What services do we provide in the Auckland Area:

• In House or Virtual Online Marketing Consultancy and Analysis
• Online Marketing Training
• Strategy, Setup and Monthly Management of online marketing for businesses small to large.

I am always on the look out for new customers in Auckland to help drive traffic to their websites and start getting results from their online marketing.

I will still be available on my cell phone at 027 315 8672 during the relocation and will keep you posted as to my new premise. For now I am working out of a choffice (coffee office with my laptop)

Watch this space

 Understanding Mobile Phone Marketing

Mobile phone marketing is basically done using SMS or Short Messaging Services, which started in year 2000 when it became popular in Europe and some parts of Asia. The concept started when business owners started collecting phone numbers to send a mix of wanted and unwanted messages. It was seen to be a viable business vehicle to promote products and services because on the average sent messages can be received within four minutes.

Reasons to Use Mobile Phone Marketing

Wise Investment

Did you know that with the huge base of mobile phone users, you can easily save on marketing cost because you cover a bigger base with a much less capital needed? Who would want to pass up this opportunity?

Build Friendship with your Customers

Growing your business does not mean you only send promotions and announcements. In fact, you can use this technology to build a good relationship with your customers by sending tips, quotes and useful information as a sign of your gratitude. It is a great customer service tool because it is much faster to use.

Effective Promotional Tool for your Business

Again, we cannot over stress the advantage in numbers that SMS marketing can reach. Within one minute you are reaching thousands if not millions of potential customers. By crafting your announcement in a very creative way, you can catch their attention enough to read your message and it is already a door step to their interest in your business.

Fast and Efficient Update Channel

Thanks to technology, customers no longer have to wait for months just to get the latest update about your company, products or services. Just by a click of keypads, in an instant, you can now inform your clients about the latest on-goings and information that you want to share with them.

Increase Sales and Income Potential

Using SMS marketing does not only guarantee increased sales but it also promises exponential growth because of the wide reach and worldwide coverage.

What type of mobile marketing is right for you? SMS? Mobile Sites?

If you haven’t thought yet of exploring this new dimension of online marketing, the reasons stated above may very well give you an indication on how much value this can add to your business

There is a good reason why someone has thought about inventing SMS marketing and a lot of businesses have already benefited from it. So what are you waiting for? It is time to start thinking about how your business marketing plan can include mobile phones.

Talk to me about creative ways to utilize SMS & smart phone technology in your business.

It is snowing in Christchurch, so heavily that we had to shovel our driveway to get car out today (something I have never had to do). Once the wall of snow was shifted I was then faced with the issue of figuring out where I could go to get a coffee, as a lot of businesses were closed due to the snow.

This is were facebook came in.

Today was not the best day for my coffee machine to break… and needless to say, without my morning coffee I am not terribly productive.

I logged into facebook today and was pleased to see coffee culture doing a FABULOUS Job of updating its customers about their hours and which stores were open and which stores were closed.

Why is this important you ask?

Well within a few seconds of logging into facebook I found information that was relevant to me about a product I wanted. This meant I was able to avoid waisting my time walking to my local store, and came up with a solution, to drive to one of the stores that was open in Riccarton (good thing I own a 4WD and snow chains).

If I had not seen this post I probably would have assumed no stores were open and they would have lost a sale.

How can updating your customers on facebook help you business?

What if all your customers assumed you were not open and did not come in? How many sales have you lost?

By updating your facebook page you can ensure your business does not lose customers. It also means Less P!$$ed off customers driving to your store only to find you are shut then complaining to you next time they visit.

More customers at your open stores and more money coming in.

Facebook is a great way to instantly let your customers know what is happening in your business.

Why do you need this?

• Fast – Message is distributed instantly.
• Targeted – Everyone is already on facebook so know need to get them to “open and email” or “login” to something to read your message.
• Viral – If it is something they find interested or relevant customers can share your business information with their friends.
• Avoid Spam Filters – People do not always read email promotions and newsletters, facebook presents information to people in a away that is less invasive and they can choose wether they veiw your page to learn more or not without feeling “spammed”.

Interested in facebook marketing? Talk to me today about how your business could be utiziling a facebook page to communicate with your customers.

Tracking whats happening on your website?

• You have a website with your products and services listed on it.
• Your website is listed on your business cards, signage, logos and advertisements
• You have some directory listings so people can find your websites when they search online.

While most business owners are savvy enough to have a website – very few know how to tell if their website is working.

Have you ever asked “How do businesses know if their website is working?”

The answer is simple: TRACKING!!! – If you have a website, you need to be tracking what is happening on it.

What kind of things should you be tracking?

- Traffic
- Newsletter sign ups
- Contact us form submissions
- Lead generation or quote forms submissions
- Sales
- Shopping cart drop outs

TRAFFIC: Most websites will come with some sort of analytics tool to help you track traffic.

Do you know how much traffic you are getting a month?
Where does your traffic come from? Do you know what percentage of traffic comes from search engines, direct visits, paid advertisments or newsletter?
How many people view your website from a mobile phone.

Knowing this information can help you review if your marketing budget is being well spent.
e.g.
A high number of search engine referrals means your search engine optimisation marketing is working.
A high number of direct visits means your print marketing and branding is working well as people are coming direct to your website.

NEWSLETTER SIGNUPS
One of the most powerful tools a website can have is an active list of interested people to email. By offering newsletter sign ups on your website you can build a list of targeted customers and start to build a rapport with them to keep them coming back again and again.

SALES
Got an Ecommerce Website? What is your websites conversion rate? What percentage of your websites traffic converts into sales.
e.g. If you are not converting your traffic into sales then you need to address the copy and structure of your website and its ability to sell.

CONTACT US/ QUOTE OR LEAD GENERATION FORMS

• How many people contact you using your website contact form a month?
• Generating Leads? How many people fill in your quote form a month?

Tracking this information will help you review your unique selling proposition ability to persued peopleon your website to contact you, sign up or take the next step.

I RECOMMEND GOOGLE ANALYTICS AS A TRACKING TOOLS
Google Analytics is a great free tool which can be added to the code on your website to track everything that happens on your website

• Where traffic comes from – countries, browsers, devices, times, search engines, repeat or first time visitor
• What traffic does – pages visited, keywords, time spend on site, ecommerce conversions, completing goals

AND SO MUCH MORE.

The real power is when you combine Google Adwords, Google Analytics and Google Web Master tools to create a detailed picture of how your website is working on the web.

Want to get a better picture of how your website is working?

I offer hourly consulting to help you set up tracking on your website so you can find out:

• What is working.
• What is not working and trouble shoot the cause.
• Make an action plan to get your website converting.

Call me now on 027 315 8672 and lets talk about how you can make your website your most profitable sales person.

• Google Webmaster Tools
• Google Analtytics
• Google Conversion Optimiser

The basic idea is that you use:

Google Webmaster tools to make sure your website is being searched and loaded in search engines.

Google Analytics to track traffic and what it is doing on your website

Google Conversion Optimiser to track changes and see if they positively or negatively effect your website and its money making ability.

If  it is a little over your head and you do not “Speak Geek” like the people in the video, these are all tools I have been using for a few years, I can help you set up tracking and figure out how to make your website more profitable.

Happy Nerding!

I am offering group acronym free training for everyday business owners who want to learn more about online marketing.

I will offer courses two adwords courses which will be between 4 and 10 people and be run after business hours in Sydenham, Christchurch for 2-4 hours depending on the topic.

• Introduction Adwords Group Training
• Advanced Adwords Techniques Group Training

How do you know if these trainings are right for you?

Is the beginners course right for me?

Do you want to run your own Google Adwords campaigns but not sure how?

• Got an adwords account but not sure how it all works?
• Thinking about setting up google adwords?
• Paying someone else to do adwords for you, but want to learn more about it.

Then this course is for you.

How do I know if the advanced course is right for me?

Spending to much money on adwords and want to lower your cost per click? Want more return on investment from your adwords account? Got an adwords account thats been runing for a few months or years? Want to know how to tweak your adwords?

• Discovering new targeted keywords
• Ad testing and ad ranking
• Landing pages
• Refining keywords
• Goal tracking
• Inpage analytics

Call me now to talk about your training options and which course is right for you.

Lucy Ross Online Marketing Consultant – 03 741 1399

I see a need for business owners to learn more about online marketing so they can have more control over their campaigns and budgets. By learning more about online marketing you can learn how to track your marketing efforts so that you know if it is working, what the results are and if you are getting a good return on your investment.

Watch this video to learn more about this service and why it is right for you.

Learn more about Online Marketing Lessons in Christchurch

Searching from a mobile

How could a mobile friendly website help your ecommerce business?

Gone are the days of searching on your computer to find something, There are more people with cell phones then computers in New Zealand and Smart phones are only becoming more popular as time goes on.

People searching on their phones can search anywhere anytime, this means there are people out there looking to buy or use your goods and services like yours right now… The question is can they find you?

Mobile searchers could possibly be the most targeted leads of all.

By having a mobile friendly web presence you are making sure highly targeted leads can find your business and either buy online from you or come on down to your local store.

Lucy buys a new cell phone

I Went to riccarton mall to research phones narrowed it down to three phones.

I used the internet capabilities on my sisters smartphone to research my purchase by:

• Go on a comparison website to compare phone specs and figure out which one was right for my needs.
• Read reviews about the phones &
• Look up prices to see where I could get the best deal was.

An within minutes I was standing their, creditcard in hand… ready to purchase a new phone.

A purchase that previously might have taken me a week to get around to researching and buying only took me a couple of minutes, and I was able to see that my best bet was to get one from one out of the four cell phone stores in the mall.

Now imagine if people could find your business when googling things on their mobile phone? How much is that worth to you?

Talk to me about getting getting your business into Mobile Search.

I am sharing an office with Mike from Acorn Insurance so you will notice the building has the Acorn logos on the door and I am just a few shops down from Under ground coffee Sydenham. Should have the phone line hooked up tomorrow so will put the number on the website when I get it.