Check-In Apps Add Key Relevancy Factor to Your Marketing

Are check-in apps just a fad or are they the future of local business marketing? It may still be too early to tell, but I'm starting to lean toward the latter, because this space is only picking up more and more steam, and businesses and marketers are getting excited about it as more apps continue to flood the mobile app markets. 

Are check-in apps just a fad? Tell us what you think.

At PubCon this week, WebProNews spoke with Gib Olander, director of biz dev atLocaleze, which provides local business listings to all kinds of sites and apps. He certainly seems convinced that location-based services (LBS) are here to stay. 

"Geo-location is just an outstanding place, and the way I think about it is, we started with a big search box and we all kind of wanted to find answers to 'what' questions and things have evolved pretty quickly to a 'what' and a 'where', so we did a geo-modifier," he tells us. "We added a state or a zip code or a city. We started to find more information."

Putting the "Where" and the "When" in Marketing 

"Nicely, social layers added on top of that where you start to get your Facebook and your friends' recommendations," he continues. "Yelp did a great job with reviews, and then Foursquare came along, and they've added a really neat new component with this check-in feature, and there's other sites that are doing it as well, like Brightkite and SCVNGR, but one of the things I think is really neat and new for marketers is they've added the time of 'when.'"

That "when" is a key factor in executing a successful campaign, and it's one that just hasn't been able to get nearly as precise in marketing channels of the past. The mobile device in customers' pocket tracking right where they are when they're there (particularly when they're sharing this information on purpose) is astonishingly powerful. 

More WebProNews Videos

"When someone is there really changes the relevancy of what kind of information you want to share with them - what kind of things you want to talk to them about," says Olander. "So, geo-location has added all those...kind of layers: the who, what, where, why, and when on top of each other, and it's created new opportunities for businesses to talk to their customers, and for customers to discover new businesses, and I think that's just really exciting for our space."

"Michael Metcalf from Yahoo talked about this at a conference," he recalls. "Your spatial network is just about as important as your social network. So who's around you and when they're around you both from a physical location, and businesses need to be aware of that with other businesses, but also people around you. Because when people congregate in an area, they leave a pyschographic imprint of who they are and what they are, and why they're there. And marketers can tend to look at that."

"Like so right now at PubCon, if you were tracking this event, you would see that by the profiles people have when they're here now at this particular time...you know, we've got a lot of interesting SEO and SEM and geo-location and marketing and targeting," Olander explains. "So as a marketer or advertiser...and a big feel for tech...so maybe if you're the Marriott nearby, you could start to target the area during the hours that we're here with special offers of free wi-fi or that type of thing."

Which Check-In Apps Should I Utilize? 

One challenge that marketers face along with these types of opportunities is knowing which services to utilize. There are seemingly new check-in apps coming out just about every day.  Foursquare is the one that's gotten the most attention thus far, but there are plenty of others breathing down that company's neck to be the "it" check-in app - the Facebook to Foursquare's MySpace. Of course, Facebook itself is doing more in this space with its Facebook Places product. It will be interesting to see how other apps co-exist with that. Facebook Places is only going to get bigger and bigger. The social network has over half a billion user, let's not forget.

"I think the real competition from the Facebook ecosystem is gonna come from third-party developers like Zynga that build on top of the Facebook Places API, because you'll notice with Facebook Places that they haven't done anything with like virtual goods like badges or points, and these are some of the main attractions of Foursquare and Gowalla," Lawrence Coburn, who runs the geo-location app provider DoubleDutch recently told WebProNews. "So they've just left that open, but I know that third-party developers won't be so shy, and they'll come in and make games, because there's a lot of good game developers on Facebook." 

That's certainly another advantage for the social network giant, but that doesn't mean it's time to consider the rest of these apps doomed. 

Foursquare itself has some pretty big plans, particularly for local businesses. CEO Dennis Crowley talked about this at ad:tech last week. "The harder part is consumer brands...consumer packaged goods," he said, adding that it's hard to find a practical way to use Foursquare to sell things like batteries or cereal. The local business stuff is much more obvious though, and what may not work with Foursquare or even Facebook Places, may work with another app. 

"Across the board, they're all really important," says Olander. "I think there's a stat out that there's more than six thousand LBS apps on the iPhone alone, so fragmentation is a reality of the marketplace. What we think, at Localeze, is that you look at each one of them as an opportunity...what you really have to establish is your business identity online."

"It used to be that you could just have a brick and mortar store, and put a nice awning up or a nice sign up, and people would walk by and find you," he adds. "But today, you really have to own that online presence, and that starts with owning your name/address/phone number. You make sure it's consistent in multiple applications, and then you're starting to cover them all. You start to monitor each of those and see where most of the foot traffic, or where your audience or customers are, and then really interact with those and create unique content offers for them." 

Tips For Increasing the Chances of Customers Buying From You Online

In the fast-paced digital age where everyone wants a piece of that sweet Internet money, competition for small businesses is greater than ever. Fortunately there are  more tools available to small businesses than ever as well. Still, there are so many factors to consider, and so little time. 

WebProNews sat down with Paul Boisvert of Yahoo Small Business to talk about some things that small e-commerce companies are doing wrong and how they can improve their approaches to ultimately get more sales. 

Making the Most of Limited Time and Resources

"The big issue with any small business is having enough time," says Boisvert. "There's so many different trends that are out there, having to keep up on the education with what's new...what's current, what are the new tools they should be using, what are the new trends...it's a little bit daunting, and so we try to simplify things with our services, and try to educate them and direct their attention to things that are going to generate the highest ROI."

In fact, this subject came up more than once at PubCon this week. Read here and here for some additional thoughts on this from Chris Brogan and the New York Times' tech columnist David Pogue respectively. 

"In a nutshell, the biggest thing I see that they're doing wrong is they're not focusing," says Boisvert. "They're not embracing their passion. When people get in and try to sell every product to every single person...you can't possibly be an expert on everything."

"You know, Amazon has tens of thousands of employees, but they have people that are experts on their specific topics," he adds. "So all small businesses need to kind of embrace what that core product is that they really have a lot of knowledge on, and then you'll be able to speak with authenticity. You'll be able to speak with authority, and that's going to persuade people to buy from you, and buy the products that you're selling as opposed to anywhere where they could get the same product."

More WebProNews Videos

But e-commerce success isn't just about time and product focus. Things like site usability and shopping cart optimization can make a huge difference when it comes to getting people to actually buy.

Improving Your Shopping Cart Process

"A few pointers I would throw out on shopping cart optimization..." says Boisvert. "You obviously want to have your contact information there, you want your 1-800 number there if you have one (if not, if you have a live chat, you want it there)...it's just a reassurance. Even if people don't use it, they know that that number is there. You're a reputable company, and if they have an issue they can contact you. It's not hidden."

"So you kind of want to reduce all the fears that people have as they proceed into that checkout process, so they don't have any of those questions and they can just pull out their wallet and pay you," he explains.

"Other things like trust marks are also very important," Boisvert adds. "Just having them on the site and reassuring somebody that you're a brand that another larger company has vetted to a certain degree, whether that's Yahoo or Verisign or any of the other trust marks that are out there, but those are really important in kind of reducing the fears that people have."

Trust is one thing, but you also have to think about the process itself. How easy is it for a customer to check out? If there's any hassle involved, you risk losing the sale, because your competition is only a click away. 

How Many Pages Should The Checkout Process Include?

"You do have to guide the consumer,' says Boisvert. "You want to have a smooth flow. You want to reduce friction in your checkout process, but I think the whole argument around one-page or two-page or three-page is largely overblown. I've talked with many merchants. They've tested both versions. Our shopping cart supports all the various combinations: order review in place, order review not in place, single-page, multi-page...people have tested it, and they find out that the results for the most part are the same."

"I think the key differences are the people that are kind of on the edges," he notes. "If you sell a very low average order value, like a $20 purchase such as beads for jewelry or something like that, a single-page checkout makes sense because it doesn't require a lot of having to address a lot of fears and uncertainties with a low purchase value."

"However, on the flipside, if you're selling expensive watches or appliances, you want a multi-step process so somebody can feel comfortable with you...comfortable with the product they're going to get at the end of this checkout process," he concludes. 

Watch the video above for more from Boisvert and some things Yahoo Small Business specifically is doing for e-commerce businesses.

Clicks But No Conversions? It’s the Landing Page Every Time

Are you putting enough thought into your landing pages? If not, it’s probably the main reason your conversions, or more importantly your revenue, aren’t higher. At PubCon in Las Vegas, WebProNews spoke with Brad Geddes, Founder of PPC training firm bgTheoryabout advanced PPC and landing page optimization. 

Why Landing Page Optimization is Critical

"Landing page optimization – it is critical," he says. "If you have an account that has several thousand clicks and no conversions, it’s the landing page. That’s always the issue."

"A lot of people don’t really get some of the high-level landing page testing," he continues. "Step one is where do you send the traffic, whether it’s…rarely the home page, but it’s a category page, a product page, an about page, so forth. And then it really comes to laying out the page itself."

Think about it from the user perspective. How much of a page do you take in before you leave or convert? The whole thing? I doubt it. 

"The most missed element is that whole concept of ‘above the fold’ – what’s displayed in the browser when the page first loads," says Geddes. "80% of [the] time, 76% of clicks occur in that above the fold section, so if that call to action isn’t there, it doesn’t matter how good your page is."

"Every page really has a goal to it – what you want someone to do," he continues. "So certain pages you’ll have actually won’t be conversion-based pages. They’ll be more segmentation-based pages or so forth. But every page you send traffic to, you should have a primary goal, which you want someone to do."

"So, if you’re a lead gen site, you obviously want a form on the landing page," Geddes adds. "If it’s an e-commerce site, you want a buy button. It sort of depends on what kind of site you are. If it’s a local business, you want a phone number and driving directions, but your conversion action has to be on that landing page. It should be above the fold, clearly visible, easy to understand contents. Minimize distractions."

More WebProNews Videos

Why Less Conversions Can Mean Greater Revenue

"We have a blog that has a huge amount of traffic on it, but had horrible conversion rates, so we essentially moved more conversion elements to the blog, and what happened is, the site’s overall conversion rates dropped significantly, but our revenue went up a lot, because all of a sudden we’re bringing more people into the funnel," Geddes explains.

"So that’s where conversion rates are interesting, because you kind of measure it from the point of the user – where they entered your funnel, so…it dropped our conversion rates…a thirty or forty percent drop in conversion rates," he says. "Probably a 20% increase in revenue. We just essentially brought more people into the funnel to buy."

Everyone wants traffic, and there’s no question. If the traffic’s not there, you can’t convert it. That said, it doesn’t end with getting a lot of traffic. You can’t just get people to your landing page. That page has to make them want to perform the action you are trying to get them to perform. 

"It’s not about the traffic. Traffic gets someone to your site," says Geddes. "The page then has to pick up the traffic to actually convert it."

You might want to worry about that before you start worrying about how to get people to your site.