This week Web.com Group, which looks at small business growth and the tools and resources being used to drive that progress, published its latest Small Business Mobile Survey.

One thing that stood out in the survey was the increasingly important role of m-commerce and mobile marketing in the success of small businesses today.

According to the survey’s findings, 69% of small businesses consider mobile marketing “crucial” to their growth in the next five years. In spite of that finding, most of the business owners who responded to the survey admitted that they have not yet fully taken advantage of the potential of mobile marketing or mobile commerce.

Other findings from the 500 small business owners who responded to the survey:

• 8 out of 10 small businesses that currently have a mobile presence have seen increases in new business activity that they directly attributable to mobile.
• 14% of companies surveyed have a stand-alone mobile website.
• 84% of those with a stand-alone mobile website have seen an increase in new business activity due to mobile marketing efforts.

Two facts that are clear from the survey:

1. Mobile’s power to boost business.
2. A majority of small business owners have yet to invest in mobile commerce and mobile marketing.

In the very near future, a mobile marketing will no longer be an option for business owners. According to a recent industry study by comScore, there are now 234 million Americans who are mobile consumers; and over 80 million of these consumers are now using a smartphone. And this smartphone-user base has never been more comfortable with mobile commerce and acting on offers from mobile ads. Today’s mobile consumers are seamlessly searching, processing and making a purchase decision via their smartphones.

The rapid growth in m-commerce is not just an American phenomenon. Consumer engagement with mobile commerce has exploded worldwide. As many as many as 91% of consumers in the United Kingdom report using their mobile device for commerce – to either research or purchase a product. The equivalent figure for Brazil is 79%. In no country surveyed did the number drop below 72%.

Are American small businesses ready to attract the mobile consumer? Or will they miss out on this opportunity? As more consumers specifically search for local businesses on their mobile devices, it is imperative that small businesses invest in a mobile presence. Having a mobile presence can be a huge competitive advantage for small businesses as they try to attract local customers by instantly introducing a potential customer to their business’ products and services in a mobile-enhanced way.

Here are four important factors that will help you get the best ranking for your video.

1. Title: The title of your video is the key to attracting traffic. The first and most important goal of the video title is search engine optimization. Some people insist that it should be something grabbing and eye catching phrase, but properly embedding keywords in the title of the video will prove significant in searches.  Load the title with your major keywords and key phrases. (You may also want to include your business name.) Most local browsers search for very specific keywords and you want to take advantage of that.
2. Description: Search engines don’t list videos based on the title alone. An accurate and appropriate description is critical as well. Like the title, write a description that stresses your keywords. The description should be brief and to the point; it’s not intended to be a transcript of your video. Videos that include a brief description are sure to rank higher. Describe the video in 100 words or so and including 6-8 references to the main keyword or keyword phrase within the text.  (Note: Do not surpass 8 percent density – that is the absolute limit.) Remember, your primary concern is relevant keywords in high density so that the search engine will find you and rank you near the top.
3. Tags: Tags can make your or break video rankings yet they are one of the most neglected aspects of VSEO. Tags are single keywords, sometimes in a limited number, that search engines use to pull your video during a search. There is no secret to writing good tags; they simply need to be the most popular search terms for the subject of your video. If you’re optimizing for a local area, include that area or town in the tags means.
4. Comments and Shares: Comments and shares are almost considered real time linking and should be actively encouraged.  The more comments and shares your video amasses, the more authoritative it becomes, establishing credibility and proving value to the end-user.

Your video can easily fall through the cracks if not properly optimized. Using the latest VSEO tactics will enhance visibility, which after all, is the objective. There are other ways to increase video search engine rankings, but these are four strategies you should be focusing you efforts on.

1. Create informative, unique and relevant videos. Don’t create videos that are irrelevant or have little or nothing to do with your service, product or brand. These will just cause confusion with your audience. The more relevant your message, the more likely it will be effective.  The more relevant, the more likely your video will perform well in video and universal search results.
2. Get to the point; keep videos less than 5 minutes. Most users watch videos 3 minutes in length or less. If you must do a video longer than 5 minutes in length to get your message across, break it up into smaller videos and make sure to tag them accordingly. This will help increase the likelihood of users watching your video without getting bored. After all, it doesn’t matter how great your video is if no one watches it.
3. Create a video sitemap on your website. If you host videos on your own website, create a video sitemap on your site. This will help direct search engines where to index your content. Use relevant keywords within the anchor text for all links to the videos that are featured in your video sitemap.
4. Creating in-video text. In order to get your video to rank well, you need to provide the search engines with textual content that is relevant. Video search engines are beginning to rely on image, object, speech, and text recognition technologies and in the near future it be more important to focus on in-video content. But currently it’s more effective to focus on textual content surrounding a video with relevant textual content (on-page) as well as related links, related information, etc.
5. Optimize your video for important keywords and key phrases. Optimize your video for words and phrases that users are likely to be searching for. Be specific, relevant, and focused. Consider naming the file name of the video with these terms in mind.  As video continues to grow and as more and more users utilize video search to find online video content, longer tail search terms will become more and more effective.

Some specific keyword and key phrase points to follow:

• Descriptive Meta Data - Use relevant keywords in your metadata to optimize your video.  Include a keyword rich description of the video within the Meta descriptions.
• Video Title - Make sure that you use the relevant keywords in your title as this is likely the first thing that the search engines will use to identify your video. Also try using a catchy or unique title that will not only give attention to your video but convey your theme, product, or brand.
• Tags – Be sure to tag your videos with keywords and key phrases that reflect the content of the video.

Here are top 3 mobile marketing trends that experienced great growth in 2011 and will continue to grow through 2012 and beyond.

QR Codes

Quick Response or QR codes will become ubiquitous both online and offline. The past year has seen a massive increase their use on everything from advertising campaigns to product packaging. QR codes are being increasingly used in magazines, on the web, on billboards and other signage. Smartphone usage has already reached 50 percent of U.S. mobile users and continues to grow. QR codes will allow merchants the ability to easily send people with mobile devices to online destinations.

Expect QR codes to eventually replace or to be used in tandem to URLs on all offline advertising. This will cause search engines to rely less on text links and factor in interest from QR code use. Expect to see a lot more QR codes in 2012.

Location Based Marketing (LBM)

Location-based marketing is dishing out content based on where the precise location of the recipients. Imagine entering a restaurant and then receiving a SMS offering you some freebies once you order something from them. It can be achieved using a number of technologies including Mobile Phone Tracking, WiFi and RFID (a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag.)

Infographics

The way we consume information can vary greatly. Different audiences prefer to get their info in different ways. Infographics became a hit in 2011 and should become even more popular in 2012. Surveys have shown that people were spending less and less time with the written word and more time with visual aspects of the products.

Infographics are simply visual communication. Successful infographics tell a story with a quick glance or read. More and more articles or blog posts that contain numbers, dates, locations, measurements or comparisons, are reformatting that information into easy to read and understand infographics.

Summary

The explosive growth in the mobile web is expected to continue through 2012 and beyond. It is becoming (if it hasn’t already become) what desktop Internet became in the 1990’s: the standard platform for anyone doing business.

1. “Content marketing is all the marketing that’s left.” Seth Godin.
2. Your blog should be a core part of communicating with and marketing to your customers.
3. In content marketing, you can’t fake it, so you have no choice but to be real.
4. Your brand is a relationship; it’s not a tag line. Your competition can copy everything you have, except your brand.
5. Focusing on what your customers want and need is more important than focusing on what you have to sell.
6. If you make something that solves the consumers’ problems, they’ll talk about it and tell others.
7. If it’s not already, the blogging community will soon become more important than traditional media.
8. Without content, building an online community is impossible.
9. Hiring an editor is no longer a want; it’s a must for any organization.
10. Successful search engine optimization is driven by consistent, relevant and fresh content on your company’s blog or website.
11. Your content is more important than your offer.
12. Most corporate websites talk about how great the company or product is, forgetting about wants and needs of the customer. For this reason, most corporate websites are ineffective.
13. Teach your customers and give them the resources to believe you. They’ll become fans of you because you’ve given them something that improves their lives.
14. Create your own content that gets people talking about you.
15. Content marketing is difficult because you actually have to listen to your customers and know what their challenges are.
16. Today’s marketers need to be publishers as well as marketers.
17. Today buying advertising space won’t solve your marketing woes. You need to make a connection to your existing customers.
18. Find information your target audience needs (books, blog, research, surveys, etc.) and give it to them.
19. Write stuff that people want to read instead of dictating to them.
20. Your customers are waiting for you to inspire them. What are you waiting for?

QR Codes are officially known as “Quick Response Codes”.   QR Codes are rapidly adapting to US marketing.  While recently attending the recent World Tea Expo, an industry conference for tea supply, in June, 2011, we realized by looking at some labels, printed brochures, and even business cards it was easy to see that there is a growing trend around the use of QR Codes.

They were first created by a Japanese company in 1994 to track automobile parts during the manufacturing process.  The codes did not catch on in the United States right away but were incredibly popular in Japan. QR Codes have just recently become popular in the US.  QR Codes can track anything, but their most popular use is as a cross-platform method for trading information.

Here is a quick primer on QR codes, as well as some potential uses.

“Quick Response Codes” are 2-D barcodes designed to be read by a smartphone such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Droid.  Your phone must have an app installed that is designed to read and interpret the code.  Once the app has been installed, your phone can scan the code with its camera.  What happens next depends on the data stored in the code, but it can be anything: downloading a v-card opening a web page, playing a video, making a phone call or sending a text.

QR Codes are simple and free to create. Generation sites, just like scanner apps, are numerous.

You can use a QR Code to store almost any type of information.  Here are a few possibilities:

• Websites
• Online videos
• V-cards with contact information
• Phone numbers to automatically generate a call or text message
• Text – for coupon codes or other targeted messages
• Calendar events
• Links to Facebook profiles
• Links to Twitter posts for re-tweeting content or adding followers
• Links to pre-populated shopping carts
• Email addresses
• Contact records
• Location coordinates

QR Codes offer a new, versatile delivery system for marketers. But remember that creating engaging and strategic content is the key. A QR Code is not a strategy and savvy customers will soon separate those who are using them with thought and care from those who are just using them.

1.  Well-Written Product Descriptions

The best product descriptions on your website store should include between 75 to 200 words of copy, preferably closer to the 200 number. Specific in-depth details should also be available on the site, including details such as the size, shipping, weight of the product, and other pertinent specifics.

2.  High Quality Photographs

After content, high quality photographs of your products are most important thing about selling online. All photographs should be of the highest quality available. Photos should also have the ability to be enlarged distorted (or pixilated). Large photos will help reduce questions and returns from customers. If possible, also take photographs from multiple angles to reduce the number of questions about size or other components of the product.

3.  Clearly Stated Policies

By including FAQs, policies, and procedures prominently that list information regarding shipping, returns, defects, customer service hours and numbers, and estimated delivery dates, you greatly reduce customer inquiries. On those occasions that you do receive negative customer comments and reviews, respond swiftly. Doing so demonstrates good customer service and can often pre-empts circumstances that can lead to costly returns. How you respond to complaints can turn a negative comment into a positive shopping experience.

4.  Use A Strong Analytics Program

Like all businesses you need to know where your traffic is coming from and what words they’re searching to find your site. In addition, you always want to know your bounce rate – the number of people exiting your site without purchasing, the amount of time spent on our webpage, and from what page your customers exited.  Exiting from the homepage or the product detail page could indicate a problem with your site.

5.  Clearly Post Contact Information

Contact information should be listed on every single page: many potential customers will not use an e-commerce site unless a phone number is listed. List phone numbers, a physical address, fax number, and e-mail address prominently. Doing so will ensure integrity and make communication and purchases more efficient.

6.  Include a Strong Search Functionality

Your customers want the ability to track down product by specifics such as size, color, and availability. Create strong functionality and determine the leading search terms that will be appropriate for your products and services.

7.  Create Clear Call-to-Actions

You want your call to actions (such as buy now, order here, etc.) to be strong and clear. Ideally, call-to-actions should appear on every page. Ideally, each page should lead you to an action, such as a purchase or filling out a form. There should be a clear end result for every product listed on your website.

Building a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business. Much of what you do will be basic business planning. Like any business:

• You need to select a product.
• You may need funding.
• You need customers.
• You need to market products to your customers.
• You need strong customer service.
• You need to manage purchases by customers, finances, staff and other resources.

2. Some Products Don’t Work Well Over the Internet

But there are some features unique to e-commerce. For example, not all products are compatible to be sold over the Internet. For example,

• Some products may require a lot of face-to-face selling.
• Some products cost a lot to ship (Typically, in e-commerce, customers buy products online and e-tailers ship the products to them).
• E-commerce exposes your products and ideas to the world. As a result, you could lose control of your “intellectual property”.

3. Obviously, You Need a Website

You need to design and promote a website. You’ll need someone with e-commerce expertise design and maintain the website for you. E-commerce sites require ongoing attention.

4. Closing the Sale

You’ll need to create an online order form that customers can complete, in order to purchase your products. The most successful e-commerce sites have the ability to process the customers’ credit card numbers while they’re still online and connected to your website.

The store that you create will need a merchant account to process your customers’ credit card transactions over the Internet. This also will require that you have a secure server, ensuring that customers’ credit card numbers cannot readily be read by people who are not supposed to read them.

Creating a strong brand is one of the strongest competitive advantages your business can gain. When you do, customers will think of you first when they need a certain product or service.  For example, when your child wants a hamburger, as often as not, she won’t ask for a hamburger but will ask if you’ll take her to McDonald’s. The reason: McDonald’s has built such a solid brand identity.

A brand is the one thing about your business that no one body can duplicate. Everything else – including trade secrets, patents, physical plant and technology – will eventually be stolen, expire, wear out or become obsolete.  But your brand can go on – even outliving your business.  Your brand creates lasting value above and beyond all other aspects of your business.

The importance and value of your brand becomes even more apparent if you want to sell the business or acquire investor capital.  It is often the brand that is your most valuable asset.  Your brand can be quantified.  For instance, potential investors often value your company by looking at the assets tied to your brand first. They then identify the value of your physical assets – office, patents, machinery and staff.  And often the physical assets are valued at a fraction of what you can sell your brand for.

So whether you hope to grow your company for yourself or eventually sell it, your brand is one of the most valuable assets your business can have.