The Google Partners event on June 14th was about finding ways to get your business online and how to optimize your web presence to reach more customers. Some of the important things we learned today were how mobile influences purchases, how consumer behavior is changing, and how to grow your business from there.
With the increase of mobile usage in the past few years, it is more and more important for your business to make use of digital platforms. Searches from mobile are more common than searches from desktop computers. People are doing more local searches for services or products around them. In the last four years, a 34% increase in Google searches included the phrase “near me”. Mobile makes up 84% of ‘near me’ searches, and there is a strong purchase intent after a ‘near me’ search as 3 in 4 people who searched on mobile visited a business within 24 hours. This is why it is so important for a business to be up-to-date in the digital world, and be very mobile-friendly.
Consumer behavior has changed drastically over the past few years. People are reacting on a more immediate basis, consumer expectations are higher, and there is less brand loyalty involved in immediate purchases. Businesses are now forced to adapt to the in-the-moment decisions of consumers in order to keep up with the times. Years ago, purchases used to revolve around physical location and consumer knowledge was limited. Today people can go shopping and compare prices and features of products that aren’t in front of them but they may be interested in.
In order to grow your business, Google shows us how to win by taking business digital. In the past year, revenue growth was 4 times higher for business who used digital marketing. Online shopping is increasing 120% every year, so make sure your website is easy to access. A couple of tips from Google’s presentation on how to grow your company included creating a free business listing on Google, creating a website that clearly states what your business offers and advertise through display ads, re-marketing, and use demographics to find new customers.
Missed the Livestream? Watch it below!