If you’ve visited more than one website on your iPhone or other various smartphone, you can probably tell the difference between a responsive website and one that is not. How? Well, for starters if the site is easy to read on your smartphone, you are probably viewing a website built with a responsive design.

So, what is responsive design? As little as few years ago this term was, to say the least, on the design backburner. However, with the rise in popularity of smartphones and tablets alike in recent years, it’s a household word in the design community, so to speak.  Internet users accessing the web rose from 800 million in 2009 to roughly 1200 million in 2012 according to a recent ComScore Survey.  Statistics expect mobile internet usage to outnumber desktop internet usage by 2015.  The numbers don’t lie- if you don’t have a responsive website yet, you may want to think of changing soon.

We can now target ads through iOS and Android smartphones when consumers come within 300 feet of brick and mortar locations.

We can reach tens of millions of customers across more than seven billion impressions per month.  Hyper-Local’s targeting techniques are more precise than ZIP code and designated market area (DMA) features that we offer now.

1. Localize

National brands with local physical locations typically spend more time and effort on national marketing, limiting or eliminating the local message. However, that can be a mistake. Local efforts are instrumental in driving increased local business. 

One of the first things consumers look for when considering a purchase is a review of the product or service. They look to their peers for input and advice and trust those voices far more than your brand's, especially if they've had little to no interaction with the brand.

How do you get those first few reviews to help curb the concerns of new purchasers?

1. Why should you encourage online reviews?
2. How do you encourage online reviews?
3. How do you respond to negative reviews?

Mobile devices are inherently local tools.  People use their smartphones for all sorts of things that they might also do on a wired computer at home or at work.  However, we are seeing data that enforces the intuitive idea that people use their smartphones when they are “out and about”, “on the go” interacting with the world around them.

Over the last 15 years, this “online/ offline” “bricks and clicks” “web meets world” nirvana for marketers has been more myth than reality.  But, good things often take time and this one is coming around.   The intersection of local and mobile will be one of the real “sweet spots” in digital marketing over the next 5 years.

Local relevance and timing are key when converting mobile browsers to buyers, though specific consumer needs and verticals influence the way mobile devices are used for purchases. A new study investigates not only mobile consumer behavior, but preferences as well.

It’s important to understand how mobile users engage with your brand.  It’s even important to think of how their engagement may differ from a mobile phone to a mobile tablet device.

Here are four tips from the study:

We help our clients bring their national strategy into a local context.  It’s great when we hear from clients that want to start a local marketing program.  It’s a new channel that’s not easily understood unless you’re like us and you do this as your job.  We see several opportunities for new clients that want to start a local marketing program.

Here are some eye-popping marketing stats for the growth of Internet Marketing and Mobile Marketing in 2012.  These stats come from a recent usage report done by eMarketer. 

The amount of money spent on advertising online is way below the usage of online.  Mobile advertising is just a blip right now compared to the amount of time people use their smart phones.  The two media channels where companies spend way more than the usage is in TV and Print.  Companies are spending 75% more on Print advertising than the usage of that channel.

This information is based on results from ad spend compared to time spent on each media channel within 2011.  The results show the obvious shift consumers are making from the majority of time spent on things like TV, magazines, etc. to a more balanced usage across traditional and digital mediums. 

As you can see in the graph, consumers are moving away from the amount of time they spend on TV and especially print media.  However, the ad spending in TV and print are higher than the usage of those two channels. 

We all know that online advertising provides the most cost effective awareness generation of all media channels.  Due to it's targeting capabilities and extremely low CPM (cost per thousand impressions) there's virtually no waste.  Heavy ad frequency to those prospects that line up directly with your best customers.

QR codes are not new but our job is to come up with new and exciting ways to use current technology to help our clients increase sales or decrease expense.  Our latest idea is the creation of a QR code that is then placed on a piece of equipment.  The equipment needs to be larger enough to place a QR code on it somewhere but the readers today can scan something pretty small.  Imagine someone is beside your piece of equipment and they have a question.  They can just scan the QR code on their mobile phone and access:

Here are the main reasons search marketing has such a high return on investment:

     *  Targeted - we can limit who sees your ad based on where they are, the day of the
         week, time of day and what they're looking for.
     * Pay for Performance - you only pay when the prospects actually goes to your
        website (no waste)

Women are into techy devices these days; they purchase on it not only for fashion purposes but to communicate easily with their family and friends. They embrace smartphones according to the study of Mobile Marketer's Outlook 2012. It has also been mentioned in a blog released currently from The Wall Street Journal that females and older mobile users were underserved by mobile advertising globally. Women serve as a viable market and they make the majority of purchasing decisions which make them a great target mobile market.

We all know that online advertising provides the most cost effective awareness generation of all media channels.  Due to it's targeting capabilities and extremely low CPM (cost per thousand impressions) there's virtually no waste.  Heavy ad frequency to those prospects that line up directly with your best customers.

How can B2B marketers measure their online marketing investments? According to AMR International, only 50% of B2B marketers can measure it formally and they admitted that they find it more effective rather than traditional marketing channels. It happens because of the budget size a business has allotted and those who have yearly budgets lesser than $25,000 has the capability to formally analyze their metrics.

Unlike those who had provided budgets higher than $2 million. Only 24% can calculate it not like the remaining 84%, which automatically means that budget plays a big role in measurement.