In the News: New Survey Says Voice Search for Small Businesses is a Growing Trend

If someone asks one of their voice assistants to find a business near them, will that person find your business?

If you answered, “No” or “I don’t know” then now may be the time to find out.

According to a new survey from SCORE we reported on this week, 58% of consumers now find local businesses through a voice search. And about a quarter of people are doing this once a week.

This definitely shows voice assistants are more than just a fad or a passing trend. We’re using them more and more to run a business so it makes sense consumers are doing the same thing.

To make sure your business is properly positioned to come back on voice searches, it’s important all your local online directory listings are up to date, especially that Google Knowledge Panel on your business.

For the rest of the week in small business headlines, check out our weekly news roundup below:

Economy

80% of Small Business Owners Say Their Confidence Remains High

The confidence of small business owners is overwhelmingly high. According to Provident Bank’s Small Business Confidence Survey, 80% of owners feel this way. Small business owners expect the revenue of their business to improve over the next year. And another 60% also believe the current economic climate is having a positive impact on their business.

Employment

New York and LA Top Cities for Freelancers

Skilled freelance workers have more options than ever. And as more organizations use the services of freelancers, it has become the norm. But freelancers can also choose where to work. And companies large and small now have a certain percentage of freelancers in their workforce.

Marketing Tips

18% of Marketing Emails Get Opened – How About Yours

The average email open rate for all industries in the United States equals 18%. And the average click-through rates on emails amounts to 2.69.% But the average click-to-open rate stands at 14.10%. The percentages appeared in the findings of Campaign Monitor’s latest research on Email Marketing Benchmarks by industries.

How Your Business Should Deal with the Fake News Era

Want to know what keeps me up at night? It happens to be the status of truth in our society. I remember when the Internet first came out. And I thought that it would be the final arbitrator of truth. You could look up any fact you wanted. Well, I that prediction proved partly right.

Small Business Operations

Nimble 5.0 CRM Has Small Business Updates

There’s a new team relationship manager from Nimble that syncs with hundreds of business apps and adds personal insights. Nimble 5.0 is a major update to the CRM for Office 365 and G Suite they already offer. Nimble 5 CRM The product also offers new integrations. It syncs with Office 365, Teams, Edge, PowerBI, Dynamics 365, and applications built with Azure. Nimble 5.

Social Media

Instagram Explore Introduces Ads and Your Small Business Could Benefit

Today 80% of Instagram’s 1 billion users follow businesses on the platform. So the popularity of Instagram as a  place to follow favorite brands continues to grow. And the photo and video-sharing social network announced recently a plan to put ads on its Explore Page. More than 50% of Instagram account holders use Explore each month.

87% of Coworkers Connect Using Facebook

Staying connected is essential for the way people work. Whether it is through voice, video, or text, workers use different platforms to make these connections. And according to the 2019 State of the Digital Workplace Report from Igloo, coworkers are connecting on Facebook more frequently than on other social media.

Technology Trends

Outdoorsy RV Creates a Rental Business for Vehicles Not in Use

There’s opportunity for America’s 10.5 million RV owners. And go-getters can turn side hustles into small businesses. But first you must find a niche.  Outdoorsy RV offers a great example. It allows RV, travel trailer and campervan owners to rent out their RVs to Millennials and GenXers. And remember, 22 million Americans will be RVing this summer.

Meetrz App Seeks to Help Small Businesses Connect Locally

There are more ways than ever to connect with people, but each successive app seems to prolong the process even more. Algorithms have removed the organic way in which people connect and made it more complicated than it has to be. Sean Whalen created the Meetrz app to get rid of loaded connection lists and connect people instantly.

Image: DepositPhotos.com

This article, "In the News: New Survey Says Voice Search for Small Businesses is a Growing Trend" was first published on Small Business Trends