Hi,

My name is Jennifer and I am co-owner of Savvy with Mobile.  My partner and I create mobile friendly websites for small businesses.  We are located in Phoenix, AZ.

Our main problem is lead generation.  We’ve tried many ways to get in contact with small business owners, with pretty much no luck.  Our target client is a small business owner who runs the business solo or with a small number of employees.  They don’t have time to bother with designing a mobile website themselves, nor do they have the money for a custom site.  That’s where we come in–we will create and manage a mobile website for an affordable monthly fee. 

The problem we’re having is getting to speak with potential clients.  We’ve tried talking with them in person, on the phone, and mailing postcards.  Basically, they say they’re not interested, or they don’t need a mobile website (even if they do).  We put out an ad to hire a salesperson to help us, but got only a few responses and those people weren’t interested any further.  I’m going to start doing some Facebook messaging, basically, just messaging a business with a short script I wrote to see if they’re interested.  Aside from that, how do you connect with a small business owner?  Most of them are too busy for their own social media management, so how do I get them to follow me on social media?

Here are some examples of mobile websites I did:

http://www.apiofcolorado.mobi/ (this was done for a relative)

http://www.avisbarbersalon.mobi/ (this was done for a local barber my partner met)

Thank you very much!
~Jennifer

Here are my links:

savvywithmobile.com

facebook.com/savvywithmobile

@elizabeth-jamieson, I’ve heard of Facebook marketing but haven’t tried that, so I’ll keep that in mind, thanks! 

@rich-brooks, thanks for the ideas.  I think part of my problem though is my target audience, for the most part, isn’t the type to go seminars.  They are solo business owners or only have a few employees, and are pretty much just focused on running the business.  That’s why it’s so hard to get to talk with them.  They tend to brush off all our attempts to contact them, saying they’re “too busy”, “not interested”, or that they already have a mobile website when they don’t (they’re seeing their desktop site on their phone). 

Regarding the FB ads, I remember briefly looking at them awhile back, but there didn’t seem to be a way to target them only to businesses?  Has that changed now?

Thanks for the advice!

~Jennifer

Hi,

I find that sponsored stories on Facebook work even better than the geographically targeted ads.

Sharon

I  didn’t know you could target specific business owners @jennifer-bradshaw !  I just used whatever the default ad was and saw results within hours on a budget of $5/day.

this may be a bit too common sense but…when people are telling you they are not interested…the might actually…not be interestedindicating that you have no market.just because you think mobile sites are a good idea and all businesses should have one and you are offering ‘a great deal’ dosent make it true…

I just got a chance to read this, but don’t have the time to comment on it. We also did mobile and had a lot of bells and whistles. We finally decided to build these sites for free- targeted our best potential customer and then set up a time to show them what we did, if they liked it, they purchased, if they didn’t or had no interest it was lost time, but we gained some good customers

By the way the new twitter for business, Glyder or Vine. Now you can embed six second videos on twitter through vine an app owned by twitter. Glyder it’s a good way to make announcements through twitter they have some free cards for you to use. I hope it helps.

I’d have to agree that you will need to narrow down your market. Not all small business owners need a mobile site. Think about which type of businesses stand to gain the most and focus in on what the benefits of that mobile site are for them. How is it going to help them get more customers? How does it save them time? How does it increase their ROI? the more specific you can be the more people will respond. Give an example and be specific. Create a case study.Honestly, I’ve had people approach me to make me a mobile site and that’s insane waste of my time and money for what my goals are. You’ve got to hone in on who’s world is going to be rocked by this. then go talk to a few of them directly, make a site for one of them, get some results, then use it as a case study to show to business owners in the same field how valuable it is to their bottom line.

Jennifer, you need a different approach overall. 

Forget about Facebook ads. 

First, you need a reliable system—a means to exploit the attention ads will generate for you. 

The better approach: Using social media… start inviting your customers on a journey to get a problem solved or experience something in a powerful, new way. 

Change prospects’ success rate at something important to them as a means to engage in ways you can connect to what you sell.

Take them on a trip that gives them more of what they already crave (answers/solutions/free tastes of success) that ultimately creates demand for what it is you’re selling. 

How? 
By creating confidence in buyers that rubs off on you as trust. Here are the steps:

1) Focus on solving customers’ problems with social marketing (ie. your blog in combination w/ LinkedIn) in ways that you can later (easily) connect to what it is you are selling. 

To do this… 

2) Give customers cures for pain—take them on a journey toward the remedy (in exchange for their email address, for instance, or understanding of where they are in the buying process). 

* Do this using content (educational booklets, ebooks, worksheets that solve problems or help customers make better choices, videos that help customers determine “best fit” or avoid a risk). 

* Always remember to ask for name/email or other information in exchange for the valued knowledge or decision-making tools you’re sharing. 

Here’s an example in the insurance industry of a guy who is excelling. He’s one of the best social sellers I’ve seen yet. http://oth.me/13HByC4 
Notice what he’s doing and how he’s doing it (his outstanding calls-to-action that feed his email+video based lead nurturing system. 
He’s not trying to convince prospects of anything or persuade them to choose him. They end up choosing him because he: 

1) Helps them make important decisions about a variety of important subjects relate-able to insurance. 

2) Is giving so many “results in advance” (of their spending money w/ him). Customers can’t help but choose him because he’s invested so much in them, up front. 

Overall, you’ll be better served by finding a compelling group of subjects to talk about with a specific, niche target market. Pains, fears, goals, ambitions, desires that are not specific to selling mobile sites but relate-able to it (ultimately… further down the lead-nurturing path). 

The idea is to show prospects how to solve a small (yet serious) problem that you can later connect to what you sell. 

Get started by asking yourself…
What pressing problem do we solve? What pain do I remove? What pleasure can I help create? What freedom does our service permit? What important connection does our product allow? 
Hope this helps and I’m pleased to know you, Jennifer.

I agree with @jeffmolander. Inbound marketing for your business would be ideal. You will have to invest in great content creation (videos, ebooks, case studies, infographics, blogs, etc)  that identifies small business owners pain points and provide solutions.

You can brand your company and become a leader in your niche with this process while capturing leads and nurturing them until they are ready to buy.

Keep us posted on your success.Nadia

Hi Jennifer.
I read your plea with interest, as you are providing a similar service to me, but I work in the UK market, helping small Mom and Pop local businesses. From reading between the lines, you seem to be doing the traditional ” I have a great service, now who can I sell it to” type of marketing. No problem there if it works with your prospective clients. However, I am in total agreement with later replies, which suggest a reverse type of marketing approach.

The way I am working here in the UK, is to provide value to the customer first, give them a Free service, which grows their own business viraly, by customers sharing their business details between themselves. Then a short while later, (varies with each business type) after the small business has experienced positive results from the free service I have given them, follow up.

It’s a moden take on the Puppy dog close, but using mobile technology.

If you want some more details get in touch, email: davmat@blueyonder.co.uk

Adrian

Hi @jennifer-bradshaw 
There’s some excellent advice here about inbound marketing – I think it’s something service providers are going to have to get their heads around.  

Rather than trying to sell to people on social media it’s better to ‘network’ with those who have the same target market as you (but don’t offer the same service).  Twitter is a great platform for this.  

There are lots of networking ‘hours’ on Twitter where businesses from the same geographical area get to know each other.  (also known as tweet chats)

e.g. at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon businesses in the north east of england include #northeasthour in their tweets and network with each other – explaining what they do, making connections, helping each other and building relationships.  I’m sure there must be similar Twitter ‘hours’ in the USA too.  And if you’re not relying on local customers you can spread your reach with countrywide or even global chats.

If you think ‘networking’ rather than ‘selling’ on social media you make lots of great connections where you can recommend each other online and offline.