CityVoter Blog

We know that mobile advertising can be a bit like a bad summer movie – over-hyped and unfulfilling (watch Expendables 2 and you’ll see what I mean). If you’ve tried mobile advertising in the past, the experience probably left you disappointed and a little surprised; most people pay a bunch of money for some clicks, their ad budgets vanish, and the promised customers never materialize…such is the business of buying accidental clicks and untrackable impressions.

Want some tips for writing a great mobile ad:

Keep it short and keep it simple! Mobile customers are on the move and have very little time – and we all know that customers these days have tiny attention spans. Here are some examples of ads from businesses, like yourselves, that have seen great results on AdLeads.  With mobile ad copy, less is much, much more.

What is AdLeads:

AdLeads and CityVoter want to provide all CityVoter businesses a special offer on a new way to run mobile ads and attract new local customers. It is a simple and intuitive self-serve platform that allows you to advertise on top mobile apps, like Pandora.  U.S. and Canadian-based businesses can target ads to specific metro areas, cities, states or the whole country to ensure getting the right customers for your business. Smartphone users who are interested in hearing from you will sign-up by providing their contact information – email address and zip code.  It is a great way to acquire new customers and communicate with them.

Check out what businesses are saying about AdLeads:

“AdLeads allows us to connect with patrons who are most likely to visit our restaurant time and again.” – David Liatti, Owner, 61 Local Restaurant, Brooklyn, NY

Christina Stembel, Founder, Farmgirl Flowers, San Francisco, CA says, “AdLeads is a great way to attract potential new customers, and set-up was super quick and easy.”

Get Started:

We are offering $75 in free mobile ad credit to CityVoter businesses redeemable right here. You’ll then receive an email with a confirmation link – click on the confirmation link to create your account, sign-in and create your campaign.

This is a guest post by Hayden Simmons, the head of business development at Pontiflex. If you have any questions about mobile advertising with AdLeads, he can be reached at haydens@pontiflex.com.

Back in February I wrote a post about tips for Instagram for your small business. While this information is still relevant, I thought it is important to revisit the social network now that it is available for both the iPhone and Android, and is more widely used by businesses.

One of the most useful tools to engage with your customers on Instagram, aside from uploading pictures that tell a story about your business, is to utilize the geotagging feature. This is the easiest way to find out what pictures Instagrammers are taking at your business.

The directions below outline how to find out what pictures have been tagged at your business:

• Take a picture and click on “Enable Geotag”
• Click on “Geotag location” and search for your business- Your business needs to be listed on Foursquare for this to work
• Once the photo is posted, click on your business name highlighted in blue above the picture
• Voila! All images tagged at your location will appear

Once you discover users who have tagged pictures at your business, reach out to them! Like their photo, comment on it or even ask if you can share it on your networks. Instagram is a way to connect with customers who you may not have had a chance to before. The great part about this is you can be proactive and engage customers who you know already love your business and forge a deeper connection by interacting with them in the comments section on Instagram. Your customers will appreciate your acknowledgement of their photo especially if you provide positive feedback.

Do you engage with Instagrammers who tag pictures at your business? Let us know in the comments!

Did you know that this week is National Small Business Week? Many businesses, both large and small, are celebrating small businesses this week.

Constant Contact is holding free events in 50 cities across the country in honor of Small Business Week. These events will help small businesses reach future customers and network with other small businesses as well as local influences.

To celebrate and help one lucky business, Tech Cocktail has partnered with Microsoft to give away a new HP Folio Laptop with Windows 7 Professional. There are only two simple steps in order to be entered for a chance to win and any small business can participate. The qualifiers are signing up for the Tech Coctail Newsletter and leaving a comment on the post telling them how you’d use the new computer for your small business.

Office Depot is not only celebrating small businesses this week, but is also a sponsor of National Small Business Week. The company hosted a free panel discussion this past Sunday to discuss ways small businesses can work with larger companies.

Have you done anything to celebrate your business and National Small Business Week? Let us know in the comments!