4 Trends Small Businesses Must Not Neglect in 2011

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Whether you have recently launched your business career or are a seasoned entrepreneur, capitalizing on this year’s trends and opportunities will boost your business to new levels of success and give you an edge over your competitors. While 2011 is well under way, let’s remind ourselves of 4 trends entrepreneurs and small businesses should capitalize on this year.

1. Go Mobile

If you are not familiar with Smartphones and tablets, you better look into them. While desktop sales are still 3 times higher than mobile devices according to Microsoft SEO Steve Ballmer, this trend is not going to continue. Hand held devices are getting more and more popular.

What does this mean for your business? As  time goes by, more and more people that are interested in your product are not using a computer with a big wide monitor. Instead, they are using small mobile devices. And if your site isn’t mobile compatible, you are missing out on many leads and potential customers.

So, first thing you want to do is check your site on a mobile device—a smartphone or a tablet. There are even websites online that can show you how your site looks on an iPhone or an Android phone.

There are a couple of different ways you can make your site mobile compatible. The more expensive way is to build out a new mobile site that is compatible with your current site. You will need a separate language, like HTML5, written for your site, if you want to go full on mobile and attack that market. Alternatively, you can use some programs that allow your site to remain as is, but, after a few coding modifications, certain parts of your site will now be mobile-viewable

2. Use Light Box

You have surely noticed that Google is going through a transformation as they are basically kicking all fly-by-night, poor-content and make-money-quick type of sales pages off their organic as well as paid (PPC) listings. At the same time, you are aware of the importance of collecting user data; getting an email in exchange for something of value (an ebook, a report, a guide or a coupon).

So far, businesses were collecting user data through forced opt-in pages. But, from now on it is important to take the forced opt-in off of your homepage. Google is highly against it. They want a level playing field. They want to know how long a visitor stays on your site. If you have a forced opt-in come up and you don’t allow people to access your site till you get their email, this hurts your page rank equations and kills your quality score.

Light Box, or similar programming language, serves as an effective replacement of a forced opt-in. You have most likely seen Light Box in action when you visit a site and a box comes up that is lit up and the sides go dark around it (hence its name: “light box”). In this box, you make your valued proposition of opting in, offering your free report or newsletter.

Light Box makes the opt-in process a choice for your visitor, not an obligation, and therefore it does not drive your visitors away from your site nor does it cause them to enter fake data and dirty up your list.

3. Add Facebook “Like” Feature

Facebook is where everyone goes to hang out. This social networking service is working toward building its own social search engine. They recently teamed up with Microsoft Bing to allow “Like” to be part of their algorithm. If you haven’t seen that yet, go to Facebook and comment on something, “Like” a page, and then go over to Bing and type that exact phrase in and you will possibly see your picture come up saying “you like this”.

You have to add the Facebook “thumbs up” button to your site. “Like” is an important part of how Facebook views your site. The idea is that, if a lot of people “Like” it, then it must be good.

4. Get their Zip Code

This is the number 1 thing you should be doing in 2011. Get a zip code with every email address or lead you collect. If you have a site that offers a newsletter in exchange for an email, you have to add the zip code field.

Many coupon sites and social media coupon sites are now valued at over $1 billion. Groupon is valued at over $300 billion today. Let’s say you have a list. How big is your list? 500 people? 1000? 50,000? How much valuable would your list be if you had a zip code associated with every email? Why should you ask for a zip code? Because it allows you to geographically target your visitors.

With Internet marketing going local, having a zip code attached to your list allows you to leverage local business opportunities. You could use your list to send offers to local merchants. Like Groupon, you too can give local merchants a low risk opportunity. You don’t have to ask for any money in these tough economic times, but you can share the profits.

Change your existing opt-in form and include the zip code field. You don’t want to ask for a name or address because this becomes too personal. People will not give that online. A zip code, however, is even less intrusive than an email.

Imagine calling a merchant and saying: “I have 500 people in San Diago” or “I have 5,000 people in the greater Boston area that I can send your offer to.” It’s a whole new opportunity having a zip code. Imagine having a list of 10,000 people in New York that are active online. How much is that worth? Just ask Groupon.

Let me give you an example. DiettoGo.com is a weight loss meal delivery service I am affiliated with. They deliver healthy and fresh meals in Baltimore, Philadelphia, DC Metro and San Francisco Bay area. One idea I have been working on lately is cooperating with the merchant and offering an exclusive Diet to Go coupon to people in my list that live in the above areas.

Geographic targeting is getting bigger and bigger. Have you noticed your smartphone often asks whether you want to “Turn On Location Services” or “Can We Tell Your Friends Where You Are?” All this revolves around having a lead and a zip code so that you can segregate it into a list of certain people. You can then use this list to establish a win-win-win situation where the person in your list, the merchant you cooperate with and you, all get to rip the benefits of discount group buying and social media.

What are some other big business trends going on now?