By Shashi Bellamkonda
Each year, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ partner Mary Meeker releases an Internet Trends Report. This year, the report was released at the Code Conference on May 23rd.
Big Picture:
At 3.6B, the number of Internet users has surpassed half the world’s population. Internet usage is now mainstream. Internet users continue to increase time spent on Internet services based on the perceived value at 5.9 hours spent per day. According to Recode:
People, however, are still increasing the amount of time they spend online. U.S. adults spent 5.9 hours per day on digital media in 2017, up from 5.6 hours the year before. Some 3.3 of those hours were spent on mobile, which is responsible for overall growth in digital media consumption.
Trends:
- Local – Offline connections are driven by online interactions. Example: Growth of Nextdoor with 17M neighbor recommendations on Nextdoor for local businesses
- Mobile video viewing is growing exponentially
- Voice technology is lifting off. Google’s machine learning word accuracy now equals the threshold for human accuracy
- Personalization with data improves engagement and provides better experiences for consumers. Examples: Facebook Newsfeed, 200MM Pinterest users pinning images, 100MM Waze users
- Offline businesses are using online payment systems and integrating purchase financing to close more business
Action Plan for Contractors
#1 – Offline to Online Interactions
- Set up a review management strategy to get more reviews
- Claim your business on Nextdoor and create a presence on Houzz
#2 – Mobile Video
- Create well-produced videos for your projects
- Use quick videos to tell your company’s story by using your mobile phone
#3 – Voice Technology
You don’t have to do anything specifically for voice. You should create your website using structured data and schema and get your business listed in all the major directories
Create content around specific questions that homeowners ask your teams frequently
#4 – Personalization
Target very specific personas of customers using lookalike audiences on websites like Google, Facebook, etc.
#5 – Integrating Purchase Financing
If you have agreements with banks and other lenders, integrate that into your proposal process. Use online payment gateways to make it easier for homeowners to pay for the project
Watch the video presentation.
Note: This article first published on Surefire Local’s blog and can be viewed here.
Shashi Bellamkonda, Speaker and Digital Marketing Expert, is Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Surefire Local – Bellamkonda is also the Adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University. Shashi is passionate about helping small business and has spoken on Small Business and social media tools at conferences like SXSW, IABC, PRSA, Mid-Atlantic Summit, MarketingProfs and Affiliate Summit.
Shashi was honored with the Washington Business Journal’s Washington Minority Business Leader award. He was previously featured in Washingtonian’s Top 100 Tech Titans list in the Community and Thought leadership category of the Washington Tech Titans list and the Washington Business Journal called him the Social Listener. He has co-authored chapters in two books also been featured in 15 books on marketing and social media.