Mobile marketing

To get involved and make every penny count here are a few mobile marketing tips and tricks.

Study your market — Know whether or not your market is using mobile technology. You can test this by simply asking your visitors to provide their cell phone numbers in order to get SMS updates.

Increase Customer Loyalty — Use Mobile marketing to grow customer loyalty by offering special incentives to people who sign up for special SMS notifications.

Interact Smartly — Creating two way interaction is the best way to use mobile marketing. Use text messaging and social media to increase the interaction. Only send messages that are useful and / or informative.

Maintain your Brand — Your mobile branding should be very much the same as your non mobile branding. Use the same tag lines, and phrases within your mobile messages that you would use in other marketing channels.

Develop an app –  To really set yourself apart and get rid of the extraneous noise of mobile advertisements create an app that solves a problem for your target market. Every time they use the app they’ll think about your brand.

Get Social — Your mobile interaction should definitely be involved with social media. Most mobile users use social media more than they use any other app or information aside from maps, therefore, engaging them on the social media platforms they already use is a simple way to get into mobile marketing.

What, When, Where — Pay attention to the metrics about the location the user resides, the activity they are doing, and what time they’re doing it so that you know how to best to manage future campaigns. Once you collect enough metrics you can create more effective mobile marketing campaigns.

Therefore, the best way to ensure that your site is viewable on a wide variety of mobile devices is to create a website mirror that loads easy on a screen reader, and offers a cleaned up version of the website for easy mobile viewing. For instance, if your site is at http://www.website.com then you might create a special site with special code and rules on http://mobile.website.com just for mobile devices. The home page should give viewers a choice to view the mobile site or the regular site.

You can get a mobile friendly website created from your current site.

This does take a bit more work and knowledge about code, especially PHP, but there are services that will create a mobile friendly website from your current site as well as some free code and examples at various sites on the net that you can try out. Most hosts allow you to have many sub domains so you don’t have to purchase another domain name to get the mobile.website.com domain name.

However you do it, it’s more important now than ever to create a mobile friendly website.

Having a site that is viewable on any mobile device will create an entirely new marketing channel for you to connect with current and potential clients and customers. The more ways in which you can connect with your target market the better. In addition, you’ll connect with new potential clients who use mobile devices instead of PCs.

Some people prefer getting updates and information via their mobile device than via email on their personal computers. People enjoy participating in last minute contests via text message or social media on their mobile devices. Imagine if your clients can view your website on their mobile device looking for last minute specials while they’re on the go. You have a huge opportunity to build closer connections than ever with today’s technology and a mobile friendly website.

Your mobile marketing strategy can include anything from advertisements on the sides of trucks to cars that carry the logos for various businesses to marketing material that reaches people on their cell phones or other portable devices.

As with all marketing, you’ll want to achieve results with your mobile marketing strategy.

Increasing traffic to your website, increasing the number of people who opt-in to your emails and ultimately increasing your paying customers still remain your objectives when using mobile marketing. 

By clearly defining your goals, you can use traditional means of calculating your progress. With the wide availability of methods and subscriptions to help individuals number crunch their results, the choice is yours as to how many you use. Most significantly you will want to at least have a general idea of whether the mobile marketing strategy you use is producing results that justify its continuation. This means that you’ll have to consider your expenditure of time as well as expenditure of dollars in hiring individuals to help you out with your mobile marketing strategy against your increased sales. 

As with any marketing strategy, be prepared to shift gears if you are not satisfied with results. This means that at the beginning of your mobile marketing efforts you will want to define clear time-sensitive and realistic goals for what will indicate success of your mobile marketing strategy for you. This can be expressed as a dollar amount or as new leads or simply as getting your name better known in a certain region. 

The world of marketing is so dynamic that there are frequent changes and new ways of getting the word out about your business or service that occur with great frequency. Having a trusted associate, employee or friend who discusses these new trends with you can be a valuable resource in staying abreast of different opportunities. Your own research can be useful as well but as with all marketing strategies, you’ll want to make sure you are not taking away time better spent in the actual business of servicing your customers in order to pursue your mobile marketing strategy. 

Keeping up to date in all of the areas of mobile marketing strategy is important for your business succcess.

As any business person knows, staying abreast of relevant information is crucial in order to best continue and grow business. Mobile marketing in newer areas, such as providing access to your business on mobile devices, can afford you an opportunity to assess your options. Different laws that protect consumers from unwanted communications will apply to mobile marketing as well, so you will want to check with business attorneys or governmental resources to make sure that what you want to do is legal. 

Long-term goals in the field of mobile marketing can be as short as a single year because of the constant changes occurring in the field. As consumers and businesses become more accustomed to and familiar with using their mobile devices to reach out to each other, your goals for mobile marketing strategies should maintain the flexibility to adjust. For instance, early mobile marketers did not adjust the information on the Web pages to accommodate the smaller screens on mobile devices and in many cases this ended up causing consumer frustration. 

There is a lot of information available for businesses to read about marketing in today’s business environment. There are also many professionals who specialize in specific forms of marketing, including mobile marketing strategy. Calling professionals and arranging weekly meetings with one or more specialists who will make their pitches to you is a great way to incorporate a strategy for making the best-informed choice you can about marketing alternatives. 

Some of the biggest mistakes businesses make when it comes to mobile marketing strategy, especially newer forms of mobile marketing is that they end up spending more time and money on being current than is justified for the marketing strategy. Some of the best small businesses in certain regions have the lowest marketing presence. Do not ever neglect your business or your current customers for any expansion effort. 

Mobile marketing offers businesses new ways to reach out to customers. Your mobile marketing strategy is just another tool that business owners should consider and when used according to the above tips can enhance business traffic and profits.

QR codes

Here’s how QR codes work with a smart phone.

The smart phone owner can download a QR reader, activate that APP  and then simply point their (camera) phone at a QR code which could be in a newspaper, on a poster, or in a store window perhaps. The reader sees the QR code and immediately opens up a browser on the smart phone that leads to a variety of additional information. This could be in the form of a text message, a webpage, a PDF file, or even a YouTube video. The idea is that those QR codes lead the user closer to a sale, an offer, or simply more information.

A business owner can use QR codes for marketing in many ways, limited only by their own creativity. It’s easy to create a QR code online as there are many free programs to do it. You just fill out some basic information – like for example the URL you want the QR code to redirect to, and then the software creates a QR code for you. You print that QR code up on a piece of paper or you put it in a print advertisement. Now when anybody sees that QR code and scans it, they will be brought to the URL you programmed inside of it.

You can learn a lot  about ways to market with QR codes in your own city by just watching where they show up and how they are being used by other businesses. 

One of the places I saw QR codes was inside a newsprint advertisement with a message directing the reader to scan the code to enter a contest online.

On the front door of a small bakery business next to its closed sign.  Since it was closed on Mondays, scanning the code  directed passersby to a webpage that had an apology that they did not realize it would close Mondays, and offered a special if the customer returned the following day. The cool thing about that is that they probably turn some inconvenienced prospects into real customers that appreciated their efforts.

I saw QR codes in every vehicle on a used car lot that had high pedestrian traffic. Some of them linked to more detailed webpages, while others linked to short sales videos on Youtube describing the car in more detail in a very visual way.

Another way to market QR codes is if you’re in the real estate business and you attach a QR code to one of your real estate signs allowing the interested buyer to get more information about the property.

These are just some of the places that I’ve noticed QR codes within the last few weeks, so I think there’s going to be a lot more marketing strategies coming from creative marketers in the near future.

Mobile marketing

SMS marketing is one of the easiest and most popular way of reaching new audiences of different ages groups. It’s cheaper than other means of marketing, both for the marketer and the customer or consumer. Mobile applications can be developed and listed in application stores for users to download. These applications will then serve as a medium for businesses to reach their customers and advertise their products. The internet can also be used for mobile marketing by creating websites that are mobile friendly i.e websites that are optimized for mobile viewing.

Here are some interesting mobile statistics and trends that will give you an insight into the potential behind mobile marketing.

1. The total world population was estimated to be 6.8 billion people. Out of the 6.8 billion people on the planet, up to 5.1 billion of them own a mobile phone.
2. The amount of mobile subscriptions currently surpasses the amount of mobile phone users in some countries. This is due to the fact that some people have more than one mobile phone.
3. Out of the mobile searches being done each day, 70% of them lead to an action within one hour.
4. It takes just 90 seconds for the average cell phone user to respond to text messages and 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email.
5. 95 million Americans own at least one smartphone.
6. The number of people using their mobile phones to check their email is increasing while the number for people using their PCs to check their email is declining.

 The numbers mentioned above are only estimates.

There are many mobile marketing tools that can be used to grow your business. These are the most effective ones.

1. Location based services like facebook places and foursquare are social media applications. They allow businesses to offer promotions on their products and services and this will in turn help them get more loyal customers. Through location based services, customers can check-in to your business and also notify their friends of their present location.
2. Email marketing has been a very effective marketing tool for a long time. Now it can be used for mobile marketing considering the fact that the number of people using their phones to read their emails is on the rise.
3. Text messaging or SMS marketing makes it possible to send discounts and promotional messages to customers on their cell phones. One of the main advantages of using SMS is the fact that the read rate is high and most people read their messages immediately they are received.
4. Mobile websites: There are two ways you can approach this. You can either create a mobile website which is usually a lighter version of your website or make your website easier to view and navigate on mobile devices. Mobile websites are better because customers will quickly find the information they want.
    

Mobile marketing is a good marketing platform to grow your business, your customer base, and your profits. Before you start a campaign, you have to do some research and learn certain strategies. Software tools can also make mobile marketing much easier.

As a business you can capitalize on these hyper local coupon and check in services by encouraging your clients to check in, share coupons, and brag about doing business with you by offering incentives and customer loyalty bonuses and rewards. The great thing about these services is that with local mobile marketing the marketing can become instant. For instance, an ice cream shop can offer 1/2 price scoops just for the next hour if you have a special code, which your list can share with others.

Combining text marketing and local mobile marketing can be a powerful marketing method that will increase your return on investment (ROI) exponentially.

The best type of business for local search are local bricks and mortar businesses and services. Businesses such as:

Restaurants
Beauty Shops
Bars
Ice Cream Shops
Chiropractors
Massage Therapists
and more…

can all use local search and local mobile marketing in combination. The important point here is to ensure you do your due diligence before you embark on a campaign. If your services or business is not really dependent upon location then hyper local mobile marketing may not be something you want to use, however, your clients may want to. Therefore, it is important to learn all you can about local search marketing and mobile marketing for their benefit.

Google Maps, QR Codes, SMS, MMS, Local Search and the apps that help you accomplish all of these local mobile marketing channels can improve your ROI as well as help your market find you.

Even if you’re not that concerned about where someone lives, many people in your market will be concerned and prefer to do business with people local to them. If you’re one of the businesses listed above or any business that services mostly local clientele then local search mobile marketing is something that you can involve yourself in immediately and see a huge ROI.

Remember that cell phone and mobile devices adoption are increasing at a rapid rate. Some studies show that over 20 percent of all U.S. households only have mobile devices to use for communication. Most people who have cell phones send text messages, update their social network statuses, and use apps to find local businesses while they’re on the road. If your business is not listed, they can’t find you and you can’t use local mobile marketing to bring them to your business.

What you should get out of the trend toward mobile device adoptions is that it is a huge opportunity to market your products and services directly to your target market. In some cases it’s just another way to contact and communicate with your potential buyers, in other ways it is an entirely new channel with new contacts to inform about your products and services. No matter which one it turns out for you, you will be doing the right thing to add mobile marketing to your marketing channels.

There are many benefits to mobile marketing such as:

• Better Interaction   — Using mobile marketing tools such as SMS, Web friendly websites, Fun interactive games and more you will have better interaction with your market.
• Constant Connection — People carry their mobile devices with  them wherever they go. Business people are especially connected to their devices but more and more so is the average person. Even soccer moms have mobile devices today.
• Audience Expander — Believe it or not everyone doesn’t have access to a personal computer so engaging in mobile marketing gives your business a brand-new way to contact new people thus, expanding your audience in a new and exciting way.
• Cost Effective — If you segment your market carefully adding mobile marketing to your overall marketing plan will not cost a lot more to accomplish. It’s also a very effective form of marketing that gets results with an impressive return on investment (ROI).
• Simple Deployment — Adding mobile marketing is not difficult today. There are a variety of ways you can deploy your app, or your mobile website that keeps costs down. Even immediate messages are able to be deployed fast when you have a quick announcement to make.
• Easy Integration — With the right apps you can easily integrate mobile marketing into your current marketing plans. You can add a QR code to a print or Internet advertisement, and you’re mobile, it’s that simple.
• Superior Metrics — You can fully track your results after deployment with the right applications you’ll know your ROI on the fly.

If you haven’t already, then you need to make sure that you intergrate mobile marketing into your current marketing plans and strategies.

Mobile marketing is really just one-to-one marketing one step removed from in person knocking on the door marketing. It’s also permission marketing because you only engage in mobile marketing with people who have given you permission. Perhaps they signed up to receive text messages from you, or reminders, or downloaded your application; either way this is permission marketing. One to one marketing recognizes the lifetime value of one customer and seeks to stay relevant to each individual potential client and a mobile marketing campaign is an excellent new way to do so.

Identify Marketing Opportunities And Then Intergrate Them Into Your Mobile Marketing Campaign Efforts

Your first step is to identify marketing opportunities such as: Email, Text, Voice, Website, Blog and then work to integrate them into your mobile marketing campaign efforts. Your website should be mobile friendly or you should have a mobile friendly option. Have a sign up to receive text messages and reminders about new blog topics, articles or products the moment they become available. Employ someone to create a specialized app for download that solves a problem for your target market. Any way you can get your potential or current clients to give up some of their valuable mobile device real-estate is a good way to build that relationship.

Focus on relationship building rather than the hard sell and eventually the sales will come naturally. People who have developed a trusting relationship with you due to getting to know you via your free services, messages, apps, and information will be more likely to not only buy from you but to like what they buy and not seek refunds. It is important that anything you offer free or low cost be as good of quality as what you offer for a price so as not to confuse or cause your market to distrust you.

Your Mobile Marketing Campaign Should Create A Buzz

Start your mobile marketing campaign with a contest to get buzz going. You can incorporate QR codes into all your marketing to test out whether or not your market is ready for mobile friendly websites, blogs and apps. A QR Code is a 2 D square black and white code. The code is scanned by a camera ready mobile device and read by a special app that reads the codes. The codes can take those who scan it to a PDF, a website, or a contest page. A mobile marketing campaign is an excellent way to collect more names and email addresses for your newsletters.

QR Codes

Consumer spending is on the decline – and has been for years. Everyone is pinching pennies these days. People are always looking for special offers, coupons, or deals to help them save some money.

So how can you keep in line with what your consumers want while bringing them back to spend money with you? Quick Response Codes and killer coupon offers.

You Should Use QR Codes On All Of Your Marketing Materials

QR codes should be placed on all of your marketing promotions, including your business cards, billboard ads, websites, flyers, postcards, window displays, and anything else where an image is used.

Consumers will have a very gratifying experience instantly when they scan your QR code that reveals a special offer or discount code.

Once your QR code is scanned, not only can they get a cool offer, but they are also added to your mailing list. Which means that you can send other text message offers and also important information to their cell phones.

Would you like to know how many people actually scanned your codes? That is a really easy. Almost all QR code generators let you to track your mobile marketing campaign activity.

Discover how to build a targeted list of customers by using coupons as well as QR codes.

Are there any other marketing strategies that are as flexible as using Quick Response codes? What other marketing strategy lets you to send customers to various other offers using just their camera phone? What other marketing strategy lets you track the number of people who have actually read your message? Not a lot… QR codes just might be what you need in your marketing mix.

A lot of businesses are beginning to use Quick Response codes as part of their mobile marketing campaigns as a very quick method to bring customers to their online websites, to a marketing video, to text articles, or to any online destination you want.

QR codes can hold a lot of data and are powerful when used in conjunction with your other mobile marketing methods.

For instance, you can have a Quick Response code on your newspaper ad that takes people straight to your website when they click it with their mobile phones.

Also, you can get people to opt in to your marketing list by using a QR code. Users just scan your Quick Response code with their smart phone and they are instantly added to your text message list. This makes your list building efforts even more powerful as users have fewer steps to take to join your list.

You should also add a QR code that stores your contact information to your business card. So rather than keeping up with your business cards, your potential customers can just scan the QR code on your business card and store your information in their  mobile phones.

Are you starting to see how powerful QR codes can be in your business?

New technologies, such as Quick Response codes, can be somewhat intimidating when you’re first introduced to them. However as you can see, QR codes are quickly changing how businesses interact with their customers… make sure you aren’t left behind.

This is a huge indication of how powerful a text message marketing campaign can be when it comes to bringing your customers back.

If you are not using text messages to build a list, send promotions, and offer valuable content, you are leaving major profits leak open in your business.

Text messaging is becoming one of the most effective communication channels for small businesses today.

Mobile marketing is growing at an extremely fast rate world-wide and it is expected to continue to grow for years to come.

In fact, it is estimated that by 2012 that 10 trillion text messages will be sent. Recent surveys actually show that email usage on PCs is on the decline while text messaging is on a major incline.  

So if you are not using the power of a text message marketing campaign, then you are literally leaving money on the table.

Want to stay in front of your satisfied customers? All it takes is a quick text message to remind them that you exist and they’ll be back.

Not only is it effective, but running a text message marketing campaign is very affordable and doesn’t take much time at all.

Everyone knows that it’s much easier to get an existing customer to buy from you again than it is to get a brand new customer.

However, you probably spend most of your time and advertising dollars trying to get NEW customers.

But there is serious money to be made from  REPEAT business. Customers who already know, like, and trust you are more likely to pull out their wallets and spend with you again than someone who has never done business with you.

Text Message Marketing is one of the most effective ways to keep customers coming back though your doors.

Before I move on, Text Message Marketing does not mean “spam your customers.” In fact, it is a “permission-based” form of marketing that is incredibly powerful. These people actually WANT to receive your messages, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

People today love to receive special deals and coupons from their favorite businesses… and studies show that they want to receive the promotions on their mobile devices.

Text Message Marketing is great news for you as business owner!

Did you know that about 90% of  the time, your text messages are read within two or three minutes of being delivered?

Did you know that recipients actually read your text messages 99% of the time?

Do any of your other marketing methods get through to 99% of your target market?

No way.

Text Message Marketing is the only form of marketing that delivers these types of numbers when it comes to getting in front of your target market.

There are some factors involved with making a decision like this. 

First of all you want to actually understand the needs of your target market. Each business niche is different and the misconception is that only the young and hip use web accessible mobile phones. 

This is simply not true anymore. Many business owners themselves, of varying age groups, use their Smartphones daily to connect with their own customers and find information. 

If your business involves connecting with other business owners it would make sense to invest in a mobile marketing website.

For those of you who have a more consumer based business you’re going to have to really look hard into how your business comes in. If you do get sales and traffic to your website chances are you’re going to have some people who will happily purchase via mobile if they have the right environment to do so. 

For instance, Amazon.com has a fantastic, simplistic mobile marketing website which allows users to view everything they would normally on their desktop but in a smaller, unified space. 

Amazon has not missed a thing; a complete, secure shopping cart and a recommendations list are available on their mobile marketing website. 

As you know Amazon gains huge revenue from their main website but they also understand that users need information and assurance that their payment information is still secure when used on a mobile phone. 

Amazon has come up with a solution for this by having an extensive FAQ section for mobile device users. 

Why You Need To Incorporate A Mobile Marketing Website Into Your Marketing Plan

This may have answered your question as to whether you should have a mobile marketing website. You may feel you’d gain nothing from having one, but the fact that seventy-one percent of Smartphone users will search for more information on their Smartphones when they see a TV press or an online ad; you have to wonder if you’re leaving money on the table by not incorporating a mobile marketing website into your marketing plan. 

Like it or not, mobile usage is growing and ninety percent of the world lives in a place where they can get mobile access. 

So think carefully before you dismiss the idea of having a mobile marketing website. If you want to run a poll with your current customers that may help you decide – but when doing so you’ll want to provide them with a full fact list of the benefits, since most may have a few warranted objections regarding mobile data safety that they’ll want to discuss before offering you a true answer regarding their potential use of a mobile market website.

QR codes are really enticing for people to scan and find out more, but sometimes you have to be a little creative with where you place them and what you do with them.

5 Ways Of Using QR Codes In Marketing 

1. Put them on merchandise such as t-shirts and hats. This is a great way to take your QR code on the move with you. Strangers can’t resist scanning these codes so be prepared if you should happen to be wearing a shirt or hat with the code on – you may have a few people point their Smartphones at you to see where your QR code leads them.

2. Use QR codes on stickers. Have you ever given money to someone with a charity box and in return you get a sticker? Yes its old school but some charities and fundraising individuals still do it. What happens with the sticker? It’s normally discarded very quickly. Why make a QR code that directs people to the charity or fundraiser website.

3. Put QR codes on sales tags for clothes or tangible goods to explain more about the product. This really helps when you are low on staff but don’t want to lose customers. You can place little how-to scan cards on the counter or around the store, so people know how what to do in order to maximise the use of your QR codes.

4. Use QR codes as temporary tattoos. Yep you can go for a real one if you’re dare, after all some people have, but I suggest temporary tattoos are a fun way to get attention – especially at the weekend when you’re out with your friends – flash that tattoo and get think scanning your skin. Its fun, different and it will get you attention both online as well as on the mobile web.

5. Put QR codes on billboards. If your budget allows you to put advertising on medium size billboards then you can really get a lot of clicks to your mobile website. Now before you scoff at this idea you’d be surprised how cheaply you can hire a billboard out for a short term to place the code on it. This form of marketing is best used when you have an amazing offer going on.

Color QR Codes Really Make A Statement

Hopefully this has given you some ideas of how to use QR codes in your marketing, and don’t forget they don’t have to be black and white. Hire a designer to make color QR codes. This makes QR codes even more fun to use.

You are not alone.

Most small business owners today are answering “yes” to all of these questions.

However, they still manage to leave money on the table by not taking advantage of the massive Mobile Marketing opportunities available today.

Look around… people use their mobile devices for just about everything.

Imagine mobile users going to your website only to see one big, jumbled mess and takes forever to load. This is extremely frustrating to consumers who are looking for quick, simple information on a mobile marketing website.

What does this mean for you? One more potential customer… Gone.

As mobile technology continues to evolve, people will come to expect businesses to keep up with the times by having clean mobile marketing websites that are easy to navigate.

Why not get a mobile marketing website set up for your business instead of continuing to make your customers and potential customers work so hard to find and contact your business from their mobile phones. Cater to their needs and you will enjoy more new customers, more repeat business, and increased revenue.

Do you know why they’re gettin into mobile marketing?

I’m sure you guessed it… EVERYONE is using their mobile devices to access the Internet. More importantly, about half of them are using their mobile phones to look for local businesses while on the go.

Older men, younger men, older women, younger women, and even children today have cell phones. Studies show that 90% of people keep their mobile phones within arm’s reach at all times – even while they are sleeping.

This shows you how crucial Mobile Marketing is when it comes to tapping into your target market.  If you want to attract both new and repeat customers, you have to have “mobile marketability.”

You can achieve this by making sure your website is “mobile-friendly,” by using SMS Text Message Marketing and using QR codes in your business. 

Not sure how to get started in mobile marketing?

Mobile Marketing in a Box has everything you need to know to start a Mobile Marketing Business.

Although some of your competitors are doing this, most of them are still on the fence.  If you really want to dominate your market without increasing your advertising dollars, Mobile Marketing is the key.

This means that you probably have a lot of potential customers finding your website on their mobile phones. However, studies show that most mobile web user experiences are overall horrible because businesses do not have mobile friendly websites. 

Most websites were built to be viewed on desktop computers – not mobile phones. Mobile phones have small screens so websites have to be adjusted to fit mobile screens properly. 

Have you viewed your website from your mobile device? Can you easily find your phone number and address? Can you easily click to call your business? Can you easily navigate around your website and quickly find what you need? 

If not, you are losing out on potential business in a huge way. When mobile users are unable to quickly find the information they need on your website, they leave and move on to a mobile friendly website. 

More than 20% of web searches are performed from mobile devices. That means that you could be losing 20% of potentially new customers.

When you think about it, you could be missing out on 20% of PAYING customers who are trying to find your product or service while on the go. This is pretty serious. But, there is a way to fix this so you too can capitalize on the enormous mobile user market.

Pull out your mobile phone and go to your website. This is exactly what your potential customers are seeing. 

If you don’t like what you are seeing, them it’s time to create a mobile friendly website.

Customers are clutching their wallets more than ever due to the fact that people just don’t have the money they used to have.

Unfortunately, this has a negative impact on your business and makes it difficult to get new AND repeat customers flowing through your doors.

This is why it’s so important to do everything you can to ensure your marketing dollars are being spent in the right places… the places that count.

Although we’re in a touch economy, nearly EVERYONE owns a mobile phone these days. You probably see your customers using them all the time. 

In fact, there are over 4 BILLION mobile subscribers across the world and Americans are spending an average of three hours per day using the Internet from their mobile phones.

Are you losing mobile users because your website does not display properly on their mobile devices?

Are you using Text Message Marketing to build a list and keep in touch with your customers?

Are you using QR codes to maximize all of your marketing efforts?

These are some serious questions to ask yourself because the fact is; your customers and potential customers are GLUED to their mobile devices.  

If you are not prepared to serve your mobile customers, you’re letting dollars slip right through your fingertips.

By 2014, more people are expected to access the Internet from their Mobile devices than from their PC desktops. So it’s time to prepare your business for the powerful transformation going on right before our eyes.

It is time to setup Mobile Marketing campaigns that are specifically designed to bring you more customers and more revenue.

They are similar to barcodes, however they provide you with way more information. They were actually invented in Japan where they’ve become extremely well-liked. They have spread to Europe and are only just right now starting to turn up in the United States.

QR Codes are really two dimensional barcode symbols which you can use to record internet addresses along with other important information in a form that can be quickly accessed by a cell phone. Anyone with a camera phone loaded with the appropriate reader application – known as a ‘QR Code scanner’ – can now scan the code and so the mobile phone’s internet browser will immediately load up the programmed Website address.

The particular codes convert virtually any thing including magazine ads, electronic digital signs, product packaging, products, and even video into highly engaging interactive links which target, captivate, instruct, and market instantly.

In Japan QR codes really are being used for literally anything and everything. To get more details about a product, train or bus schedules, movie times as well as ratings, opinions on a DVD or CD, to obtain someone’s contact information and facts, for entrance to a concert, to listen to a brand new song, or even to purchase a snack from a vending machine.

They can be made use of to inform buyers about specific offers and perhaps even provide them discounted coupons, or maybe swap contact facts. Additionally you can put QR codes on your website.

Details included within the codes may be saved on your customers’ cellular phone, so that they will already have it filed and available at their convenience for possible future use.

QR codes marketing possibilities are nearly endless, enabling users to look at internet sites, online videos, and industry documentation; send text messages; make cell phone calls; and save contact details.

With these advances of hardware capabilities, this sheer diversity of mobile phones having been a limitation in the past, is now a simple and efficient, user-friendly interactivity with the mobile internet. Yet with the more recent Smart Phones and iPhones now available, along with the software such as XHTML MP it is no surprise to see the coming of the latest generation mobile phone, the Super Phone.

The growing majority of internet surfers, now able to access their favorite social or media site via mobile applications, along with mobile browser capabilities, that includes access to secure online financial services and trade, is a set piece for the success of mobile websites and related industry.

As the technology expands, towards a fully mobile, personalized connectivity to both the internet along with your own social networks, be it IM networks or social media, the individual will be transformed from a local citizen to a truly global citizen. The mobile networks along with mobile websites are paving the way, with a user base accessing the internet via mobile websites having exceeded any other connectivity means and is still growing.

Considered as the seventh mass media the mobile network grossed over two point two billion US Dollars in 2007, increasing the relevance of well optimized mobile website design. With that figure now bridging ten billion US Dollars for music alone, and five billion US Dollars for things ranging from ringtones, horoscopes and gaming to virtual gifts, the proof is in the pudding, all several billion of it.

With the first commercial mobile web access offered in 1996, Finland kicked off what is today a vibrant and exploding multi-billion dollar industry worldwide, which saw itself reaching, and exceeding desktop computer bases access for the first time in 2008.

This immense milestone subtly coming and going, to now expand exponentially with advertising leading as the number one growing market on the mobile network. Mobile websites is essentially the networks for a coming generation of mobile devices far more efficient with information than most desktops and likely most current networks included. No more that fifteen years as yet, and this adolescent industry has proven its likely future as the greatest power in information management for both business and the individual that the world has ever seen.

What if you could instantly send out a message to a few hundred of your customers with a 2-for-1 coupon or special?

Customer’s all over town receive your message just when they were starting to think about what they were going to do for dinner.

With Mobile Marketing, you can!

When customers visit your establishment, or see your ads, they send a text message to your keyword and receive a response.  At the same time, the customer’s mobile phone # is put into your database for future messages.

Using the Mobile Marketing SMS Center, you set up what kind of response they receive, and what you do with the incoming message.
 
 
 
Here are some ideas:
 Hold a Contest, give away a free meal to a random customer each day
 Send Today’s Specials
 Send a Coupon, offer a 2 for 1 coupon
 Receive Take Out Orders, Incoming messages can be emailed to your business
 Have Live Entertainment?, let them know who’s performing tonight.
  Custom API, let our programmers develop something specific to your business.
 Anything you can think of, the possibilities are endless! 

In order for text message marketing to work, you need to collect the mobile phone numbers of your prospects and customers. The most effective way to do this is has always been to hold a Txt2Win contest.

A Gym gives away a trial membership. A Salon gives away a free haircut. A restaurant gives away a free entree.

With the Mobile Marketing Txt2Win Contest Module, patrons and prospects can win while they are right there in your establishment. Put a sign in the window, card on a table, or a sticker on the menu. There are so many ways to interact with your customers

When setting up a contest, you decide how often you want us to pick a winner. Let’s say you are a restaurant and you want to give away 1 entree for every 25 customers who enter the contest. Simply set your ratio to 1 in 25 and let BIZ handle it for you. You can also specify if you want them to only be allowed to enter once.

For the cost of a single entree, you have gained a direct SMS marketing connection to 25 of your customers

Here are some txt2win contest ideas:
 An entertainer or band gives away a free CD
 A professional sports team gives away t-shirts
 A gourmet coffee shop gives away a free beverage
 A Bar or Club lets random patrons win “no cover” entry if they send a text while waiting in line.
 A retail store gives away a 50% off coupon
 Anything You Can Think Of, the possibilities are endless!

Give it a try right now!
Text XLR8 to 82222 to win a free Gift from Mobile Marketing 82222.  You’ll Love it!

The service provider should be able to brand your message. Not many providers and operators have this feature but it does make a great impact. Personally, I feel a branded SMS will make a significantly better impact than an anonymous message. People intend to respond more often to a message which is sent by a business rather than a ‘number’. Marketers will get better value of their money by sending a branded sms. You may also want to send a ‘Flash SMS’ rather than a conventional SMS. A flash SMS simply shows up on the mobile screen without the user having to open the message and read it. Sometimes marketers prefer to send this type of a message rather than a conventional SMS depending on the customer segment that they are targeting. If the readers are concerned they can save the SMS to their handsets for later use.

Is the service provider you are talking with capable of sending ‘Bulk SMS’. The success of a mobile marketing campaign depends a lot on the reach of the message. If you are able to reach a targeted customer group within a short time, it will help you to generate more leads and prospective customers.

Sms communication is not only used for generating sales leads but for communicating with the sales force for providing them avenues of communication. It can also be used as an event trigger. As your business grows you will only aim to get more out of SMS technology to enable your business. Value added services like integrating your SMS marketing tool with the mail client and multiple language support can help your business to grow faster than you would count. Choosing the right SMS service provider for your business can take a little more of your valuable time but at the end it will be all worth the time and effort.

You can find online mobile marketing companies that feature mobile marketing real estate plans for fairly affordable prices. The concept behind the technique is rather straight forward and it works like this: You borrow or ‘rent’ property ID’s from the business and when a potential buyer needs more info about one of your properties with your ID on it, the info that you furnished will be sent to that person’s cell phone as a text message. It actually is that easy. You can actually make improvements to your text message as often as you want. Then you can put signs with your ID on your listed properties and wait for the responses to come in.

When people are buying real estate, they frequently will see a sign in front of a property and call the phone number of the real estate agent. Due to the fact that you do not have somebody answering your phone directly 24/7, you could be losing quite a few potential sales. Knowledgeable realtors are actually implementing real estate mobile marketing products as they recognize the strength of a real estate text message.

As soon as potential buyers receive your information, you are getting their details as well. This means that you can phone them while they’re right there in front of the property that you have available for sale. This is a smart way for real estate agents to get the info of prospective customers and house hunters, and then send direct SMS messages later on whenever any property becomes available that matches their requirements. This kind of marketing can be used on residential or commercial property and it is even ideal for locating renters. The marketing tactic is extremely simple to operate and very simple to manage.

In the present turbulent real estate market, you need to do whatever you can to get ahead of the competition. You must make use of the latest technology in order to stay one step in front of other real estate agents who are directly competing with you. Real estate mobile marketing is an up and coming trend, so you should really seriously look into getting in on the game now while it is still quite new.

The company found that cell phone marketing is quickly gaining ground in Europe and that it’s beginning to appeal to marketing experts in the U.S. and Canada. Large players including Yahoo, Google and Nokia are making important strides within this up and coming market. ABI also made note of the fact that relative newcomers who’re building ad systems and software for the industry including Admob and Millennial Media are rather quickly turning out to be key participants in the market that’s very reminiscent of the web advertising rush that occurred in the latter part of the 1990s.

It was also discovered that a great many big name companies are embracing mobile marketing campaigns as a vital part of cross-media advertising. Although mobile marketing had originally been considered as being off-limits by marketers, it is now viewed as the best way to bring a personal aspect to focusing on buyers.

Mobile marketing first appeared in Japan and South Korea when corporations started to collect cell phone numbers to send out wanted or unwanted information. This method of advertising is at various levels of maturity – dependent on the market and country. Although cell phone marketing is pretty well established in Europe and Asia, the U.S. market is just starting to emerge with major participants taking the stage.

In the UK, there’s been a very significant growth of cell phone coupons with an calculated three million Britons who have already redeemed coupons they got on their mobile phones. As a result of daring mobile marketing campaigns from top British brands, the popularity of cell phone coupons has grown six-fold. This past summer Coca-Cola Great Britain (CCGB) teamed with digital voucher company i-movo to run a mobile coupon promotion in the UK that led to 87% of the coupons being redeemed, making it the number one most effective UK mobile coupon promotion in British history.

Cell phone marketing can be carried out by a number of business types since it is not restricted to only those who sell tangible items. To illustrate, restaurants and bars can implement mobile phone marketing by sending their customers meal special offers and happy hour deals. Restaurant clientele can be notified when you have changed your menu or are offering some kind of exclusive event at your business.

For retailers, mobile phone marketing campaigns lets you deliver promotional codes that are available exclusively to those customers who subscribe to receive your messages. Retailers can announce new products and in-store special events. Gift shop as well as specialty stores can offer mobile phone reminders for upcoming special occasions and feature special discounts on selected gifts for each upcoming holiday.

Automotive services could also take advantage of mobile marketing by sending clients reminders for automobile routine maintenance and tune-ups and for sending products and service special offers. People who are in the entertainment industry can advertise featured performers, publish coming events and offer coupons for early ticket purchases or for reduced cover charges.

As you can tell, mobile phone marketing campaigns are a excellent way for a variety of business types to get the word out. The good thing about this sort of marketing is that it is instantaneous and targeted. Your message will certainly be read immediately after you send it, and if you put together a clever marketing strategy, you can offer your customers enticing incentives for following through on your promotions.

Considering how competitive most areas of business are, being a business owner you must do all you can to stay in touch with your customers in order to offer them services and/or products that they can purchase from you. Instead of having to rely on email marketing which can become costly and sometimes returns very few results, it is easy to send your message wirelessly and you’re all but guaranteed that your targeted customers will indeed read the text messages right away and will likely act on them as well.

Text messaging providers make it easy for us to send short text messages to or from our cell phones or computers. This sort of permission-based service is great if you wish to send out a short, direct message to your customers who have agreed to receive this information from you through their cell phone.

Text messages are big business for wireless carriers. Business Week magazine has found that over one billion working cellular phones present marketers with the potential for connecting directly with customers from just about anyplace on the planet. It’s estimated that mobile phone users transmit 548 billion text messages each year, and that number is simply going to go up in the future.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level, you need to prepare a plan to collect your customer’s mobile phone numbers and profile information with their permission. The right mobile marketing plan could in fact, allow you to link the mobile phone to a huge database of user profiles. The real key to profitable cell phone marketing is to get the permission from your customers to allow your text messages to be received on their cell phones. One common way to do this is to offer something absolutely free in exchange for their information.

Due to the simple fact that a majority of teenagers and young adults simply cannot live without their cell phones, and also due to the reality that teenagers literally choose to receive messages on their mobile phones many times a day, tapping into the teen market could be extremely rewarding indeed. Teenage mobile phone users see text messages as an indication of popularity and will certainly welcome and read virtually any messages they receive.

Cell phone marketing is based on the idea of choice which is each and every marketer’s dream. Your customers register for your program because they would like to get your offers. In light of the reality that more than 90% of text messages are read, you are ensured that your customers will view and read what you’re featuring.

This is certainly far different from marketing in newspapers wherein you have to count on just the hope that the right people will discover your ad in the paper. With mobile marketing, in order for your customer to get your offer, they must only present the text message at a checkout or provide the store with a promo code that you have integrated in your text ad.

SMS advertising is simply context-based target marketing. It is contextual since your ads only go to the consumers you wish to receive them – those folks who are quite likely to buy the merchandise and or services you’re selling. SMS marketing is often integrated into a well planned marketing campaign.

The hardest element of any business strategy is to get an exhaustive database of people and being able to send them sms messages that aren’t perceived as spam. You can locate agencies on the internet who, for a small fee, can provide you with a database that contains millions of members who are more than willing to receive your messages and act upon them. Marketing just couldn’t get much more qualified or effective than that, don’t you agree?

A SMS marketing campaign can also be really economical compared to conventional tactics such as running a television ad or taking out high-priced newspaper advertisements. SMS advertising is time-based, meaning that you can send out your promotions at the exact time that you feel they will have the greatest effect. Such as, if you sell sporting goods, sending out promotions via text messages minutes before the Super Bowl will be aired might prove to be quite profitable. Because most people have their cell phone with them all the time, this means that your communications will in all probability be read shortly after submitting them.

If you take this one step further and offer the recipients an incentive for acting within a specific time period, you ought to notice an increase in product sales fairly quickly. You could even use this type of advertising to ask customers their thoughts about your services or products so that you can be certain of what it is they desire.

Cell phone marketing is the newest development that’s probably going to change the way that marketers contact targeted customers. A SMS marketing campaign should be considered by companies of all sizes and it’s an excellent way for business owners to keep a finger on the pulse of particular audiences. Staying in touch with your customer base and offering regular updates about your small business is a sensible way to establish trust and brand your company name.

If you are contemplating getting started with mobile phone marketing, you should start out by questioning who your target audience is. Where these individuals are located and where they gather their information (both online and off) as well as which kind of media they choose when they’re looking to have their desires satisfied are important pieces to know. The point is that the more knowledge you have about your target audience, the more success you will have with your cell phone marketing and advertising campaigns.

By just knowing what your market really needs, you’ll be able to then determine which mobile strategy (SMS, MMS, mobile internet, etc) makes the most sense to use. Also you must consider just exactly what you would like to achieve. Maybe you would like to run an advertising campaign to create brand awareness or maybe you are thinking about building a permission-based list that you can sell to in a very targetable manner. Finally, you must set a specific date of when you wish to accomplish your desired goals and consider how you will measure your progress so that you will know when you have in fact accomplished your goal.

Next, it is absolutely essential that you learn the language of getting started with mobile marketing. You need to fully understand the functions of the different paths of mobile phone marketing and the mechanics of running applications. There are many great ways to understand this language and one of the best sources is subscribing to the Mobile Marketer publication online. You could also think about going to events in person such as the Mobile Marketing Association’s Mobile Marketing Forum that meets every year in New York.

As a beginner to cell phone marketing you need to start out simply. Choose a simple program that is easy to use and that has the broadest reach. First put your attention on accomplishing just one of your objectives. For example, you may want to build a permission-based SMS market. This can be done quite easily by offering an invitation to get free alerts via your own website. After people have registered, you can use your Facebook or Twitter account to send messages or coupons to the group and to interact with them. Be sure you create an interactive experience with your audience and get them to respond to you and give you their views on your programs so that you find out what actually interests them.

Mobile marketing is here to stay. You only have to understand yourself, your customers and precisely what you need to achieve and then develop a plan for getting started with mobile marketing. You’ll surely find that when you finally get moving and have your audience engaged personally, that you will reap the financial rewards you’re after.