Mobile phones have been able to reach into the hands of almost everyone with hands across the world at an unprecedented pace. It has percolated across all age groups and strata of society. The gadgets are getting more advanced and the usage and functionality is increasing. In today’s world if a business aspires to grow, there is no better platform than a mobile device to reach out to its customers as well as be more accessible. The reach is widespread, but having said that, the application itself is a personally owned space of the user.

Thousands of new apps appear on our phones every day. The little search button opens endless possibilities. Downloading apps is instant and inexpensive. An app has proximity to the consumer, while a person may actually hesitate to go up to a store because of various reasons such as distance or any other reasons, no one minds opening and seeing a cute little app on ones mobile device. The visibility of one’s business is high.

Mobile Apps or mobile applications have come into prominence over the last 2 years. From being mere email and information retrievers, the gamut of mobile apps now includes social networking, gaming, location services, banking and e-commerce, travel & lifestyle & tools that can manage everything from your finances to your weight. Most of these apps are available for a variety of platforms – from Android to Windows to iOs to Blackberry – thereby covering mostly all of the popular smart phones and tablets that are available. These apps usually are available for a free download; however there are some applications (especially games and premium versions of free apps) that are available for download at a nominal cost. The free apps usually come bundled with banner ads, hence providing a steady revenue stream for the developer as well as the distributor.

The market is growing. It has a huge potential. Any business that leaves out this marketing tool may get left out in the race. Everyday huge numbers of people run searches for apps to make their lives easier on the most popular search engines. It’s very important for a business to not only be present there but to strive to be on top. The apps need to be designed in a way that they act as a friendly salesman who can help boost up your sales. They should be attractive yet not complicated. They should display all your goods or services while making them look like ultimate buys. Online shopping is a rising trend. Apps should be a friendly tool for that as well as inviting for the customer to visit the store.

Statistics say that app users have long back surpassed the number of visitors on websites or popular browsers for e-commerce. Mobile apps are inexpensive compared to traditional marketing tools. They increase a company’s time efficiency as well as cost efficiency manifold. Mobile apps serve beneficial for both businesses and consumers. It is without doubt a revolutionary breakthrough for businesses in last few years and has huge growth potential.

Online medium has been accepted by all as the most inexpensive while still having maximum reach. In this age of internet, online marketing, and e-commerce no business can survive without having a website. Where a brochure may have reach limitations, an advertisement in print or TV media maybe too costly, a website can give all information at a more affordable rate. It is user friendly and has numerous pages along with pictures, illustrations and videos. A virtual tour to the store is just a click away and the proximity to a consumer has increased. Transactions happen in seconds with consumers sitting in the other end of the world.Technology advances every day. Mobile web content will take over traditional desktop in few years, this maybe also due to the fact that whatever age group or whatever region or whatever strata of society we belong to, more people now owna mobile device. With estimated 2 billion cell phones across the world, though all may not have internet browsing, the features being provided by mobile companies are increasing. Not investing in mobile website may prove to be a bad business decision. Though the potential in this area is high, not a large percentage of retailers have mobile website as yet; so the ones that have it are getting a competitive edge over their competitors.

Engagement with customers is moving from offline to an online platform,information and options are abundantly available through the World Wide Web. More and more transactions are taking place online than ever before. It is therefore very essential for every business to not only have a website, but to be able to be efficiently available to users on the go. Whether you are selling services, goods or simply advise, you need to reach out to people beyond the realms of a laptop or a desktop. Recent data shows a huge surge in user hits of mobile versions versus the full desktop versions. Networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are prime examples.

A mobile website is basically a more efficient version of the full version, optimized for usage on a Smartphone or a tablet. It basically offers all the basic usable functions of the full version in a crisp and concise packet format. The design makes navigation easier and information retrieval faster. A mobile website is a boon for the consumer. He or she will always have the convenience and the power to transact and make small or big buying decisions from wherever they are. People use mobiles while shopping or in travel. Even while sitting at home or in office now people prefer to browse on mobile devices. If the websites are bulky or troublesome, less and less users would return to them.

The amount of money being spent by consumer through online media is growing exponentially. Acceptability of online purchases is increasing and prices being offered are competitive. Ease of shopping is an advantage that simply cannot be overlooked. As a person accessing a mobile website is generally more specific in what he is looking for. A website should provide exactly that. It should have ease of transacting and instant service help. Only then would a business be able to reap a chunk of the growing online mobile business pie.

When it comes to growing your business further,first thing that comes into most people’s mind is huge costs. It is certain that it takes wherewithalto build your business however,there are certain ways today that can help you grow your business in least cost possible without having to do extra efforts. Researches and studies state that many businesses out there are not taking full advantage of free online marketing opportunities. Why not at least try!If itdoes notcost much,you will not have much to lose in the end. We are here discussing five most effective and affordable ways that can certainly help you grow your business to its best.

1. 1.   Seek Partnership:

Start with researching about the service providers that offer the similar products or services. You can directly or indirectly approach them and ask if they are interested in making partnership business with you so that you have everything shared, profits, losses liabilities, responsibilities and various other things. You can even divide the work as if the marketing part may be handled by only one team and the selling or distribution by another. You can even offer the other company to do the catalogue part for your business or vice versa, this way you can divide the cost as most cost comes from the catalogue only. You can even ask the other company to do the digital cross-pollinationprojects for your business where your team can send the emails on their behalf and they will do the same for your business.

1. 2.   Make astute use ofadvertising

Advertising helps in selling but yes it is costly by its nature and so if you are thinking of maintaining an advertising campaign learn how to make the best of it. You can change the perspective and try doing things differently. Rather spending all the money in creating the best ad, you can do various small ads frequently. You can also start with advertising small pages and then go with full pages. As you will increase the ad space gradually,customers will also be drawn,as they will believe that your business is growing and more people are buying your products now. Always buy adsthat will last at least for a month so that for that month your product will be in prospects’ minds. You can also make use of search engine marketing and get great advertising results. One of the biggest advantagesof having a digital marketing or advertising campaign is that it is not as costly as doing physically and you can always change if it is not giving desired results.

1. 3.   Monetize customer referral systems

Encourage your loyal and satisfied customers tomarket your brand, as they will certainly do the thing better than you will. Make a place for your customers and consumers to leave a review on your website so that others can read and get inspired by the positive feedback. You can even keep a system of rewarding with some freebie or bonus when they make a purchase for those who leave good feedback.

1. 4.   Invite email contacts

Design a bulk mailing system andcontact people to try your products or services through emailing. Today people spend more time on internet comparatively to the time they spend anywhere else and so they will certainly have a look what you are sending them through a personal mail. This way you will gain customers and even good reviews.

1. 5.   Think of quality rather quantity

If you will think aboutincreasing the business figures there will be increase in the cost too. Rather increasing the customer base or line of products it is better to focuson increasing the efficiency and getting the most out of available resources. You must always focus on increasing the quality of products and services so that you can stand as a brand identity.

Facebook certainly is a recent buzz and people are getting more and more involvedwith it for personal as well as professional reasons.There are a lot ofbusiness people out there who have a substantial amount of fan following but don’t exactly know how to convert them into real paying customers. Ofcourse,there is going to be a first time always but how you use the momentum and actually turn friends and likes into real revenue actually counts. What is best about using Facebook for business is that itdoes not takes heavy costs and you can actually sell your products and services easily using a low cost campaign. Here are a few efficient ways that can help youconverting Facebook friends and fans into potential paying customers.

• There are a lot of businesses that use coupons for generating leads from their connects like for example you can run a game or a campaign of selling coupons and collect leads. Most people like hanging around on Facebook and they even play some free games and so you can take the benefits into pocket by offering them prices and rewards on per click basis or for visiting your website. Offering discounts on social media platforms like Facebook or so actually helps as news go viral in no time and your business may experience huge sales in just a day or a week. You can create a Facebook page and make it live among the group of people that are more likely to take interest in it or you can send personal messages to you contacts about new offers and bring them to the website’sselling page.

• You can even use a giveaway system and drive people to purchase things through it. Like you can send free gifts to the people in your contacts and have system where they will have to visit your website in order to redeem those gifts.

 

• You can have a lucky coupon system and give away free benefits to draw traffic. You can offer coupons through the Facebook page or email and offer gifts when customers visit your store for redeeming these coupons. This actually helps as people love free gifts and are more likely to visit you in future alluring such offers.

• One fine thing you can do to get into your target audiences’ mind is to host a webinar. You can create a webinar where you can address the problems and solutions to them using a social platform like Facebook. Once you have presented valuable content to your prospects you can slowly go ahead with offering your products and services to draw their attention.

 

• You can also ask for email addresses and create an email marketing campaign for sending promotional contents. Create a customer landing page and force a call to action on it so that you know what the feedback is for each of your product or service. You can start with providing valuable information on things your prospects are interested in and can leave a link that directs them to your main page or the selling page.

One the important things is to keep your prospects engages with whatever you share on your social media platform as what you make live creates an impression of your business and draws you traffic. Address peoples’ issues in general, create content that is of value to the readers and beconstantly in touch with them. There is no rocket science for converting your fans into customers but yes,few quality things can help you doing this. Offer great deals, share engaging content, create urgency so that people hurry to get deals and importantly research and understand what prospects are looking for and then design your campaign.

Many people face bewilderment in choosingbetween Google Ad wordsand Facebook PPC. While both have their own pros and cons, what to chose majorly depends on your business needs and the type of audience you are targeting.It is important to do extensive research when you are planning to go for paid advertising. Here are a few points that may help you out in making your mind for the Facebook PPC VsGoogle Adwords battle.

Similaritiesb/w Google Adwords and Facebook PPC:

There is no doubt that both Google and Facebook have massive audience buildup. They both offer paid advertising along with various free online marketing tools like Facebook offers fan page creationand Google offers business pages. You are not required to pay for marketing your business here and both of these are great platforms to build your online audiences.The key difference however lies in your purpose.

Differences b/w Google Adwords and Facebook PPC:

While both have their ownidentities, there are some major set of differences between Google Adwords and Facebook PPC that may help youdecide which is the better option for you.

• Once you are connected with Facebook you can be in the news for longer duration than you will through Google and so this way you can be connected with your audience for longer time using Facebook. You can also personally contact your group of fans through Facebook messages and build stronger connections. However, some say that Google is better for advertising as it has better CPC performance, better ad targeting options and an assortment of advertisement formats that Facebook lacks.
• Google Adwords works with keywords and through Google Adwords’ keyword research you get to know what exactly your prospects are searching.Moreover,Facebook targets through demographics by compiling huge information about the prospects.With the help of this information, you can target your prospects according to the age, gender, employment or relationship status. You can also categorize by their hobbies, interest and their preferences and target accordingly.
• Running a PPC campaign with Facebook is quite easy for many as compared to the Google Adwordsas you can preset the budget, select the audience to target and get going with the live ads.Whereas Google offers more comprehensive methods and it becomes tough for those who have little or less time to spend. It is certainly not a criticism for Facebook as irrespective of the platform you chose, it is important that you very well know which audience to target, how to create the ads an how to get them running. You also need to make sure you are following guidelines at both the platforms to keep your ads running.
• Where GoogleAdwords is a proven platform for offering success to the advertising campaigns people are more rushing this side and so the costs per click have increased tremendously for some keywords. Facebook is an amateur to this field and so it offers little lesser costs to the advertisers.
• When you rely on Google’s keyword tool,you get the queries people search in order to solve some of their problems or issues. On the other side Facebook usersare there to connect with people socially and so you need to create highly specific ads. You first need to drawtheir attention and then sell your product or service and so this takes little extra efforts.

To conclude which platform to use completely depends on your business needs and on your goals. Both are ideal platforms to give a try and it is wise if you use both for your specific needs.

Social media is quickly making an impact in the lives of billions of people across the globe. Talk of eased up communications, interaction and networking, dissemination of information just to mention but a few of the wonders of social media. There are a number of lucrative sites that are commonly used by various people to satisfy their various needs. They include twitter, facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn as well as blogs.
Businesses can and should take maximum advantage of the social media in Jamaica.
There are guarantees that social media is the steroid most businesses have been waiting for. When properly used it can revolutionize any business and elevate profit margins. Wondering how?Social media in Jamaica can help in marketing and branding of businesses and products. Creating a social profile and getting as many people as possible to either like or follow your page ensures that your products and services are known. A number of people and businesses have been known to post videos on YouTube. These videos advertise their products and services. For example a business franchise dealing with electronic products can easily record and post information on YouTube. This information could be how to use their products safely. This gives options to customers and consumers because with social media a large number of people is reached and informed; an option previously impossible.Businesses need to create and have their presence felt in social media circles. Being interactive and open to a targeted audience will enable one to grow closer to their customers and even create brand loyalty among customers and consumers. This could be through frequent updates; posting on facebook, twitter or other social media sites. Allowing questions and interactions with the customers can be of great help in that one can easily burst myths about their products. There is also a good opportunity for immediate feedback from customers meaning any problem can be easily noted and rectified in good time. Customers can also inform producers of their products exactly what they want and expect from them. This kind of healthy interactions can and should be established among consumers and businesses through social media in Jamaica for the benefit of all.

Great networks can also be established through social media. This means that one can easily establish and maintain relationships that can later be of great help in terms of exchanging business ideas, getting businesses through referrals among other interesting ways. Companies can also get highly qualified personnel. LinkedIn g has a provision for professionals to post their credentials and curriculum vitae. Companies can pick out those they feel are most qualified to run operations in various capacities.

Social media can no longer be avoided, like it or hate it; it is here to stay. It has taken the corporate world by storm and Jamaica has no option but to follow suit. Every company and business that wants to be taken seriously must therefore be ready to use social media as outlined above.