A large number of small businesses do not have a mobile app or mobile friendly websites. The vast majority of those that have, their mobile platforms are not optimized. Today, every entrepreneur has to understand that businesses, including the small businesses, should have mobile consciousness at its core.
Here are eight ways to optimize your small business for a mobile world.
1. Mobile Operations
Ensure you transfer your major business operations from on-premise to cloud-based services. Cloud-based services help you in running your business in any location where you may get an internet connection. This means you can use your smartphones and tablets to access your information, communicate, and share documents on the go.
2. Mobile Communication
Make use of mobile communication by staying connected to your company’s e-mails, making and receiving phone calls, receive and send texts and accessing the web. Supposing you travel internationally more often, learn how to switch SIM cards inexpensively and easily. Also, you can try to find an affordable way to stay connected with your colleagues and clients.
3. Accept Mobile Orders
Thanks to in-store mobile orders, businesses today can stay agile through processing of transactions from anywhere on the floor, generating even more sales and assure customer satisfaction.
In this case, a mobile device management software is responsible for showing you the status of the very mobile device, their connectivity and battery life to make sure there’s optimum performance all around your business.
4. Mobile Payments
Supposing you work away from the main place of your business, or rather you make sales away from your business area, you should be willing to accept or process payments, such as credit and debit cards, right away. It is much cheaper than having to go back to your office, and process a check. It will also save your time and money. You may choose from the varied types of mobile payment processors such as PayPal, Intuit, Stripe, GoPayment, and Square.
5. Buy Mobile Ads
Mobile ads can assure your business unprecedented returns, unlike the sink-or-swim print advertisements. It’s possible since you get the chance to target your audience based on their geographic area or demographics. Mobile advertisements can reach people who are far more likely to get engaged with your marketing messages.
6. Mobile Website
It’s evident that most people are likely to access websites primarily via their smartphones rather than on a tablet or desktop. Therefore, ensure that the information on your site is easily navigated and read on a smartphone.
If not, then you have instantly cut out a huge portion of your potential customers. Ensure you think mobile first if you consider redoing your website of if you are putting up your website for the first time. You can work with a SEO company such as Rocket Pilots to ensure your site is mobile friendly.
7. Smarter Social
Research shows that users spent approximately 80% of social media time on mobile devices. Hence, small business should know that it is imperative to have a mobile-first approach to social media to be successful. To optimize your reach, make sure you foster customer engagement by knowing how much and when to post.
Also, ensure your social content can easily be scanned, read and shared for mobile consumption. To make your content easy to read and scan, break up the long-form copy with visuals, headers, and paragraphs. To make sure the content is shared among your social channels, overlay it with easy to access sharing links.
8. Mobile Apps
Consider getting a mobile app developed for your customers if your small business offers online services, customer service or detailed information. You can also opt to develop a mobile app if your workforce is mobile. It will help in processing important information directly from their phones, like submitting time sheets, filing work orders and keeping inventory reports.
The Takeaway!
Optimize your small business today since it will give you a chance to expand your digital footprint. You will in return gain a competitive advantage since most of the small businesses are failing to reap these benefits of a mobile platform.
