See Instagram Feed Pro in Action

Google is scoring local businesses on recent activity now, not on how long you have been around.

The same test has been running on your website the whole time. Someone lands on your homepage, scans it for proof you are still open, and the newest thing on the page is a blog post from 2023.

Open your site and find the most recent date anywhere on it. That date is what a stranger thinks your business is.

#smashballoon #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #localbusiness #websitetips …

WhatsApp rolled out usernames so people can start a chat without their number showing.

And your contact page still demands one before it will answer anything, so the people who fill it in were always going to buy and the ones who close the tab are the ones you could have won.

Let them message you on the app they already have open. WPChat sets up in three steps at wpchat.com.

#wpchat #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #whatsappbusiness #customerservice …

Ten people wanted to ask. None of them could.

More ads, more posting, more SEO. You can double the visitors and still finish the month on the same three enquiries, because the leak was never at the top.

Somebody gets interested, hits one question, and the only way to ask is a form promising two business days.

Hashtags

#wpchat #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #leadgeneration #websitetips …

Professional and reliable are not proof.

Five seconds on a homepage is all anyone gives you, and in that time nobody is reading your copy. They are scanning for other people.

One named review, one job you finished this month, one client they might recognise. Above the fold. That is the audition.

#smashballoon #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #websitetips #socialproof …

Your Facebook page is doing all the work for Facebook.

It is usually the most alive thing a local business owns. Photos from last week, real comments, proof there are humans here. Then someone opens the website and it looks like 2019.

Plugins, add new, search Smash Balloon, connect the page, and put the feed on the homepage under the hero. Not on a buried page.

#smashballoon #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #facebookmarketing #wordpress …

Your phone number is costing you sales.

Think about the last time you had to phone a business. You did not know the wait, or who would answer, or whether they could even help. So you put it off.

Your buyers do the same thing, and then they just do not buy. Let them start it in writing instead.

#wpchat #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #customerservice #whatsappbusiness …

They didn`t forget. Your ask was the problem.

A link plus a thank-you paragraph asks somebody to open a browser, find your listing, sign in, think of something to write and rate you out of five. That is six jobs, on a phone, while they are making dinner.

Text them same day, write it like a person, and give them the first sentence.

#smashballoon #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #googlereviews #customerreviews …

A visitor was ready to ask the one question standing between them and buying.

Then they saw a faceless grey bubble with no name and no photo, and closed the tab.

People message a person, not a box. Put a real face on your chat.

#wpchat #wordpress #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #customerservice …

You keep pouring your best effort into the posts that bring you the fewest customers, and you`d never know it.

Your most-liked post and your best-selling post are usually two different posts. Chase likes and you starve the one that actually pays.

Track what people click in the feed on your own site so you know what to make more of.

#smashballoon #socialmediamarketing #wordpress #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner …

A lead asked, you replied by email, and your answer is still sitting unread in a folder they open once a week.

While it sat there, they got a text back from someone else and booked.

Same offer, different channel, and that`s the whole game.

#wpchat #wordpress #whatsappbusiness #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner …

You post a product on Instagram, people love it, then they land on your site and the feed is just pictures with no way to buy.

Every post becomes a dead end, and making people dig through your shop to find it means most of them won`t.

Make the feed shoppable so each post links straight to its product page.

#smashballoon #woocommerce #wordpress #ecommerce …

Someone ready to book hits your form, sees eight fields and a date picker that won`t cooperate, and closes the tab.

They wanted the appointment, the form just made it work.

Let them book in a short chat instead, the way they`d text you.

#wpchat #wordpress #smallbusiness #smallbusinessowner #BookingsOpen …