guidelines. Don’t worry, this won’t at all discourage people from entering or make them wary about what exactly you’re going to do with all this information. Also, don’t worry about telling them what you’ll do with the info. It’s really none of their business.
- Don’t highlight entrants: During the time that your promotion is running, don’t bother highlighting your latest entrants or let anyone else know what’s going on or the excitement that’s taking place. By highlighting any new submissions or interesting work, you might accidentally attract more people to what you’re doing and give yourself more work in judging. Meh, people.
- Don’t use analytics. At all: Your brand will probably see a spike in mentions, retweets, traffic and other measurable data points during the time that your promotion is going on. This is natural since lots of people will be talking about the contest and hopefully passing it around to their friends. Don’t bother actually tracking any of this data or looking for where the spikes are coming from. It’s not like you’ll learn anything useful in there.
Above are some of my favorite ways to absolutely kill a social media promotion or contest dead in the water. Of course, it you want to be successful, I’d consider reversing everything listed above. 
How To Kill Your Next Social Media Promotion
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Is Crowdfunding the Next Big Financing Thing?
Jan 5th
Over the past few years, as the credit crunch tightened, we’ve all heard horror stories from successful entrepreneurs who had growing businesses but couldn’t get working capital, or saw their business lines of credit cut or their loans called in for no reason. No wonder many small business owners have become leery of traditional financing sources.
For small business owners seeking capital in a tough economy, will crowdfunding prove to be the next big thing?
Crowdfunding has some similarities to the peer-to-peer lending sites, such as Prosper.com, that arose several years ago, but some important differences as well. Both types of sites allow individuals to solicit financing from others for any purpose. But while peer-to-peer lending typically focuses on one individual lending to another, crowdfunding—as its name implies—aims to reach a funding goal by getting many investors to put in small amounts.
The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at the crowdfunding phenomenon, and talked to some experts who believe it’s about to take off. Using sites such as ProFounder.com, Peerbackers.com, Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com, entrepreneurs can set up a profile that explains how much money they’re seeking and what it will be used for. Investors pledge money toward the goal. The sites make their money by taking a percentage of the investment.
A crowdfunding site can be a great way to simplify the process of seeking financing from, say, family and friends. And until now, most business owners using the sites have been looking for very small amounts ($10,000 or less). However, according to the Journal, the sites are beginning to enable larger transactions as more business owners are turning to them.
Crowdfunding sites have their pros and cons. Like any other business tool, before you consider using one, you need to consider whether it’s a fit for your target audience. If your business’s target customer is younger and more tech-savvy—comfortable with the idea of “crowd”-anything—raising money from people who fit your target customer profile and can understand the profit potential of your business will be easier. On the other hand, if you’re trying to raise capital to start or grow a business in a more conservative industry, or if you’re pitching your elderly relatives to invest in your business, the crowdfunding concept is less likely to fly.
Crowdfunding sites differ in how they operate, but many do not release any funds unless the company’s target amount is met. At RocketHub, about 25 percent of small businesses hit their targets; at IndieGoGo only about 10 percent of projects do. Also keep in mind that, although sites do a preliminary background check of businesses seeking financing, they don’t take responsibility for the outcome or ensure that businesses deliver what they promise. This may make crowdfunding risky business for potential investors who are truly part of the “crowd” and don’t have some connection to you.
Have you used crowdfunding? What do you think of its potential for powering business in the coming years?
Is Crowdfunding the Next Big Financing Thing?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Maybe next year…
Dec 31st
The economy will be going gangbusters
Your knowledge will reach critical mass
Your boss will give you the go ahead (and agree to take the heat if things don’t work out)
Your family situation will be stable
The competition will stop innovating
Someone else will drive the carpool, freeing up a few hours a week
There won’t be any computer viruses to deal with, and
Your neighbor will return the lawnmower.
Then…
You can ship, you can launch your project, you can make the impact you’ve been planning on.
Of course, all of these things won’t happen. Why not ship anyway?
[While others were hiding last year, new products were launched, new subscriptions were sold and new companies came into being. While they were laying low, websites got new traffic, organizations grew, and contracts were signed. While they were stuck, money was being lent, star employees were hired and trust was built.
Most of all, art got created.
That's okay, though, because it's all going to happen again in 2011. It's not too late, just later than it was.]
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Three ways TV changed everything (and what’s next)
Dec 23rd
TV changes everyone it touches.
TV brings mass. For fifty years, TV meant that programmers and advertisers had a very good chance to reach everyone, or almost everyone, at the same time. TV integrates a culture, because there’s instant common touchstones being generated daily. (When I say, “yadda yadda yadda” or “where’s the beef,” you know what I mean, right?)
TV brings pluralism and diversity. This seems to contradict the first, but it doesn’t. Once TV has opened a channel to the brain, it can bring in whatever it chooses, without clearing it with you first. So, the viewer can discover that people-who-don’t-look-like-us aren’t so different, or that women might be good cops, or that a member of the [insert oppressed group] might also be a person too.
and finally, TV brings dissatisfaction. Advertising needs to make you dissatisfied to work. And picture perfect sitcom families have more money and less trouble than most folks (because they’re not real).
Now, of course, TV isn’t what it used to be. No more three-channel universe. That means that the cable/internet virus changes everyone in a very different way. Call it the million channel world (mcw).
The mcw brings addressability. There is no mass any more. You can’t reach everyone. Mad Men is a hit and yet it has only been seen by 2% of the people in the USA.
The mcw bring silos, angry tribes and insularity. Fox News makes a fortune by pitting people against one another. Talkingpointsmemo is custom tailored for people who are sure that the other side is wrong. You can spend your entire day consuming media and never encounter a thought you don’t agree with, don’t like or don’t want to see.
And finally, I have no idea if the mcw is making us happy. Surely, a substantial use is time wasting social network polishing, and that’s not really building anyone’s long-term happiness. And the mcw makes it easier to get angry, to waste time (there’s never ‘nothing on’) or become isolated. Without a doubt, the short-term impact of mcw is that it makes it easy to spread terror and harder to settle on the truth. At the same time, there’s no doubt that more people are connected to more people, belong to more tribes, have more friends, and engage more often than they did before it got here. We got rid of some gatekeepers, but there’s a race for some new ones. In the meantime, a lot of smart people are fending for themselves, which isn’t so bad.
One thing we learned from the TV age that’s still true: more media is not always better, particularly when we abdicate our power to filter and choose.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
What’s Now and What’s Next in Mobile Marketing
Oct 30th
There’s no denying that a vast majority of consumers and potential customers, are turning more frequently to their mobile devices for a range of online activities, and gearing services towards these visitors has become one of the primary occupations of today’s developers.
For internet marketers, the rush is on as well; while traditional internet marketing might feel like a cinch to seasoned CMOs and other marketing executives, mobile marketing presents new and exciting challenges that must be met with creativity and innovation if great results are to be expected. Driving this innovation, current trends in mobile marketing are pushing the traditional limits of advertising in this unique format, and getting a better idea of what’s hot can provide instant inspiration.
Contests and sweepstakes have long been important staples of successful marketing campaigns, and as technologies and techniques in the field of mobile marketing evolve, these customer-creating vehicles are getting cozy with the Smartphone and connected gadget. In particular, specially-branded contests are enjoying a rise in popularity as companies look for ways to establish a strong presence on the mobile web and encourage mobile users to get involved –and to get a good impression. From major consumer products companies to communications carriers and beyond, the list of businesses taking advantage of this tactic is quickly growing, as is the number of engaged and entertained mobile users.
Appealing to mobile users and sending the right message can also greatly benefit from the right targeting, of course, which is why geo-fencing is one of mobile marketing’s most prominent trends. Taking advantage of GPS capabilities to gather information about the location of a mobile user, geo-fencing allows advertisers to target their ads to users, making them more relevant, useful, and ultimately successful. Companies with multiple branch locations are working with this trend to produce targeted messages that are sent to users who enter a defined area near a store or service center, and other opportunists are creating helpful information modules and fun applications to make the mobile experience as precise as possible for users –and far more profitable for marketers.
Some of today’s top mobile trends are easier to implement than others, and while incorporating voice capabilities into mobile marketing campaigns may make some professionals a bit nervous about the complexity and up-front cost of such a venture, using voice is paying off for many of those that take the leap. Using voice functionality in conjunction with mobile search is especially in-demand at the moment, as companies that allow visitors or application users to voice their search terms or other pieces of data are likely to find that a smooth implementation is well worth the effort.
As the demand for mobile devices and new capabilities on the mobile web continues to grow, it’s certain that mobile marketers will have their hands full for many years to come. With an eye towards the cutting edge and an attention to truly creative design and development, companies can get great mileage out of this fast-paced marketing platform.
Contact .Com Marketing for all of your mobile marketing needs at 407-774-4606 or 1.866.266.6584
View full post on .Com Marketing Blog | Internet Marketing Trends | Interactive Marketing
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