Digital Marketing Consultant

Take Notice of Who Else Is Using Mobile Marketing

If your company is still unsure whether or not mobile marketing  is right for you, take a look at the following stat. According to  eMarketer, several industries are leveraging mobile in various capacities. For example, 42% of media and entertainment companies integrate mobile marketing with their other media campaigns, such as print, TV and online.  Meanwhile, 23% of retail companies use mobile marketing as a standalone activity. Thirty-five percent of the automotive
industry is in the early stages of mobile marketing and just experimenting to see how it can fit in their marketing strategies.

Of those within the travel industry, 30% integrate mobile with their overall marketing campaigns and another 30% are using mobile on an adhoc basis. Other industries mentioned in the study are hospitality and restaurants, fast-moving consumer goods and financial services.
 
It’s safe to say that companies of various industries are already using mobile marketing. Chances are your competitors are reaching their customers and your potential customers using mobile. If that’s the case, maybe it’s time for your company to evaluate if it’s the right time to step into the world of mobile marketing.

Conclusion

Though it’s evident that mobile marketing offers a wide range of benefits for companies of all sizes and industries, not all companies have the time, resources or know-how to successfully implement a mobile marketing strategy and integrate it into their overall marketing programs. If your company is one of them, then it is recommended you put your mobile marketing strategy in the hands of a certified professional.

WSI Internet Consultants are trained and certified by industry leaders to plan, strategize and implement proven digital marketing solutions for their clients. Our solutions include a wide range of services from traditional Internet marketing (such as paid search advertising and search engine optimization) to landing page design to social media and mobile marketing. All digital marketing solutions are custom-tailored to suit the needs and goals of each individual business.

Contact me today to discuss how your company can benefit from a proven digital marketing solution or to learn more about how a mobile marketing strategy can help your business.

If you would like to see some examples of mobile marketing, here are some.

If you would like a complete complementary copy of this strategy guide, send me a note.

Who Should Be Leveraging Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing offers companies new and exciting ways to expand the reach of their messages and touch more customers. The return on investment could range between new leads, more sales, increased repeat sales or more customer interaction. But who should be leveraging mobile marketing? How can you determine if your company is ready to tap into the mobile realm? Below are some ways to help you come to that conclusion.

Evaluate If Mobile Marketing Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

Start by evaluating your company’s goals and determine if the benefits of mobile

marketing (as previously discussed) could help you meet those goals. For example,

if your company is struggling to retain customers and create brand loyalty, mobile

marketing might help you close the gap between existing customers becoming repeat customers. Keeping your customers in the know about your latest offers and special discounts through the personal touch of a mobile device can create customer loyalty.

Determine If Mobile Fits With Your Existing Marketing Programs

You can also think about your existing marketing programs and determine where you could enhance your customer communication strategies using mobile marketing. For example, if your company is currently leveraging other forms of Internet marketing, such as social media, and looking to tap into new engagement strategies, mobile marketing might be a step in the right direction. Location-based mobile marketing can serve as a great asset for companies that are looking to link their social media and mobile marketing campaigns together. Location-based social networks like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla coupled with the features of today’s smartphones allow people to interact, share and recommend places based on their physical location.

Creating a mobile friendly website might be a good way to enhance the experience of your current website visitors. Launching a mobile commerce site might be a nice way to complement your existing eCommerce website.  Later in this guide, we will discuss various mobile opportunities and how to integrate them into your marketing strategy. When answering the question of who should be leveraging mobile, a good question to ask yourself is where mobile fits with what you’re currently doing.

Tomorrow:  The Last in the Series

If you would like a complete complementary copy of this strategy guide, send me a note.

Is Mobile Markeing Right for You?

Before we discuss whether mobile marketing is right for your company, let’s first define what it is. According to the Mobile Marketing Association, it’s “a set of practices that enables organizations and businesses to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.”

As mentioned, mobile marketing  is more than just sending text messages to your customers. There are a number of strategies that fall under the umbrella of mobile marketing, which will be discussed in further detail later on. For now, let’s talk about whether the concept of mobile  marketing in general is  right for your company.

Why Do Companies Use Mobile Marketing?

There are several reasons why companies choose to embark in the mobile world to further reach their customers. Below are just a few reasons marketers have leveraged mobile marketing.

People Consider Their Mobile Phones Personal

Many people use their mobile phones to store contact information, appointments, reminders and personal notes. People take pictures using their mobile phones and customize various settings on their phone (wallpaper, ringtone, theme, etc.). Also, generally people don’t share their mobile phones. So communicating to your customers via their mobile devices is an effective way to increase the personalization of your marketing message. With that said, privacy and permission are very important for all marketing campaigns especially involving a mobile device.

People Always Keep Their Mobile Phones Around Them And On

Think about the things you grab just before you leave the house: wallet,keys, mobile phone. Think about the things you keep close to you  throughout the day: your mobile phone. Also think about the last time  you turned your mobile phone off. During meetings, outings and even while they sleep, people generally put their phones on silent or vibrate. Rarely do people turn their mobile phones off unless they need to reset it, pop out the battery or change the SIM card.

What does this mean for marketers? Mobile campaigns can be read within minutes of being received. But marketers must be sensitive to the timing of their messages. Nobody wants to be woken up at 4 AM with a marketing message to their mobile device.

People Can Make Payments Through Their Mobile Phones

Every mobile phone has a built-in payment system: the SIM card. Billing can be done through the user’s mobile network. With the popularity of ringtone downloads, game downloads and data usage, people have developed the mentality that they must pay for content through their mobile phones. The expectation that mobile content is free has been lessened. But marketers must understand that even though consumers are willing to pay for content and downloads via their mobile device, clear communication that charges will apply must take effect.

People Can Easily Share Mobile Content

Much like how email has the “forward” option, mobile phones gives users the ability to forward messages to their friends with a click of a button. There is great viral potential with mobile marketing and if the message/offer is compelling enough, users will share your message/offer with their friends. With the use of text messaging, BlackBerry Messenger and other instant messenger systems on the mobile device, people are communicating with their friends using their cell phones more than traditional communication channels. Therefore, mobile marketing campaigns have the potential to go viral because users can send a message to their mobile contacts simultaneously within minutes.

People’s Response to a Mobile Campaign Can Be Easily Tracked

Much like how Internet marketing offers exceptional tracking and measuring capabilities, so does mobile marketing. Since every activity in a mobile marketing campaign is tracked to a single phone number, engagement can be easily measured. Though some mobile networks may limit the amount of data they are willing to share with marketing companies, activity can be traced back to individual mobile users.

Consider the number of people who rely on their phones and how important they consider their phones as part of their way of life. Mobile marketing allows companies to capitalize on this fact, while increasing customer engagement, brand loyalty and profits at the same time.

Tomorrow:  Who Should Be Leveraging Moble Marketing?

If you would like a complete complementary copy of this strategy guide, send me a note.

The Current State of Mobile Marketing

Recent statistics indicate that the use of smartphones and tablets is increasing at a rapid rate all over the world. As the mobile world continues to release updated versions of their technologies like the BlackBerry, iPhone or Android phones and tablet PCs like the iPad and BlackBerry Playbook, more and more people are harnessing the power of mobile.  The reality is: we live in a fast-paced world where information travels at the speed of light and people are accessing this information on their handheld devices.

According to eMarketer, the amount of Internet traffic coming from mobile devices has increased over the past year. As of June 2011, 5.02% of all Internet traffic worldwide came from a mobile device, a considerable increase over the 2.03% of mobile web traffic received just 1 year prior. Mobile web browsing isn’t going to disappear. The concept of accessing information instantly and straight into the palm of your hands will continue to grow in popularity. And new technologies will continue emerging to accommodate this growing demand.

Therefore, it only makes sense that marketers are finding new opportunities to reach consumers. Worldwide mobile advertising revenues have increased from $1.6 billion to $3.3 billion between 2010 and 2011. Statistics indicate that by 2015, marketers will spend a whopping $20.6 billion on mobile advertising.

Why are marketers leveraging mobile marketing in their businesses? What are some of the benefits of mobile marketing? The pros and cons of mobile marketing will be discussed in the next section, but according to a recent study*, worldwide advertisers stated the following key reasons why they use mobile marketing:

• 78% said they use mobile because more consumers have access to smartphones
• 61% said they like the ability to target certain demographics based on devices
• 42% said they like the attractive ad formats

* Data is from the June 2011 Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) report titled "Global Perspectives: The Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketer" conducted by Ipsos and TNS Infratest.

If other companies out there are using mobile marketing, it might be wise for yours to take a look at this new phenomenon and determine if it’s the right opportunity for you as well.

Tomorrow:  Is Mobile Marketing Right for YOU?

If you would like a complete complementary copy of this strategy guide, send me a note.

Introduction

Over the years, marketers have seen a considerable shift in focus in the online realm as the digital world continues to evolve. In the early 90s, the hype was on having a website; everyone wanted be part of the dot-com blitz. Though having an online presence was important, the concept of pay-per-click, search engine optimization and other forms of traditional Internet marketing became critical components to the success of any website.

To no one’s surprise, the world of digital media is shifting again. Now the next big contender is mobile marketing. Often times, the term “mobile marketing” is linked to the idea of sending advertising messages to people’s mobile phones. A few years ago, this might have been the case. But mobile marketing encompasses several techniques; it’s more than just text message marketing. Mobile marketing involves services like mobile websites, social location marketing, SMS and MMS marketing and mobile apps – just to name a few. Think of mobile marketing as the umbrella under which these other mobile services lie, all of which have the potential to help companies bring in new customers and create brand loyalty. (We will elaborate further on these terms throughout this guide.)

In staying at the forefront of the digital space, WSI has created a complete guide for companies like yours to stay educated, learn about the various mobile marketing opportunities out there, choose the opportunities that are right for you, develop a strategy in line with your overall marketing goals and measure the success of each campaign. If your company is interested in learning about the mobile marketing space and ready to embark on leveraging some of the opportunities available, picking up this guide is a step in the right direction.

Tomorrow:  The Current State of Moble Marketing

If you would like a complete complementary copy of this strategy guide, send me a note.

One thing that I have not mentioned and which may make you decide that you need to go forward with creating a mobile site is the iPad.  Remember that it, too, uses a difference rendering. 

Having said that, here is a list of great tools to use to validate whether your site old or new renders well on mobile devices:

www.ipadpeek.com – See how your site looks on an iPad.  Because flash works on this site, your need to disable the flash plug-in to be fully accurate.

www.iphonetester.com – See how your site looks on an iPhone.

www.iphoney.,com – same as above

http://validator.w3.org/mobile - Shows how mobile-friendly your site is and checks against W3C compliance.

http://www.google.com/gwt/n - Makes the page mobile-web-friendly by rimming the content down to its bare essentials.

http://www.gomez.com/mobile-rediness-instant-test - This mobile readiness test gives you a score between one and five based on an analysis of over thirty proven mobile web development techniques.

I hope you have enjoyed this series.  Please let me know if I can help more and let me know if you want more.

Yesterday, you will remember that your need to construct a mobile phone website differently than a full-fledged website for a desktop computer.  But the rules are still valid that, if you don’t optimize your mobile website, you have wasted your money.

Here are seven things you need to know:

• Because each smart-phone renders websites differently, you can check to see how your will show by using validators (to be listed later)
• Follow the “traditional” on-site SEO Best Practices, such as, 
  • Major keywords in the title tags
  • H1 and body text
  • Rich keyword Meta Titles and Descriptions
  • Keyword-rich anchor text for internal links
• Have a dedicated link building campaign for the mobile site.
• Mobile search results tend to reflect “local search results.”  Your site must be optimized for local type searches.
• Submit your business information to local directories making sure your site is verified and included in site like Google’s Local Business Center.
• Get the mobile site spidered and indexed by submitting to major search engines: Google Sitemaps and Yahoo! Submit Your Mobile Site
• Standard domain names and URLs (m.site.com, mobile.site.com, site.mobi, www.site.com/mobile) should all point to your mobile site.  If you can afford only one of these domains, use m.site.com

Tomorrow I will show you some tools you can use to help your site work.

Okay, here we go.  Here are the basic things you have to know to create a mobile-friendly website.

1. Auto-Detect mobile Phones - Mobile-friendly websites automatically detect that users are on a mobile device and then display the appropriate version of the site.
2. Clear Calls to Action – The most important features of the site should be at the top of the page and should include clear calls to action.
3. Avoid Mobile-Unfriendly elements – The design should avoid mobile-unfriendly elements such as flash, large images, video, and complex layouts.
4. Fluidity – Design with a fluid layout that will gracefully adapt to a range of typical mobile screen resolutions.
5. Touch Interface – Touch screens don’t have hover states.  It is all about fingers tapping, so don’t build a site that requires users to move their mouse over menus or other elements.  Also, make sure links and other clickable elements are big enough to tap with a fingertip.
6. Scrolling – Limit scrolling to one direction.  The site should only scroll vertically.  Having to manage a page that scrolls horizontally and vertically is difficult to navigate.
7. One Window – Avoid pop-ups and new windows.  A user’s entire experience should take place in a single window.
8. Simple Navigation – Simplify your navigation.  Typically, a site’s traditional navigation is too complex for a mobile site.
9. Clean Code – Most desktop webs browsers allow a lot of leeway when rendering HTML and will usually display a site correctly, even if the code has flaws.  Mobile browsers usually have less room for error, so there is an added value to having clean, simple code.
10. Use Alt Tags – Sometimes images won’t load, either because of issues with the mobile browser or because a user’s connection is too slow.  Always include descriptive alt tags for images, in case they don’t load.
11. Label Forms – Some modern websites embed form labels inside the form field.  On mobile, it is much more difficult to keep track of the fields, and users often make use of “next/previous” buttons built into the keyboard.  Without clear labels alongside the form fields, ti might be impossible to know what information is supposed to be in which field.
12. Escape Hatch – Sometimes users just need to use your normal site.  If possible, always have a link back to the original, full site and from your desktop site to your mobile site.
    

Number 13 – None of this will work unless you optimize the site correctly.  See tomorrow.

Before we cover how to make your website information mobile phone friendly, you need to decide if you want to spend the time and money to create such informational platforms.  Here is a check list to ask yourself:

• If your budget allows for a mobile site, build one; your prospects and clients will do better with it.
• Use site analytics to determine how much your site is accessed from mobile devices now and this will help to decide whither it's worth building a mobile site and which platform to prioritize.
• Build a mobile site if people do small, quick transactions on your site under time pressure.
• Build a mobile site if people use your stie to communicate with each other.
• Build a mobile site if people come to your site to kill time and browse.
• DO NOT build a mobile site if your full website has a shallow information structure and limited functionality (1 to 4 possible tasks).
  

One basic thing you must understand.  Each smartphone has its own way of showing information.  So if you decide to have a mobile marketing site constructed, you need to do your homework on point two above to determine which phones are used most to access your main site today.

Tomorrow I will begin listing the attributes that a mobile website must have to be successful.

How mobile marketing can influence your business, depends on which business you are running.  We have mentioned previously that one of the biggest activities on the mobile phone is seeking Information.  This includes

• finding business hours,
• finding store locations,
• getting directions,
• checking news,
• sport information,
• movie times.
  

So how does your business relate to these needs?  Do you need prospective customers to find you when you are open?  This means you are a retail business, at least.  It could be you need prospects to find you for others reasons, like deliveries, pickups, appointments.  You might also just want to out-compete someone else.

But maybe you have understood something no one else has discovered.  As JK Rowling (author who had to struggle to get anyone to publish her first “Harry Potter” book) said, “The market doesn’t know what it wants until it sees it.”

Yes, there is less competition AND having fewer subjects to filter in mobile may mean you will get a higher Click-Through-Rate in mobile search.  But you need to do it right on mobile, meaning that, if you don’t, the user will have all the problems mentioned earlier:

The Small Screen will make it necessary to scroll with awkward input on a poorly designed website which might take much too long time to download.

If you design your message correctly, you will make the user happier and more likely to deal with you.

How do you make your website information mobile phone friendly?  That is next.