Find Out The Impact of Using SMS marketing on the Mobile Market for Your Business

SMS, or text message marketing, is basically the same as email marketing but with one key difference – you're marketing to mobile devices instead of PCs. You send your customers text messages on their phones with offers, deals, coupons and news they can use.

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SMS has been around for quite a few years and even with all the advances in smartphones and mobile marketing, it's still the most effective way to reach your audience.

A Higher Response Rate

Do people like being marketed to on their phones? It's tough to say from surveys. Whenever a marketing firm asks, they get mixed responses. Some people absolutely love it and take advantage of every deal offered. Others see it as an annoying invasion of privacy and prefer to get messages to their email inbox.

The stats, though, paint a totally different picture. Response rate with mobiles is overwhelmingly higher than that of email. Conversion rates are everything from 10% to 60%, which blows email marketing away. Response is also quick, with almost all text messages being opened within the first 15 seconds of receiving them.

Why the great response? It's because people are always carrying their phones on them. They don't log in once a day and have to battle spam and junk mail to get to your message. It also feels more personal to get messages from the brands you love straight to your phone.

Location-Based Services for Even Higher Response Rate

You get an even higher response rate with location-based marketing. This means using the device's built-in GPS capabilities to make offers. When your customer enters a certain 'zone' defined by you, they get a message offering them a deal. You can tie in your mobile marketing with deals at offline stores.

This works so well because it's just what your customer's looking for at just the right time. In other words, it's a marketer's dream come true. They're looking for a place to buy shoes and the minute they step into the mall, they get a message from you offering the deal they were hoping for.

SMS Is King of the Heap

We now market to mobile phones that have Internet browsers using Facebook, applications, games, and all the other capabilities the device has to offer. But statistics show that SMS still gets the best results. According to a survey by YouGov and SocialMediadd, 77% of the smartphone users they asked said they preferred SMS even when other marketing avenues were available.

This is probably because it's so simple and people are used to it. It's also a strategy marketers have used for years, so it's a well-worn path, whereas these other methods are still largely uncharted territory.

Why Not SMS?

SMS marketing is cheap and easy compared to other methods. It's something any type of business can use to its advantage. In the same study mentioned above, SocialMediadd reported that only 1 out of 100 of its clients use SMS, where 90% only use email marketing. Why not go where the conversions are higher?

Synergizing Mobile Apps and Social Media

The Web is getting increasingly social. Experts even predict that someday you may search for all of your information through social media sites instead of search engines. People love Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Groupon, YouTube… the list goes on. These are some of the most visited sites on the Internet.

Studies show that people on mobiles are especially prone to socializing. They spend way more time on social media sites than PC surfers do. Mobile apps and social media are a perfect match. If your business can take advantage of this pairing, you can really increase your bottom line.

Mobiles Go Social

Mobile users love social media because of the speed. Everything is happening in real-time. You carry your phone with you everywhere. You might be on the go or hanging around with time to kill, and what better time to check out your friends' news feeds? If you think about it, it makes sense. People aren't as likely to be planted in front of a desktop doing that.

We socialize more on mobiles because our friends are there when we need them most. For example, you're going to check out a new restaurant for lunch, but you want to see what your friends have to say about it first. Mobile connects you quickly.

Everything Happens through Apps

Social media works together with mobiles through apps. These are software programs designed just for mobile devices. They connect you directly to social media sites so that you can engage with them anywhere.

Apps that let word of mouth travel are extremely popular. Foursquare is an example of one of these. It's an app that lets users leave and read reviews and “check-in” to places. You can leave an instant review of a place you just visited and share with friends.

Apps can also help people find local businesses using maps as well as reviews left by friends. When you're looking for a place to eat, you can read your friends' reviews before you get there. Geo-local services use your phone's built-in GPS to show you reviews of places in the area.

Photo sharing apps are also big. Instagram is currently the fastest growing social media app in the mobile world. The number of users grew about five-fold in the first six months of 2012. It lets you take pictures, edit and share instantly.

Creating Your Own Social Network

Businesses can benefit by creating their own apps that allow users to communicate better through social media. These could be photo sharing apps, location-based services, review apps, or anything else your customers would enjoy using.

You can also create your own social network. Facebook is for everyone, but you can create a networking app that's just for your customers. Focus on a particular industry, interest, hobby, location, or anything else that connects people. Think of a way your customers would like to communicate with each other.

Social media and mobile are both more than just trends. While social media sites come and go, the phenomenon of socializing online is never going to go away. Mobile use only keeps increasing. If your business can harness the power of this perfect match, you can do great things for your customers and that'll translate to profits for you.

QR Code Ideas to Enhance Your Mobile Marketing

QR codes make it easier for your customers to interact withyour business. Your challenge as a business is to figure out how to use these codes to help them get what they want. It's tough to think up ideas out of the blue, so here are some to get you started.

Your Promotional Items

One of the best ways to use QR codes is to put them on your promotional items. Put them on any little thing you give away like fans, keychains, mouse pads, mugs, etc. You can even put a small one on a pen. Be sure to also put one on your business card. They can scan it to find out more about you.

Cover Your Store

You can put QR codes all over your store. Plaster them on posters, menus, walls, and all available counter space. Make decals with them and put them on your doors and windows. A great use of QR codes is to put them on your products or product tags. When they scan the code, they're directed to more information about the product. You can also put them on your products' packaging and bags.

All Correspondences

Whenever you send out promotional mail or newsletters, make sure you've got a QR code prominently displayed. This is much better than giving them a URL which they have to go to the computer and type in. Instead, all they need to do is scan it with their phone.

Advertising Materials

You can put QR codes on any of your advertisements. It's just a small black and white code. If you put one on a billboard, it can be scanned by drivers as they zoom by. A great way to get them to scan it is to offer an exclusive deal.

Should You Use QR Codes Online?

Lots of marketers say there's no need to use QR codes online. After all, you can just give them a link and they can click on it. But there are some creative ways to use it and they can scan the screen with their phone. For example, you can use it as an avatar for your Facebook or other profiles.

What to Do with QR Codes

The simplest idea is to just send people to your website. But with QR codes, you can direct people to any URL at all. This can be much more than just your website. A few ideas here include:

l         Bookmarking. When they scan it, it instantly bookmarks your site on their browser.

l         Contact Info. They get your contact information automatically added to their address book.

l         Maps and Directions. They get a map or directions to your business. This is great because people use their mobiles to search for businesses.

l         Coupons. One quick scan and they get a mobile coupon they can use at your establishment.

l         Tweets and Likes. When they scan, it tweets or likes your business so all their friends can see it. This is a nice promotional tie-in; they like/tweet and you give them a special deal.

l         Download. They get an app they can use on their mobile.

You can do anything with your QR codes, so take these ideas or come up with your own. The key is to approach it from your customers' point of view. It needs to make interacting with your business quicker and easier for them. Focus on improving the convenience of using your service.

Social Mobile Blogging on a Social Network

Blogging is becoming increasingly popular and social networks are also becoming more and more popular as well. Social networks include popular websites such as MySpace.com where users can create personal websites and interact with other users. These websites may include a wide range of components including text, images, audio, video and blogs. Here system users can voice their opinions, provided updates on their life, offer insight into current events or accomplish a number of other goals. However, bloggers who utilize a social network to maintain their blog should consider a few different factors. This article will discuss some of these factors including whether to make the blogs available to the public or keep the private, considering the audience of the blog and dealing with harassment through the blog.

Making Blogs Private or Public

Most social networks enable users to make their website either private or public. Private websites are only available to the user and other users he specifically approves to view his website while public websites are available to all users of the system. These same capabilities also apply to the blogs which are maintained on a social network. For this reason bloggers must determine whether or not they wish to make their blog posts available to the entire social network or to only a fraction of this network.

This decision will be largely based on a matter of personal preference. Social networks can be quite extensive and some bloggers may be apprehensive about their blog being available to such a large audience while other bloggers may have no apprehensions about the size of the potential audience. Bloggers should carefully consider this option before staring a blog but always have the option to change these settings after the blog has been established if they change their mind about the choice they originally made.

Considering the Blog Audience

Bloggers who utilize a social network to maintain a blog should also carefully consider the potential audience for the blog. Most social networks include a broad cross section of the general public. Therefore bloggers should be aware of this audience when posting a blog and should consider how the blog entries will be interpreted by blog audience members. While it will never be possible to avoid offending all potential audience members some bloggers may wish to consider at least attempting to ensure the blog entries they post are appropriate for all members of the social network. If this is not possible the blogger may consider making the blog private.  

Dealing with Harassment through the Blog

Another aspect bloggers who use a social network to publish their blog should be aware of includes the potential for harassment from other members through the blog. This can be in the form of offensive comments posted in response to blog entries. Depending on the degree of the harassment the blogger may choose to ignore these comments or take stronger actions. Bloggers should review the policies of the social network and solicit their assistance in dealing with harassment from other users. In most cases dealing with the problem may be as simple as blocking the user from making comments on the blog but in some cases it may be necessary to contact the social network administrators in an attempt to get the user banned from the system. In this situation the administrators will review the situation and make a judgment regarding whether or not the user has violated the terms of service. 

Mobile Blogging on the Go

What is it that attracts people so much?

Blogging is a type of website that lets you post in your comments, suggestions or read about anything being discussed in the blog that catches your interest. It is a way for people to interact, discuss or debate about a certain topic. Think of it as a small group of people debating or sharing comments about a particular topic.

One of the many reasons of why blogs are very popular is that it is subjective and not objective. If you read one blog, you will feel like you know the person who wrote it. It is a form of communication where it does not address itself to a wider audience but instead, it communicates on a person-to-person level. In this way, people are more comfortable posting comments in blogs than in other types of forums.

In a world where communication technology is steadily developing, blogging is one of the best ways of communicating with other people. Today, there are a lot of devices which you can use to create, maintain and update your blogs. One type is mobile blogging or moblogging.

Mobile blogging or moblogging is a type of blogging where it means that you can blog on the go from a portable mobile device like your cellular phone. One great reason to consider mobile blogging is if you want someone to be part of an event without being physically in the event.

One form of mobile blogging or moblogging is through communication devices such as Bluetooth or in your own palm top or pocket PC. There is not much difference between a traditional blog and mobile blog or moblog, the only difference is that in moblog, you can blog on the go.

Today, with the latest mobile phones getting more and more affordable, anyone can buy these devices. You can customize it, take pictures with it and you can also surf the internet with it. Mobile phones are also very useful for blogging. Aside from the fact that you can go online with mobile phones, you can also blog with it while you’re on the go. With it, you can share stories, photos, videos on your blog.

However, to create your own mobile blog, you should first determine if your mobile phone network provider can support online surfing through the internet. You should also determine what kind of phone supports for this kind of service.

Another benefit of moblogging is that if you get inspired to tell a story or you took some great pictures on your road trip and want to share them to the world, you won’t have to wait until you get your hands on your computer and share your thoughts and pictures in the internet. With moblogging, you can blog anytime and anywhere.

To make it much easier for you, you should first make your blog website on your computer. Then, you should register your mobile phone number to activite mobile blogging services. And, you can now post in your comments anywhere you are with your mobile phone.

With mobile blogging, you can even benefit if you are buying a particular thing like a car. For example, you are now in a used car lot, you then can’t decide on what car you want and would want to consult your friend about it. You then take a picture of the cars you like and send them to your blogging website. You then call your friend and told him or her that you need his or her opinion about the cars. You tell them that the pictures are in your blogging site and ask them to take a look at it and tell them what they think.

Moblogging is a very convenient way to communicate with people and also update your blog site even without being physically in front of a desktop computer.

How to Use Mobile Coupons Effectively

Your Customers Want Mobile Coupons – Are You Delivering?

People do everything on their smartphones and other mobile devices. Online shopping has been slow to take off on mobiles, but people have used them in all kinds of other unexpected ways. For example, they compare online prices while shopping offline. They look for the best deal in town as they head out to go shopping. And they use mobile coupons to get great deals whether online or off.

Study after study has shown that mobile coupons influence purchase decisions. Mobile coupons are great because they're easy; you don't need to access them from a PC and print them out. You just show your phone's screen at an offline location and redeem them.

According to a study by Mercator Advisory Group, more than 50% of respondents said they'd like to receive mobile coupons, but only around 10% said they have. They're practically begging for coupons and most companies still haven't gotten on the ball.

How to Use Mobile Coupons Effectively

There are lots of ways you can use mobile coupons. A coupon is a great incentive or freebie for signing up to your email list. Give them something they can use as soon as they sign up.

Coupons have always been used offline to introduce a service. Just think of the $5 oil change. You go for the cheap oil change and you discover a garage with great service. Mobile coupons work the same way. Use them to introduce your business or offer a free trial membership.

If you're not sure you want to give away something for free (after all, they might take the freebie and run), you can offer a 2-for-1 deal or another type of extension. They buy a product and service but get added value out of the deal.

You can also give away the coupon as a reward for extending a product or service. When they purchase additional products or services, they get a valuable freebie to use at their next visit.

Delivering the Goods

In SMS marketing, coupons have always been delivered through short codes. These are 5-digit numbers that they call and it automatically sends them the deal. You can put this 5-digit number all over your promotional materials. In addition to coupons, you can use short codes to sign them up to your list.

GeoOnlineShopping

Now there's an even better option in QR codes. These are 2D pixelated square black-and-white codes that can be scanned by a mobile device. With QR codes, your customers don't even have to enter the code themselves. It removes one more step to getting the deal. It's free to generate QR codes and you can plaster them everywhere.

One more simple delivery method is to make your coupons available online. Lots of mobile users search for coupons through Google and other web search services. Create a site and optimize it for keywords like '(offer) coupons' or '(offer) deals.' Do some keyword research and you'll see that these get lots of monthly searches.

Customize Your Coupons

There are now customization options you can use to make the experience more personal. When they sign up, give them a choice of categories and ask what types of deals they'd like to receive. For example, they can choose deals on sporting goods or coupons for dining out. They'll then get just the coupons they requested, and this keeps it relevant for them.

Are mobile coupons the next big thing? No, they're already the big thing. Mobile coupons work right now to boost your sales and your customers are begging for them.