Mobile Marketing Introduction

Mobile Marketing Video Transcript Why Mobile Marketing is important What’s a mobile device? Well, mostly we’re talking about smartphones, but this category also includes gadgets like tablets, e-readers and even gaming consoles – basically anything that’s small, portable, and able to connect to the Internet. If that’s not enough to convince you, consider this: people use their phones five times more to search for information on local businesses! AND! According a recent Google/Ipsos survey of U.S. consumers, 71 percent of smartphone users that see TV, press or online ad, do a mobile search for more information. Make no mistake, the future is mobile. Morgan Stanley predicts that mobile browsing – i.e. surfing the web from your phone – will outpace desktop browsing within three to five years! Why you should be using Mobile Marketing The popularity of mobile marketing is fueled by two things: buyer habits, which we’ve already talked about, AND equally important, RESULTS. The question you probably have now is, How can I use mobile marketing to grow my business? And, What are the benefits and challenges of adopting this medium? Well, there are several benefits. Let’s start with these. 1 - Mobile marketing is a great way to increase customer loyalty by engaging with them wherever they are, not just when they are tethered to their computer 2 - Mobile marketing is helping many businesses bring in more revenue per customer 3 - Mobile marketing is a great way to promote awareness of your brand 4 - Mobile marketing can help boost the number of visitors you get to your website And 5 - Mobile marketing can give a real boost in retail traffic, one of the most critical factors in main street business success. According to a recent study, almost half say they don’t have the time to figure it out. This is understandable. Small businesses are, as a rule, strapped for time. Thirty percent of those surveyed said mobile marketing was outside their budget. Now, the reality is that mobile marketing is cost-effective and affordable, but there’s still a perception that it’s only for the big companies with deep pockets. And another third said they were interested in mobile but weren’t sure where to begin. Searching on a phone is a little tougher than searching on a computer, so you need to make it very easy on your users. If you don't Cater for Use of Mobiles Here’s the thing: the popularity of mobile devices has presented new challenges for publishers. For one thing, phones have tiny screens, and most business websites were designed to be viewed on the expansive monitors of a desktop or laptop. This is an example of what a website that isn’t mobile optimized may look like. Not too attractive it it? But the majority of businesses out there still don’t have a mobile optimized site. As you can imagine, the ones that do are at a real advantage. What does a mobile-friendly site look like? Here’s a good example, from a sandwich shop called Firehouse Subs. Basically it looks like a stripped-down version of your current website, designed to give the most relevant information for a mobile user. So I think step 1 is to create a mobile-friendly site so that all of the millions and millions of mobile phone users can find you and get what they are looking for. Pro-active Mobile Marketing Text messaging is a wildly popular and mind-bogglingly effective way to promote your business and acquire new customers. Consider the stats on this slide: Look at how engaged people are with their phones. Three-quarters of phone users send or receive 664 text messages EACH MONTH. And open rates for text messages are off the charts – better than any other marketing channel. There’s a widely held notion that text-message marketing is simply a form of spam and that users hate getting promotional messages delivered to their phones. There’s a grain of truth to this notion: you DO have to be careful with SMS marketing. If you decide to launch an SMS marketing campaign, there are some things you should consider: Number 1 - Get permission and make it very clear how you intend to use their information - nobody wants to be spammed on their phone. Number 2 - Encourage participation by offering incentives. And 3 - Use SMS to deliver rewards, giveaways and coupons right after the opt in so they feel like they made a good choice. And how does a business go about doing all of this? It’s not that hard. There are a variety of great SMS platforms out there. They operate in much the same way as an email marketing application. You just log in, compose a message, and hit send - very simple. This is example of a mobile ad, for Kentucky Fried Chicken of all things. It may be a little tough to see, but this ad was actually presented inside of the mobile version of FHM magazine, a popular men’s magazine. It gives the mobile user an opportunity to win a PSP gaming console from Sony as an incentive for visiting their site, and of course, hopefully eating their food. Mobile advertising like this is taking off like a rocket! According to research from MobiThinking.com, mobile ad spending worldwide is predicted to reach $20.6 BILLION in 2015. And as you can see on this chart, there were over 234 Billion - with a B! - mobile advertising impressions in the 4th quarter of 2011 alone. The question is, What works in mobile advertising? Well, data compiled by Gartner, the IT research firm, shows that search ads and location ads deliver the highest revenue. Maintain realistic expectations; mobile marketing is effective, and its potential grows every day, BUT it’s not the silver bullet Work on how you can just get the first step in a sales process started - that may be just a phone call, getting them to opt in to your list, or possibly download your mobile application. Whatever it is, it must be quick and easy to do on the phone for it to be a success. There are a lot of great ad networks to choose from. Google, as always, is the elephant in the room, but there are some other great players in this space you might consider. Creating an ad for mobile is essentially the same as placing a normal online ad BUT you want to make sure your art and messaging is optimized for mobile screens. Apps are a HUGE business. In the Apple App Store alone, there are more than a quarter million applications available for download. Mobile Apps and the Future Studies are showing that “app-fatique” is a real issue...most apps stopped getting used after a very short period of time because they aren’t on the user’s short list of most important apps. You may have even heard of this huge trend they call the “gamification of business”. Foursquare is a perfect example of an app that makes a game out of “checking in” to various businesses. You could use the Foursquare app to create a game experience for those that frequent your business. The future is mobile, and the sooner you adapt to this change (which is already well underway), the sooner your business will be in a position to compete for tomorrow’s customer.