Mobile Marketing EXPLAINED
KEA Productions
Mobile + Media= Modern Marketing
Introduction
Mobile marketing is one of the fastest growing segments of online marketing. Over the last two to three years, the number of people who access the internet on mobile devices has skyrocketed. This is due to the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and Blackberry, as well as tablets like the iPad.
This not only changes how many people are using the internet, it also changes how you need to market your business online. People who are accessing the internet through these devices are doing some fairly specific things, and they’re doing them through devices with much smaller screens and keyboards than the typical computer.
This means you need to change your strategy for marketing to those people, or risk losing them to your competition.
In this guide, we’re going to look at five specific strategies that you should be implementing in your online marketing efforts:
• Mobile-friendly website design
• SMS (text message) marketing
• Social Media
• Apps
• QR Codes
The first, a mobile-friendly website, is one of the most critical so let’s get started.
Mobile Websites
As we’ve already mentioned, one of the biggest differences for people surfing on a mobile device is the size of the screen and what it can display. The latest devices, like the iPhone for example, have very capable browsers that can display pretty much everything you would see on a desktop computer screen.
But just because they can display it doesn’t mean it’s going to be effective for your website visitors. The text will often be so small it’s completely unreadable and links are also too small for people to click (or tap, really).
A mobile website layout is designed to be more readable as well as more usable on these smaller displays. Take a look at these two screenshots to see an example (download the PDF to view the side-by-side comparison):
The image on the left is a standard website displayed on an iPhone. As you can see, the content of the page is extremely hard to read and the menus and other links are too small to be selected easily.
The right-hand image, on the other hand, is a site that has been optimized for mobile devices. The text is much more readable and the links are easy to click.
It all fits the screen perfectly providing the perfect browser experience.
These two different layouts are displayed automatically, based on what type of device is browsing the page. The web server can identify the device and resolution, and send the appropriate layout.
Another difference between mobile internet users and people who are using standard computers to access the web is the type of information they’re looking for.
Mobile users are typically looking for a few specific types of information from your website:
• Your company’s phone number
• Your business address
• Hours of operation and other business information
They rarely use these devices to research your products or services or look for any significant amount of information. If they’re in that “research” mode, they’re much more likely to use a full-size browser on their computer.
This means that your mobile website can focus on providing the most important information first, with the bulk of the content from your “regular” website tucked away.
The best mobile websites have all the company’s contact information, location and other critical information right on the home page. At most, it should be a single tap away from the home page.
Consider your mobile website from the point of view of someone stopped at a traffic light who is on their way to your business and wants to look up your address or phone number to find out exactly where you’re located. They should be able to get that information with one hand, and do it before the light changes and they start moving again.
Let’s take a look at other ways you can tap into the Mobile Revolution.
QR Codes Explained
QR Codes are another mobile marketing strategy we’re going to cover in this guide. You’ve probably seen these codes popping up all over the place recently. They look like little black pixelated squares.
Here is an example:
These codes have been around for well over a decade and originated in Japan, but up until recently they were mainly used in factories and other industrial applications for tracking inventory.
The growth of the smartphone market changes that, however, because so many of these smartphones have built-in cameras. This means that people can scan these codes themselves, and take whatever action has been programmed into them.
And there are lots of things they can do:
• Redirect to a website
• Automatically create a text message
• Look up an address on Google Maps
• Be sent Coupons and Text messages
Redirecting to a website is the most common use for QR codes. You often see them in advertisements, on signs, on billboards and other places where people can easily scan them. When you scan it with your phone, it will open the website in your phone’s browser automatically.
You can try it using the example image above. If you scan that with your phone it will take to you Google.com.
But keep in mind that you can redirect people to any page on your website. So you could have a sign by your cash register inviting people to sign up for your email list, for example. Offer special discounts and other benefits when they subscribe to your list.
Then put a QR code on the sign that takes them to the sign up form on your website. All they need to do is enter their name and email address to subscribe to your emails. This is much more effective than having a book where they write down their name and email address to get added to your email list, which is how a lot of small businesses still approach building a customer email list.
Another example of a business where QR codes could be used very effectively is real estate. Realtors could put a QR code on their for sale sign that directs people to a web page with all the detail about the house they’re selling, including a video tour of the inside.
People just driving by could easily scan that code and check out all the details themselves, with no need for printed flyers or anything else they have to physically pick up.
This example brings up one of the drawbacks of QR codes – once they’re generated, they can’t be changed. They will always point to the same website when someone scans them.
The simple solution to this problem is to use some kind of redirect service that will let you change the ultimate destination of the code. The QR code would point to the redirect link, and that link can be updated any time. So in this example, when a house sells, the realtor would simply change the redirect to point to another listing when they move the sign.
There are lots of different applications for these codes:
• Product signage – the sign could have a summary of the product’s specifications, with a QR code pointing to a more detailed listing on a web page
• Google Maps links – you could include a QR code on your website and in your ads that shows people how to find your business on a map
• Text messages – the QR code can automatically create a new text message, so you could make it easy to opt into your SMS marketing service by scanning the code
• Social Media links – you could include a QR code on your website and in your ads that leads to your Facebook Fan Page or to your Twitter handle or to your LinkedIn Group.
There’s really no end to how these codes can be used, you just need to think creatively. Anything that normally requires people to type a lot of data on their smartphone could potentially be simplified with a QR Code!
SMS Marketing
SMS, or text messaging has been around for nearly 20 years, but its use has really taken off over the last few years and promises to continue to grow in importance to marketing campaigns worldwide. This is mainly due to the widespread use of smartphones that have built-in keyboards. In the past you had to use the number pad on your cell phone to tap out text messages, and it wasn’t very easy to do.
This increase in acceptance of text messaging has a big benefit for business owners and marketers – text messages can be used to stay in touch with your customers and promote your business.
It’s similar to email in many ways. People can subscribe to your text message service, and you can send them a text message whenever you want. They can unsubscribe any time, just like they can with email, but as long as you’re providing value a large percentage of your “list” will stay subscribed.
Many of your customers will find text messages less intrusive than email, for the moment at least. There is much less “noise” in most people’s text message inbox than their email inbox, so they’re more likely to actually read what you send them.
And text messages also have a much faster open rate in most cases. Most people will read a text message immediately when they receive it, where an email might sit in their inbox for days before they actually get around to reading it.
This gives you the ability to send much more time-sensitive promotions via text message, since most of the people who receive it will read it right away.
The way these services work is your customer sends a text message with a certain word in it to a specific number. If you’ve ever seen an ad that says something like “Text the word ‘XYZ’ to 54321 to enter our contest” you’ve seen an example of this.
The number 54321 – known as a short code – is the number that is attached to your customer list and the word “XYZ” tells the text message service how to respond and what list to add that number to.
There are many different short codes available from any given text messaging service, and you will pay a different amount depending on how memorable it is. You can even get “vanity” short codes that will be particular memorable. For example, you might have “90210” as your vanity short code. Of course, these types of short codes will cost you a big premium over something more generic.
How could you use text messaging in your online marketing strategy? Let’s look at tire store as an example.
Let’s say you own a tire store and it’s the beginning of winter. It hasn’t snowed yet, and you’ve got a good supply of snow tires on hand (because never plan ahead!) The weather forecast is calling for snow in the next two days, however, and you know you’re going to be overwhelmed when everyone comes in on the day it snows to buy new tires.
If you’ve been building a customer list through a text messaging service, you could send out a text that same day letting all your customers know that you have a limited supply of tires on hand, and they should come in ASAP if they want to be prepared for the snow.
This would give you an extra day or two to schedule those installations before the snow hits, letting you spread the work out more evenly.
Any business where time-sensitive promotions would be effective can really benefit from SMS marketing.
Conclusion
Mobile internet usage continues to grow incredibly fast, and is probably going to accelerate even faster over the next few years. Now is the time to start changing your online marketing strategy to meet the needs of those people. You’ll have an edge over many of your competitors who aren’t as quick to adopt new strategies, and as the market evolved you’ll be in a position to stay on the leading edge.
The three strategies discussed in this report will put you on a path to success, and before you know it your mobile reach might even eclipse your traditional marketing efforts.
Don’t put it off any longer – start implementing these strategies and you’ll be reaping the benefits before you know it.
Still trying to get your mind around how mobile mania can help you grow your business? Contact us about doing a digital marketing audit for your company: what you are currently doing versus what you could be doing. (Notice that we did not say “should” as our assessment will be to assist you not judge you. Our lead Producer, Kamala Appel, comes from an educational background and is skilled at explaining concepts as well as providing practical tips.)
Please note: The audits are tailored to your specific business and interactive. If you are not located in the Greater Bay Area, they can be conducted virtually). Feel free to contact us with any questions, comments, or to set up an educational audit appointment.