|
 In case you haven't noticed, the biggest emerging trend in
local business
marketing and advertising is mobile phone marketing. How
big is this trend? Well let's just say that by 2013 all the technology pundits predict that more
of your customers will be accessing the Internet via mobile devices than hardwired desktop
anchors!
So unless you want to find
yourself way behind your competition you'd better get
smart quickly about the ins and outs of mobile marketing and
advertising.
Understanding the
Landscape of Local Mobile Advertising and Marketing
Mobile Internet Search
Functionality
Probably the easiest way
to take advantage of the approaching tidal wave of mobile marketing is to make sure you have a
high-quality website that is easy to view and navigate using one of the new smart phones such as
the iPhone or one of its Android equivalents. You
see, very soon people will no longer be using their wired connection to conduct product and
service research for offline purchases, that job will fall to their smartphones so it's
important that you get this right. Now of course, beyond just having a pretty website you need
to have one that is designed to sell, capture leads, and create conversations.
Display Ads – Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP)
There are dozens of mobile
device only advertising platforms springing up all over that allow you to create banner ads that
can then be distributed to mobile phone users. Google’s Adwords, Admob, Adfonic and their
competitors can all display your ads. Each network
has its own peculiarities and most differ in the types of targeting you can do. So, depending upon what you're trying to accomplish some of
the networks will be a better fit than others.
Text Messaging
Advertising – Short Codes and SMS Messaging
Short codes are those
messages you see associated with all the big brands and reality TV shows that ask you to text a
word to a specific number such as Denny’s campaign “text GRANDSLAM to 30101. To get a short code you’ll need to spend between $500 - $1000
per month for the short code itself… and then you still have to market and advertise it! Because
of the cost of this method I strongly suggest you steer clear of short code advertising for your
local business unless you already have a substantial budget to spend.
SMS messaging is simply
sending text advertisements to a targeted demographic of individuals. Since text open rates are
so high (but will surely decline just as we saw with e-mail over the past 5 years) SMS messaging
can be a good means to get your advertising message across. Think of SMS messaging like you
would opt in e-mail… only better.
Push
Notifications
“Push” technology allows
you to “push” your Twitter, Facebook and other social media feeds out to mobile device and
smartphone users (primarily iPhone) who have downloaded Apps to allow them to receive updates
from their social feeds. If you already have a
solid social marketing plan in place “push” can make it that much more powerful by tying in your
followers through mobile content.
App Display
Ads
“There’s an App for That.”
You should be familiar with that phrase by now even if you are not familiar with what an “App”
is. Apps are little software programs that can be
downloaded to mobile devices such as the iPhone and Google's android phone that allow the user
to play games, calculate distances, make funny noises... virtually anything you can imagine.
Smartphone users love Apps and download them constantly. Most of these apps are "free" to the
user because they are used as platforms to serve advertisements. And these ads can be
yours!
Click to
Call
In some ways, what could
be more powerful? Your potential customers are already using their mobile phones to conduct
research, check in with their other social networks and generally stay in touch. So by using a
click to call advertisement you can take your potential customer from a visually engaging ad to
a visually engaging conversation in just one click. Your options are only limited by your
imagination but since clicking on this type of ad instantly dials a phone number you can make a
connection to either a live operator, an informative recording or a combination of the two. This
is powerful marketing technology whether you use it for lead generation, appointment setting or
product and service sales.
Search
Ads
Once you have a smartphone
you can conduct immediate research, gather information and even make purchases the instant your
awareness of a need manifests. So it only stands to
reason that the big search-engine companies like Google, Yahoo and Bing allow you as an
advertiser to display your ads contextually right along with the user's search.
The difference here and
what is so powerful is that soon, no one will need to come back to their office or their home in
order to conduct the research they need to purchases products and services like yours.
Click to
Map
Click to map advertising
functions in a manner similar to click to call. The difference here is that when the
advertisement is clicked the user is immediately served directions from their location to the
location of your business. As you can imagine, click to map advertising is perfect for nail
salons, restaurants, hair salons, oil change facilities and other broad appeal products and
services where the target audience is someone who is already out and about.
“An organization's
ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive
advantage.” - Jack Welch
Time to Act!
The local
mobile advertising and marketing trend is moving quickly and you do not want to be left
behind!
Sure, you may be confused and have more questions than answers right now.
Well that's certainly understandable so pick up your mobile phone and
call us at 888.505.6162.
Together we can figure out what makes the most sense for your
business when it comes to mobile marketing and advertising.
Want to read up on the subject? Thought you might and that's why
we have developed a comprehensive free report on local business mobile marketing and advertising.
Get it below.
|
