The Mobile Marketing Handbook by Brasil Virtual

This advance reading copy is an unedited, not-yet-indexed draft being provided for review and promotional purposes. The text may not be copied, distributed, or otherwise utilized without the express permission of the publisher. This PDF, in its entirety or in excerpts, may not be made available to anyone other than the intended recipient. The Mobile Marketing Handbook, Second Edition will be published in January 2012. For information on purchasing the book, including for course adoption, contact: Joan Betances Customer Service Information Today, Inc. 143 Old Marlton Pike Medford, NJ 08055 USA 609-654-6266, ext. 156 jbetances@infotoday.com

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In C for jb opy ma et ri ti an gh on ce t 2 T s@ 01 od a 2 y, in fo I nc to . da y. co m Second Edition

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In C for jb opy ma et ri ti an gh on ce t 2 T s@ 01 od a 2 y, in fo I nc to . da y. co m Second Edition

Kim Dushinski

Medford, New Jersey

First printing, 2012 The Mobile Marketing Handbook, Second Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaigns Copyright ÂŠ 2012 by Kim Dushinski All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by CyberAge Books, an imprint of Information Today, Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, New Jersey 08055.

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Publisherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: The author and publisher have taken care in preparation of this book but make no expressed or implied warranty of anyy kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. Many of the designations used by manufacturers manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Information Today, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dushinski, Kim, 1966The mobile marketing handbook : a step-by-step guide to creating crea dynamic mobile marketing campaigns / Kim Dushinski. -- 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-910965-90-3 (pbk.) 1. Telemarketing. elemarketing. 2. Cell phones. I. Title. HF5415.1265.D87 2012 658.8'72--dc23 2011041299 Printed and bound in the United States of America President and CEO: Thomas H. Hogan, Sr. Editor-in-Chief and Publisher: John B. Bryans VP Graphics and Production: M. Heide Dengler Managing Editor: Amy M. Reeve Editorial Assistant: Brandi Scardilli Project Editor: Barbara Brynko Cover Design: Lisa Conroy Book Design: Kara Mia Jalkowski Copyeditor: Dorothy Pike Proofreader: Sheryl McGrotty Indexer: Beth Palmer www.infotoday.com

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What’s with the Fish? Almost everyone who saw the book cover in the design phase simultaneously loved it and then asked about the meaning of the fish jumping out of the phone. So here is what’s with the fish: • Marketers feel much the same as a fish out of water when trying to figure out mobile marketing. It is just too different from what they expect, and it keeps changing even when they think they have it figur figured ed out.

• To young people, having a mobile phone is part of life, and life is exciting. Mobile is always there for them and a part of being connected to the world. Why wouldn’ wouldn’t a fish jump out of it?

• Mobile marketing brings phones to life in unexpected ways. Granted, no one would want a real fish to spring forth from his or her phone, phone, but look at it as a metaphor for thinking outside the boxx about what you can do with your mobile device. bo

What do you think the fish means? Share your thoughts with me at kim@mobilemarketingprofits.com. kim@mobilemarketingprofits.com.

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Contents

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Foreword, by Michael J. Becker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Interact With This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii

PART 1: MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTA AND IMPLEMENTATION

Chapter 1: The Basics and the Big Picture . . . . . . . . . 3 What Is Mobile Marketing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How Ho w Big Big Is Is the Mobile Mobile Market? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Opportunities in Mobile Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Why Y You ou Need to Take Action No Now, Even If Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Not Ready . . . . . . . . 10

Who Iss Using Using Mobile the M Most: The Savvy Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Big Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2: Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Secret of Being Dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Step 1: Figure Out What Your Target Market Wants and Offer It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Step 2: Align What Your Target Market Wants with Your Desired Outcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

x The Mobile Marketing Handbook Step 3: Follow the Mobile Marketing Checklist to Build Your Mobile Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Step 4: Launch Your Mobile Marketing Campaign and Market It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Step 5: Track What Is Working and Make Any Necessary Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 3: Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Why Legal Issues Are Strategic Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

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Best Practices Are Not Optional . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Mobile Messaging Meets the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 And the Lucky Winner Is â&#x20AC;Ś . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 What Your Users Generate and How It Affects You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Under-13 Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 May I See Your ID, Please? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Privacy, Sweet Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Location-Based Legal Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Consequences of Ignoring Legal Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Tips for Getting Your Mobile Campaign Through Your

epartment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Legal Department

Chapter 4: Launching Your Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Three Paths to Your Mobile Launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Working With an Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Working king Directly Directly With a Vendor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Do-It-Yourself ourself Using Using Guerrilla Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

How to Choose a Mobile Agency, Vendor, or Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

PART 2: MOBILE MARKETING TOOLBOX: TACTICS, CAMPAIGN IDEAS, AND RESOURCES Chapter 5: Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 What Is Calling? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 When to Use Calling as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Contents

How to Use Calling: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 6: Text Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 What Is Text Messaging? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 When to Use Text Messaging as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 How to Use Text Messaging: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques . . . 68 Types of Text Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Text Messaging Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Types of Text Message Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

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Choosing a Text Message Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Chapter 7: Creating a Mobile Web Presence . . . . . . . 91 What Is the Mobile Web? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 When to Use the Mobile obile Web as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 How to Use the Mobile Web: Best Practices, Tips,

and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Content Strategy ategy for Your Mobile Mobile Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Building a Mobile Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Driving Traffic to Your Mobile Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Chapter 8: Mobile Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 What Is Mobile Search? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 When to Use Mobile Search as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 How to Use Mobile Search: Best Practices, Tips,

and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Business Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Mobile SEO Tactics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Chapter 9: Mobile Advertising and Mobile Apps . . . 117 What Is Mobile Advertising? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 When to Use Mobile Advertising as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 How to Use Mobile Advertising: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Mobile Advertising and Appvertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Types of Mobile Advertising Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Mobile Apps as a Business Marketing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

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Chapter 10: Social Networking Meets Mobile . . . . . 131 What Is Social Networking? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 When to Use Social Networking in Conjunction With Mobile Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 How to Use Social Networking: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Using Social Networking to Market Your Mobile Campaign . . . . . . . . 133 Using Mobile Marketing to Build Your Social Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Chapter 11: Location-Based Marketing . . . . . . . . . 143

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What Is Location-Based Marketing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 When to Use Location-Based Marketing as a Marketing Tool . . . . . . 143 How to Use Location-Based Marketing: Best Practices, Tips,

and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Local Mobile Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Check-In Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

ignage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Interactive Signage Augmented Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Bluetooth Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Geo-Fencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Chapter 12: Mor More Mobile Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Mobile obile Email Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Mobile Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Mobile Bar Codes (QR Codes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Mobile Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Mobile for Nonprofits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Mobile Marketing Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

PART 3: MARKETING AND TRACKING MOBILE CAMPAIGNS Chapter 13: Marketing Your Mobile Campaign . . . . 167 Why You Need to Market Your Mobile Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 Integrating Mobile Into All Other Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Online Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

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Signage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Business Cards/Marketing Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Trade Shows/Consumer Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 Social Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Product Packaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 College Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Mobile Marketing for Your Mobile Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Word of Mouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

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Educating Your Customers on Using Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Chapter 14: Tracking Your Mobile Campaign . . . . . 189 Why You Need to Track Your Mobile Marketing Campaigns . . . . . . . . 189 Calling Campaigns ampaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Text Message Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Mobile Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Mobile Advertising dvertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Mobile Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Mobile Bar Codes (QR Codes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 etworking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Social Networking

Afterword: Moving Ahead in Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Appendix: How to Start a Mobile Marketing Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

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Acknowledgments

I’d like to extend my gratitude to everyone who helped make the second edition of this book possible. First of all, thanks to the readers of the first edition who bought the book, checked it out from the library, or read it as part of their classroom assignments. I appreciated receiving all the emails and shout outs on Twitter,, Facebook, LinkedIn (keep them coming!). To Facebook, and LinkedI those who became my students (especially my Mobile Marketing Masters Class, Ultimate Mobile Marketing BOOTCAMP participants, IMMBN members, and the MobiBlueprint participants), your successes in mobile maruly an inspiration. inspiration. The questions you asked and successes you y keting are truly shared along the way helped to make this a better book. To my mobile industry colleagues, I appreciate your willingness to share our knowledge and your case studies. studies And I’d like to extend my appreciayour tion to Riza Ayson and Jerson Daganzo at TextingForward for sponsoring the mobile quiz. Thanks to Dan Hollings for offering some extremely helpful constructive criticism. Thanks also go to Tim Hurja at bizM3 for sharing constructive some stellar examples for the book and for the friendship we have developed together And thanks to Bill Thompson at Full Sail in doing training together. University for adopting The Mobile Marketing Handbook as one of the textbooks course textbooks. The many businesses that are undertaking mobile marketing deserve a mention as well because it was so much easier to find examples of mobile campaigns for this edition. That is also due in large part to Mobile Marketer and its excellent reporting about mobile marketing. Thanks to my friend-turned-research-assistant Kim Wolinski, who helped me dig up many of the mobile statistics (twice) for this book and for sending me “you can do it” emails in the final stretch. Likewise, my deep appreciation goes to Tomi Ahonen and his grab-a-cup-of-coffee-to-read-this-one blog posts that produced many of the statistics included in this edition.

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To my project editor, Barbara Brynko, thanks for helping me present my thoughts clearly and for taking out all those extra words. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m also grateful to the entire team at Information Today, Inc.: John Bryans for suggesting I write a second book, an inspiration that transpired into reality in this second edition; Rob Colding for his excellent work in promotion; Amy Reeve and her team for producing an amazing book; and Smith Publicity for generating great publicity results for the first edition. Thanks also to my family and friends for all of their encouragement: my mom for letting me borrow her laptop when mine was out of commission during a crucial writing stage, my dad for sending me links to all the mobile campaigns he spotted, and Ken and Anya for not freaking out (too much) when I told them I was working on another book. Your love and support mean the world to me.

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Foreword

We live in a mobile world, a world where the introduction of mobile solutions has and continues to fundamentally change the story of marketing and all other aspects of business. To understand the impact that mobile has on the story of marketing, it is important are driving forward. tant to consider the integral themes that ar driving mobile for In the last few years, we’ve seen unprecedented releases of new hardware and software technology, the rise and influence of social media, the introduction of personal cloud computing, new innovation in business models, and the continued rollout of globalization. We’v We’ve also seen jockeying between the central controllers of mobile connectivity (the mobile carrier and new players such as Google, Apple, Yahoo!, Comcast, and Microsoft), the introduction of new industry industry guidelines and pr principles, new government regulation, and new investment flows within every part of the mobile marketing ecosystem. All of these themes, and many others, make up the story. However, there is one theme that overshadows them all: the mobile story. dramatic shift in consumer behavior. liv in a mobile world, a world where wher the consumer—your cusWe live tomer—is connected and empowered. But this has not always been the case. Less than 8 years ago, there were no more than 1 billion mobile connections worldwide. Today, nearly 90 percent of the global population, or more than 6.8 billion people, live within reach of a mobile signal, and there are more than 5.3 billion mobile connections. Out of these 5.3 billion connections, there are 3.75 billion unique mobile users. The difference between total connections and unique users shows us that many people carry multiple devices, including phones, ereaders, tablet computers, navigation devices, Wi-Fi hubs, and game terminals. Moreover, people are not just carrying these devices; they’re also using them. More than 6 trillion text messages were sent worldwide in 2010, mobile internet use is on the rise

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globally, applications are being downloaded in the billions, and increasingly, these people—your customers—are using their mobile devices to respond to mobile, digital, and traditional advertising. They’re also using their devices to interact with your promotional offers and to visit your presence on the mobile web (if you have one; many businesses still do not). They are also using mobile to make purchases. Booz & Company estimates that in 2011 not only will billions of goods and services be sold directly through mobile (i.e., via mobile commerce), mobile will also influence more than $230 billion to $255 billion in traditional retail and ecommerce sales. Are you ready for this? Is your business? Is your marketing team? This is an exciting story. It is a story of change and of opportunity; however, if you’re not ready or do not understand all the key elements that mobile has to offer (and there are plenty), then now is the time to get ready. The Mobile Marketing Handbook is a perfect resource to help you accomplish this. andbook, K Kim im Dushinski lays out the key In The Mobile Marketing Handbook, themes of the mobile story y concisely and helps the reader understand the ough insightful commentar big picture of mobile through commentary y and case studies. She explains the key elements that you should consider when developing your mobile marketing strategy and provides a list of important, proven tactics for success that each and every one of your marketing campaigns should include. I highly recommend this book. Whether you’re new to the concept of mobile and mobile marketing or a veteran in the industry, The Mobile Marketing keting H Handbook andbook should be by by your your side. —Michael J. Becker, director managing dir ector of the Mobile Marketing Association, co-author of Mobile Marketing for Dummies and Web Marketing All-in-One for Dummies, and publisher of the International Journal of Mobile Marketing

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Interact With This Book The Mobile Marketing Handbook is not just a print book; it is a multichannel interactive guide to the world of mobile marketing. While the Online Online Resource Guide in this book includes audio, video, updated content, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations, you will find many instances where the book is also mobile interactive. Yes, you can actually use your cell phone to interact with the book by going to mobile websites, sending and receiving eceiving text messages, messages, and more. At the end of each chapter, there is also a Mobile Interactive Quiz that you can use to assess your grasp of the information in that chapter and earn certification for doing so. Lastly, you can use social media to interact directly with me and other readers.

Online Resource Guide

www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com VIP Code: mobilefirst

Mobile Interactive Boxes

When you see a Mobile Interactive Box in the chapters (just look for the cell phone icon shown here), you have reached a mobile interactive spot in the book. Grab your cell phone and follow the instructions. If the instructions include sending a text message to a short code, you will only be able to do this with a U.S. phone in most cases. Unfortunately, this is a function of how short codes work, and it is cost-prohibitive to have international codes for each of the text message options. Each of the mobile interactive exchanges is

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xx The Mobile Marketing Handbook documented in the Online Resource Guide so you can still access the information but without the mobile experience.

Mobile Quiz

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At the end of each chapter is a mobile quiz, marked by a large question mark (as shown here). You will be given a keyword and a short code that you can use to take a threequestion quiz via text message. If you take every chapterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quiz using the same cell phone number for each quiz and answer at least 75 percent of the questions correctly, you will earn a printable certificate and an online badge that you can add to your website and social profiles that show you have earned The Mobile Marketing Handbook certification.

To register your phone for the Mobile Interactive Quiz, text MMHQUIZ to 21970 from your phone (make sure you use the same phone number for each quiz to ensure that you receive credit for your work). Message and data rates may apply. You will receive up to two messages per month in addition to each quiz. You can reply STOP at anytime to discontinue all messages; you will also be eliminated from the Mobile Interactive Quiz certification process. You can reply HELP at any time to receive assistance with the process (U.S. phone numbers only). The Mobile Interactive Quiz has been designed for use through ecember 31, 2013; and you also have hav the option of taking the quiz online December at the Online Resour R Resource esource ce Guide G Guide. uide.. Mobile obile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC.

Interact With This Book

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Social Networking Another way to interact with this book, other readers, and me is to use Facebook and Twitter. You can post comments, questions, and share examples of your mobile marketing work on the Facebook Page for the book or use the hashtag #MMH2 on Twitter.

Facebook www.facebook.com/mobilemarketinghandbook

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Twitter www.twitter.com/kimdushinski Hashtag #MMH2 (See Chapter 10 for more information on Twitter and hashtags.)

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Introduction

Welcome to the second edition of The Mobile Marketing Handbook Handbook. For those of you who read the first edition, there are are plenty of new mobile marketing trends and updates in this second edition. So much has changed in mobile since 2009 when it was first published. The Mobile Marketing Handbook andbook will prov prove to be a valuable valuable rresource for ested in launching an effective effective mobile marketing cam those who are interested campaign with the best return on investment (ROI). The bookâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s step-by-step approach is specifically designed for marketing professionals and business wners who need practical advice on getting started and/or improving their owners mobile marketing campaigns. Entrepreneurs who are interested in starting a business in mobile marketing will find everything from strategic decisionmaking advice to tools and techniques techniques, such as text messaging, mobile website creation, mobile advertising, and location-based marketing.

My View of Mobile Marketing

In the first edition of this book, I wrote about my view of mobile marketing as it related to every other kind of marketing that I have worked on in my career. As I started writing the introduction for this edition, I realized that I have stopped comparing mobile to other marketing tools. Mobile is truly a marketing channel of its own with a specific set of tools, strategies, regulations, and vendor ecosystem. However, mobile is so ubiquitous and interwoven with every other marketing channel that it can no longer be fully separated from most marketing campaigns. For example, email marketing no longer happens without mobile interaction among consumers. Businesses that send email blasts now understand that the majority of their audience is likely to check email using their small-screen mobile devices; thus email marketing is tightly intertwined in

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mobile marketing. Likewise, consumers expect to access the internet whenever and wherever they are with any kind of web-enabled device. Websites must also be mobile-accessible to connect with mobile audiences. Even when mobile can be separated from other forms of marketing, it is best to include it and the leverage it offers. Mobile marketing goes beyond simple text messaging, and the power of text message marketing brings signs (print and digital) to life. Print advertising has been empowered with mobile bar codes that give ads an extra layer of marketing power. Businesses can leverage their physical location into a powerful marketing tool through mobile location-based marketing. Adding a mobile component to any kind of marketing simply offers more opportunities. But I am not alone in my views about mobile. At the 2010 Mobile World Congress, Google reported that the company would focus on developing for mobile first with all of its products going forward. For Google CEO Eric Schmidt, “mobile first” means creating new services for smartphones before developing them for PCs. This only makes sense since the number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has topped 5 billion, and it is clear that mobile devices are woven into the fabric of our daily lives in such a way that we cannot imagine living without them.

Why Is Mobile Marketing Dif Different Differ ferent Fr ferent From om Other Marketing?

The marketing expert in you may be tempted to assume that mobile is similar to all of your other marketing efforts. While many of the strategic concepts may be the same, same, mobile is a unique marketing tool. Specifically, you have to give your target market some kind of added value in order for mobile to achieve achieve its true potential as a marketing tool. Mobile also isn’t just a smaller version of television or the internet. Other factors come into play, such as how personal the device is to the user. No other media is so closely associated to each user; most people have their cell phones with them 24/7/365. The way your audience interacts with your marketing is also different ent because users have to opt in to your campaign; it doesn’t just happen. The location of your audience is also a factor in reaching out with mobile. Mobile is different in so many ways, and this book is designed to show you how to use mobile marketing effectively.

Who Will Benefit From This Book and How The strategies and techniques in this book are practical; it will help anyone involved in mobile marketing learn the steps in creating and launching a campaign strategy. While many statistics, examples, and vendors in the

Introduction

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book are based in North America, the principles of mobile marketing and the step-by-step tactics are appropriate for a global marketplace.

Marketing Professionals Whether you work at an agency or at a company, you need to know how mobile fits into the marketing mix. This book will show you all the details of mobile and how to integrate it into your current marketing plan, a process that will make your current marketing more effective. Dive inâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to love mobile marketing!

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Businesses With a Business-to-Consumer Focus

Mobile marketing is certainly a great tool for big businesses, but it is not just for Fortune 500 companies and household brand names. In fact, small- and medium-sized businesses are ideal matches for mobile marketing, especially local marketing. Because location-specific information is the No. 1 search function that people use on their mobile devices, local businesses can use mobile as a powerful marketing tool. Fortunately, just as tools and vendors are matched for the needs of Corporate America, there are also resources that work for small- and medium-sized businesses. This book will offer ways to choose which marketing tools ar are the best ones to integrate first, based on your customers and your needs. Almost any business that markets to consumers can find a way to market with mobile.

Businesses With a Business-to-Business Focus

In most situations, using mobile effectively in a business-to-business (B2B) environment onment will be mor more difficult than business-to-consumer (B2C). However, mobile will also work well for certain B2B marketing. For example, any event setting, such as a trade sho show or conference, can be a good opportunity to work with mobile to reach your audience, especially if your mobile campaigns are specifically tied to the events. Launching a mobile marketing campaign first at such a setting will also help you launch mobile initiatives at other times as well.

Entrepreneurs If you are thinking about launching a mobile-based business, this book can show you the right ways to get started. The book was not written with that exact premise in mind, but if you read it with that mindset, you will see

xxvi The Mobile Marketing Handbook what to do. One bit of advice though: If you want to be ahead of the pack in mobile, don’t wait. Take action now. While the market may not be saturated with mobile marketing consultants yet, it soon will be. So stake your claim quickly and don’t miss this opportunity.

How This Book Is Organized Smart marketing always starts with a strategy and then moves into tactics and tools. This book provides the steps needed to develop a sound mobile marketing strategy first, and then it will discuss the details necessary in implementing your strategy. Part 1, “Mobile Marketing Strategy and

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Implementation,” mplementation,” is a solid introduction to mobile marketing, concentrating on what it is and whether it will work for your business. This section will help you create a smart strategy for your mobile campaign. It includes the Mobile Marketing Checklist, which is an essential tool for prioritizing and planning your mobile strategy. Part 2, “Mobile Marketing Toolbox: Tactics, Campaign ampaign Ideas, and Resources,” discusses the strategies and tools available via mobile. You’ll learn which tools to use first when mobile is still new for consumers and what you can implement later when they get used to the intricacies of mobile marketing. Each chapter will cover what the marketing tool is and when and how to use it, including resources and working examples. Part 3, “Marketing and Tracking Mobile Campaigns,” closes the loop and gives real-life examples of mobile marketing campaigns and how to integrate mobile with other marketing tools. Plus, you’ll see how tracking methods can help you achieve the maximum ROI from mobile marketing. Since mobile marketing can be used by anyone who has marketing

needs, this book is written for all types and sizes of businesses, companies, nonprofits, nonprofits groups, groups and entrepreneurs. entrepreneurs I use the words “business” and entrepreneurs “company” interchangeably to mean any of these entities. I often use the word “you” when I am speaking about the business involved in mobile marketing, which comes from my entrepreneurial roots where the line between business and owner is often blurred. Similarly, I will talk about customers, clients, and target markets to describe the end user who will be interacting with your business. Likewise, instead of using “mobile phone,” I will often use the term “mobile device,” which includes all types of cell phones, from basic phones to smartphones to gaming devices. But there are certain instances where I use the term “cell phone,” which applies specifically to cell phones and to no other type of mobile device. As mobile technology forges ahead, the fact that it is implemented on a phone will become much less important than the fact that it is mobile.

Introduction

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Throughout the book, I use 12345 as an example of short code (the number used in text messaging). This is the equivalent of using a 555 phone number, because 12345 is not a valid short code. Lastly, you will find that my writing style is more casual in tone than most business books. I’m not going to use corporate-ese when plain English works well. This will be helpful since the other information in the mobile industry is technical enough. Since mobile is relatively new to many people, I have included a Glossary that may come in handy to clarify any unfamiliar terms. Additionally, there is an Online Resource Guide (www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com), which includes updated content, audio, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations. Another added value for this latest edition is the mobile interactive opportunities. Read the “Interact With This Book” section for more details. Throughout this edition, I have showcased companies involved in mobile marketing campaigns. I certainly appreciate these mobile marketing pioneers forging the path for us to follow. You’ll learn from their stories (successes and failures) and my how-to advice advice, but you’ll find that you learn the most as you dive into your own campaigns after you finish reading the book. Be sure to let me know about your success story after you launch your own mobile marketing campaign.

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1 PART

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Mobile Marketing Strategy and Implementation

When people talk about mobile marketing, they often focus on its technology, such as what a certain handset can do, how cell phone carriers are implementing a service, the specific behind-the-scenes details of mobile web design, what a certain mobile operating system can accomplish, or how certain tain mobile tools work. Of course course, these are all important factors in mobile, but the truth is that a mobile marketer is better off developing an effective strategy to first achieve the end result and explore the technology later. The chapters in Part 1 focus on the strategic development and implementation of mobile marketing campaigns. The material in the first two chapters, “The Basics and the Big Picture” and “Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign,” provides insight into creating a solid foundation for your campaign. You’ll see how and why you need to integrate mobile into your overall marketing methods to create a successful campaign. In Chapter 3, information about legal issues and implications will help guide your mobile campaign

2 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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smoothly through your legal department. Chapter 4 offers guidelines for implementing your campaign whether you are hiring an agency, working directly with vendors, or doing it yourself. As tempting as it may be to skip this part and jump right to the exciting tools in Part 2â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mobile Marketing Toolbox, try to resist the urge. Without exploring the smart marketing strategies found in Part 1, you run the risk of launching an ineffective and/or noncompliant mobile marketing campaign, alienating your customers, wasting valuable time and money, or perhaps violating the law. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worth learning the fundamentals first.

CHAPTER

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The Basics and the Big Picture No matter how mobile advertising messages are delivered, our research shows that consumers demand that if a company is going to invade their personal space with advertising, it better be for something of interest to them. Personalization ersonalization is hypercritical.

—Judith Ricker, division president, Harris Interactive

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Businesses and their brands can reap big rewards from mobile marketing under the right circumstances. When mobile marketing is done right, you can reach your customers via mobile with a message they actually want to hear but might not even know it yet. And the real kicker is that your customers will reach out to you for the message.

ut perhaps I’m I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I should rule out what But

mobile marketing is not. Contrary to what many consumers dread (and what shady opportunists fantasize about), mobile marketing is not a barrage of unwanted text messages sent via cell phone to someone who may not want, need, or have any connection with the business sending the messages. That’s just spam. The Mobile Marketing Association defines mobile marketing as: “A set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” My definition of mobile marketing is slightly different: “Mobile market-

ing is how businesses communicate with consumers on their mobile

4 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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devices, with their explicit permission, at the right time, at the right place while providing relevant value.” Based on either definition, smart mobile marketing isn’t randomly marketing to people who may or may not be interested in receiving a message. Instead, smart mobile marketing is all about reaching your customers or being reached by them in a way that adds value to their day. You’ve undoubtedly noticed that a core component of my definition involves permission. Mobile marketing will never work well as an invasive marketing method, and it shouldn’t be undertaken as such under any circumstances. It’s likely to backfire every time. When mobile is used as a marketing tool, the end user must provide explicit permission for the communication to happen or it will fail. Any mobile outreach that is sent without permission not only impacts the business that is doing it, but it also casts a negative light on the entire industry. (Clearly, this does not eliminate mobile web advertising because anyone who goes online, even with a mobile device, naturally assumes that advertising will be interwoven with content somewhere.)

Mobile Devices Defined

Mobile devices can be any type of cell phone, from basic feature phones to more elaborate smartphones such as iPhones, Androidpowered phones, and BlackBerries. Other devices such as iPads or other tablets, ereaders (Kindle), or PDAs (personal digital assistants) are also options. Even gaming units such as Sony’s handheld game device PSPs (PlayStation Portables) can be considered mobile devices because they can access the internet through Wi-Fi and are often used remotely. For the most part in this book, we will be discussing marketing strategies to reach consumers through their cell phones, but remember, there are many ways to market to consumers via mobile. For your reference, when the phrase “cell phone” is used, I am referring specifically to cell phones and not mobile devices universally. When I use the term “mobile devices,” I’m referring to cell phones and other devices as well.

With mobile, a business can interact with customers at any time but only if those customers agree to receive a message. Customers can pick up their cell phones to request a text message when they’re out or even at home

The Basics and the Big Picture

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watching TV or reading a magazine. Customers can also search on their mobile devices to find your business’s mobile website. They can also call your business spontaneously wherever they are. Customers can use their phones to track where they are and use that data to request information and coupons from nearby businesses. Under the right circumstances, mobile marketing is likely to be so deeply interwoven into people’s daily lives that they won’t be able to imagine life without it. While consumers have always been able to respond directly to advertising, the process has never been so fluid or so immediate as it is with mobile. The majority of those who use mobile devices have the device with them at all times, even while they’re driving, walking down the street, shopping, or even sleeping. Most people will even return home to pick up their device if they leave it there. While some people only have a mobile device “for emergencies” or one that they “never turn on,” most people have their phones with them and ready to use at all times. Because of mobile, your customers can and will choose to interact with you at any given en moment. The key to a successful mobile marketing campaign is making your customers want to interact with you. That’s what this book is marketing peoketing campaign that makes peo all about. Iff you can create a mobile mar ple want to interact with your business, then you will be well on the road to success. Many marketers mistakenly regard the mobile marketing environment as a smaller version of the internet or television, but that isn’t the case. Mobile is more than its own unique marketing channel; it is a unique mass medium. As with print, audio recording, radio, cinema, TV, and the internet that came before it, mobile has its own characteristics that make it part Even of mass media. Ev E ven en as the newest service for consumers, it is the most widespread worldwide, it is the most personal (giving it the ability to closely target individuals and not general demographics), and it is always on with a built-in payment mechanism. But mobile is unlike the internet because people interact with the mobile web differently, using a much smaller interface than on a full-size computer. It also isn’t similar to television because its content (and your marketing) is consumed by one individual at a time. Individuals search for and find specific information; they don’t browse on mobile. And the big difference is that people are usually on the go when they are using mobile and in a “mobile mindset,” which means that they are either in a hurry (need information quickly) or are bored (using the device for entertainment). Either way, they are using mobile purposefully and are not in the same frame of mind as they are when using their desktop browsers. Mobile users are often in a distractionfilled environment, so marketers must be aware of the consumers’ mobile

6 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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mindset when creating campaigns. The better aligned your campaign is with what your customers want and where they are, the more successful your initiatives will be. Marketers also tend to underutilize mobile. Your complete, full-size website can be rendered reasonably well on most mobile devices by miniaturizing it, but is that really what your customers want? Some marketers see mobile as the ultimate brand-awareness tool. And while you can use mobile marketing for branding, it is not the most comprehensive use for it. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comparable to buying a Ferrari and only driving it 20 mph to church once a week. Its potential is wasted. This book can help you tap into mobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s full potential as a marketing tool.

How Smartphones Impact Mobile Marketing

The release of the iPhone in 2007 had a huge impact on mobile marketing. This powerful mobile device and the brilliant marketing behind it catapulted mobile use and mobile marketing into the forefront of marketing strategies in North America. Of course, there are now a multitude of smartphones (Android phones, BlackBerries, and others) that continue to impact mobile marketing. According to a May 2011 survey of U.S. consumers by Nielsen, 55 percent of new phones purchased are smartphones. While it will take awhile for feature phones to become extinct worldwide, it will happen. This rapid adoption of smartphones is a factor in how quickly mobile marketing is being accepted. Since todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mobile devices have more functionality functionality, consumers are doing more with them and connecting with businesses in more interactive ways. Consumers are expecting more from businesses as well. If they can use their phones in the process, they want to try it, from mobile apps and mobile websites to the ability to pay for products and services. No doubt about it, the more powerful the devices become, the more businesses must implement mobile marketing.

The Basics and the Big Picture

How Big Is the Mobile Market?

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The mobile marketplace is big and getting bigger. There are more than 5 billion active cell phone subscriptions worldwide, which accounts for 73 percent of the world’s population. When you consider that this mobile adoption rate includes the very young and the very old who are not typical cell phone users, this statistic is truly amazing. Even more astonishing is the news that there are more than 60 countries with more than 100 percent penetration rate (more than one device per person), according to TomiAhonen Consulting. On his blog titled Communities Dominate Brands (communities-dominate. blogs.com), Tomi Ahonen writes, “UAE (United Arab Emirates) became the first country with 200 percent penetration rate already. Italy, Israel, Hong Kong, Russia are at 150% and climbing. Europe is past 125%. The USA will oach but probably not yet pass 100% in 2010. It is now racing with approach Vietnam, Morocco, Mexico and Dominican Republic for this ‘honor.’ Canada and Japan are holding the tail end for mobile phone penetr penetration level among industrialized countries. Japan will pass 90% in 2010, Canada will approach that level. Meanwhile Africa will pass 50% mobile phone penetration level this year [2010].” In comparison, some countries have a much lower internet usage rate. According to InternetWorldStats.com, only 10.9 percent of the African population uses the internet. Europe has a 58.4 percent rate of internet use, and Asia has 21.5 percent, a surprising contrast to its high mobile use. more than the internet on a The bottom line is that mobile is used much mor global scale. IItt is interesting to note that North America is still lagging behind much of Asia and Europe in adopting mobile. This is useful because we can look space. Interestingly, the at these mobile leaders for trends in the mobile space North exact opposite happened with the internet in the late 1990s because N America ica was well ahead of the curve in adopting internet technology. Still, the North th American internet adoption rate is lower than mobile at just 77.4 percent. Mobile is used more frequently than the internet even where internet usage rates are the highest. Clearly, mobile users represent a huge market. The next time you are in a public place, look around and see how many people are using cell phones or other mobile devices. Many people around you will be using their mobile devices to make calls, search online, send text messages, check email, adjust their calendars, take pictures, or listen to music. If the people you see are not actively using a phone, they probably have one strapped to their belt, tucked in their purse, or gripped in their hand. Compare this to the

8 The Mobile Marketing Handbook number of people who are reading or carrying a newspaper or magazine, or listening to the radio or watching television. Mobile is the only mass media that offers this level of continuous interconnectivity to individuals in their daily lives. But here’s one word of caution: Even if huge numbers of people have mobile devices, it does not mean that they are waiting for marketing campaigns to be delivered to them on this highly personal device. It simply means that there is an opportunity for you to reach your customers more easily and more personally than ever before. Likewise, it means your customers have a way to reach you more easily than ever before too. They have a way to connect to your business and with each other directly or indirectly

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at all times. You just need to give them the opportunity to engage with your business via mobile, and it may be easier than you think. These devices are in more people’s hands (literally) than any other mass media for those who want to find local resources, and your business may be one of those resources.

ccording to IDC’s Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast, According

wing rapidly rrapidly: apidly:: There were 450 million mobile web mobile web users are growing users in 2009, a figure that will exceed 1 billion by 2013. Mobile web users are actively searching for information about something in their immediate vicinity. According to Cindy Krum, author of Mobile Marketing: Finding Your our Customers No M Matter atter Where They Are, Are, mobile searchers are ““ready to spend money and just need to know where to spend it.”

As impressive as the mobile web statistics are, they pale in comparison

to SMS (text messaging) use. More than 4.2 billion people use SMS and collectively sent 8 trillion text messages in 2011 around the world. You may think text messaging is only for young people, people or you may know people who claim they have no intention of learning how to text. However, a September 2011 study by Pew Research Center finds nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of American cell phone owners are ar texting, and nearly one-third (31 percent) prefer texting to talking. In addition to the sheer number of consumers who have mobile access and actively use it, advertisers are tapping into the growing investment in mobile marketing. Mobile advertising revenue grew from $3.1 billion to $5.9 billion in 2009, according to Tomi Ahonen. This figure represents an impressive 85 percent growth rate in a troubled year for the global economy when advertising budgets were slashed. At this same time, as nondigital advertising budgets were sliced and even internet advertising was flat for the year, mobile grew by an impressive 85 percent.

The Basics and the Big Picture

Opportunities in Mobile Marketing

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If you don’t use your mobile device all the time and can’t see how businesses can easily engage you via mobile, you may be wondering how viable this marketing strategy actually is. Maybe you have been charged with launching a mobile campaign and justifying the return on investment (ROI) for the marketing budget allocated for mobile. Or perhaps you realize the full potential of mobile marketing, as I did on the night of May 23, 2007, when the thought of the future of mobile marketing literally woke me up in the middle of the night. That’s when I decided to start my mobile marketing business. In any case, you should be aware of the growing opportunities in mobile marketing.

Local Businesses

Local businesses, such as restaurants, spas, salons, night clubs, and retail stores, hold the best opportunities for mobile marketing. This powerful tool can be used to attract new customers and increase the number of purchases from your current customers. The time is right to mobilize your proactively. pr business and consider marketing with mobile proactiv oactively. ely.

Marketing Professionals

Having aving the ability to strategize strategiz strategiz ategize e and implement a dynamic mobile mar marketing campaign based on smart marketing principles is a unique skill set to have. Learning what you need to succeed in mobile marketing is potentially a huge opportunity for your career.

Agencies

If your clients haven’t asked you to implement mobile campaigns for them already, they will be asking soon. Your biggest opportunity is being able to integrate ate mobile with the rest of the marketing efforts you are doing for them. Mobile can be a sizable addition to your revenue stream, especially if you use a vendor’s private label and bill your clients at retail prices for mobile campaigns while you pay wholesale rates to the vendor.

Mobile Marketing Entrepreneurs As reported by Entrepreneur.com, “Results from Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s job market index revealed that 8.7 percent of job seekers gained employment by starting their own businesses in second quarter 2009, way

10 The Mobile Marketing Handbook up from the record low of 2.7 percent during the last quarter of 2008.” If you want to start a mobile marketing business, your timing is perfect. The aforementioned local businesses are your ideal target market. Be sure to read more about this in the Appendix, “How to Start a Mobile Marketing Business.”

Why You Need to Take Action Now, Even If You’re Not Ready

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You may not think you are ready to launch a mobile marketing campaign, but that is not actually relevant. Your customers are already accessing your website ebsite via their mobile phone (or trying to, anyway). Your customers are likely to be reading your email messages on their phones; they are using mobile to interact on their social media networks and may stumble upon your company’s name or website on their mobile devices. The fact is that whether you are proactively reaching out with mobile marketing or not, your business is already interacting with customers in the mobile environment. If you are not paying attention to this, your business may be failing at mobile marketing already by simply ignoring it. Being eing one of the first in your industry industry or your neighborhood to create a mobile marketing campaign will give you the hometown advantage. You will be able to grab a good share of the audience because you’ll be one of the first to break ground on the process. Your customers are counting on you to be there when they reach out via mobile, and they will be likely to reward you by responding to what you offer.

See the Mobile W Web in Action

If you want to see proof that people around the world are consuming the mobile web and all it has to offer, check out Bango Analytics Live (www.bango.com/live). You can watch the mobile web in action. This site shows a live sampling of people worldwide using their mobile phones to browse websites, interact with ads or marketing campaigns, and even buy downloadable content. You may have to scroll down to see it, but check the continually updated list of handsets and how they are using mobile. Seeing this continuous stream of mobile buyers in action gives you insight into the scope of mobile’s reach and the level of actual buying activity.

The Basics and the Big Picture

For example, let’s say you own a restaurant in a neighborhood, and you start a text message campaign to alert people about Two-for-One nights (on those slower nights when you could use more people coming in the door). On those slow nights, this text message blast becomes a tool to get more customers than your competitors. The same thing holds true for the mobile web. If you have a mobile website and your competitors don’t, you are ahead of the game. The best way to guarantee that is to start now. Make sure that your customers aren’t frustrated by trying to access your desktop site on their mobile device; this can work to your advantage. The more quickly you begin to build your SMS opt-in contact list, the better the opportunity to build a robust following. And the easier it is for your contacts to read your

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email on their mobile phones, the better the response rate you will get from your email. So this is the right time to mobilize your business.

Who Is Using Mobile the Most: The Savvy Markets

Mobile use is growing in many dynamic ways. One study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project titled “Mobile Access 2010” revealed some amazing statistics that demonstrate this growth and provide insight into ious groups of people in the U.S. who are are using mobile various mobile.

As expected, the young adults (ages 18–29) who have grown up with a

cell phone use mobile most voraciously. In addition to making calls, these young people actively participated in mobile in the following ways as reported eported epor ted in “Mobile Access 2010”:

• 95 percent send or receive text messages

• 93 percent use their phone to take pictures • 81 percent send photos or videos to others

• 65 percent access the internet on their mobile devices • 64 percent play music on their phones

• 60 percent use their phones to play games or record a video • 52 percent have used their phones to send or receive emails • 48 percent have accessed social networking sites on their phones • 46 percent use instant messaging on their mobile devices • 40 percent have watched a video on their phone • 33 percent have posted a photo or video online from their phones

12 The Mobile Marketing Handbook • 21 percent have used a status update service such as Twitter from their phones • 20 percent have purchased something using their mobile phones • 19 percent have made a charitable donation by text messages These 76 million Generation Y/Millennials (the under-30 crowd) are the prime market for mobile marketing. But this is also the same generation that is wary of advertising, marketing, and anything commercial. You will need to provide solid value to engage this group and to overcome a natural skepticism toward marketing. You will find that reaching the Millennials via

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mobile will be more about fun, entertainment, and connection than efficiency or making life easier. This group will be the easiest to get involved in the technology of your campaign because members of this group already know how to use it. But the Millennials may be the least responsive if your marketing starts to feel like old-school advertising in any way.

ation Xers (ages 30–49) are not far behind Millennials in mobile Generation

use, and Baby Boomers are using mobile for more than making phone calls, too (Figure 1.1). The days of saying that mobile is just for teenagers are long gone. The key to reaching the over-30 crowd is to provide value. These older ed well without mobile so far must hav users who have lived have a powerful and compelling reason to interact with your business on mobile, or they simply won’t.

Another interesting find by the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s

obile Access 2010” study is that mobile use b “Mobile by ethnic minorities is very robust. The report shows that:

ontinuing a trend w e first identified in 2009, minority Continuing we

Americans lead the way when it comes to mobile access—

especially mobile access using handheld devices devices. Nearly twothirds of African-Americans (64%) and Latinos (63%) are

wireless internet users, and minority Americans are significantly more likely to own a cell phone than their white counterparts (87% of blacks and Hispanics own a cell phone, compared with 80% of whites). Additionally, black and Latino cell phone owners take advantage of a much wider array of their phones’ data functions compared to white cell phone owners. It is important to note that our data for Hispanics represents English-speaking Hispanics only, as our survey did not provide a Spanish-language option.

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The Basics and the Big Picture

Figure 1.1 As expected, younger adults have the highest usage rates of mobile data, but other age groups are active on mobile as well.

Women are undoubtedly a big target for mobile marketing. As reported by Mashable.com in April 2010, “Mobile shopping company miBuys conducted a survey of 1,600 women on mobile phones and found that the overwhelming majority of them are open to more mobile marketing and mobile shopping. These respondents love using the mobile web overall, this study shows; 94% said they use their phones to surf even when they’re at home and can access much more powerful devices, such as laptops and desktop PCs. These heavy mobile users are big on social sites—86% access Facebook, Twitter or similar networks on their mobiles—and 93% said they’d feel lost without their cell phones.”

14 The Mobile Marketing Handbook Many women who are active mobile users are also part of the under-30 crowd and/or the corporate data plan market, but the use of mobile to keep multiple components (business, family, personal, and kids) in their busy lives has quickly driven this group to be savvy mobile users. Who needs the convenience of mobile more than a busy woman wearing many hats during the day? Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget that women are the primary buying force in America, and reaching this powerful group via mobile could certainly prove worthwhile. According to a Mediamark Research & Intelligence survey in 2009, women are responsible for making 75 percent of the buying decisions in the home. Niche markets, or groups of people with the same interest, are another

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prime target for mobile marketing initiatives. A niche market can include people who belong to a particular association, subscribe to a certain magazine, or work in a specific industry. Because there is a built-in way to reach this group, it is a good match for mobile marketing if you can provide a significant value to them via mobile. For example, mobile marketing can be or example used as a direct response tool at an industry trade show where everyone is gathered and interested in the same topics. For the right marketing efforts, the results could be the same as shooting fish in a barrel.

The Big Picture

There is a legend about an artist who was asked whether it was easier to draw a dog or a demon. He said that it is easier to draw a demon because everyone eryone knows what a dog is supposed to look like, so any errors in the drawing are obvious to everyone concerned. However, as a mythological creature, a demon could look like anything. So an artist can draw it however he likes, and no one can really find any fault. When I hear heard this story, as part of an introduction by Justin Oberman of mopocket.com before a Mobile Web Americas conference, I was immediately struck by how true it is for mobile marketing. Creating a mobile marketing campaign is much the same as drawing a mythological creature. While it is easy to create a fun, elaborate, and highly technical campaign on paper, it may not be as easy to implement it in real life. While technology is just starting to come up to speed, some ideas are cost prohibitive to implement. Or perhaps providing the necessary education to get consumers to participate may curtail some of the potential ROI of the campaign. It is still important to dream big and draw the demon because even if technology is not ready for your idea yet, it will be soon. And you may be surprised to find out that what you want to do is already

The Basics and the Big Picture

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possible with existing technology. The marketers who take risks to create campaigns that are new and bold are likely to reap the biggest rewards. On the other hand, marketers who don’t want to create something new or bold can stick to drawing dogs. There are plenty of mobile marketing artists who have gone before you, so you can model your campaign after a known entity. There is still ample room to launch solid campaigns that bring a respectable return without using completely new and untried ideas. For your benefit, I have organized Part 2 of this book so the easiest technologies to implement (the dogs) are explored first. Later in the book, I have included tools that are more futuristic (the demons), even if that future is coming quickly. This way, you know which artist’s shoes you are stepping into so you can plan your strategies accordingly. So what is the big picture for you? Mobile marketing can take a onedimensional, deadbeat ad and turn it into a hyper-responsive marketing tool. Almost any business can jump into the mobile world and make a difence in its bottom line with an effective effective mobile marketing campaign. All ference it takes is creativity and a campaign that is designed around your customers’ wants and needs. Mobile campaigns work quickly, and the response can be phenomenal if you stay focused on the customers’ needs. This book can guide you through all the steps, generate ideas, and put the tools into your hands to build truly dynamic mobile marketing campaigns.

Online Resource Guide

Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

Additional Reading

Tomi T. Ahonen and Jim O’Reilly, Digital Korea: Convergence of Broadband Internet, nternet, 3G Cell Phones, Multiplayer M Gaming, Digital TV, Virtual Reality, Electronic lectronic Cash, Telematics, Robotics, E-Government and the Intelligent Home (futuretext, 2007) Michael Becker and John Arnold, Mobile Marketing for Dummies (For Dummies, 2010) Cindy Krum, Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are (Que, 2010) Chetan Sharma, Joe Herzog, and Victor Melfi, Mobile Advertising: Supercharge Your Brand in the Exploding Wireless Market (Wiley, 2008)

16 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 1, text MMHQUIZ1 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourHELP. self from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

CHAPTER

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Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign More consumers are taking their daily lives with them on the road, including talking, texting, exchanging email, accessing work documents, searching, shopping, checking weather, playing games and consuming news and content. What fertile ground then for marketers to interact with mobile consumers. —Mickey Alam Khan, editor-in-chief, Mobile Marketer

Mobile marketing campaigns are lively and dynamic in ways that other marketing is not. Why? Y our customer must actively activ Your engage in the marketing to get started. Once the campaign is underway, your business (through your marketing efforts) is in direct one-to-one contact with your customers. As an example, when your text message coupon is sent to their phones, it is likely to be read immediately, or if your click-to-call button (a clickable link on a mobile webpage or in a text message that triggers a phone call) is handy when your customers need it, they call you. Your mobile website might offer just the right mix of information so your cushands tomers can easily discover your business right in the palm of their hands. ut these dynamic campaigns do not magically appear. appear Solid strategic But planning must be done to make sure the campaign works the way you want it to and that it achieves the direct customer connection. In this chapter, you will find the steps you’ll need to strategize your mobile marketing campaign and to select the right tool(s) for the results you desire.

The Secret of Being Dynamic The word “dynamic” is defined by Dictionary.com in the following two ways: 1) vigorous and purposeful, full of energy, enthusiasm, and a sense of purpose, and able both to get things going and to get things done; and

18 The Mobile Marketing Handbook 2) active and changing, characterized by vigorous activity and producing or undergoing change and development. This definition of dynamic contains two components that are critical to our discussion of mobile marketing. First, mobile marketing is purposeful, and second, it is active. If you can create a campaign with a clearly defined purpose and make it active between you and your customers, then you have created a dynamic (and ultimately profitable) campaign. In marketing, there are two ways to reach consumers. The first is to “push” marketing to them. Essentially, push marketing is actively reaching out to your target market without prior permission or a known interest in receiving your marketing messages. Push marketing can be introduced to

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people in the following ways:

• Using commercials to interrupt shows on television or music on the radio

• Mailing brochures or sales letters

• Sending unsolicited emails or text messages

But most people have a natural aversion to this type of marketing and

sales because no one wants to have messages or ads shoved at them, especially when they are not interested in the products or services.

The other way is to “pull” customers to you. Pull marketing creates con-

tent that your target market will actually want to receive. By sending this content directly to them, you can market your company in the process. This strategy ategy allows allows customers to forget where the marketing is coming from and just enjoy the value they receive. If pull marketing is done properly, customers will ask you for this content. All you need to do is put the content or offer in front of them purposefully and rrepeatedly. Pull marketing can be introduced via any of the following ways:

• Building an effective website and inviting your customers to check it out

• Creating a newsletter and encouraging customers to sign up for it • Producing a video that shows viewers how to do something (if someone is interested in learning, they will search for these tutorials) • Offering potential customers added value such as a discount or timely information in exchange for permission to send them a text message

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

Surprisingly, both types of marketing can work under certain circumstances. Push marketing has worked for hundreds of years. If it didn’t, companies would no longer be using this technique, and your mailbox would not be filled with preapproved credit card offers. Television commercials would disappear altogether if companies didn’t find them profitable. Even email spam would stop appearing in your inbox if the promoted products didn’t sell.

Pull First, Then Push

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A smart marketing strategy is to “pull” first (attract people to your offer and entice them to opt in) and then “push” (send messages to them with the frequency they expect based on your marketing messages and on the topic they agreed to receive). This is not only smart marketing in general, it is also the only strategy to follow for SMS text messaging.

However, push marketing today is not working as well as it has in the n his book Pyro Marketing, Mar M arketing Greg Stielstra discusses ways in which the arketing past. In through the years: effectiveness of push mass marketing has changed thr The era of mass marketing is ending. The promotion of a single product pr oduct or service to everyone through an undifferentiated media reached its peak in the 1960s and its success convinced most marketers it was the only way. But the world has changed and mass tactics that worked so brilliantly thirty-five years before and which still seem perfectly sensible in the safety of boardroom the boardr boar droom oom increasingly fail in the real, modern world. … Yet many companies continue to use mass marketing, hoping it still wields its old influence.

It is important to note that mobile as a marketing tool requires a completely different mindset when strategizing because the old marketing methods will not work. Push marketing only in the mobile arena is not acceptable. Sending spammed text messages goes against best practices and smart marketing principles, leaving you vulnerable legally. Other strategies, such as sending a commercial to someone who is searching for information quickly, are just not practical. Pull marketing is the only effective way to market with

20 The Mobile Marketing Handbook mobile. In order to create an effective pull marketing campaign, start with a single question: “What’s in it for the customers?” This brings us to the first of the five strategies involved in creating a dynamic mobile marketing campaign (Figure 2.1).

Step 1: Figure Out What Your Target Market Wants and Offer It

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There is almost nothing harder than trying to sell people something that they don’t want. Convincing someone that they need what you are offering requires substantial effort on your behalf, and the effort usually doesn’t pay off. On the flip side, it is easy to sell something to people when they already want it. Think of a sidewalk vendor trying to sell hot chocolate in Phoenix in July. No matter how good that hot chocolate is or what kind of discount is offered, people just aren’t interested in buying it. Change the product to ice water, and the situation changes dramatically. When people want something, sales happen easily, and the customers are happy. You need to proceed in the same way with your mobile campaigns. Offer people something they already want, and your campaign will be more successful and markedly kedly easier to implement.

Six Ways to Provide Value With Mobile

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Location-specific information Timely knowledge Ideas for making life easier Financial incentive Entertainment Connection

What’s In It for Them? Unlike other marketing tools, mobile only works if your customers have given you permission to connect with them. Mobile is a pull-only marketing method. People are busy, and they are already overwhelmed with the huge number of marketing messages that they receive on a daily basis. With a mobile marketing campaign, you are asking people to add more marketing

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign 1 Figure out what your target market wants and offer it.

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Location-Specific Information Timely Knowledge Make Life Easier Financial Incentive Entertainment Connection

2 Align what your target rget market market wants wants with your yo desired desired outcome. outcome.

ustomers Get New Customers urrent Customers Customers Retain Current hases From From Current Curre Customers Custome Customers rs Increase Purchases war eness wareness Brand Awareness

3 Choose hoose the right right mobile mobile marketing marketing tool(s) tool(s) for f this campaign.

Calling Calling Text Messaging Messaging Text Mobile Web Mobile Locati Location-Based on-Based Mobile Mobile Marketing M Location-Based Mobile Search Search Mobile Mobile Advertising Advertising Mobile Appps ps Apps Mobile Bar Ba Codes (QR Codes) Mobile

Launch your mobile marketing campaign and market it.

Track what is working and make any necessary adjustments.

Figure 2.1 If this book could be summed up in one page, this would be it: the five steps to creating a dynamic mobile marketing campaign.

22 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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to their lives. And if you don’t have a compelling reason for them to interact with you on mobile, they won’t. To start a pull marketing campaign, figure out what you can offer your customers that will add value to their day. Ask the questions and “thought starters” that are introduced later in this chapter at the end of Step 1 to determine your compelling reason for the interaction. Remember, people will only interact with marketing if there is something in it for them. If your customers feel they are on the receiving end of an advertising-only campaign, your mobile marketing will not work. Make sure that you also offer value. To provide value, figure out how to combine what you have to offer with what your customers want. For instance, you can offer a coupon for free parking, or a free movie, dessert, or drink. By offering customers something they want, you can give them an incentive to ask for the offer on their mobile devices. Because it is a free sample of your product or service, customers will typically accept the free item and are likely to buy more from you. But first, let’s start with what customers want.

Six Ways to Provide Value With Mobile

In order for customers to accept mobile marketing from you in the first place, you have to show them how you can improve their lives. Here are six options for providing value via mobile that will enhance their lives so they will engage with your campaign.

1. Location-Specific Information

This category is a no-brainer. Location-specific knowledge is the No. 1 eason that people access the mobile web via mobile search. Regar reason Regardless of whatever fun, creative, creative,, and exciting elements you include in your mobile creative sure to include location-specific information in your campaign, be sure mobile presence. A location-focused campaign includes information about your business, including addresses, driving directions, maps, and photos of your storefront, and anything else that will help customers find you or your location. Make sure you have keywords included in your local search campaign. For example, if you are a plumber, be sure to put search keywords (plumber, plumbing, frozen pipes, and plugged toilet) on your mobile site so that people can search and find you. Then use these same words when you are asked for tags or keywords to describe your site. Be sure you have your business listed in every local search engine/local directory possible.

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

2. Timely Knowledge

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If you need to alert your target market quickly about special information, even faster than by email, mobile is the perfect way to provide value to your customers. One example could be a pricing alert (gas prices are going up in 4 hours), or an availability alert (your favorite hairstylist has an opening in 3 hours, or your back-ordered item is now in stock), or a combination of these (we have open tables tonight, and if you come in before 7 PM, you will receive a free dessert). This could also be a readiness alert (when your order is ready to be picked up) because once you check your email or retrieve your phone messages at home, you may not want to go out again. Travel alerts (flight delays or gate number changes) are a perfect example of providing this value because timely knowledge is instantly valuable wherever you are. 3. Ideas for Making Life Easier

Anything you can offer that makes life convenient and more efficient for your our customers is a good option for your mobile campaign. This category categor is wide open because there are dozens of ways to make your customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives easier via mobile. A good place to start is to consider what questions your customers/potential customers ask you fr equently. Think about where your equently. frequently. customers are and what information they might find helpful now. For example, a busy working mom needs menu choices for dinner tonight when she is in the grocery store, or she needs a list of healthy snack options to bring to her childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classroom. Or consider the exercise enthusiast who acks workouts and calorie consumption, and wants instant access to this tracks data anytime, anytime, anywher anywhere. e. By developing a clear picture of your customers, you can answer the following questions: Who are they? What do they do with their liv es? What problems do they want you to solve? How can interlives? acting with your business make their lives better, and how does that extend to mobile? An excellent example of making life easier using mobile is the S Sea World iPhone and Android app that is designed to help visitors explore the park more efficiently with more information at their fingertips. The app features information about shows, restroom locations, access to Wi-Fi locations, food options, the animals, and even the wait times at each ride. All of this can be provided in more detail, with up-to-date information on signs and printed maps. Read more about it at tinyurl.com/seaworldmobilestory. 4. Financial Incentive People love to save money, find a good deal, and feel special. Finding a way to help your customers achieve these three things provides value. When you

24 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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offer coupons, discounts, or special offers via mobile, think creatively. Integrate your offer into your customers’ mobile environment so when they first receive it, the offer is actually there when they want to use it. One example is displaying signs outside a store with a text message coupon that can be redeemed instantly by walking inside. Incorporating your loyalty program tracking (offers to buy 10 items and get the 11th one free) into your mobile campaign not only gives your customers a reason to interact with you via mobile, it also keeps them buying directly from you. Keep in mind that customers will want a more intrusive, customized coupon (one they can receive on their phones) to offer a bigger incentive. A coupon for a 50cent discount that they see in the newspaper may be enough to motivate them to get out the scissors, clip the coupon, and take it with them to the grocery store, but they need more incentive to receive something on their mobile device. They might want to get a combination of coupons or a bigger ticket item. Just be careful not to overdo this option. Because a financial overused. incentive is easy, it is likely to be the most used and the first to be overused. ite examples of financial incentiv One of my favorite incentive is the following Bath BBW: Hello Yellow SALE starts TODAY! Show BBW: & Body Works SMS coupon: “BBW: text for $10 off $40 purch Max1/cust val 6/11-6/27 in BBWUS stores only Inval@Outlet #2684 TextSTOP2endMsg&DataR8sAply.” You will notice that the coupon used many abbreviations, but it was all understandable. The cashier input the four-digit code into the store system to acknowledge that this coupon had been redeemed. 5. Entertainment

Those who have a few minutes to spare and a mobile device are likely canG trivia, contests, recordings, you to entertain via mobile. Games, didates for you and scavenger hunts are good mobile options. You can create your own games, sponsor an existing one, or even offer people a list of game sites. If customers have to sit and wait to interact with your business at any point, our waiting area can become one of your best marketing tools. Or what if your people begin interacting with your business while they are in another waiting room, standing in line, riding the bus/subway, or just hanging out with nothing to do? Think of ways you can entertain your customers via mobile that will also offer them value. 6. Connection Younger generations have grown up connected to each other through the internet and cell phones where other generations have not. This younger generation gets connected to each other by mobile phones unlike any other

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

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group before them. Through text messaging and sites such as Twitter and Facebook, these under-30 folks now expect to reach out to their friends at any time through the social networking software on their mobile devices. Don’t be tempted to dismiss mobile social networking just because you’re not using it or don’t understand it. There are ways to add connections to your customers’ lives, even if they are not the younger crowd. One example of this is OrbitzTLC Traveler Update feature (www.orbitz.com/App/ ViewTravelWatchHome). Through this mobile social networking site, travelers can update and check timely information including parking availability, security delays, taxi lines, and comments from fellow travelers via their mobile devices. OrbitzTLC connects people who are otherwise strangers while they are traveling to and from the same place or within the same airport. This service adds value to their lives and connects them via their mobile devices.

Marketing vs. Relevant Value

People don’t want to be on the receiving end of marketing campaigns; no one likes to feel like they are being forced into buying something. Frankly, it conjures up images of snake oil salesmen of days gone by. But people actually like adding value to their lives, and when they find something that enhances their lives, they are willing to engage with it. When customers find something worthwhile that they want, they tend not to refer to it as marketing. Instead, it becomes helpful/fun/entertaining to them, but it is still “marketing” to you. Take the Redbox Free Movie Monday text message campaign as an example. Customers can sign up to get a text message coupon the first Monday of each month for a free movie rental. As one of these customers, I can verify that when the text message arrives, I think, “There’s my free movie.” I’m not even giving it a thought that Redbox is “marketing” to me. When you provide relevant value, the feel of “being marketed to” fades away and everybody wins.

These types of services can be offered as a value through the sponsorship of a social networking site, advertising on one of these sites, or creating one for your customers to use. This will work the best if your customers want to start a group offline or if they discover a common interest while they are

26 The Mobile Marketing Handbook interacting with your business. This connection also links customers to your business. The “popularity” of your company or anyone in your company can attract customers who want to connect to you. Having a solid brand community comes in handy when a company is providing value through connections.

What Is Your Compelling Reason for Mobile Interaction?

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Knowing what your customers want is only part of the equation. You need to know what compelling offers you will be providing to them. Use the following list of questions to spark your creativity in thinking about what your customers want: • What information do your customers need from you and need right now?

• What are the most common questions your customers ask?

• Are there any tidbits of knowledge about your products, services, or business history your customers would find interesting or helpful?

• What would your customers like to win (prizes from your product line, services vices you offer offer, or special opportunities)?

• Could your customers offer their opinions or insights on specific topics? • Could you make a list of what your customers can photograph and send to you or upload to your Facebook Page for other customers to see? (This could be a photo contest featuring your products or services.) • Do you sell anything they want to buy quickly or impulsively?

• Can you compile a list of interesting trivia questions and answers about your company, branded product, or service? • What alerts about your day-to-day operations would your customers need? • What kinds of coupons would be useful to your customers? • Do you sponsor any events that your customers attend? • Does your company sell any products for which a video tutorial would be useful?

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

• Do you exhibit at any trade shows? • What fundraising efforts do you do? • Where can customers/potential customers see you or your product? An event? Workshop? Seminar? • What new product or service do you have that your customers can be the first to know about, buy, use, or experience? Keep the answers to these questions handy as you design your mobile marketing campaign. When you start the technology part of the campaign, this information will be helpful when you focus on what you want to offer

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your customers. Stay focused on what your customers want and what you can provide to enhance their lives. When you can add relevant value to your es with mobile, you will have succeeded in the first step of a customers’ lives dynamic mobile marketing campaign.

Step 2: Align What Your Target Market Wants With Your Desired Outcome

A clearly defined outcome is essential to determining the return on investment (ROI) for any marketing campaign. It is especially important when a new technology is in place because it may be tempting just to try something new to see what happens. But without an initial goal in place, it will be impossible to know know whether the strategy worked or how well.

Determine Deter mine the Outcome You W Want

The next step in a dynamic mobile marketing campaign is to align what the customer wants with what you want. With a mobile campaign, as with any marketing initiative, you want to define the outcome in advance. Be specific. What exactly do you want your customers to do after they interact with you on mobile? What problem does your company need to resolve by this particular marketing effort? Ultimately, the following four outcomes are essential in any successful marketing effort: 1. Acquisition of new customers 2. Increased sales to current customers 3. Retention of current customers 4. Brand awareness

28 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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Acquiring new customers is the top marketing objective for a business. Most ads are directed to that outcome and that is the mission driving most business marketing. However, it is often easier to increase sales from current customers and keep current customers happy than it is to keep trying to attract new customers. Since mobile is such an interactive tool combined with other marketing efforts, it is also easier to market and to implement mobile campaigns aimed at current customers. So, as you consider your marketing objectives, begin to focus on increased sales to current customers. Then focus on retaining current customers, and then move back to the more attractive goal of acquiring new customers. If you have a marketing objective to follow and must achieve it regardless of how easy it is to do, don’t worry. You can achieve any marketing outcome with mobile marketing as long as you provide solid value to a reasonably mobile-savvy target audience and market your mobile campaign effectively. urrent Customers Increased Sales to Current

ease sales to current customers because they are the ones It is easy to increase are already in your place of busiwho are already buying from you. They are ness, they receive your other marketing pieces, and they trust you. Current customers are most likely to believ believe that you will treat them right via mobile already eady shown that you treat them right in your other because you have alr business dealings. So as you strategize the outcome you want, mobile becomes a way to increase sales from this prime market. Think about what your customers purchase from you already and what other products or services you can advertise to entice them to make a purchase, schedule their next appointment, or otherwise interact with you again. Look at how you can make their lives easier with a mobile alert. If you don’t know, ask them. Remember to offer a financial incentive to current customers as well as new ones. Don’t be a company that only offers the best rates to new customers and disregards its loyal customers. This can easily make people esent your business and want to be a new customer somewhere else. resent Retention of Current Customers Retaining customers is all about providing good customer service, and you can accomplish plenty via mobile. Mobile-enabled customer service does not have to be complicated; you don’t have to launch a complete mobile customer relationship management system. It can be as simple as having a mobile-friendly website, having emails that can be easily read on a mobile device, offering mobile reminders, being available to customers via text messaging for communication or ordering, giving them a way to submit

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

feedback to you when they are mobile, or entertaining them when they are waiting for you. Anything you can provide with mobile that gives more value to your customers will boost your retention rates. One example of a mobile marketing initiative designed to retain current customers is State Farm Insurance’s mobile website (www.m.statefarm. com). In addition to the features on the site that apply to the general public, such as the ability to find an agent and call for a rate quote, there is a login area for current State Farm customers to submit claims, check policy information, and even check account balances on bank and mutual funds. These features make doing business with State Farm easier, with the poten-

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tial of increasing customer retention.

Acquisition of New Customers

The Holy Grail of marketing—getting new customers—is certainly an achievable keting because these more marketing able task. Although it requires a bit mor

new people are not already in your circle of influence, the payoff is exciting. You can effectively drive new customers to your business through mobile coupons (especially mobile coupons on demand), any mobile web promoadvertising, adver tising, pay-per-click [an online ad model tion strategies (search, advertising, where an advertiser pays for the ad only when a customer clicks on it and enters the advertiser’s site]), or even location-based marketing. Text mesweb especially when providing location-specific web saging and the mobile web, information, are are good tools to attract new customers. Remember, when you information,

are attracting new customers, you need to market your campaigns outside your place of business to ensure ensur you are attracting new customers and not your just current ones.

For example, M&M Products Co. from Atlanta created a strategy to

acquire new customers. During a 90-day campaign in 1Q 2010, the company placed a text message call-to-action in print ads for a free sample of its Sofn’free GroHealthy hair products. Ads included the prompt to text SOFT to 59925. The reply message then requested the customer’s email address along with the alert that a follow-up message would be sent from the brand. As MobileMarketer.com reported, “More than 4,400 total messages were received from users during campaign. There have been 2,056 mobile optins thus far, a 46 percent mobile conversion rate. Additionally, there were 1,774 valid emails received from SMS user responses and 809 users completed the Web-based fulfillment and opted in to an eCRM program.” Read the full case study at tinyurl.com/trialoffercasestudy.

30 The Mobile Marketing Handbook Brand Awareness

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Creating brand awareness helps track all three of these goals: the acquisition of new customers, increased sales to current customers, and the retention of current customers. New customers will be more willing to purchase a known brand. Customers are always reassured by seeing the brand they buy being marketed. Everyone likes to be on a winning team and to be part of a successful brand. If brand awareness is linked to a customer only by seeing your ad, logo, or company name, then brand awareness should not be the only goal for a mobile marketing campaign. It is just too easy to add the next step to any campaign for a quantifiable response from your customer, such as getting someone to click through to a landing page from an ad, make a phone call, or opt in to a text message responder. Having a mobile ad that goes nowhere or requires no response is a waste of advertising dollars. Brand awareness should be only part of your stated outcome with mobile. That said, mobile advertising is a great brand awareness tool to include as part of your overall campaign. Integrating your mobile campaigns with social networking also works as an effective brand awareness tool.

Step 3: Follow the Mobile Marketing Checklist to Build Your Mobile Strategy

The Mobile Marketing Checklist comprises three parts (Figure 2.2). The first promotes the activities that are musts in mobile. These are not options for smart marketers are mobilize marketers.. These ar e three critical steps you need to take to mobiliz your our business so that it happens seamlessly when y your customers are looking for your business on mobile (or interacting with you on mobile without your our awareness). Second, it outlines additional mobile marketing strategies you ou can use to increase your mobile presence, if you want to be more proactive about maximizing your mobile marketing effor efforts. There are a number of strategies presented that are optional. Third, it lays out the critical components of marketing your mobile campaigns if you choose to undertake any of the optional strategies.

Step 4: Launch Your Mobile Marketing Campaign and Market It Although I wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go into a detailed explanation here about how to implement your mobile marketing campaign because Chapter 4 deals with the subject exclusively, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one point that needs to be emphasized: This is the time to start your mobile marketing campaign. Mobile marketing will

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

Mobile Marketing Checklist

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The Mobile Marketing Checklist is designed to give you a plan of action for undertaking mobile marketing. Make sure you do everything in Section A as quickly as possible because your customers are already interacting with your business on mobile and you have to be ready. In Section B, you can choose which of the tactics you want to use based on your business goals. If you choose to do any item in Section B, then you must do the step in Section C or else your mobile campaign is likely to fail.

A Mobilize Your Business Here are several must-do -do items for smart marketers: 1. Make your website mobile-friendly ile-friendl ile-fr iendlyy (Chapter 7) iendl 2. Ensure your emails ls can be read read on mobile (Chapter (Chapter 12) 3. Build a robust Google ogle Places listing lis (Chapter apter 11) 11) and and include a mobile 6) ile coupon coupon (Chapter (Cha

B Maximize Your Mobile Mobile Marketing Marketing Select the strategies that are best for your your b business: 1. Start Start an SMS Text Text Messaging Messaging campaign campaignn (Chapter 6) campaig 2. Use a QR QR code ode to make your print print aadvertising mobile responsive responsive (Chapter (Chapter 12) 12) 3. Build a mobile but only after you know mobile app (Chapter (Chapter 9) bu which audience which cell pho phones nes your audienc au dienc is using (Chapter 14) 4. Develop your (Chapter 8) your mobile mobile SEO (Cha 5. Undertake advertising campaign (Chapter 9) Undertake a mobile Underta mobile adverti 6. Use location-based marketing tools (Chapter 11) loca ocationtion-based based ma 7. With all strategies strategies strat egies llisted above, incorporate click-to-call as much (Chapter 5) much as possible p

C Market Your Mobile M Campaigns These are musts if you are doing any maximizing campaigns: 1. Integrate your mobile campaigns in your marketing (Chapter 13), including using social networking to promote your mobile campaigns powerfully (Chapter 10)

Figure 2.2 Use the Mobile Marketing Checklist to strategize your mobile marketing actions.

32 The Mobile Marketing Handbook only be the new frontier for a short while; the landscape will get crowded quickly. It will be better to launch a viable campaign now than a perfect campaign later, so start now. The marketing of your mobile campaign is covered in Chapter 14. Be aware that marketing your campaign is critical to the success of your mobile efforts. If you don’t let your customers know you are doing anything with mobile, they are not likely to participate.

Step 5: Track What Is Working and Make Any Necessary Adjustments

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Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. —John Wanamaker (1838–1922)

This adage about advertising tising simply does not hav have to be the case today. When Wanamaker issued this statement at the turn of the last centur century, it was probably true since he was considered “the father of modern advertising.” But perhaps the concept and the ability to track advertising’s success or failure didn’t exist then. In the 21st century, we can track what marketing works and what doesn’t. This is especially true when advertising on the net and via mobile. internet Be aware that you can’t launch an effective mobile coupon campaign if the sales staff who are interacting with the consumers on the floor or at the don’t know how to accept coupons and track them properly. counter don’t aining your personnel will be essential. Using new analytics software for Training your mobile web will help you track your marketing details to prove your ROI right to the individual sale. More specific details about the ways to track your mobile marketing campaign will be covered in Chapter 14.

Online Resource Guide

Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

Five Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mobile Marketing Campaign

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 2, text MMHQUIZ2 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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CHAPTER

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Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing Unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful.

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Section 5 of FTC Act (15 USC Â§ 45)

Authorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note: The information in this chapter is neither legal advice nor a comprehensive list of laws governing mobile marketing. Rather Rather, it is a set of

mar guidelines to point out some of the legal implications of mobile marketing. Consult your own attorney for specific legal advice as you proceed with your own campaign. The information presented here is specific to the U.S. with eferences efer ences to Canada. If you are located elsewhere, consult an attorney some references more information. The basic concepts of explicit permission in your area for more advertising adver tising apply globally, so this chapter is applicable to readand truthful advertising ers around the world.

Why Legal Issues Are Strategic Issues

While it is important to stay within legal guidelines in marketing campaigns, it is even more important in the mobile arena because of the intimate relationship between cell phones and the people who use them. No one wants to have unsolicited marketing messages interrupting them on their mobile devices. After all, these devices are with them all day and night, at work, at home, on vacation, and wherever they are. Cell phone companies are particularly sensitive to their customers who contact customer service departments with a complaint if they feel annoyed or harassed. Before you launch your mobile marketing campaigns, make sure your plans are all within legal limits.

36 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Best Practices Are Not Optional

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Mobile marketing is a new frontier in many ways, but it isn’t the lawless Wild West. The carriers are often the enforcement arm of industry best practices, and they approve all campaigns that go through their networks and will shut down short codes for noncompliance to best practices. Laws already dictate what can and cannot be done in mobile marketing. It’s no surprise that the rules the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has established for advertising also apply to the mobile environment. Other laws also address mobile marketing specifically. Let’s go over a few of the concepts. First, the broadest law governing advertising in the U.S. and Canada covers the concept of being fair and truthful. The bottom line is: Don’t be deceptive, unfair, or false. If your mobile marketing campaign misrepresents the facts or omits crucial information that a consumer needs to know before making an informed decision about your company, then it is considered to be deceptive. If your campaign could cause any substantial and unavoidable injury to your customers, then it is considered to be unfair. As the lowest common denominator, if you wouldn’t want to include your mother in the advertising campaign, then it is likely to be deceptive or unfair; just don’t do it. Consider the following ways to stay on track: track: • Copyright: Don’t violate a copyright that protects an author’s rights in “original works of authorship.” Unless you are 100 percent certain a work is not under copyright, don’t use it.

• Trademark: Watch for violations of company trademarks. A company’s specific words, logos, and trademark images are not available for your use without permission.

• Rights of Publicity and Privacy: Don’t use a person (celebrity or otherwise) person’s prior wise) to promote your company without that person’ permission. Unauthorized parties cannot legally use an individual’s persona for commercial gain. • Contractual Rights/Implied: Look for any contracts (written or implied) that you could be violating. • Free: When using the word “free,” be clear about what is free and whether any conditions need to be met beforehand. • Headlines: Write truthful headlines. Though it is tempting to use outrageous claims in a headline and tell the truth later, people may make a decision based on that deceptive information and may not read the rest of the information.

Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing

• Fine Print: Don’t bury anything in the fine print. Tell your potential customers exactly what they will be receiving. People have a right to know what they have signed up for, and you are legally obligated to tell them.

Mobile Marketing Association Best Practices

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The best resource to use for your mobile messaging campaigns is the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Consumer Best Practices Guidelines (www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf). This free document outlines everything you need to consider when launching your messaging campaign. It will help you build your campaign on solid ground during the planning and strategy phase. It is also likely to comply with international laws regarding mobile marketing. The association updates its best practices often to keep track of existing laws in the industry.

Mobile Messaging Meets the Law

While there are many practical and smart marketing reasons why you should never send unsolicited messages to people’s phones, the U.S. CANSPAM SP AM Act of 2003 is one of the biggest rreasons. This law applies to email and to commercial text messages that are sent as email. (See the section in Chapter 9 on SMTP Messaging for details about text messages sent as email directly ectly to a cell phone.) Currently, the CAN-SPAM Act only applies to mobile marketing for this specific type of message delivery; however, there is legislation being enacted at the state level and proposed at the federal level that will likely mirror the requirements listed here. In fact, new legislation against mobile spam may be even more stringent. So follow the law as it applies to SMTP messaging because it will soon apply to all other forms of text messaging. In the U.S., it’s against the law to buy or rent lists of mobile phone numbers and send text messages to these numbers. Even when you send messages that your customers have requested, you need to stay within the legal guidelines. Additionally, there are a couple of important requirements that

38 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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apply specifically to mobile messaging. While email is an opt-out process (meaning you must offer a way for customers to opt out of receiving your email messages), mobile messaging is an opt-in and an opt-out process. You are legally required to get “express prior authorization” before sending any commercial message to a mobile device, and you must also offer a way for customers to stop receiving messages. You may obtain express prior authorization orally or in writing, but it cannot be a negative option (i.e., I will send this to you unless you tell me not to do so). Opt-in measures can be done in a number of ways. The first and best way is a mobile-originated opt-in, which means the consumer sends a text to your short or long code. Another way is to have a consumer fill out a website form that then sends a PIN number or a double opt-in message to the phone. This secondary confirmation step is necessary so a person can’t sign someone else up for a text campaign without his or her permission. You can also use a customer service opt-in where a person on your staff manually enters a name into the system (with prior verbal permission), and then he or she will receive a confirmation message. It is important to follow these specific steps so you have proof of the explicit permission being given. Once customers have opted in for your campaign, you can safely send them text messages in reply to their requests and other messages specifically related to the campaign that they originally requested, but nothing or example, suppose you have a Two-for-One Taco Deal, and 100 peoelse. For ple send you a text message requesting that coupon. That coupon is all you can send if you specifically stated in your marketing materials that the request was for a Two-for-One Taco Deal. But if you stated in your marketwer ere e signing up for the Weekly Special, including this week’s ing that they were special, which is the Two-for-One Taco Deal, then next week, you can also send them the 10-Percent-Discount-on-Burritos offer. So word your campaigns carefully. Market what you actually want to send. ou are working on a premium short message service (texting) camIf you paign where your customers will be charged for sending or receiving messages (beyond their normal text message rates from their carrier), you must offer a double opt-in. This means the customers must send a text to request participation in your premium campaign. Then, you must send a text asking them to verify that they want to send/get the next text message for which they will actually be charged. You can send the premium message only after customers reply a second time (that’s why the phrase “double opt-in” is used) to verify that they understand they will be charged for the next message. Check the MMA Best Practices Guidelines (www.mma global.com/bestpractices.pdf ) for specific details.

Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing

No, You Cannot Buy or Rent a List of Cell Phone Numbers

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It is illegal (and unethical) to buy or rent a list of cell phone numbers and begin sending messages to the people on that list. This is not only mobile spam, it is also not smart marketing. Would you be willing to do business with a company that sent unwanted messages to your phone?

When your customers agree to receive mobile messages from you, you must identify your our business name, let them know they may be charged for receiving eceiving these messages, give them all terms and conditions, and assure them that they can revoke consent at any time. The best practice includes the phrase “Message essage and data rates may apply,” apply, follo followed wed by a few details explaining how many messages will be sent and how have to how often. Y You ou also hav provide vide an opt-out method by by offering an opt-out word to stop receiving messages. One of the most common words to use is STOP. If any of your customers sends you a text with this command, your software must automatically remove them from the subscription list. You also need to let them know that they can get help from you at any time by replying with the word HELP. Again, your software must automatically offer proper help instructions. The vendor you use to power your campaigns should already have these systems in place, but you need to make sure this is the case.

And the Lucky Winner Is …

Anytime you want to launch a sweepstakes-like promotion, be careful that your promotion does not fall into the category of an illegal lottery or gambling. Although this isn’t specific legal advice, consider the following formula that provides a succinct definition for an illegal lottery: Prize + Chance + Consideration. When you offer a prize that is won by chance by someone who paid for this chance to win with time or money (consideration) then you have technically created a lottery. Creating a lottery is illegal. Generally, you can prevent this from happening with your promotion by simply taking one element out of the equation. For example, if there is no prize, it is not a lottery. (Not offering a prize usually isn’t much incentive for participants, so it’s best not to eliminate that one.) But you can eliminate chance by making it a skills-based competition, such as having participants

40 The Mobile Marketing Handbook answer a question correctly. Most often, the consideration factor is eliminated when people expend time or money. If you are charging participants a fee to enter, then offer an alternate entry form that is free. This is where that magical phrase “No purchase necessary” originated. Usually, the option of eliminating consideration will be enough to protect you. However, proceed with caution because certain states have different laws. My best advice is to get legal counsel before proceeding with any sweepstakes. It’s tricky, and the consequences can be sizable.

What Your Users Generate and How It Affects You

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The days when a company completely controlled all the content on its website are long gone, or at least they should be. Smart marketers know that having users participate on websites via blogs, comments, forums, or social networking builds a dynamic presence. This is also being carried over into the mobile internet. Two wo U.S. laws will have a profound impact in this area: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Communications Decency Act, third-party ct, both of which offer publisher immunity for third-par thir d-party ty content. Basically, asically, these laws specify that you are not liable for content that other people add to your website. However, there are certain guidelines you must enforce. First, you must have procedures in place that allow other companies and individuals to protect their copyright. IIff a user on your site submits content that infringes on someone else’s copyright, you need to provide a way to protect copyright otect the original copyr cop yright ight owner. This usually means removing the content in question from the site. But you are not obligated to take any action trademark infringements, defamation, or obscenity that is whatsoever whatsoev er for trademar tr ademark k infringements created by third-party users on your site. Of course, you can have your own policies regarding these points, but you are not legally bound to do so. The bottom line is to follow clear-cut procedures. follow clear

The Under-13 Crowd If you market to children under 13 or believe that kids under that age are likely to provide personal information to participate in your mobile site, be sure to contact an attorney for professional guidance. The U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act applies to all operators of website and online services (including mobile) that may reach children under 13 or have actual knowledge (regardless of whether the age group is targeted) that children under the age of 13 visit their websites. There is a complex set of laws in effect. You must take action on the following measures: Post a privacy policy

Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing

to obtain “verifiable parental consent,” advise parents/legal guardians that they can review the child’s personal information, and establish and maintain reasonable security procedures.

May I See Your ID, Please?

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If you offer adult content (anything that should only be available to adults, including dating sites, erotica, violent games, grown-up social networking, or gambling), make sure you have a solid age verification system. Remember two key points: Make sure you don’t collect data from anyone who doesn’t match your age requirements and disable the back-button function if someone admits he or she is too young, and then tries to put in an older age. If users can’t prove they are adults, you can’t send adult content to them.

Privacy, Sweet Privacy

The issue of privacy acy in mobile marketing is likely to become a hot topic. Mobile devices tie personal information to mobile searches, location, and contacts in a way that no other media can or has done before before. Your newspaper doesn’t track where you are reading it or whether you are at home, on the bus, or at the neighborhood coffee shop. Your television doesn’t know which family member is watching, much in the same way as your computer doesn’t know who made which search inquiry. Since most people don’t share a cell phone (even with their spouses), anything that a person does with his or her cell phone is usually traceable to that individual. This data is highly personal. And while it may be helpful as a marketing tool (mobile search engine algorithms incorporate past search data into results to display for a particular mobile device), it is also alarming if you consider the implications of this data being acquired or demanded. Joyce Meskis, the owner of Denver’s famous Tattered Cover Book Store, fought her case all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court in 2002 ((Tattered Cover v. City of Thornton) to keep local authorities from obtaining a book title purchased by a suspect in a drug case. According to the court, the book buyer’s purchases could remain anonymous according to his First Amendment rights. It may not be long before a person’s mobile records are subpoenaed or used inappropriately, and someone has to fight for the right to privacy. The ideals of privacy advocates and mobile marketers are likely to clash, and the stakes will be significant. Consumers will probably advocate for more privacy rights and be rewarded for their efforts. It is all too easy for cell phone carriers and others to compile personal data that may leave consumers vulnerable.

42 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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What you need to know now about privacy and your legal obligations is simple: You must have a privacy policy if you collect personally identifiable information. This is established in the FTC’s Fair Information Practice Principles. This policy includes Notice (telling your customers what your policy is), Choice (a way for them to choose how their information is shared), Access (clear explanation of who has access to their data), Security (what measures you will follow to ensure their data is safe), and Enforcement (what you will do to enforce your policies). Writing a privacy policy is not for the faint hearted or for those who don’t want to waste time or do it wrong. Use a template to create a privacy policy or hire legal counsel to write one for you. Then stick to it. When you are contemplating a privacy policy, consider the consumer. The more privacy you can offer, the better. First, if the laws become more restrictive than they were when you launched your policy and you have a consumer-friendly -friendly policy, you will have fewer changes to make in your business model. Additionally, there is the potential for making customers feel as though you are Big ig Brother looking over their shoulders through technology. It may not be well received. Use the technology to benefit the consumer and keep their privacy in mind at the same time.

Location-Based Legal Requirements Requirements

While there is no U.S. legislation that specifically covers location-based services (Bluetooth in particular), many carriers and prudent marketers are treading eading softly softly.. In In the U.K., where where mobile marketing is more active, some legislation initially restricted Bluetooth in 2003, but then the legislation was rescinded escinded in 2007. However However, How ever, the MMA and the Direct Marketing Association ever, (a U.K. association) are suggesting that mobile marketers follow the same regime of getting permission from consumers before contacting them, even if a law does not requir rrequire equire e it. As reported r online at Mobile Marketing magazine (www.tinyurl.com/bluetootharticle), .tinyurl.com/bluetootharticle), “The “ Bluetooth marketing guidelines currently stand in lieu of government regulations. While they hold no legal power, the Direct Marketing Commission, the independent body responsible for monitoring compliance with the [Direct Marketing Association] Code of Practice, could impose sanctions on member companies found to be in breach of the guidelines.”

Consequences of Ignoring Legal Implications If you choose to ignore the legal implications of mobile marketing or make a mistake without any ill intent, you are risking intervention from the FTC

Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing

and/or your state attorney general. A violation could lead to a cease-anddesist order, and you may even have to provide corrective advertising as a result. You may also face a significant fine. The CAN-SPAM Act penalties are as high as $11,000 per violation. Of course, you are also open to a lawsuit if you ignore the laws that are set forth to protect consumers from deceptive mobile marketers. In 2010, publisher Simon & Schuster settled a claim in a class action lawsuit for sending unwanted text messages. The publisher paid $10 million in damages. Make sure to follow every law. Not only is it smart marketing, it is just smart business.

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Tips for Getting Your Mobile Campaign Through Your Legal Department

Many marketing departments face a common issue: how to get their concepts through the legal department. This is especially true with mobile marketing because it is so new. Legal departments often donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what to make of mobile marketing initiatives. My best advice is to get and follow the MMAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Practices when you are building your campaign. Then submit that document along with the campaign so your legal department can see that you followed the guidelines. Just be sure to get the most updated version of the document. The best practices are reviewed and updated by the MMA every six months. As the mobile industry gains solid ground, the best practices may not change as often. Reviewing the document and ensuring that your campaign agrees with the MMAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Practices should help your mobile marketing plan go smoothly through your legal department.

Online Resource Guide

Find ind updated content, audios audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com. www

Additional Reading Mobile Marketing Association Consumer Best Practices Guidelines, (www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf )

44 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 3, text MMHQUIZ3 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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CHAPTER

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Launching Your Campaign

Launching a mobile campaign is rewarding because when it’s mobile … people talk.

—Jared Reitzin, CEO, mobileStorm, Inc.

Launching your mobile campaign(s) can be as simple as following the Mobile Naturally, Natur obile Marketing Checklist from Chapter 2. Naturally ally,, each of those steps ally

es knowing which tools and specific strategies are ar needed for each of involves

them. That is what is covered in Part 2 of this book. In this chapter, we’re concentrating on ways to implement your mobile marketing campaign.

Three Thr ee Paths to Your Mobile Launch

There are three paths to launching your mobile campaign, and the one you choose is likely to depend upon the size of your business and your budget. First, irst, major corporations and brand managers will undoubtedly be working with an agency to implement their mobile campaigns because they already have agencies working on their advertising efforts. Second, marketing managers in mid-size companies, agencies, media properties (magazines and newspapers), and even small companies with significant budgets will be working directly with mobile vendors to launch their campaigns or to use a private label strategy to offer their own implementation services. They may use the services of a mobile consultant for the strategy and the launch, but then they will continue working on the campaign on their own. Third, small businesses, internet marketers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs are likely to use a do-it-yourself guerrilla marketing approach. Each path has important points to consider for your campaign.

46 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Working With an Agency If you are already working with an agency, you should review what is currently being done for your company. Ask about the firm’s expertise in the mobile arena; you want to make sure it can handle your mobile campaign on top of the work already being done for you. If you are satisfied that the agency has a real knowledge of mobile marketing and the capacity to handle your campaign, then you will want to add your mobile campaign to your agency’s workload. After all, your mobile efforts need to be integrated with your other marketing, so it makes sense to have one entity coordinating it all. If your current agency doesn’t have enough experience with mobile or

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doesn’t offer services in the mobile area, look for a specialized mobile marketing agency. When working with two separate agencies, be sure to establish a good working relationship between the two firms because they will need to work closely together.

How to Know If Your Current Agency Can Handle Mobile

To determine whether your current agency can handle mobile, ask what don’t want to be the mobile campaigns the firm firm has already launched. You don’ firm’s first mobile campaign, and if the agency has worked on other mobile accounts, you need to find out how successful the other mobile campaigns have been. Find out about the firm’s staffing capacity for mobile. You want your our campaign armed with staff dedicated to working on mobile initiatives. Mobile obile is a unique tool and not just something that can easily be added to an account manager’s existing job duties. Be sure to review the list of discussion points in the next section on choosing a mobile agency agency, vendor, or consultant. These points can help you choose a new agency or ensure your current ent one is a good match for mobile.

What You Need to Know About Working With an Agency If you work with an agency, you will need to arrive on the firm’s doorstep armed with your goals for mobile and your desired outcomes. You’ll need to share what resources you can allocate to your mobile campaign, and then let the agency handle the strategy and implementation. Since mobile can revitalize other marketing efforts, it might be wise to discuss which of your current marketing efforts may be underperforming. You might be able to turn them around by introducing mobile as a direct response tool to those marketing efforts.

Launching Your Campaign

Since mobile is a marketing tool that must be well integrated into your other marketing efforts (more on this in Chapter 13), an agency can take care of implementing the campaign for you. If the agency is already managing your internet ads, print campaign, or television and radio spots, it can easily add a mobile campaign to those initiatives. Be certain that this integration is part of your proposal before proceeding with any firm.

Budget Guidelines for Working With an Agency

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You will work directly with your agency on the specific budget for mobile, but you also need a promotion budget for your mobile campaign. Integrating promotion into your current marketing budget will only go so far; you need to set aside specific funds to alert your customers that your mobile campaign exists. Your agency will be able to suggest the proper amount based on the campaign you choose. Chapter 13 covers the process of promoting your mobile campaigns in detail. Your staff will also need training on mobile. For example, if your agency decides to offer a mobile coupon, you will need to ensure ensure that your staff is thoroughly trained in the procedures needed to process these mobile coupons properly.. Additionally, Additionally, your order processing equipment (cash registers, accounting software, and so on) will need to work with your mobile offering. You’ll also need to account for these costs in your budget. In a 2010 survey titled “The State of the Industry: Mobile Advertising,” conducted by Millennial Media and DM2Events.com, more than 100 major ands and adver adv ertisers tisers were polled about mobile usage. According to the brands advertisers report, “Mobile spending is expected to increase next year, with 31 percent of agency respondents stating that they will invest between $100K and $249K. More than 15 percent (15.4 percent) plan to invest more than $1 million. More than half of Q4 mobile campaigns will represent between 1 percent and 10 percent of their clients’ total spending, but, for a few, that number will be a whopping 40 percent to 50 per percent.”

Working Directly With a Vendor To implement a mobile campaign, you will need to work with vendors ranging from text message companies to ad networks and mobile web builders. (See the sidebar for other types of mobile marketing vendors.) However, an agency will manage these relationships for you, so you probably won’t have any direct contact with your mobile marketing vendors. If you are not working with an agency (or you are the agency), you will be working directly with experts who will help you negotiate the entire mobile maze. Even though it

48 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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is not the same as working with an agency that handles every detail, you can count on your vendors to uphold their part of the campaign and enhance the strategic planning as well. If you work directly with a vendor or group of vendors, you need to have a plan of action formulated for your mobile marketing strategy and know where you expect each particular vendor to fit into that strategy. It will be your responsibility to coordinate multiple vendors and to ensure that it is all working smoothly with your other marketing. Your chosen vendors will be able to help with some of these tasks, but only you can envision the big picture. Your vendors will ensure that they will handle the details of their part of the campaign.

Private Label Strategy

One popular strategy among marketing companies, mobile marketing entrepreneurs, and agencies is to license a mobile marketing platform (a mobile website builder or text messaging software) and then resell services and/or use of the platform. The agency pays a fee to license the software and pays wholesale rates for the services. Then, according to the license agreement, the marketing company can brand the software as its own and sell it to its clients at set retail rates. The advantage of this strategy is the profit potential: You will be able to charge retail for mobile services while paying wholesale and avoiding the cost of building your own platform. Additionally, the perception that you our own mobile marketing software software can be quite appealing to your have your customers. However, one disadvantage is that if you give your clients access to the software to manage or become hands-on with their campaigns, then you may be responsible for customer service and tech support for the program. pr This service is included in some private label licenses so you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to worry about it.

Budget Guidelines for Working With a Vendor Because you are not paying someone else for the strategy and for integrating it into your other marketing, your out-of-pocket investment typically costs much less than working with an agency. Your only costs are for vendor services. The range of your budget will depend on the type of mobile services you are using. A stand-alone text message campaign falls on the lower end of the price range, and a comprehensive mobile site, mobile advertising, and additional marketing are on the higher end. Expect to see prices for

Launching Your Campaign

web-building services decrease and prices for mobile advertising increase as mobile usage becomes more popular. Text message rates are likely to be the most stable because the technology is so widely used. In addition to the mobile vendor fees, you will need to include a promotion budget to announce your mobile marketing campaign to the world. The bottom line is that promoting your mobile initiatives will get the word out quickly. You can easily integrate the mobile call-to-action into those other media without adding substantial cost to your marketing campaign budget.

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Do-It-Yourself Guerrilla Tactics Small businesses with limited budgets, as well as bloggers, internet marketers, and entrepreneurs who are used to having a hands-on approach in implementing every step of their campaign, can tackle mobile using guerrilla tactics (using fewer resources). But expect a bit of a learning curve; mobile is tricky because it is new and has so many variables (hundreds of handsets and dozens of browsers and operating systems, not to mention working with carriers). The tools are more complicated than the internet varieties; you have to know the ins and outs of mobile marketing well to use the tools and techniques effectively. While it is possible to forge ahead on your own, just be sure to study the mobile marketing strategies, especially those in this book. Otherwise, you may waste time and money.

What You Need to Know About Using Do-It-Yourself Guerrilla Tactics

Businesses of any size that conduct smaller campaigns using fewer resources (i.e., guerrilla marketing) will be able to launch mobile faster and more efficiently than companies using agencies. An agency will undoubtedly prefer to lease its own short code (see Chapter 6 for more information) with a multimedia launch to build an enterprise-worthy mobile site; it will probably invest time and money just to get started. But you can jump into mobile on your own with a simple text message campaign (working with a shared short code vendor) and integrate the campaign into your existing marketing. Your upfront costs will be low, and you can get started quickly. Chances are that your mobile marketing campaign will already be underway by the time corporations working with agencies have finished their first round of committee meetings about mobile. This is one of the big advantages that small businesses have over large corporations.

50 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Types of Mobile Marketing Vendors You may be wondering about the types of vendors you’ll encounter as you develop your mobile campaign. The following list features the major vendor categories and their roles in mobile marketing: • Short code providers: Lease short codes (the five- to six-digit numbers used in text message campaigns that are leased by the companies who do market with the code).

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• Aggregators: Provide the technological and relationship link between cell phone carriers and text message companies. • Text ext message companies: Offer the software back end that allows agencies and companies to run text message campaigns, which can be self-service or managed services. • Mobile website designers: Work specifically with mobile web. • Mobile website builders: Build free or low-cost mobile websites or license their site-building systems.

• Ad networks: Match advertisers with publishers, giving advertisers a place for their ads (on their publishers’ sites) and giving publishers a way to monetize their mobile websites.

• Mobile marketing consultants: Aid businesses in strategizing and launching mobile campaigns by matching companies with the appropriate vendors to implement mobile campaigns.

For do-it-yourself mobile marketing, you need a tech-savvy person on your team. You’ll need to know how to sign up for a variety of recommended web-based programs, such as text message software and website builders, run online ad campaigns, add web analytics code to your site, and integrate everything into your other marketing. A solid foundation of internet marketing know-how will serve you well. However, remember that mobile marketing is different than internet marketing.

Launching Your Campaign

Tips for Doing It Yourself The price for doing it yourself is a big investment in implementation time that comes with a steep learning curve. While it’s not impossible, any savings you want to realize on vendor services must be made up in your own blood, sweat, and tears. By adhering to the following pointers, you will dramatically reduce those pains: • Use mobile-specific tools. Some of the ones you use (and take for granted) on the internet may not work on mobile. Mobile website building is fairly complicated and requires exact protocols. See Chapter 7 for more details.

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• The do-it-yourself tools may have a few kinks and technical glitches. This is especially true of mobile website builders, each of which has a variety of features, and some may work better than others. In all fairness, even if the site builders work perfectly, there probably will still be some technical glitches at the carrier level or because of browser or handset difficulties. For example, your mobile site might show up perfectly on the Sprint network, on subscribers won’t won’t be able to see it at all. but Verizon

• Text message platforms are stable but still have a range of capabilities depending on the vendor. You need to determine what features and functionality you will need before you decide choose. See See Chapter 6 for details. which vendor to choose.

• Although you may be tempted to build your own platforms, the process is more complicated than you think. For example, it is not that technically difficult to build an email-based text message system (using SMTP technology), but it goes against mobile marketing’ss best pr marketing’ practices. This means your entire campaign can be disabled with a flick of a switch without notice from any one of the mobile carr carriers. The only way to have a commercially viable text message program is through short codes or long codes. Likewise, you probably won’t want to lease your own short code and build your own text messaging platform. Instead, use an existing service or one with a private label. You’ll save time and money in the process. See Chapter 6 for details.

• Internet service providers are probably the only external forces that can control your campaign by blocking your email service; however, in mobile, the carriers can have control over approving leased short code campaigns or shutting down any campaign

52 The Mobile Marketing Handbook across their networks. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission is carefully monitoring the mobile marketing arena and expects strict adherence to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) Best Practices, as described in Chapter 3. These best practices apply uniformly to small businesses and large corporations, so be sure to follow the rules or risk ruining your entire mobile approach.

Budget Guidelines for Using Do-It-Yourself Guerrilla Marketing Tactics

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As with any do-it-yourself projects, there are costs involved: your time, the investment in learning something new, and unavoidable out-of-pocket expenses. But there are a few low- or no-cost mobile marketing tools that you can use to launch your mobile campaign (see the Online Resource Guide uide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com). You can use a free adbased text message service and build your mobile site with free mobile site builders, for example. A word of caution: You get what you pay for. Sometimes free is not the best option. As we go through the book, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll share low- and no-cost resources for mobile tools that will work well. With the strategies, guidelines, and resources in this book, you can use a mobile website builder to create a basic mobile website and submit it to the mobile search engines. Likewise, you can start a mobile advertising campaign using the self-service options available from the mobile ad networks found in this book in Chapter 9. Once your site is active active, you can sign up for the free mobile analytical software tools to start tracking your campaigns and your R OI. ROI. Launching your mobile campaign will be more challenging than I just outlined, but there are affordable tools and vendors that can open mobile keting to just about anyone with any budget. You can always find help marketing from a mobile marketing professional and further your education (see the Online Resource Guide for a list of mobile marketing professionals). The work is as exciting as it is labor-intensive. There are details to handle, relationships to manage, strategies to plan, and a campaign to execute that all must be done with the clear knowledge of mobile marketingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s special requirements. Because there are so many nuances, legalities, and issues, the vendors listed in the Online Resource Guide at www.mobile marketinghandbook.com can help you along the way.

Launching Your Campaign

How to Choose a Mobile Agency, Vendor, or Consultant When you contact a company for your mobile marketing campaign (whether it is a text message company, an agency, a multiplatform vendor, or a consultant), the company needs to be qualified to work on mobile. Here are some discussion points that any firm should initiate. You should be ready to discuss all these points, but pay special attention to whether the company actually introduces any of these topics. If not, you may not have the right company for your mobile campaign.

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• The company should ask about your goals and then offer input on whether your requests are realistic. Some potential clients may ask for the impossible, and an ethical vendor will advise clients accordingly, even at the risk of losing the business. • A potential vendor should ask about your ideas for mobile. Since it is a relatively new industry, it is good to brainstorm concepts and ideas. Once the ideas have been shared, a vendor should ensure the campaign complies with all the MMA Best Practices. agencies,, and/or consultants you wor • The vendors, agencies work with must be fully aware of the MMA Best Practices and work within these guidelines. See Chapter 3 for more information about the legal guidelines. implications of mobile marketing, and your vendors should automatically steer you away from making any mistakes. • Agencies or vendors should share information about similar campaigns they have handled. The quality of these campaigns should be evident by how well they worked technologically and the actual outcome (if the vendor can share that information). • Lastly, the vendor should ask about the budget and how much of it is being allocated to promoting the mobile campaign and what promotion plans have been developed for the project, including any promotional partners. Any vendor can sell the technology to launch a campaign, but only ethical ones actually care about the final product. Knowing that a client has a solid promotional campaign to support a mobile initiative is part of its overall success; the firm should make sure this happens.

Frequently Asked Questions of Agencies and Vendors During my interviews with agencies and vendors for this book, I compiled a list of the most common questions that clients and potential clients ask.

54 The Mobile Marketing Handbook Even if you are doing it yourself, you’ll still need to know the answers to the following questions:

How Can I Get a List of Cell Phone Numbers to Start a Mobile Campaign?

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You can’t. As Chris Torbit from Smart Reply says, “Everybody starts at zero.” He explains that even the larger companies do not start with a mobile database. Every company builds its own opt-in list. There are no lists of mobile phone numbers you can buy, rent, or use to start marketing with mobile. You have to build your own list by getting your customers to opt in. If you use the pull strategy to attract them to your list, you can then push content to them according to the topic and frequency that they agreed to when they originally signed up. However, you already have your existing customer base list of email addresses, phone numbers, and mail addresses. You can start by reaching out to this group and inviting them to opt in with the value via mobile. Your mobile list will grow, and you will be on your way to launching more specific a successful mobile marketing campaign. See Chapter 6 for more ideas about building your opt-in list.

Why Should I Consider Mobile as Part of My Marketing Mix?

our customers are already looking for y your business The answer is simple: Y Your eady be interacting with your webon their mobile devices, devices, and they may alr already site and email from these devices. Add mobile to your marketing mix if you have a combination of the following: a mobile-savvy audience, a compelling reason for them to interact with you (added value), the right technology to carry out your idea, and a promotional plan for a successful launch. With these key ingredients, you can create a solid strategic mobile marketing plan that brings added life and interaction into your existing campaigns. It can help you turn some of your one-way marketing channels into direct response tools. Because mobile is the newest addition mass media, you will want to be a part of this gr growing and powerful marketing tool.

How Is Success Measured in Mobile Marketing? People often ask about ways to measure success. It means marketers are creating campaigns that produce results. However, there are so many ways to measure mobile’s success objectively. From mobile (voice) to text messaging to the mobile web, almost every technology that a customer uses is trackable. You can count the number of incoming calls in a mobile campaign, how many text messages were sent, and how many mobile coupons were received and then redeemed. Even the mobile web will provide a

Launching Your Campaign

robust set of data that will tell you everything you need to know about your campaignâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success. Your agency and your mobile vendors will be able to provide the details. But you may not know what success is typical. The new technology does not have clear-cut benchmarks. You just have to jump in, test the waters, and measure success by your standards. See Chapter 14 for more details on tracking and analyzing your mobile campaign.

Online Resource Guide

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Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 4, text MMHQUIZ4 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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2 PART

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Mobile Marketing Toolbox: Tactics, Campaign Ideas, and Resources

When you are ready to launch a mobile marketing campaign, Part 2 will guide you through the essential tactics. The Mobile Marketing Checklist in Chapter 2 includes several critical tactics to get your website and email ready for mobile users. Once you have those two components in place, you can incorporate ate other mobile marketing tools such as text messaging, mobile advertising, mobile apps, or even location-based marketing. Each is covered in a chapter of its own with descriptions, explanations, and examples. â&#x20AC;&#x153;More Mobile Methods,â&#x20AC;? the final chapter in Part 2, covers an assortment of tools and techniques, including important topics from mobile email and mobile payment options to mobile bar codes (QR codes) and more. Part 2 features examples of mobile campaigns and mobile interactive experiences that you may want to try. These will give you solid templates of a few mobile marketing campaigns. I also suggest that you try as many mobile marketing activities as you can in your daily life. Go online on your mobile device, sign up for text messaging campaigns, download apps to

58 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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your smartphone, and read your email on your phone. These interactions will be instructive because you will experience the activities from a mobile consumer’s perspective. You will also see what works and what doesn’t. Of course, all this requires a smartphone and a good data plan. It’s worth the investment to see a whole new world of mobile marketing and create a better mobile connection because of it.

CHAPTER

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Calling

Voice is still the killer application. As an agency, we use voice because it has the largest audience and has the ability to entertain, engage and inspire in ways that text messaging can’t.

—Gene Keenan, eenan, vice president of mobile strategy, Isobar

What Is Calling?

As a marketing tool, calling is what it sounds like: Someone makes a call with a mobile phone and interacts via voice on the phone. This can be a person-to-person call, a person-to-computer call, or even a person-torecording call. It may seem quite low-tech and ordinary, but it still is a powerful er ful mobile marketing tool.

In I fact, it is powerful because of its ease of use. Anyone with a mobile

phone can interact with your business using this method, even the “I-onlyuse-my-phone-for-calls” use-my-phone-for-calls person. Those who don’t have text message or

data plans to jump onto the mobile web at moment’s notice will appreciate marketing keting techniques that cater specifically to the basics. And the folks who use mobile devices with high-tech features, such as text messaging or access to the mobile web, still can and will use the device’s basic function to make phone calls. While calling may seem too basic, it really is a potent marketing tool. There are plenty of ways to use voice in mobile marketing that will be attractive to your customers and give you an easy way to get started with mobile. Some advanced techniques in the calling category integrate mobile web access and click-to-call. So don’t dismiss this as a tool that can only be used with a low-tech audience.

60 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

When to Use Calling as a Marketing Tool

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If your audience is not tech-savvy, start your mobile marketing campaign with calling. Just tell your prospective audience to call you “using your mobile phone right now.” Yes, use those exact words. People need a clear plan of action because they are busy. Tell them what to do to take action after seeing your marketing. If you suggest that your customers use mobile as a way to interact with you, you are essentially training your customers to use mobile. Calling also works well as a mobile marketing tool when you have oneway communication to share that takes more than 160 characters (the limit for text messaging), and your customers want the information quickly (no time to log on to the mobile web). For example, think about using mobile for directions to your place of business or when you want to share detailed information about a specific promotion. Your customers can grab their phones, dial your number, and get what they need right now. Calling also works well for an extensive, interactive discussion with your customers, and choose. When your business is it is still often the best call-to-action you can choose inviting people to call and it works well (you’ll know it), go for it.

How to Use Calling: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

To use calling, simply tell people how and why they should call you and then suggest that they do so no now on their mobile phones phones. Obviously, this is done via a marketing campaign when your customers are mobile. This is not part of your Yellow Pages ad, television advertising, or direct mail because it would seem odd to suggest that they use their mobile phones to call you on their landline phone. phone. Instead, Instead, you would use this strategy in radio ads, ads signage, out-of-home television advertising, and event marketing that your customers see and hear when they have their trusty cell phones in hand. ut to be effective, effective, your your marketing strategy needs to convey a sense of But urgency. Your customers should feel that they need to call now, or they will miss out on a special opportunity. Don’t go overboard, but think about this crucial component: If they don’t call via their mobile phones at that moment, they probably won’t remember to call later. Plus, they probably won’t have the number handy. The more reasons you give them to call now, the better. The best practices and legal implications associated with this type of marketing are insignificant. You won’t need to educate people about calling or warn them that using their cell phone minutes can potentially cost them money. They already know this. The important part of this strategy is to compel them to call you, which is true of all marketing. You just need to

Calling

spell out clearly why someone should come to your business so your customers want to take action. Without a reason to participate, people simply won’t do it.

Incoming Calls to Your Business

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To get customers to act on your marketing, have them call your business. To make sure this happens, be simple and straightforward: Include your phone number in your marketing campaign and ask your audience to call you. When customers call, they may initially reach your receptionist, front desk, reservation department, subscription department, sales, or booking team. This is the time to track the number of incoming calls from your mobile users. You can use a specific phone number for those calls. That way, you can easily track your marketing campaign without adding more work for your staff. When people call your business after seeing your marketing ads and signs, be sure to include a dedicated phone number to track the mobile callers in those target markets. In this case, the mobile phone is a direct esponse tool and nothing more. more. But But don’t be put off by this simplicity. Cell response phone users know how to make a call with their phones, but the same cannot always be said for other functions, including using QR codes, text messaging, searching the mobile web, using social networking, or watching video. The key to making this work resides in the marketing that drives the call. That’s where you need to think creatively. x: Come Come up with several places where your cusThink outside the bo box: have their mobile phones with them and where wher they can call you tomers have easily at the time. Then, you will have a solid foundation for your mobile marketing campaign.

Pay-Per-Call

Pay-per-call -per-call is a form of online advertising where your business and phone number are advertised, but you only pay when someone actually calls your business. It is almost the same as pay-per-click, but the action is quite different. The ads are placed online in search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Local, and the online Yellow Pages. These online ads are also placed in mobile search engines such as AOL Mobile, MSN Mobile, and JumpTap (this search engine powers many mobile carriers on desk search engines). Your pay-per-call ads are also provided via directory assistance such as 1-800-FREE-411 and 1-800-411-SAVE. Pay-per-call is a powerful way to get people to call your business, and you only pay when the advertising works. This option is always free for customers.

62 The Mobile Marketing Handbook Pay-per-call is also an effective mobile marketing tool. It is the perfect direct response mechanism of a mobile search if you want your prospective customers to call you. And instead of your customers searching on their phones through mobile websites to get what they want, they can connect to you instantly on their phones with the exact device they are using to find you. The following guidelines provide the basic steps for a pay-per-call campaign: • Write a brief description of your business and the services you offer. Be as descriptive as possible and use the most essential information first. You never know how much of your pay-per-call listing will appear on someone’s phone.

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• Determine the geographic area where you want your ad to appear when someone searches. You can appear nationally, regionally, or locally. • Figure out the categories that best describe your business. You can choose from broad categories to specific ones. The more specific you get, the fewer times your ad will actually appear. However, your reach will be all that more targeted to your audience.

• Decide on the maximum price you are willing to pay for a lead or a call made to you as a result of seeing your ad. Take some time to calculate this figure; if you don’t already know your revenueper-customer (how much you earn from each new customer), then figure it out. Obviously, the key is to pay less for the lead than you will earn from a new customer. And remember that all the calls you receive may not be from new customers; you may receive calls from current customers, too. • Set up your pay-per-call campaign. This is easy to do yourself online. When you set up an AdWords campaign with Google, you can choose the pay-per-call options. • Wait for the phone to ring. (You won’t hear me say that often.)

• Track how well your campaign is working. You need to know how often these incoming calls turn into actual customers, as well as the number of returning customers.

Click-to-Call Click-to-call (a link or button on a mobile webpage or in a text message that initiates a phone call when clicked) works the way pay-per-call does except there are no fees involved. Usually, it’s an option on your own

Calling

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mobile website or in an outbound text message to your customers to make it easier for someone to call you. You simply format the phone number using your mobile website building tool to turn on the click-to-call feature. It can be used with mobile ad campaigns that drive traffic to a page to get people to call you free of charge. Redbook magazine has this feature on its mobile site (m.redbookmag. com). The navigation on every page includes a link to Subscribe. By clicking this link, the visitor to the mobile site can either fill in an order form including a credit card number or “CLICK TO CALL toll-free 1-877-273-2322” to sign up for a subscription to the magazine. This is one example of starting a call-to-action with click-to-call. Not only does the mobile site say that it is click-to-call with a clickable link, but the phone number is also displayed in case the user’s phone doesn’t work when the link is clicked. Customers can still easily call to get their subscriptions. Click-to-call should be used as often as possible because one of the most ful aspects of mobile marketing is the ability of one device to provide pr powerful multiple interactions (Figure 5.1). The same device can be the internet coneceiver, and a telephone (and more) interchangeably. eceiver, inter nection, a message receiver, Getting customers to interact with your business in multiple channels makes them more likely to buy from you. As Abhi Dhar, chief technology officer for ecommerce at Walgreens, noted in an August 13, 2010, Mobile Marketer article,, “A customer that interacts interacts with us in more more than one channel is at least three times more valuable than one who interacts in one channel.”

Call a Recording

Another way to market to your customers is playing a recorded message when they call. Granted, this is simple voicemail technology, but if you think creatively about where your customers are spending their time waiting (and have their mobile phones with them), you can get them to call your voicemail oicemail and listen to a rrecording. Before you set up such a number, remember that no one seeks out a commercial, unless it is during the Super Bowl. Your recording needs to include something entertaining, informative, or helpful. Remember the six ways to provide value via mobile from Chapter 2. For example, suppose you add a sign with a phone number in a busy queue area at an amusement park. The visitors who are waiting in line can call the number, listen to a recording with trivia, a visual scavenger hunt (think “I Spy” via voicemail), or a quick story. Then add an incentive at the end of the recording: The park can include a prompt for visitors to send a text message to get a coupon for a caramel apple or a T-shirt. This way, the

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64 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Figure igure 5.1 On this mobile webpage for Walgreens, the phone numbers are all clickable. When the mobile browser closes, the phone turns on to start the dialing process.

people who are waiting in line ar are entertained, and the day at the park just became a bit more fun. The amusement park also gets to engage with its visitors in a new way by getting them to request a coupon that encourages more spending inside the park. If you have customers waiting in line for your services, you can try this marketing technique. Think where people in your target market are waiting and advertise there, too. For example, a restaurant near an automotive service shop can advertise a 2-minute voice recording of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Five Ideas for Dinner Tonight.â&#x20AC;? Four of them can be quick, make-at-home dinner ideas, and the fifth can suggest stopping at the nearby restaurant. Offer a coupon via mobile so you can track how well this works. Instead of having your customers waiting

Calling

around in boredom, you can entertain them and attract new ones through smart mobile marketing.

Live Example of Click-to-Call via SMS

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To give you an actual example of how click-to-call can be used with SMS (text messaging), try this example. Text MMH2CTC to 94932. You will receive an automatic message from the system and then another text message with a click-to-call link in it. When you click the number in the message, it will call a voicemail line with a prerecorded personal message from me. Call anytime; this is all automated and available 24/7. (Message and data rates may apply.) You will only receive one message. That said, you can always reply with STOP and/or HELP, if necessary. (OK, see that wording? That is how you can incorporate terms and conditions and the proper best practices to build your SMS list.) Only U.S. phone numbers may sign up via short code. See the screen capture of this example in the Online Resource Guide.

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Interactiv e voice voice response (IVR) is another great marketing tool. It is an automated system that allows consumers to call a number and then follow computer-generated prompts to take action. Undoubtedly, you have heard the widely used automated answering systems: Press 1 for Customer Service, vice, Press 2 for Sales. However, as a mobile marketing tool, IVR can do more than simply route a call to the proper place. A phone number can be promoted as the response mechanism to generate SMS opt-in. As an example, an ad could say, “To receive a mobile coupon from Joe’s Pizza, please call 123-456-7890. Your coupon for $5 off your order will then be sent directly to your phone.” Using the calling feature this way helps make receiving a text message easier for people who may not be familiar with how to text a keyword. An IVR system can also provide the mechanism for listening to a recorded message. This is the technology that powers the ideas presented earlier in this chapter about call-to-recording.

66 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Abbreviated Dialing Codes

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Another opportunity for brands or companies with a major budget is a technology called abbreviated dialing codes (ADCs). These are three- to sixdigit alphanumeric codes preceded by a # sign: BET (#BET), Univision (#323), MTV (#MTV), Fox News (#3696), and Sears (#SEARS). Or they can be StarStar codes such as **USA. When mobile users dial such a number sequence into their phones, it makes the call for them. The call is answered by a computerized voice with easy-to-follow prompts such as “Press 1 for this” and “Press 2 for that,” or the phone will immediately download a ringtone, play a broadcast, or connect callers to live customer service representatives. ADC campaigns are similar to text message campaigns in pricing, carrier approval, and the time frame it takes to launch a campaign; these are described in detail in Chapter 6.

Online Resource Guide

Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 5, text MMHQUIZ5 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

CHAPTER

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Text Messaging

SMS texting is used by over 4 billion people, about twice as many people send SMS text messages as use any other messaging types combined including email and instant messaging. SMS texting is the nearest thing to a universal format for media content on the mobile phone. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Tomi T Ahonen

What Is Text Messaging?

Text messaging, also known as texting, is the process of sending a short message using a maximum of 160 characters to a cell phone via short message service (SMS). The majority of text messages ar are often sent from one cell phone directly to another as a form of personal communication. Text messages can also be sent commercially via text message services that send texts to multiple phones simultaneously. It is this commercial form of text messaging that is covered in this chapter.

When to Use Text Messaging as a Marketing Tool If you want to do any mobile marketing beyond the basics of ensuring your website and email are mobile-friendly and creating a Google Places business listing, (see the Mobile Marketing Checklist in Chapter 2 for details), start with text messaging. Text message campaigns are the easiest and most affordable mobile marketing efforts to launch by far, and they are also the most likely to succeed now. Text messaging is the easiest to implement because it is a universal application on cell phones and across carriers. Even basic cell phones can do it, and it works the same on all phones, so the

68 The Mobile Marketing Handbook technological and cost barriers to launch a campaign are much lower than with any other mobile marketing tool. The reason a text message campaign is most likely to succeed is that more people send and receive text messages than use the mobile web or any other mobile application besides phone calling.

How to Use Text Messaging: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

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For marketing, the basic concept of text messaging is sending short (a maximum of 160 characters) messages to people who opt in to your text message campaign. You can invite customers or potential customers to participate; once they agree by sending a text message to you (or opting in on your website), then you can send them a text message or a series of them over time. You can use a variety of approaches, from contests (known as text-to-win), mobile coupons, text clubs/subscriptions, links to a mobile site, voting/polling, alerts, or a text blast to a group who agreed to be texted for a particular reason. I’ll cover each of these techniques in detail in this chapter, but let’s go over the basics of text messaging first.

Short Codes and Keywords

If you’ve watched an episode of A American merican Idol, Idol, D Dancing With the Stars, or seen a message with words similar to “Text Tacos to 12345,” you have seen a short code and a keyword. keyword. The five- to six-digit number (12345) is the code,, and the word word that is texted (Tacos) is the keyword. You need to short code have the basic tools of a short code and a keyword (or maybe several). Short codes can be vanity codes (where the numbers spell out a word to promote your brand), or they can be random numbers. In most instances, a random short code will work since your customer will most likely take immediate action using the short code and not need to remember it for long. The process of applying for a short code is similar to registering for a domain name. You must apply for a short code from the Common Short Code Administration (www.usshortcodes.com) in the U.S. and the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (www.txt.ca) in Canada. This is where the similarity ends; there is a 6- to 8-week waiting period while your short code is assigned and while cell phone carriers approve your campaign. You will pay $500 to $1,000 per month in advance for the short code lease in 3-, 6-, or 12-month increments. This lease will give your company exclusive rights to use the specific short code number you have acquired for the duration of your lease. If you have a specific need

Text Messaging

for a dedicated short code and the budget to do so, you should lease your own short code. Short codes are country-specific and canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be used internationally. That is why the many SMS mobile interactive examples in this book only work in the U.S. However, if you have a modest budget, have no need for a dedicated short code, or just want to get started faster, you can use a shared short code through a text message company. This means other companies will be marketing with the same short code number, but you will have a unique keyword to identify your campaign. Since the text message company with the shared short code already has its code provisioned, there is no waiting period, and you can sign up with a company and set up your first campaign within min-

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utes. This is a huge advantage over leasing your own short code. In the time it takes a major brand to request and get approved for a texting campaign, you can launch your text message campaign and already have a few months of success under your belt. The fees can start as low as $25 per month for shared access to the short code and the software to manage campaigns. Whether you lease your own short code or share one, you will also pay a permessage fee, with discounts per message based on higher volume.

Long Codes

Long codes are 10-digit phone numbers that are used in the same way as short codes in that consumers can send and rreceive text messages from

these numbers. are also used numbers Long codes are are unique to one business and ar

with keywords. An advantage of long codes is that since they are unique to each business, there is no shortage of keywords. You can use whatever keywords you want on your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long code. They cannot handle highwords volume messaging, and the reporting functions are not as accurate as short codes. Long codes, which are leased through aggregators, include a set-up fee and a monthly lease fee, fee but they cost less than a short code.

Working With 160 Characters Your text message company will be helpful in implementing your campaign, but you need to think about how to work a marketing message into 160 characters (not words, characters). This is the universal limit for text messages. In this case, you must make every letter and punctuation mark work to your advantage. While you want to keep abbreviations to a minimum for most people, you also want to maximize your communications in each message of only 160 characters. While you can use more abbreviations

70 The Mobile Marketing Handbook for younger audiences, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll want to reduce abbreviations if you are texting to new users or those who are likely to be 30-plus years old. It is also critical that your call-to-action is clear and strong. In your strategic planning, start with the call-to-action. What do you want people to do after they receive your text message? Is it to come into your store and use this text message as a coupon? Are customers texting you for more information, or have they agreed to a get a subscription (more than one message)? Do you want them to click through to your mobile website? There are several examples of text messages in the latter part of this chapter that use the 160 characters to their maximum potential.

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Types of Text Messaging

There is more than one type of text messaging; in fact, there are several. Some are better than others for business purposes (SMS and MMS), one that should be avoided for commercial use (SMTP), and others that may work for marketing purposes but should be undertaken carefully (premium (premium and DOTGO).

SMS Messaging

SMS is basic text messaging. For the purposes of marketing your business, you will primarily imarily imar ily use this form form because it is the most consumer-friendly form of messaging; people are usually familiar with how it works. The only charge to customers is whatever they pay for text messages to their cell phone companies. companies. Businesses Businesses are are char charged for the software or services to run the campaign and for each text message. message Since there is no additional charge to your customers beyond their usual text message plan, it is the most affordable option for your customers.

Premium Messaging Premium messaging is when customers pay a fee to send or get a text message. As an example, a person may pay 99 cents to cast a vote in a text message campaign. Or perhaps they pay $1.99 per month to receive a subscription to a set of text messages that are sent out regularly. A premium messaging campaign is more complicated to start, but it can be a lucrative opportunity. Keep in mind that it cannot be enacted using a shared short code, so up-front costs are involved. This makes a premium campaign more complicated and definitely more expensive to launch. You probably wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t

Text Messaging

use premium messages for marketing purposes because consumers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t typically want to pay to receive marketing.

Multimedia Messaging

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Multimedia messaging (MMS) is a form of text messaging that allows for text longer than 160 characters to be sent along with audio, video and/or pictures in the same message. MMS is quite popular in many places around the world, but it is not yet used nearly as much in North America. MMS messages cost more to send and have production costs associated with the audio and video components. For these reasons, MMS as a marketing tool is usually available to larger companies with significant budgets for implementation.

No Such Thing as Free Messaging

You ou may have seen companies offering free or unlimited text messaging. Compared to the services that charge a per-message fee, these may seem tempting or even smart. However, there are downsides to businesses that send free messages. Although these messages are free for you to send, they are eventually paid for by someone else. Check to see if advertising is being added at the end of your free messages. In this case, it would be a much smarter marketing strategy to pay the message fees than to allow someone else to advertise to your customers within your messages. Another possibility is that your messages may be being sent using SMTP or DOTGO technology. Both of these have limitations that make them impractical or even risky for business use. (For details, see the sections on SMTP and DOTGO.) Companies that offer unlimited SMS messages to an unlimited list and that are not using one of these options may be using a riskier pricing strategy. Every company pays carriers for the messages that are sent. At some point, unlimited pricing plans could cost them so much more than they are bringing in on flat fees that the viability of their company can be jeopardized. The price you pay for free messaging may be much more than simply paying message costs.

72 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

It is wise to budget these message fees for your text message campaigns and know that you are getting the best service available in compliance with best practices. It may help to know that consumers who are willing to opt in to your text message list are likely to be your best customers. After all, they trust your company enough to give you access to their most personal media device that is with them 24/7.

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SMTP Messaging

You ou can send email messages to phones so that they appear to the receiver receiver to be text messages. These are actually emails sent to the phone number at the carrier’s email address using SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) technology. Unlike SMS text messages, there is no charge for these messages to be sent, which is why this method of deliv delivery ery er y seems appealing. However, SMTP messages are unreliable, often with 1- to 2-hour delays, and delivery is never guaranteed. Because these messages are technically free, carriers don’t have to deliver them, so sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. Additionally A dditionally, it is not possible for an automatic, one-step dditionally, Additionally, opt-out mechanism to be included, so these messages are noncompliant with standard best practices. Noncompliance leaves you open to the risk of having your SMTP server stop communications service to phones on any network. And because an email address is used to deliver the message, all CAN-SPAM penalties apply. One complaint from a cell phone user could cost you up to $11,000 in fines. fines. Lastly, Lastly this type of technology only works one way, so all types of campaigns that take advantage of two-way communication with your customers, including polling/voting or contests, can’t be included. You may be tempted to use free message-sending capability, but in reality, the price of unreliability is enormous, and the risk of having a campaign shut down is not worth it. The bottom line is that using SMTP technology to power a text message campaign is not advised for business purposes.

DOTGO Messaging Another type of technology that can be used to power SMS text message campaigns is called DOTGO. This service allows any website to become a text message service. It works by placing a small file on your server named

Text Messaging

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index.cmrl that contains directions for what should happen when a text message is sent to that domain name using the DOTGO short code. This is how it works: When users send a text message to the short code DOTCOM (368266) with your domain name as the keyword, they will receive a text message that comes from wording you placed in the index.cmrl file. There are no associated message costs for this service. DOTGO is an interesting technology, and many text message services have sprung up offering software that builds the index.cmrl file for you and provides an interface to use to send messages out to subscribers. It can power a platform, but it does have its limitations. First of all, in order for it to work, you either need to build your own interface or pay for one. You or your platform provider will need access to your our server. While there’s no problem with that, just make sure you don’t pay more for building the platform or having access to one than you save by trying to avoid message costs. Second, you econd, to use DOTGO technology technology,, y ou have to use your domain name as your keyword. For me, that would be MOBILEMARKETINGPROFITS. As you can see, that is a long keyword. If your If y our domain name is long, this technology will not be user-friendly for your customers (and good luck trying to buy a new short domain name now). If you want to get more than a single, simple auto response message in return, you will need to add another word to the process. So, in the example of my site, if I were using DOTGO technology, someone who wanted to subscribe to my text message alerts would have to follow these directions: “Text MOBILEMARKETINGPROFITS SUBSCRIBE to DOTCOM (368266).” (368266).” Making Making people use two keywords to opt in to your campaign will dramatically reduce the effectiveness of your campaign. You are also required to use both the word DOTGO and the short code numbers in all your marketing materials and opt-in communication. DOTGO is not necessarily a bad and/or noncompliant way to power a platform (like SMTP is), but you need to be aware of the limitations and restrictions. If you are attracted to this method of sending text messages, I suggest you investigate your other options with SMS text messaging companies to make sure you are getting what you want from your platform.

Twitter as an SMS Platform Since Twitter has the ability to allow people to have tweets sent to their phone as text messages, many people mistakenly think that Twitter can be used as an SMS marketing tool. I don’t advise this for one main reason: You don’t own your list of followers. If Twitter were to stop allowing text messaging or it shut down completely, all your marketing efforts would be wasted.

74 The Mobile Marketing Handbook And getting someone to agree to turn on the device notification on Twitter is cumbersome. It is not a viable option as a text messaging platform (see Chapter 10 for ways to use Twitter in mobile marketing).

Text Messaging Best Practices

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There are some best practices that are particularly important to text messaging. You’ll want to follow all the industry guidelines (the Mobile Marketing Association Best Practices document, www.mmaglobal.com/ bestpractices.pdf ), but the following four are the most important. The No. 1 best practice (and law) of text messaging is to get permission. Never send a text message that has not been explicitly requested. You will harm your business immeasurably if you do. Think permission, permission, permission. mission. Have a clear opt-in process and always follow it. Your opt-in process includes the initial information offering the text messages. This will be your marketing for the campaign. Your customers will then sign up to receive your text messages. They will do this by texting your keyword to your short code or by using an internet-based sign-up form called a widget. In order to build your list of text message recipients, you must actually launch a campaign. You cannot gather names and cell phone numbers and expect to import them into a program. Most text message companies will not let you import cell phone numbers into their database unless they come from another verifiable opt-in source. For example, if you have a collection customers’ cell phone numbers in your customer contact database database, you of customers cannot simply begin to text message them. These customers must initiate the interaction via their cells or on the web to unequivocally request text messages from from your company. The second best practice of text messaging is honesty. honesty Always tell your customers up front if they are going to be getting a subscription (more than If you plan to send them more than the initial text message one message). If equested, then you are are starting a subscription (even if you’re sending free requested, messages). Be clear how frequently you will be contacting them. Typically this is stated in the number of messages sent per month. If you are charging them for this service, tell them what the price and billing terms are. Don’t imply that a service or subscription is free if it isn’t. For example, don’t say that they get free ringtones if they actually have to buy 10 at full price first. The third best practice of text messaging is to provide people an easy way to opt out. While you do not need to put this in every message you send, it is good to do it frequently and definitely within your auto reply HELP message. The most commonly used approach is to tell your customers to send the word STOP to your short code. If you are using a shared

Text Messaging

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short code, the opt-out text may be automatically inserted into each outgoing message for you. It will reduce the number of characters you can use for marketing to fewer than your full 160 characters, but you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to remember to include the opt-out. Keep in mind that violating any of these rules can cause your campaign to be turned off without notice by the cell phone carriers. This is one of the most important reasons not to use SMTP for a messaging campaign: You cannot receive messages back in reply. Your only option for having an opt-out process involves using a website link or doing it manually by incoming email, which is not in compliance with best practices. As we investigate the options available in text messaging, it may be tempting to create a complex, multifaceted campaign. But the fourth best practice is to keep it simple. Ask for one call-to-action for one specific purpose. Keep the actions that your customers need to take to the bare miniou want to keep it simple and straightforward so it is easy for your mum. You customer to participate. After all, the beauty of text messaging is ease of use and simplicity. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make your campaign too complicated; you could lose your audience.

How to Build an SMS List

A common misperception about launching a text message campaign is that a list of cell phone numbers is somehow gathered, and then you can send text messages. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the only way to build an SMS list is to create a campaign and invite customers to opt in. Figure 6.1 illustrates this process from the initial step of creating a magby textnetic offer to marketing the campaign. Once people begin to opt in b ing the campaign keyword to the short code or signing up on your website, then your SMS list is built.

Types of Text Message Campaigns

With the range of text message options available, the more creative you are in strategizing your campaign, the more attractive your campaign will be for your customers. If you can entice people to participate in the first place, you are more likely to be happy with your results. As you create mailing lists for your catalog, mailed newsletter, weekly flyer, and email campaigns, you also want to build your text message list. Start with this as quickly as you can. As I have noted previously, you cannot buy a list of cell phone numbers and send unsolicited text messages. Instead, you must invite your current and potential customers to give you their cell phone numbers in exchange

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76 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Figure 6.1 This flowchart shows the proper way to build an SMS list. Notice that the only way to build a list is to implement and market a text message campaign.

for something that is of value to them. Do this within a working text message campaign that they opt in to from their cell phones or online. This is the first step in your mobile marketing campaign. Build your list via a campaign. The following are some options for text message campaigns.

Text Club/Subscription

A text club/subscription is a series of text messages that your customers agree to receive on their phones. These can be either SMS messages or premium messages. It may be a weekly message, a Tuesday/Friday delivery, or a set number of messages per month. In some cases, people will want to sign up for daily texts. As long as you tell them up front and they understand that you are sending a series, you can continue to send them messages. This is an important part of your planning. If you tell your mobile vendor that you only want a one-time contact campaign and set it up accordingly, then you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t return later and start contacting these people again. It is not within the best practices guidelines. If you intend to send out multiple messages, start your campaign by saying so. A text club can be used in any of the following ways:

Text Messaging

• Your m-zine: This is similar to an ezine but instead of being sent via email, it is sent via mobile with plenty of useful content that can still fit into a 160-character limit. • Joke/trivia of the day: Any tidbit of information can be shared. • Quotes/inspiration: Get an inspirational message or words of wisdom. • Greetings: Send a message that people will want to get from you.

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• Product/service info: If you have a product or service that requires or could use regular communication, you can offer this as a text club.

Subscribe to an SMS List

For Mobile Marketing Tips via SMS, text KIMD to 69302. (Message and data rates may apply; you will get up to five messages per month and can reply to STOP at any time or get HELP too. Only U.S. numbers may use the text to opt in. International users can use the online sign up tinyurl.com/kimdmobiletips.)

Mobile Coupons

Mobile obile coupons are are text message offers that ar are redeemable by having the customers show the text message at checkout time or by submitting a promotion code that was received via text. Mobile coupons are a perfect way to increase ease sales from your current customers, attract new customers, and promote loyalty. Mobile coupons are also ultimately trackable so you can tell exactly how well your campaign worked. These coupons can also turn any of your other marketing efforts into a direct response tool. A simple billboard or sign can include an interactive call-to-action that drives trackable sales to your door. Any advertisement can incorporate this powerful response mechanism and dramatically increase the response rate of that ad. The first step to starting a mobile coupon campaign is deciding whether you are offering a one-time deal or a series of discounts. You need to know this to set up your campaign and to create your marketing. One-time offers

78 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

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are likely to get a higher opt-in rate with new customers because people know they are only getting one message. But if you are marketing to current customers who already know and trust your brand, they may appreciate getting regular discounts. You can offer a one-time coupon, get people in the door the first time, and then get them to sign up for a text club or a coupon club. The next step is to figure out what the mobile component is in your campaign. Why do your customers need to get your coupon on their phones? Is it that you tell them how to get the coupon when they are mobile, maybe while they are sitting on a bus, in their car at a stoplight, wandering around at a festival, or walking down the street? Or maybe you just want them to have the coupon with them when they are out and about, and they sign up for the coupon from their desktop or laptop computers. The better you align the mobile factor to your customers’ wants and needs, the better response you will get from your mobile coupon. Keep in mind that as long as mobile coupons are new, your customers will be wondering how to redeem them. Include this education in your initial marketing to overcome any resistance to mobile coupons. The following are some ideas for mobile coupons: • Free trial offer: Get customers in the door to try your product or service. The beauty of the coupon being mobile is that they will have it with them when they are near your place of business.

• Special price or discount: All customers appreciate a special offer. • Regular coupons: If you have people on a mobile list who have agreed agr eed to get coupons regularly, you can send a coupon for 10 percent off on a particular day or just for certain products (Figures 6.2, 6.3). You could have Free Item Tuesdays or Bring a Friend for 25 Percent Off.

• Contest coupons: The first 50 people to respond to the ad are eligible for a free dessert with their meals, or everyone will get free ee beverages. This combination limited offer (only the first 50 to respond) and coupon makes the offer more fun for customers. • Creative coupons: If your clientele would appreciate something quirky, try offering a limited-time coupon that is valid only if the person is wearing a certain color when they come in to redeem the coupon. “Come in by 5 pm wearing something green and receive a 2-for-1 dinner.” This makes it more fun for the customers, too. Once they glance around the restaurant, they can see everyone else who is wearing green and see who likely came in because of the special offer.

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Text Messaging

Figure 6.2 This coupon was included in a television commercial with the Figure call-to-action “Text TV to FAMOUS (326687),” and this mobile coupon was sent in rreturn. Notice the request to get the user to double opt in (i.e., to sign up for more messages in the future).

Operational/Experience Messages All text messages do not have to be sent with a sales goal in mind. In fact, many of the best text messaging opportunities help your customers with their experiences with your company. Chris Torbit from Smart Reply is a big advocate of these messages. In fact, he is the one who shared the name for these with me. Calling them “reminder texts” just didn’t work, once I started thinking about the possibilities for experience messages. The idea is that communicating with your customers is important. The more avenues you

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Figure 6.3 This welcome message was sent to me after I replied with the word FAMOUS: an example of following best practices and getword ting explicit permission to send SMS messages. have open for reaching your customers and for them to reach you, the better. As consumers become more tech-savvy, they will expect more access via technology to your company. Check out the following examples: â&#x20AC;˘ A delivery company can offer to send a text message when the driver is on the way and then send a customer service poll after the delivery. â&#x20AC;˘ A dry cleaner can send a text message to let customers know their clothes are ready for pickup.

Text Messaging

• An online retail store can send a “Your items have shipped” text message so the customer doesn’t have to log in to email. • Businesses with customers who use text messaging frequently can be open to receiving customer service requests via text message.

Text-to-Mobile Site Link

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Within a text message, you can send a link to a mobile website. After receiving a text message, your customer can click on the link and then connect to the mobile web and directly to your mobile site (Figure 6.4). By using a simple tool (text message), you have the advantage of getting people to interact with your more complex marketing (mobile website). With this type of campaign, you can send people a link to a downloadable picture, video, ringtone, or audio message. Anything you can offer on the mobile web can be accessed via a link in a text message. This technique saves time for your users. Not requiring your customers to type in the URL on their mobile devices can be a big benefit, especially if they don’t have a full QWERTY keyboard. d. I suggest sending a text message with a link only when you can’t get message, or if there enough information into a text message there is another valid reason for taking your customers away from text and into the mobile web. Or maybe the reason for offering the text message is to drive traffic to a mobile website (Figure 6.5). When you send users to a fully interactive mobile website, be sure to tell them what they will get when they go there. People are busy; they don’t have the time, energy, or interest to go to a mobile site unless they Provide know kno w ho how w it will benefit them. Pro P rovide vide value all the way through the process.

Text Message With an Embedded Link to Mobile Site

To see a live text-to-link, text MMH2 to 94932. (Message and data rates may apply; U.S. phones only. You will not receive any additional messages after the initial message.)

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Figure 6.4 This message was sent to me with a link to a mobile site from Coca-Cola with details about its text message contest promoted inside plastic Coke bottle lids.

Here’s an example of what a text-to-mobile-site text message might say: Check out XYZ’s mobile website. Click here on your phone: m.xyz company.com. See times, get directions, find a map, coupons, and more.

Text Message Voting Text message voting is quite popular for a good reason. First, it is easy and fun for customers, and second, it gives you valuable information about your customers. Here’s how it works: Ask your customers a question, and they

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Text Messaging

Figure 6.5 This is the mobile website I landed on after clicking the link shown sho wn in Figure Figur F igur 6.4. It was a survey about the Coke Twist Text program. It is important that any link sent in a text message be directed to a mobile website.

can answer (vote) using text messaging. You can ask the question anywhere your customers will see or hear it. You can ask them anything that they are likely to want to respond to (remember to provide value in this interaction or the campaign wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work). When they reply, your software will tally the votes. You can announce the winning response to all who voted (via a text message) and to your customers (via the same way you announced the original question).

84 The Mobile Marketing Handbook The following examples offer some voting ideas: • Radio stations or nightclub DJs can let listeners choose the next song by text vote. You can combine the vote with a contest so that the 10th text message received wins a prize or free drink. This can also work for talk radio stations that collect votes on a topic: Do you agree with Caller A or Caller B? • Radio shows with more than one DJ can sponsor a contest where the audience decides who wins a bet between the DJs.

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• Restaurants can let customers vote for their favorite desserts or specials. A follow-up coupon can be sent for the item for which they voted.

• Museums can offer a contest where customers can text message their votes about which exhibits are their favorites and then offer them a coupon for the gift shop in a “thank you for voting” message.

• A professional sports team can ask fans to vote for the game MVP or the Play of the Game. • A professional speaker or professor can take a text message poll from the podium and announce the results from the stage.

Contests/Text-to-Win

People love winning things, and the technology is now easy to set up a contest or a text-to-win campaign. You can give something small or huge away as long as it is attractive enough to your customers to entice them to participate. In my first mobile marketing workshop, I included a contest for the folks who attended to win a cop copy of the first edition of this book. It worked well, people were excited to win, and I told them that those who didn’t win would be put on a mobile list to receive an announcement when the book was published. You can limit the contest to one-entry-per-phone, or you can let people vote multiple times. You can set up your odds to have more or fewer winners. If you’re giving away a small-ticket item, you can set up the odds for a 1 in 10 chance; if you are giving away a big item (such as an iPod, digital camera, or car), you can set your odds higher. Text-to-win contests are an ideal way to get started with text campaigns because people love to win. Think creatively and design the perfect contest. But be sure to check out Chapter 3, “Legal Issues and Implications of Mobile Marketing,” before you create a sweepstakes or contest.

Text Messaging

The following examples are some text-to-win contest ideas: • An entertainer or band can sponsor a contest on stage for fans to win a free CD or book. • Fans at a sporting event can try to win free hats or T-shirts. • People at a crowded festival or street fair on a hot summer day can text-to-win a seat inside an air-conditioned restaurant for an hour. • Movie-theater patrons can text-to-win free popcorn at the next movie they attend.

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• A nightclub can select random patrons to win “no cover” entry if they send a text while waiting in line.

Text Alerts

People find timely knowledge valuable, and they are willing to sign up for alerts. Whatever timely alerts you can offer customers are likely to be welcome. Think of what alerts your customers need when they are mobile (Figure 6.6). You can usually group these alerts into one of the following categories: pricing, availability, readiness, or emergency. Pricing is all about cost savings by alerting customers when they can save or when they need to shop before prices go up. Availability can range from an open table at a ant to an open chair in a styling salon, or certain products on a lim restaurant limited basis. basis. Collectors C ollectors’’ items or a hot item at Christmas ar ollectors Collectors’ are good choices. eadiness is perfect when you offer a product or service that customers need Readiness to pick up or hav e deliver delivered. ed. Emer E mer have Emergency alerts provide announcements to everyone in a certain area (think college campus, apartment complex, neighborhood, or office building) in which an emergency is taking place.

Text-to-Donate

Nonprofits can arrange for people to donate directly to their favorite charity. Because contributing this way is so easy, it can dramatically increase your donations. With one quick text message, people can send in a donation, and you can reduce staff to manage the donations and send the money to the charity instantly. This strategy works for radio stations during marathon charity drives, at large events such as rallies and walk-a-thons, and even noncharity events such as sporting events, concerts, festivals, and school gatherings where donations can be made. To set up this kind of donation strategy, a nonprofit needs to be approved by the Mobile Giving Foundation and work with an authorized text message vendor such as mGive.

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Figure 6.6 Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an example of a text alert bottom message from the Syfy channel reminding me to watch W Warehouse 13. Just to be clear, I opted in to receive alerts about this show while watching the Syfy channel. The other message in this figure provides a great example of integrating social networking and mobile marketing.

Choosing a Text Message Company Sending a personal, one-to-one text message is simple. All you need to know is a phone number and that your intended recipient is text-messagesavvy with a text plan. In this case, one person uses one phone to send another person a text message to his or her phone. A commercial version of text messaging is more complicated and involves four or five types of companies working together to make it happen.

Text Messaging

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Before you begin, it is helpful to know who you are working with along the way. First, your company is the content provider. You are doing the promotion. If you choose, the next company to be involved is the advertising agency. If you are working with an agency, it will take care of every other company in this interaction for you. The agency is also responsible for the creative concepts and integration with your other marketing strategies. Since you will obviously not run a text message campaign using your personal cell phone, you need a company with the software to provide a short code and to send/receive the text messages for your campaign. These are called application providers within the mobile industry. In this book, I refer to them as text message companies because it is easier to remember. The text message companies (application providers) must work with connection aggregators that provide the technical backbone by connecting the text message companies to the mobile carriers (cell phone companies). Although you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work directly with connection aggregators, they are tant because each aggregator has different agreements with different important phone companies. Their service determines which cell phone companies our customers must subscribe to in order to participate in your campaign. your (You have seen this when television shows with interactive voting such as Dancing With the Stars can only accept text message votes from people using certain tain wireless companies.) The last and most impor important connection in this entire process is with the cell phone companies, often referred to as iers (e.g., Sprint, Sprint, Spr int, AT&T AT&T Wireless, Wireless, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Rogers). carriers Again, you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any direct dealings with the cell phone carriers, have a huge impact on your campaign. Because carriers are but they will have the ultimate provider of service to the end user, they must protect this relationship. If If they let a smarmy spam campaign reach their subscribers, subscr tionship. they are likely to lose customers. Carriers can and do shut down (without notice) follo best practices. They also shut any and all campaigns that do not follow down campaigns for not producing adequate volume of messages. Even though you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interact directly with them, the fate of your mobile marketing rests in the hands of the carriers. The best thing you can do to ensure a smooth working relationship with the carriers is to follow the industry best practices outlined in Chapter 3. If you search for mobile marketing or text messaging, you will find dozens of companies to help you. In the Online Resource Guide, I recommend companies that I have experience with, but the ultimate choice will be yours. In choosing, you will decide based on the following seven criteria: 1. Carrier connectivity/countries served 2. Safety (focus on permission)

88 The Mobile Marketing Handbook 3. Specialty of service 4. Campaign types offered 5. Interface/opt-in methods 6. Customer service access 7. Price/reseller program

Carrier Connectivity/Countries Served

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Not all text message companies work with all mobile phone carriers, and they don’t work in all countries. Start with this selection criteria first. Make sure that the vendor you may be working with handles messaging in the countries where you will be marketing. If you know which carrier the majority of your customers use, then be sure to work with a company that connects to that carrier or find one that covers most. More companies will eventually work with all carriers, but be sure to find a vendor that works with as many carriers as possible to ensure your campaign’s effectiveness right out of the gate.

Safety

This criteria ia selection is about making sure that you are doing business with a company that is serious about complying with best practices. If you are using a shared short code, the way other people use the code can impact ou. Carr C arriers iers can shut down short short codes that hav you. Carriers have too many complaints against them. You don’t want to work with a company that allows uploading of mobile phone lists without a required double opt-in or does not make it clear that they have no tolerance for spam of any kind.

Specialty Service vice

If you can find a text messaging company that specializes in campaigns for your industry, it means they probably have options set up for you inside the software that make sense for what you need.

Campaign Types Offered All text message companies do not offer the same services. Some have voting, some don’t. Some offer contests, others don’t. Make sure your vendor can manage the types of campaigns you want to do. Some companies offer

Text Messaging

more than text messaging and can integrate other marketing services, such as email, voice direct mail, and faxing. If you need additional services, then be sure you are working with a company that offers what you need. Likewise, don’t pay for any services you don’t need. Often the companies that integrate other services cost more because they are doing more for you.

Interface/Opt-In Methods

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Each platform that I have seen has a totally different look and flow to it. You will want to work with a company with easy-to-use software. Ask to see a demo or sign up for a free trial to see how the program actually works. Some software will be easier to use than others so find the one that will be the easiest for you. Best bet is to think about your campaign before you try out software or watch demos. Know what you want to accomplish and find the software to do just that. You want to enhance your campaign with the right software. There are many types of text message software available that are easy to use. At the same time, you can check out the actual software you will be using and find out what kind of opt-in methods they offer. Can you build your own website opt-in box? Do they have the ability to build one you can use on Facebook?

Customer Service Access

Any decision you make about which company to work with involves customer ser service. vice.. Remember the sales team’s customer service can be entirely vice different than the technical support team’s. Whenever possible, sign up for a free trial and use the customer service to find out what help you will be getting if you need it. Take into account whether you will be getting help with your campaign. It costs more, but the expertise will save money in the long run.

Price/Reseller Program While a range of pricing strategies is available, the most common is offering a monthly fee for the software to implement your campaigns and a fee per message. This basic fee will usually include access to at least one keyword. You will often see a set-up fee, additional keyword availability, and the associated price for messages exceeding your allocated amount. The range of prices can vary when you see how much less expensively you can find the same services. There is a big difference in pricing for full-service campaigns

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(the vendor actually does the campaign for you) as opposed to self-service (do-it-yourself ). Be sure you are comparing apples to apples when you are considering price. One type of pricing that is quite popular for small businesses is an unlimited messages plan that is priced by the number of people on your subscription list. This means you can send unlimited messages to a set number of people on your list. This usually ranges between 100 and 200 people, and when your list exceeds that amount, your monthly fee increases. If you plan to resell text messaging services as an agency or mobile marketing consultant, you also need to check into the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reseller and/or private label program.

Online Resource Guide

Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 6, text MMHQUIZ6 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the answer. Send a reply text with your choices for your answer answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

CHAPTER

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Creating a Mobile Web Presence When asked whether they expect sites they visit frequently to provide ovide a dedicated mobile version, a resounding 84 percent responded in the affirmative.

窶認rom rom a study by iCrossing

What Is the Mobile Web?

There is only one internet and when someone accesses it using a mobile device, it becomes the mobile web. It is the way it is accessed that defines it as the mobile web. It is important to note that not everything on the internet devices. (Imagine a small garden inter net can be used as-is on mobile devices

snake trying to swallow swallow a basketball.) For this reason, it is critical that websites have have mobile-fr mobile-friendly iendly versions that make the mobile web experience as easy as possible for site visitors visitors. Ideally, the mobile web is a collection of mobile-friendly mobile-fr iendly websites. Along with mobile websites, the mobile web includes mobile search engines engines, mobile advertising, and pay-per-click ads that are only displayed on mobile devices. The mobile web is a complete and distinct ecosystem for mobile devices.

When to Use the Mobile Web as a Marketing Tool Your best bet is to create at least a simple mobile web presence as quickly as possible. We have reached a point in the marketing cycle of the internet when consumers expect businesses to have a website they can access whenever they want using whatever device they choose. They also expect to have that experience match what they need at any given moment. If they

92 The Mobile Marketing Handbook are on your site with a mobile device, they expect it to work on their phone so they can search and find the information they want. Your mobile site can be as simple or as complex as your customers will need and use. Start with a basic site. As consumer use of the mobile web increases from occasional by a few people to daily by most people, you can continue to expand the offerings on your mobile site. Start with the basics of what your customers or potential customers want to find (not search for but actually find) as it relates to your business. Then, gradually add more features as your customers’ needs change and your mobile marketing strategy develops.

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How to Use the Mobile Web: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

Businesses need to know that their customers are already using the mobile web. eb. The huge surge in smartphone purchases combined with unlimited pricing plans for data has driven millions of people to access the internet from their mobile devices and millions more are right behind them. As reported ted in the 2010 Mobile Internet Phenomena Report by Sandvine, “It’s generally accepted that in 2009 there were between 300 million and 600 million people experiencing the IInternet nternet nter net on a mobile device device, accounting for roughly $60 billion in data revenues. While significant, these numbers are dwarfed by projections suggesting between 1 billion and 2 billion users by 2014, and revenues well in excess of $100 billion.” If your website does not have a mobile-friendly version, then mobile web visitors will be disappointed when they reach your site. site. First, the best step in using the mobile web is to assess how much mobile traffic you are already getting. Use Google Analytics (or your preferred website analytics progr pr program) ogram) ogr am) to determine ho how many mobile visitors are already visiting your site (Figure 7.1). You may be surprised to see just how many people are visiting (Figure 7.2). This will help determine how quickly you need to move on becoming mobile-web-ready and how much it’s costing you for not doing so.

Ideal Mobile Web Scenario While you can make your site mobile-friendly in many ways, the ideal scenario involves creating a separate mobile site that is optimized for mobile technically and for the mindset of the mobile visitor looking for unique content (Figure 7.3). This site should be delivered automatically to users on mobile devices and when someone is searching via mobile. Since automatic

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Creating a Mobile Web Presence

Figure 7.1 In Google Analytics, go to the Visitors tab and then to Mobile Devices. D evices.

Figure 7.2 This is the type of data you can see and analyze.

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94 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Figure 7.3 The best case scenario for your mobile web presence is to have a mobile version of your site that is automatically shown when search. someone visits via a mobile device or during a mobile sear device detection (the way that your site knows which type of device a visitor is using) does not work 100 percent of the time, it is also critical to have a link to the mobile version of the site from the desktop site and vice versa. You want to do this because device detection does not always work, and visitors may be served the desktop site when they are on a mobile device. They site. It is also possineed to be able to quickly and easily get to the mobile site ble that someone may be served the mobile site but prefer to see the desktop site.

Content and Design

Setting aside all the technical aspects that we will cover later in this chapter, the process of creating and designing content for a mobile site is different than it is for a full-size computer-accessible site. First of all, monitor size makes an obvious delivery difference that changes everything. People do not browse or surf on their phones; they look for exactly what they need in as few clicks as possible. They do not want irrelevant information or items that are impossible to deal with in a mobile environment. A site that is huge (from a bytes perspective) can easily cause a mobile phone to freeze, rendering it useless at precisely the moment when the user needs it the most.

Creating a Mobile Web Presence

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Consumers also don’t want to find a diluted version of a site that has such little content that it is rendered basically useless. The idea is to give your customers as much content as quickly as possible. What users need from you on a mobile website is also different because the information is totally dependent upon where they are, which is the key concept of mobile. Remember why a user is visiting your mobile site and then design it accordingly. Make it easy for users to find exactly what they need in as few clicks as possible (one click would be ideal). Peter Cranstone, of 5o9, Inc., has a succinct way of thinking about design on the mobile web, which he originally learned from Ericsson, the world-renowned telecommunications company. He says, “Remember it’s all about the 0-1-2-3 rule: 0 behavioral changes, 1 login point, 2 second download, 3 clicks to relevant content.” Make sure that your customers don’t have to change their behavior to use the services on your mobile site. (Let them access the site via the wser they already use.) Give visitors a single action item that gets them browser going. Nothing should take longer than 2 seconds to download; within three clicks, they should have found what they are looking for on the site. If you follow this concept in the design phase, you are establishing a solid foundation for an effective site.

Even Smartphone Users Need a Mobile Site

Because smartphone use is growing so quickly, you may think that you won’t need to develop a mobile site. After all, the most powerful mobile browsers site. However, seeing a full-sized wsers can quite easily display a desktop site site on a mobile device (even the ones with the largest screen size) is similar to viewing it through a keyhole keyhole. A visitor can only see a portion of the site at one time and must squeeze to resize the view and move the screen to find what they are seeking. It is not practical, and it can be quite frustrating. See Figures 7.4 and 7.5 for an example of the difference between a desktop site and a mobile site displayed on a mobile phone.

Content Strategy for Your Mobile Website To make your mobile web content effective, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and offer the content they are looking for as quickly as possible. Think about where they are likely to be viewing your site: riding on a bus or subway, waiting in their cars in a parking lot, standing on a street corner, or sitting at a restaurant. In Mobile Marketing Watch, Diana Pouliot, director of mobile advertising at Google, reported at a Mobile Marketing & Advertising event in Las Vegas with CTIA Wireless 2010 that one-third of all Google

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Figure 7.4 This is the Southwest Airlines desktop site as it appears on my Palm Pre. Notice how difficult it is to read. Everything is fully functional and the graphics even flash, but if you look at Figure 7.5, you can see how much more efficient it is to use the mobile site. searches via the mobile web pertain to some aspect of the searcher’s local environment.

Additionally, your customers will want other specifics from your mobile

website, and they may want more and more over time. To get started, here are some ideas to include on your mobile website, but you may have other specifics that make sense for your particular business or industry: • Location including a map and directions to your business • Business hours • Click-to-call button • List of items/brands you carry (your menu) • Fresh content in small chunks

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Creating a Mobile Web Presence

Figure 7.5 The mobile version of Southwest Air Airline’s site (mobile.southwest.com) makes it easy to take action, most likely to make a reservation or check in for a flight. It also gives me the option to view the full site.

• Timely information about your business • Special offers

• Event information

What you don’t put on your mobile website can be as important as what you actually include. For example, avoid adding the following: • Excess graphics (size or quantity) • Long articles • Anything that takes more than three clicks to find • Large files/downloads that could cause a mobile device to crash or freeze

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Mobile Sites to Review

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Use your mobile device to access the following websites. First, try to go to the main website to see if the device detection works on your phone. If necessary, type in the mobile URL to see the mobile site. Notice how many different variations there are in the domain name used for the mobile site and how irrelevant they are when the device detection works properly by serving the mobile site to you on your mobile device: www.cars.com (m.cars.com) www.espn.com (espn.mobi) www.southwest.com (mobile.southwest.com) .myxer.com/wap) www.myxer.com (www.myxer.com/wap)

(Data plan rates will apply. apply. If you do not know what data plan you have with your carrier, check first. Without an unlimited or high-level data plan, mobile web use can be costly.)

Determining Site Flow and Click Depth

With mobile sites, it is important to ensure a smooth flow for site visitors. The site should be easy to navigate, and the information should be easy to find. It also should be obvious and easy to get back to the homepage from anywhere on the site. Index cards are the perfect tool for sketching out your mobile site because they ar are the ideal size to remind you how much information you can squeeze onto a mobile website page. You can also move the sketches around easily to determine the flow of a website. Start by turning them vertically to simulate a small vertical screen. Then write on the index card what you want to include on each page. If it doesn’t fit easily on the index card, chances are it won’t fit on your customers’ mobile screen either. Laying out the index cards side by side can also provide a snapshot of exactly how many clicks it will take someone to reach the deepest level of content, which is the click depth. Three clicks is the maximum number of clicks that I recommend for a mobile website. More than that will only frustrate your visitors.

Creating a Mobile Web Presence

Conversion: Getting Your Customers to Do What You Want Them to Do

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The art of getting people to do what you want them to do on your website (mobile or desktop) is called conversion. The key to a successful website hinges on your ability to convert people successfully from a site visitor to a customer, a caller, or an opted-in person on your SMS or email list. After all, if you have millions of people who visit your site but don’t engage with you further, then your site will not be successful. You may not think this is the case if you simply sell advertising based on your traffic. However, if your advertisers don’t get the exposure they want, then you won’t get return advertisers, and your site will fail. Even if you are a retail store and offer your location, hours, and other information to your customers, there is still conversion involved by getting these mobile web visitors to physically visit your place of business. Make sure you get people to take action while they are on your site. The best way to get people to take action is tell them what to do and make it easy for them to do it. Google is an excellent example. A person who wants to conduct a search on a topic is given one action to do on the Google homepage: Input the keywords and hit the search button. Google has nearly a 100 percent conversion rate. People who go to the Google homepage do what Google wants them to do. Chances are that you won’t be able to get your conversion rate that high, but you certainly want to keep it as high as possible. Make sure your call-to-action is a prominent feature on your short code and mobile site. site. If you you want people to sign up for SMS, put your shor keyword call-to-action on the site. If you are building an email list, put your email sign-up box in a clearly visible location. If you are selling products or services vices on your mobile site, site make the order process obvious. Ideally, you every page on the site. should link to the call-to-action information from ev Giving iving people the option to sample your wares creates a great conversion strategy. Show ategy.. S ategy how people a sample of your newsletter, send them an introductory text message, or if you are selling something, give them a free trial offer. UpSNAP.com, the leading site in mobile audio, reported that free trial offers for paid subscriptions resulted in a 25 percent conversion rate. Another component in a successful conversion is giving people a good reason to do what you want them to do. If you want people to opt in to a text message campaign from your mobile website, tell them why they should. What value will they receive? Even if something is free, spell out what benefits people will receive. If it is compelling enough, they will do it, and your conversion rate increases. If you don’t provide enough value for your visitors, they will not do what you ask, and your conversion will decrease. It

100 The Mobile Marketing Handbook may be a simple enough concept on paper, but the tracking and analysis of actual site visitors will provide more details to help you discover all the complexities. Tracking your site visitors is covered in depth in Chapter 14.

Building a Mobile Website

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In many ways, creating a mobile site might seem to be easier than building a full-service site. First of all, mobile sites are smaller and contain much less information than a wired internet site. But it is not as straightforward as it seems because more than 5,000 different models of mobile devices are available for consumers, and dozens of different mobile browsers load on a multitude of different operating systems. To top it off, a different cell phone carrier serves each of these variations. Technologically, it is almost impossible for any site to be displayed correctly or uniformly on all mobile devices. The mobile web has a long way to go before it is as effortless as the internet for consumers to use. Still, it is possible to maximize the number of people who can accurately access your mobile site by building your site with a mobile web building tool or following the proper technological requirements when building a mobile site from scratch.

Mobile Site Creation Options

Once nce you have have determined what content you want to include on your mobile site,, you you are ready to start building. Of course, if you are working with an agency, the work will be taken care of for you. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re building your own mobile site or looking for the right vendor, here are a few options to consider:

Miniaturizing izing Mobile Sites Sites

To miniaturize your our current current site so it will show up on mobile devices without errors, you can use a variety of free or low-cost services. You will have to submit your main site URL to a miniaturizing service, and a mobile version of your site will be created from your existing content. In the process, the graphics will probably be stripped out or reduced in size. Blogs are easy to miniaturize by simply plugging your RSS feed into a mobile service such as Mippen or Mobify.me. If your site is built on WordPress, you can also use one of the many WordPress mobile plug-ins to miniaturize. If you have a site without an RSS feed, you may find that you are spending more time miniaturizing your big site than you would building a mobile site from scratch. While this may be a good first step in getting your site mobile-ready, it is not

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ideal and should only be considered the first step. Take your mobile site a step further and create a separate mobile site.

Mobile Platform Providers

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Companies such as iLoopMobile, GoLive! Mobile, and Crisp Wireless offer complete A-to-Z solutions for mobile site building, advertising, text messaging, and marketing, along with reporting. If you have the budget to hire such companies, this is the way to go. You’ll have content management at your fingertips, easy software to work with, and all the latest tools. You’ll probably wonder what all the fuss is about with the mobile web. It’s much the same as driving on the freeway in the high occupancy lane as you are whizzing past a huge traffic jam.

Mobile Website Designers

website and Another more complicated option is custom building a mobile website web designer or have an in-house design team e a web hosting it. Unless you are that is familiar with mobile, you will need to hire a person or firm to do this. If you already work with designers, you may be able to work with them on eating your mobile site design. But not many web designers have worked creating with mobile yet and may not be prepared for what lies ahead. If you want to work with someone in particular, let them read this book and discuss the site strategy you are planning to implement. Then point them to two important resources along the way. The first is dev.mobi, which is a site for web designers who want to learn about mobile design. The information on the site will keep your designer on the right track while providing the necessary tools and information. Second, Mobile Design and Development by Brian ling is a detailed book about developing mobile websites websites. Both of these Fling options should help your web design team get ready to design an effective mobile site. Do not hire a design firm that says it can design a mobile site without any proof of its track rrecord.

Mobile Site Builders If you are committed to building a mobile website but have budgetary constraints, you can use a mobile site builder. The good news is that you can use one of several free or low-cost site builders. The downside is that you will probably invest a decent amount of sweat equity into the process, and at the end, your site may not be as fully functional or as pleasant to look at as those done on a mobile platform or built by a designer. But at least you’ll be on mobile with a site that’s built specifically for mobile use on a reasonable budget. You

102 The Mobile Marketing Handbook can test out what works, find out what else your customers want, and get your customers to try mobile marketing. When the pricing drops on the other options, you can always upgrade accordingly.

What Domain Name to Use If you use two distinct websites (one for desktop browsing and one for mobile), you will need to build your mobile site on a mobile site URL. At this point, it really doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter which option you choose because the future of mobile domains is destined to be essentially invisible. People just need to go to one URL and let the server provide the proper version through device

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detection. Options include sitename.mobi, m.sitename.com, mobile.site name.com, or sitename.com/mobile. Even if you decide to build your own mobile site on one of the other options, I recommend registering your siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s .mobi version just to keep others from using it. Additionally, using a .mobi domain is a solid mobile SEO strategy (more about this in Chapter 8).

Mobile Site Hosting

You can host your mobile site with the same host that you use for your computer site. There is no need to get mobile-specific hosting. If you use one of the mobile site building services, such as MoFuse Premium, you will find that it will also host your mobile site.

Driving Traffic to Your Mobile Website

If your primary goal with your mobile web presence is simply to be accessible when people arriv arrive arr ive e at your site via mobile mobile, then you can relax at this point. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve accomplished your task. However, if having the maximum amount of traffic to your site via mobile is part of your goal, then you need to take action to proactively drive traffic to it. You cannot build a mobile site and just wait for people to discover it. You must actively drive visitors to your mobile site; this part of your mobile web presence will continue indefinitely.

Marketing Integration As I have noted throughout the book, the best way to drive traffic to your mobile campaign is by weaving your mobile call-to-action into your existing marketing. This is especially true with website traffic. Mobile marketing is all about interaction with existing marketing (see Chapter 13).

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Mobile Web Promotion Strategies In addition to driving visitors through your existing marketing, you can use mobile search, mobile advertising (including mobile pay-per-click), and social networking, which are covered in Chapters 8, 9, and 10.

Online Resource Guide Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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Additional Reading

Brian Fling, Mobile Design and Development (Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Reilly, 2009), www.mobile design.org or Web Designers (A Book Apart, 2010), books.alist Jeremy Keith, HTML5 For apart.com obile Web Design (Lulu.com, 2008), www.mobileweb. Cameron Moll, Mobile book.com

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To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 7, text MMHQUIZ7 To to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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CHAPTER

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Mobile Search

People search on mobile phones because they need information immediately, and they cannot wait until they get back to their computers to find it. The good news for us marketers is that the information people tend to search for usually informs an immediate purchase decision, meaning they ar aree rready eady to spend money, and they need to know where to spend it. — Cindy Cindy Krum, author, Mobile Marketing: Mar Finding Finding Your Customer Customerss No Matter Where They Are

What Is Mobile Search?

Essentially, mobile search lets consumers search for information using their Essentially mobile devices. It includes the carrier-provided, built-in search tools found on phones, phones, and well-known search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing that serve up mobile-friendly results from a mobile-friendly search interface. According to the “Mobile 2010 White Paper” by Tamar, a U.K.-based search and social conversion agency agency, mobile search engine traffic increased 247 percent from 2009 to 2010, and 14 percent of those in the 18–24 age group and the 25–34 age group search on mobile every day. In a July 2011 article on Mashable.com, it was reported that “Google has seen mobile search grow at an exponential rate—it’s increased five-fold worldwide in the past two years. That rate of growth is comparable to the early days of Google’s desktop search.”

When to Use Mobile Search as a Marketing Tool Since many people are already using mobile search, take a look at mobile search optimization. This is essential because you need to do whatever you

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106 The Mobile Marketing Handbook can to be found when your customers are actively looking for your company or for what your company offers. You can lose business whenever someone tries to find you but canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.

How to Use Mobile Search: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

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You will use two primary tactics to ensure that your customers can easily find your business on mobile. First, you need to create a local business listing on Google Places. Second, you need to make your mobile site easily discoverable on Google via mobile, since Google is the dominant search engine in mobile search. According to data gathered by StatCounter as of July 2010, Google has captured a 98.29 percent share of the mobile search market. Search engine optimization (SEO) is designed to get your business displayed when someone searches for it on the internet and on the mobile web. Consumers can search for a variety of topics: specific data (they search for your company), general information (they search for a broad term), or location-specific information (they search for something and include a location query). Search ch engines display your site because: 1) they know your our site exists, and 2) something on your site matches with what the searcher was seeking. Business listings and SEO tactics let search engines know your site exists and that your site contains the right information for a entire book of its own, I specific search. Since the topic of SEO is worth an entir am covering only what you need to know about mobile search; if you need additional or background knowledge on overall search engine marketing or advanced mobile SEO strategies, see the Online Resource Guide.

Business Listings

Since ince Google Maps for mobileâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s launch in 2005, the site grew to serve more than 100 million users per month in 2010. This growth rate makes your listing on Google Maps essential. The best way to ensure that your business can be found on Google Maps and Google.com (for desktop search and mobile search) is to create a business listing using Google Places, a free and easy service that can make your listing robust and complete. Google Places is the local business center of Google where business owners can verify and edit a detailed business listing. Your listing includes the basics: your company name, address, phone number, and website URL, but only your address and phone number are actually required. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll want to make sure to add as much information as

Mobile Search

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possible because Google views this information as the primary source of data about your company and will deliver it first when someone is searching for your business by name or by keyword. If you have a service-based or a mobile-only business where your location is irrelevant, you can hide your address so it does not show up to Google searchers. In addition to your basic business information, you can also add categories, hours of operation, payment options, photos (up to 10), videos (up to five), and additional details, including where to park, nearby cross streets, or menu items. It’s best to include as much information as possible on your business listing; every bit of information is a possible search term or data of interest that gives Google more to offer your customers. This listing is created for desktop searchers as well as mobile searchers, but mobile’s power is amazing. For example, on a recent trip to Santa Barbara, California, I was traveling with a group that decided to get pizza delivered to our rental house one evening. I did a Google search for “pizza Santa Barbara,” five pizza shops near my locaand the Google Maps results displayed about fiv tion. (However, er, I had to share my location with Google via my phone; it did not do this automatically.) .) When I clicked on one of the red flag pins for a local pizzeria, it opened up its Google business listing. I saw the hours, pickup or delivery options, a quick preview of the menu, and the shop’s address and phone number. Since we had already decided what pizza we wanted to order, I simply touched the click-to-call phone number on my phone. Instantly, my mobile device switched from a computer searching the mobile web to a phone; I was ordering our pizza within 20 seconds. See Figures 8.1 and 8.2, Colorado; this which show show a location-specific pizza search in Lakewood, C California firsthand. search sear ch is similar to what I experienced in C That pizzeria had no idea I had found it on mobile (Figures 8.1 and 8.2). I could have looked up the restaurant in a phone book or using my laptop. If the pizzeria had a coupon on the listing, it would have been an easy way to help track customers. In Google Places, businesses can add a printable coupon when someone is using a desktop site, or a mobile coupon that you can display on your mobile browser when you arrive at the place of business. This coupon could have been instrumental in choosing this pizza place over the others that were shown. Plus, it would have helped the pizzeria track its mobile marketing efforts.

What to Include in Your Local Business Listing In addition to the basics (company name, address, phone number, and website), make your listing as robust as possible. Here’s a list of what to include:

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Figure 8.1 This is a Google search on mobile for a pizzeria in Lakewood, Colorado. N Notice otice how the results are automatically from Google Maps and only three options are visible. • Hours ours of operation operation • Major cross streets • Description of your services (include keywords that you think your visitors might use while searching) • What credit cards you accept • Where to park • Dress code (if applicable) • Photos of or about your business

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Mobile Search

Figure 8.2 O Figure Once nce I clicked on the first pizza listing, I found the Google local business listing for Virgilio’s with reviews, a live link to the website, a click-to-call phone number, and ways to get directions and see it on the map again.

• Videos of or about your business • A mobile coupon

Mobile Coupons on Your Business Listing Google includes the option of adding a coupon with a listing (Figure 8.3). The coupon can either be printable for desktop users, or it can appear as a mobile coupon for mobile visitors. To redeem the mobile coupon, the person simply

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110 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Figure 8.3 Here is an example of a mobile coupon on a Google business listing. This coupon, which is specifically designed for mobile, will only appear when it is a mobile browser viewing the listing.

shows the phone to you or your staff, and the offer is redeemed. Adding a coupon to your listing is definitely worth it.

Proactively Requesting Reviews Local results usually include several reviews about a business. Often, businesses with the most and highest-rated reviews appear closer to the top of the results within the location-specific results. On mobile search results pages, it is hypercritical to be as close to the top of the page as possible. It is also well known that people make decisions based on personal recommendations, so it is in your best interest to have recent reviews about your business. Google gets these reviews from Google Maps users and third-party review sources such as Yelp, CitySearch.com, and Dine.com.

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Ask your customers to review your place of business online. You can also have your customer service front line (i.e., wait staff in a restaurant or a receptionist at a day spa) ask customers to submit reviews on a regular basis. If customers express satisfaction with your business, simply ask, “Have you submitted a review online?” This usually goes a long way in prompting people to write reviews. You can also use signage in your business to encourage reviews. The idea is to plant the thought in your customers’ minds so they will do it wherever they are, even in your place of business.

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Mobile SEO Tactics Details about SEO strategies for desktop websites can and do fill books, weekend seminars, and multiweek online courses. Fortunately, mobile search engine strategies are less complicated, at least for now. So jump in while the process is still simple. simple.

How Is Mobile Search Different From Desktop Search?

You know that being listed in desktop search engines is critical to your website’s success. This is also true of your mobile site. Mobile search is different, though: Users search using different search engines, they search in different ways, and the results that are displayed are handled differently.

The mobile search environment is different than computer-based

search because there search there are two pathways for consumers to search. One is onportal/on-deck (the default search engines set up by the mobile carriers), and the other is off-portal (search engines such as G Google, Yahoo!, and Bing that are not affiliated with a mobile carrier). On-portal search only shows the results listed within the carrier’s on-portal directory (a list of sites the carriers iers have have compiled). No other sites are shown. This is often referred to as the “walled garden.” Essentially, this means that your cell phone carrier is actually the search engine. For consumers with a basic phone or those who are not tech-savvy, chances are they use the on-deck search engine exclusively. It is just easier to use what is already there with one click than it is to figure out how to access the open mobile web. On-portal searchers will find fewer sites, but every site will be mobile-friendly. Most phones and cell phone carriers provide an on-portal search engine but still allow access to search engines such as Google or whatever search engine a customer chooses. In off-portal search, the user starts with the mobile web and then searches on Google Mobile or Yahoo! oneSearch. In

112 The Mobile Marketing Handbook this case, a user can find any site listed in these search engines. This is similar to the consumers’ computer web search experience. One major difference between mobile and desktop search is how the results are displayed, which usually depends on the device being used. For example, a person using an LG Lotus Elite for mobile search may obtain entirely different results than someone searching with a Samsung Epic. This is different than desktop search because desktop results are consistent from user to user. A person searching on a Dell with an Acer monitor sees the same results as someone using an HP computer with an HP monitor. Mobile search is clearly more complex than desktop search. Lastly, fewer results are shown on a mobile search engine results page

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than on a desktop version. On desktop search, people rarely go beyond the first 10 results on the first page of search results. On a mobile search, only ee, or four results are shown, and users are less likely to go to a sectwo, three, ond page of search results. This makes it more important to take your mobile SEO strategies seriously while you can still be listed on the first page of search results for your keyword. This is why a strong business listing on oogle is critical. With Google, local results are displayed first in a locationGoogle specific search, and your place of business can easily be displayed at the top of the page.

The bottom line is that mobile search is different than desktop inter internet

search for the consumer and the website builder. The tactics that work for search. For examSEO on the internet internet do not necessarily work for mobile sear ple, incoming links do not hav have e a sizable impact on whether your mobile site appears in search engines. Likewise, actions that simply make no difference ence for your search engine ranking on the desktop web, such as submitting your site to Google, Yahoo!, or other search engines, can have a huge impact for your mobile site.

Create a Mobile-Friendly Website To ensure that your mobile site can be seen by Google and other mobile search engines, it’s essential to develop a true mobile-friendly website, described in Chapter 7. This is important because mobile search engines are designed to deliver mobile sites, which is exactly what their customers want and what keeps them in business. If your mobile site produces errors when someone visits it from a mobile device, it won’t be listed in the mobile search results. Make sure your main website works on mobile so you don’t limit your mobile search engine possibilities.

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How to Help Google Find Your Mobile Site According to the Google Webmaster Central Blog, there are two basic steps to ensure that Google will list your mobile site in mobile search results. The following explanation is excerpted from that blog: 1.

Verify that your mobile site is indexed by Google. If your website doesn’t show up in the results of a Google mobile search even using the site: operator, it may be that your site has one or both of the following issues:

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• Googlebot may not be able to find your site. Googlebot, our crawler, must crawl your site before it can be included in our search index. If you just created the site, we may not yet be aware of it. If that’ that’s the case, create a Mobile Sitemap and submit it to Google to inform us of the site’s existence. A Mobile Sitemap can be submitted Tools, using Google Webmaster T ools, in the same way as with a standard Sitemap.

• Googlebot may not be able to access your site. Some mobile sites refuse access to anything but mobile phones, making it impossible for Googlebot to access the site, and therefore making the site unsearchable. Our crawler for mobile sites is “Googlebot-Mobile.” If you’d like your site crawled, please allow any User-agent including “Googlebot-Mobile” to access your site. You should also be aware that Google may change its User-agent information at any time without notice, so it is not recommended that you check if the User-agent exactly matches “Googlebot-Mobile” (which is the string used at present). Instead, check whether the User-agent header contains the string “Googlebot-Mobile.”

Verify that Google can recognize your mobile URLs. Once Googlebot-Mobile crawls your URLs, we then check for whether the URL is viewable on a mobile device. Pages we determine aren’t viewable on a mobile phone won’t be included in our mobile site index (although they may be included in the regular web index).

114 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Be Visible to Local-Focused Searchers Location-based search is more important in mobile searching than it is on the desktop; sites that are optimized for local search will fare far better in mobile search engine results than sites that are not. After all, location-based information is the No. 1 type of data that people search for on the mobile web. People are looking for places and services around them from where they are at any one time. It is your job to offer this content, and the search engines will reward you for it. This is local search being used in an entirely new light. If you have a business that caters to local users (even in multiple locations), consider your mobile web presence for locations. People must

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be able to find you when they search for you and that includes your keyword and city name in an off-portal search. Likewise, make sure you are listed in places that feed local data on the on-portal search engines.

Optimize your mobile site for local search by including your city, state,

and ZIP code in several places on your site. Use your city name and state in text (not a graphic) on your homepage as well as your contact information in addition to creating your business listing on Google Places.

Mobile users who may not want to access the mobile web or cannot get

online (while driving) can also use voice search. This involves using Googleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice verbally. oice search app and searching v erbally. This is an app that works erbally. on Android, iPhone, hone,, and BlackBerry devices. Your business will automatihone cally be listed in the voice search app when you complete your business listing on Google Places.

Mobile Search Engine Submission

Clearly, you ou need to submit your mobile site so people can find it via onportal and off-portal search engines. Before you start imagining the futility of contacting each individual cell phone carrier to get your mobile site listed on its built-in search engines, chances are the cell phone carriers are using a white-label solution from one of the top mobile search companies where you can submit your site. Yes, it is still possible to submit your mobile site to the major mobile search engines to get listed just as in the good old internet days. Mobile search engines (on- and off-portal) need more mobile sites to serve to their visitors. You can submit your site to several mobile site directories because they are looking for mobile content to share. It is up to you to create your mobile-friendly site and submit it. For example, Google lets businesses submit a mobile sitemap (tinyurl.com/googlemobilesitemap).

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Keyword Research The crucial concept in any SEO campaign (desktop or mobile) is knowing what words your customers are using when they search. These are the words you want to include in your site so it appears when someone is looking for those keywords. As with your desktop website, you may need to do keyword research for your topic, and the best place to do that is on Google using its Keyword Research Tool for mobile. You don’t have to spend much time and/or energy using the Keyword Research Tool for any mobile-specific keyword research because the results that you get do not include smartphone search data. Smartphone users are the most voracious mobile search users,

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so eliminating them from the results is much the same as having the team’s MVP sit on the sidelines of a Super Bowl. However, you can get some good general ideas about the kinds of keywords that people search for when they are mobile.

Short keyword phrases ases are common. After all, it is harder for mobile

keypads. Use basic users to type in a long search phrase using their phone keypads

keywords; start by thinking of one-word keywords that would lead your customers to you. The following ideas will help you figure out what your customers could use for their searches:

• People often search for brand names. Include your own brand name in the keywords you use on your site.

• Missing spaces are common. It is not easy to hit the space bar on a phone, so it is quite common for two words to become one. If you have some good two-word phrases, you should put both “two words” and “twowords” on your site. An example of this is “happy hour” hour” and “happyhour.” “happyhour. If you really want happy hour business, it might be good to put the two-word phrase with no space on your site in a nonconspicuous spot.

• The combination of location + keyword is popular. There is also a widely used combination of free + keyword. Make sure to put your top keyword and your location on your site. For example, on your website’s About page, use wording such as, “We serve sushi in Lakewood, Colorado.” Then when someone searches for “sushi Lakewood Colorado,” your site is more likely to be shown. • Cell-related searches (things people do or use on their cell phones) are common; people are literally thinking mobile when they are searching mobile.

116 The Mobile Marketing Handbook â&#x20AC;˘ People often search for exact domains. By putting your URL in the text on your site, you can help them find your site when they search for it by name. Until the keyword research tools that automate keyword marketing become common, we are on our own. It will be survival of the smartest, not survival of the one with the best tools. Your intelligence and creativity will be on your side in the beginning of mobile keywords. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Online Resource Guide

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Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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To T o take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 8, text MMHQUIZ8 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

CHAPTER

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Mobile Advertising and Mobile Apps The (mobile advertising) industry has really evolved with mobile now solidifying itself as a critical piece of a brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketing strategy. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Michael Chang, CEO, Greystripe

What Is Mobile Adver Advertising? tising?

Mobile marketing is often mistakenly referred to as mobile advertising. In this section, I am specifically discussing advertising on the mobile web, inside short message service (SMS) messages, embedded in mobile apps, or used in mobile apps as advertising tools (appvertising). Mobile ads comprise pr ise graphic banners banners,, sponsorships sponsorships, and text-link ads that appear on mobile websites, in apps, or inside text messages. Mobile apps can be used as a powerful advertising tool as well. Mobile advertising is growing exponentially, and industry analysts are predicting this growth will continue. In fact, a 2010 study by ABI Research predicted that mobile advertising is expected to quadruple over the next five years, from $313 million in spending in 2010 to more than $1.2 billion in 2015.

When to Use Mobile Advertising as a Marketing Tool Mobile ads can be used for branding, mobile site traffic generation, and a range of direct response campaigns. These ads are excellent tools to increase your brand awareness if you have an advertising budget to reach the power mobile user group as your target audience. If you have a mobile site and want to drive traffic to it, then you will find that mobile advertising can boost traffic. When you want to track your campaign and make it easy

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118 The Mobile Marketing Handbook to prove your return on investment, then consider building a direct response campaign. Mobile advertising is one of the fastest mobile marketing tools. The major ad networks have self-serve options: You can create a campaign simply and launch it quickly.

How to Use Mobile Advertising: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

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It is true that the more relevant you make your ad to your audience, the better your response will be. This ad strategy has never been easier to implement than with mobile. Mobile ad networks can gather data about the person who is searching via mobile (and who will receive your ad), which is not possible with any other marketing medium. Ad networks can tell exactly what type of phone is being used to visit a particular website. The networks also know what search terms brought the user to that site. In some cases, the networks even have a userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s search history to link a current search to previous ones that can deliver relevant ads to the user based on the cumulative effect of their search. Despite the privacy issues that are likely to ensue (see Chapter 3), this targeted mobile advertising tising is good for consumer and advertiser alike. Compare a person reading a print newspaper to someone reading a news article on his or her cell phone. First, in a 50-page newspaper with 25 percent advertising, the advertising includes dozens of ads. The remaining 75 percent of content is a collection of articles, articles, sidebars, articles sidebars, and other material. Neither the reader nor any of the advertisers assume that 100 percent of the advertising in the newspaper is relevant to any one particular reader. Actually, 100 percent of the content is not relevant either. When someone chooses to read a news article on a mobile site, advertising will also appear. A mobile ad, which will likely take up 25 percent of the screen space, will be the only one. In this case, the reader and the advertiser assume it will be highly relevant to the reader. After all, since it is the only ad and since the reader has given up 25 percent of rreading space for it, relevancy is important. The ad will appear to be part of the content if it is relevant, and annoying if it is not. Undoubtedly, relevance in mobile advertising is the most critical best practice to advertisers and consumers. By working with your ad network, you will be able to target your ad to those who will find it the most relevant.

Mobile Advertising and Appvertising Ads placed on mobile websites (mobile advertising) and ads placed inside a mobile app (appvertising) work the same way and are implemented

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through ad networks in a similar manner. They are different only in how the consumer comes across them, which is either on a mobile website or while they are using an app they have downloaded to their smartphone. While a marketer’s goals for mobile advertising focus on brand awareness, lead generation, or as a direct response campaign, consumer intentions are different. Consumers respond to mobile ads in order to contact, connect, download, or buy. See Figure 9.1 for the list of the 12 reasons consumers will click on mobile advertising.

Building Brand Awareness

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If you have a brand-awareness campaign to implement, mobile can be an cellent tool for that, especially when you use graphic banner ads and excellent

People 12 Reasons Peo Click on Advertising tis n Mobile Ad tising ing

CLICK-TO-CONTACT TO-CONTAC TO-CON TACTT • • • •

CLICK-TO-CONNECT CLICKCLICK-TO-CONNE TO-CONNECT TO-CONNECT • • • • • •

Place a call Enter a mobile obile obi le website website Enter loca ocation tion Find a location Watch a video

Receive Receive an an email Receive coupon or other SMS contact Receive a mobile mobile cou Request ad aadditional dditional ditional information via vi postal mail Request Visit Vis it your your social n networking page or profile Vote Ent Enter a contest or sweepstakes to win prizes

CLICK-TO-DOWNLOAD • Download content (logos, wallpapers, apps, or ringtones)

CLICK-TO-BUY • Buy something

Figure 9.1 People do not click on ads without a compelling reason to do so. Here are 12 reasons they will.

120 The Mobile Marketing Handbook sponsorships. A 2010 study done by the Internet Advertising Bureau, a U.K. trade association for digital marketing, showed that recognition for a brand was 43 percent greater when consumers were exposed to both mobile and online advertising. Furthermore, the click-through rate online was 150 percent higher among those that were exposed to (and recalled) the mobile ad. This study (tinyurl.com/iabstudy) gave us further proof that mobile marketing is highly integrated with other marketing because 37 percent of consumers said that when they saw advertising on a mobile device that interested them, they went to a PC or laptop to find out more about it. Creating a mobile app can be an excellent brand-awareness tool. In the section called Mobile Apps as an Advertising Tool later in this chapter, I will

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cover ver details on how to create an app that can accomplish your brandawareness goals.

Lead Generation

When you can create a compelling enough reason, consumers will typically provide ovide their contact information (mailing address, email address, or mobile phone number) in order to receive a call or text message. People request more information all the time about what interests them, and you can capture these leads easily on mobile with a contact submission form, a text message opt-in, or a click-to-call ad.

Page Another way to generate leads is to get people to like your Facebook P

or follow w your your company on Twitter. Twitter T witter.. Using AdMob, you can create a Click to witter Facebook/Twitter campaign so consumers who click on your ad will go directly to your mobile Facebook Page or Twitter profile.

Click-to-Call

Customers can also call your business directly via mobile advertising. After all, they are already holding a phone in their hand. In this method, users who click on your ad are directed to a landing page that provides click-tocall as an option. Customers simply click on the phone number and their phones start dialing the number. You can even create a banner ad that is a direct click-to-call tool; users click on the ad itself, which initiates the call. Another option is to use Google Adwords in search results with the call-toaction as a phone number instead of a website. If you use this option, be sure your ad is clear about what will happen. People will not appreciate being surprised if they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know they are actually dialing a phone number. Also make sure to track the number of callers and the outcome of the calls.

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A 2010 click-to-call campaign by the insurance company Esurance received impressive results with a click-to-call campaign that was reported in a case study for Google Adwords (Figure 9.2): “Esurance significantly reduced acquisition costs, acquiring customers at 30% less than through other marketing channels. They also boosted conversion rates. Click-tocall mobile ads drove a 30%–35% higher response and a 5–10% lower cost per click on mobile than on online.” (The full case study is available at tinyurl.com/esurancecasestudy.)

Direct Response

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Direct response marketing comprises three distinct components: an offer, enough information to make a decision on that offer, and the means to take action. Typically, a company offers something for a consumer to purchase, but it can also offer something for free. Mobile can be an extremely effective

Figure 9.2 This is an example of the Esurance Google Adwords ad that has a click-to-call action point instead of a click-to-a-website.

122 The Mobile Marketing Handbook direct response tool. There are two distinct responses that you can elicit from your customer (or soon-to-be customer) via mobile advertising: clickto-buy and downloading content. Each of these can be used in campaigns for different reasons, but the bottom line is that each is quantifiable and trackable, so you can measure the response you get.

Click-to-Buy

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Click-to-buy sounds exactly like what it is. Users click on an ad, and they are directed to a place where they can purchase a product or service. The most common use is an ad that leads to a mobile app store where buyers can purchase an app for their phones. The developers of mobile app Whack ’em All created an AdMob advertising campaign that generated more than 5,000 downloads in the first 3 days after Whack ’em All appeared in the App Store. The developers garnered a 19 percent download rate from users who clicked on the ad. Not all of these generated revenue because some users were downloading a free app, but over the course of the entire campaign, this app became a Top 10 game in the iTunes app store. (The case study is available at tinyurl.com/whackemcasestudy.) Apps are not the only thing that can be used as a click-to-buy campaign. Music, ringtones, virtual goods (usually for gaming or social networking), and even physical goods (i.e., anything from Amazon.com) can be advertised on mobile and a click-to-buy call-to-action can be used. A single mobile ad may not be enough to entice users to buy something. So if they click on a mobile ad, the landing page must include mor more information and make it easy for them to make the purchase. One example is a click that leads to the mobile-friendly product page on Amazon.com.

Download Content

Downloadable wnloadable content has become a powerful marketing tool. Users like to load content on their phones, and they can download wallpaper, ringtones, or free apps that are branded to your business. However, in order for this to succeed, you must entice people to download your content, which means that users must want the product or service. One example of a successful campaign featuring branded downloadable content is GEICO’s ringtone and wallpaper campaign via Myxer.com. Within 60 days of its app launch, GEICO reported 350,000 downloads. (The case study is available at tinyurl.com/geicoarticle.) This campaign worked well because GEICO’s television advertising campaign is well-known and well-liked. You can see the wallpaper in Figure 9.3. See if you can identify what it is before you read the caption.

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Figure 9.3 This branded downloadable content is Kash, otherwise known as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the the money I could be saving by calling GEICO.â&#x20AC;? Did you recognize the branding slogan?

Types ypes of Mobile Advertising Units

As you can already see from the variety of possible outcomes, mobile advertising offers much more than graphic banner ads. Different ad units can be used when you launch your mobile campaign. It is wise to consider your target audience and the type of mobile device they use when choosing what type of ad unit to employ.

Click-to-Video

Video can be an ideal option to incorporate into your campaign. Ads that include a click-to-watch video option hav have a higher response rate than the same ads shown without a video link. But resist the temptation to show a boring ing video commer commercial. You need to provide continued value to your customers throughout the process. Instead, offer them video that they will want to watch and put your call-to-action at the end of the video. You can also put a short (less than 5 seconds) promotion at the beginning of the video, if the content is compelling enough to keep viewers tuned in through the commercial portion. One concept worth mentioning is that click-to-video ads are a perfect match for iPad readers. This multimedia device is partnered with iAd and other mobile ad networks as an advertising and mobile advertising medium, even though an August 2010 study by eMarketer found that 60 percent of iPad owners said they rarely or never took their iPad with them

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when they left home. Nevertheless, tablet readers such as an iPad let companies serve click-to-video ads on websites and apps; others are embedded in magazines and even books. For example, this book could have a click-tovideo ad on this page in an iPad edition. Imagine a book with an embedded video and the ability to reach readers in an entirely new way. Nonfiction books could have video tutorials blended with content sponsored by corporate partners. Fiction books could embed movie trailers or messages from the author about other books. Both types could build opt-in lists of readers for future marketing without making the reader move to another device (i.e., go to a computer to log in to a website or on their phones to optin to a text message campaign). The true scope of multimedia advertising has yet to be discovered, and it undoubtedly will be huge.

Graphic Banner Ads

Banner ads have been around since the inception of the internet, and the mobile version is not much different than the full-size computer versions. But for each campaign, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ll need to create a banner ad in three to four different sizes to meet the needs of the devices that will deliver your ad. (Your ad network will give you specifics on the sizes you will need to create.) The pricing for banner ads can be either in the cost per thousands (CPM) model or a pay-per click model. Be sure to put a call-to-action in your banner ad (click here, get a download, call, find out more, etc.) so people will know to e sure sure to keep your graphics as simple as possible. click on it. Be

Text Ads

As an alter alternative native nativ e to placing banner ads on mobile websites, you can also place text ads. These ads appear at the top of webpages in your chosen channels (topics), just as banner ads do; however, instead of paying every time your ad is seen (CPM), you pay on a pay-per-click basis. Text ad campaigns are not associated with search results; your ad is sent when someone is viewing a mobile website in much the same way as a banner ad. The advantage of a text ad is that you get what you pay for: Your results are tied in to your advertising. The power of pay-per-click advertising is that you gain more control and accountability because it is trackable. Not only will you know how many people saw your ad, but you will also know how many took action because of it. If you are not getting the response you want, you can tweak your ad to make it better, and you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to pay for those who saw it without taking action. Pay-per-click is smart marketing and smart accounting.

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Depending on the ad network, you will only have about 35 characters to use for text ads, so you will have to be creative. Think fast, fun, and cut to the chase. You don’t have time for anything else and neither do your customers. Remember, they are mobile, busy, and appreciate brevity. The following actions can increase your response rates for your text ads: • Change your ad often, weekly if possible. People like fresh and new mobile platforms, so do what you can to keep your ad energized. You can also rotate ads in your inventory to provide more options.

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• Make your call-to-action obvious and specific. People need to be told exactly what you want them to do, and they need a compelling reason to do so. Listing “Weekly specials offered” is not as clear and specific as “Click here to get weekly specials.” In fact, “Click to get weekly 2-for-1 specials” is even better. • Match your wording to your audience. Using a heavily eviated ad will work work fine for teens who already use text abbreviated eviations (such as “u” “u” for “you” and “ur” for “your”), but it abbreviations are not used to such abbr doesn’t work for people who are abbreviations.

any of the ad networks have ways to insert information in the • Many ad that is specific to the user’s phone. As an example, a person BlackBerry would see “Sports scores on your BlackBerry BlackB with a BlackBerry here,” while the person with the Nokia would see the same ad as “Sports scores on your Nokia here.” This specialization customizes the experience even more to the user and increases the response rate. • Create campaigns that tie in with holidays, seasons, breaking news events, or other dates that give your ad a sense of urgency. Users will know that after that certain holiday or event, the option to click through will be gone. Plus, this makes your ad more relevant to their lives.

• Be sure to tease and tantalize. In as few words or as little space as possible, you want to entice the viewer to click through to your ad. You want your ad to be compelling on the screen, so devote your energy to this. You’ll only have a second or two to grab a viewer’s attention before they move on. • Make sure the click-through page complements the ad. People will expect the landing page to elaborate on exactly what enticed them in the first place.

126 The Mobile Marketing Handbook • Use lively action verbs in your copy. If you’re offering something free, use the word “free” in your ad. Both these techniques have resulted in increased response rates.

Search Results Pay-per-Click

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Another type of text ad units are search results’ pay-per-click (SRPPC) ads that appear when a consumer searches for a particular keyword or phrase in a mobile search engine. For example, a Boston pizzeria’s ad could appear on the top of the page as a “sponsored result” when a consumer searches for “pizza Boston.” Advertisers only pay if consumers click on their ads. Google obile Adwords, which is the most popular search result ad network, has a Mobile 98.29 percent market share of mobile search traffic. The best way to learn about mobile adwords is to work with Adwords for desktop search first and then incorporate mobile.

SMS Advertising

SMS advertising is different than building and communicating with your own SMS list, as we saw in Chapter 6. This is advertising that is placed within a text message sent by another business. For example, 4Info.com offers a selection of text message programs that consumers can opt in to receive for free. They include daily jokes, jokes, horoscopes, horoscopes, wor word d of the day, this day in history, and dozens more. 4Info sells ad space in each message that is sent out.

See an SMS Advertisement

Send a text message with the words CHUCK NORRIS to 44636, and you’ll receive a text message with an amusing statement about Chuck Norris. (Message and data rates may apply; this is a one-time message and participation will not add your name to a list. It will only work for U.S. phones.) When you get the message, look for the ad at the end. This is an example of SMS advertising.

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Mobile Apps as a Business Marketing Tool

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Another way to use mobile apps for marketing (besides placing ads inside apps as previously covered in this chapter) is to create your own app and distribute it as a marketing mechanism. In order for this to work as a marketing strategy, you must keep your customers’ needs in mind when creating the app. No one will download an app that is essentially just a brochure for your business. It must provide ongoing relevant value to them. (See the “Six Ways to Provide Value With Mobile” in Chapter 2 for more details.) And in order for it to be a successful marketing tool for your business, it must also accomplish your business goals. A good example of an app that provides relevant value is the Kraft Food iFood Assistant (Figure 9.4), which provides recipes, the ability to create a stored list of favorite recipes, and meal-planning tips. The Kraft app even allows users to find ingredients according to the store aisle. (See the website created for this app at www.kraftrecipes.com/media/ifood.aspx.)

Mobile Web vs. Mobile App

I’ve seen the question of whether to go with a mobile website or a mobile app posed many times. The answer is to start with a mobile website so that your customers can find and interact with your business when they use mobile search or access your site directly via mobile. Then, if you have sufficient reason to do so, you can undertake a mobile app strategy. Unless 100 percent of your customers are iPhone users, this strategy must be more than building an iPhone app. At the very least, you will also need to develop an app for the Android Market and, depending upon your customer base, other platforms as well. To determine which platforms you need to develop for, check your Google Analytics mobile visitor statistics. It will show you which mobile devices are accessing your website. At the very least, develop apps for the top three platforms. Then also be sure that your mobile site is mentioned whenever you promote your apps so that all mobile users (not just iPhone or Android owners) know they are included in your mobile strategy.

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Figure 9.4 The Kraft Food iFood Assistant app is not a commercial for Kraft Foods, but rather it is an app that helps consumers use Kraft Foods F oods mor moree effectiv effectively ely on a daily basis. IIt makes life easier for customers.

Mobile App Development

You can choose to use mobile app builder software or hire a mobile app development firm to build your apps. (See the Online Resource Guide for app builder software options and recommended app development firms.) Either way you need to start with the strategy of your marketing first and then move into the technology. Start with these two basic questions: What is in it for your customers, and what is in it for you? As an example, the Kraft Foods app provides busy grocery shoppers quick access to recipes and an answer to the all-important question of “What’s for dinner?” For the company, it increases sales of their foods because the answer to the customers’ question is something that includes Kraft Foods.

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One very compelling feature you can include in your app is a loyalty program. Instead of a loyalty card that you need to physically have a hole punched in, you can have a loyalty check-in program that is tied to your location. When customers check in at your place of business after making a purchase, you can have your app track their points and automatically give them their rewards at the proper time. Other functions you can have in your app include: event listings that are regularly updated, a fan wall that customers can write on directly from their app, a “send photo” option so customers can send you photos, a blog feature, calculators (such as a mortgage calculator or tip calculator), a reservations function, and even a way to push notifications to your customers who agree to that feature.

Mobile App Marketing

Just because you build an app doesn’t mean your customers will download it. You will need to proactively and consistently market your mobile app in order to get it onto the home screens of your customers customers. First irst you must get your app listed in the Apple App Store and Android Market. If you work with a developer, they will likely take care care of submitting your app to the marketplaces for you. If you use app builder software, there may be a submission process included in the software for you to follow. If not, go to the app marketplaces themselves to find their submission process and take all the necessary steps. It is not likely that a branded app for your business will become a top downloaded wnloaded app. app. That’s OK. You are going to market to your own customer base by integrating your app into all your other marketing. You need to create a presence for your app (in all the v various formats) on your website. This page on your site will effectively sell your app to your customers. Even if it is free you need to convince them that it is worth the time, effort, and home screen space to have your app on their phone. You in-store signage to make sure that all your ou will also want to put up in-stor customers kno know you have a mobile app for them. If you do email marketing to your customers, do at least one big write up about your app and then include a short blurb about it in every single email you send. If you do print advertising and your app is something that is useful to potential customers as well as current customers you can mention your app in your advertising.

Online Resource Guide Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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Additional Reading

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Brad Geddes, Advanced Google AdWords (Sybex, 2010) Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, 2nd Edition (Entrepreneur Press, 2010)

O B I L E

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To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 9, text MMHQUIZ9 To to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

10 CHAPTER

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Social Networking Meets Mobile Over 600 million people worldwide will use their phones to access a social network by 2013, up from 140 million in 2009. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;eMarketer (2010)

What Is Social Networking?

Social networking is a popular way for people to connect online or through mobile technology to share similar interests or a relationship with one another. Social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn are good examples of places where people connect with other people they already know kno w (such as former classmates or people who wor work in their company). Sites such as Yelp or CitySearch CitySearch Sites CitySear ch are ar other venues where people submit reviews and recommend products and services to those who have similar reviews interests. There There are even photo sharing sites such as Flickr where people interests. e photos publicly and/or with a networ share network of their select friends. ocial networking can provide a way to alert friends (or even friends of Social their friends) when they are nearby (foursquare or Facebook Places) or tell their network what they are doing (Twitter). Or it could be a combination of all of these. The essence of social networking is people connecting virtually. For the most popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, much of the interaction is done on the site itself as users log in and participate primarily from desktop-based computers. But each of these sites has a mobile component that lets users log in from their mobile devices and interact via the mobile web or text messaging. Users can send and receive messages and updates from friends online and via their mobile devices. People can be in virtual contact 24/7 with a huge network of people

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132 The Mobile Marketing Handbook wherever they are. Most social networking users like that, and they expect life to be connected. According to a study titled “Older Adults and Social Media” by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, young adults (ages 18–29) are the heaviest users of social networking sites, with 86 percent of them saying they use the sites regularly. However, they are not the only age group that does so. The same study found that 61 percent of internet users in the 30–49 age group interact using social networking. Likewise, internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled their social networking use, from 22 percent to 42 percent during a 1-year timeframe from April 2009 to May 2010.

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The Connection Between Social Networking and Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is not a social networking tool. Likewise, social networking is not always a mobile marketing tool either. Mobile marketing and social networking are interwoven because of the number of consumers who access social networking with their mobile devices. For example, as of July 2011, Facebook reports ts that 350 million of its 800 million users occasionally interact with the network via mobile. And U.S. mobile users spend 10.5 percent of their mobile online time on social networking, according to Nielsen Mobile Media View Internet in May 2010. This means people are updating Facebook their statuses and uploading photos with their mobile devices; F users are reading their newsfeeds via mobile browsers or via mobile apps for smartphones. This interaction is important for two reasons. First, if your customers are on social networking platforms using their mobile devices and interacting with your business, then you are engaging in mobile marketing whether you intend to or not. Second, because your customers are actively using devices, this becomes a great social networking while using their mobile devices opportunity campaigns. Mobile devices can also be tunity to market your mobile campaigns a smart tool to build and extend your social networks.

When to Use Social Networking in Conjunction With Mobile Marketing If your company is already using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, then your next step is to mobilize your business. Make sure you have a mobile-friendly website (see Chapter 7) so that when mobile users click through to your site from a social network, they land on a page that works well automatically on their mobile device.

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Next, when you are launching any mobile campaign, especially building a text messaging list for a specific campaign or for ongoing contact, you should try using social networking to market your campaign. Likewise, use mobile marketing whenever you can to build your social network. These two are excellent cross-promotional strategies.

How to Use Social Networking: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

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While this book doesn’t cover the intricacies of using social networking, this chapter describes effective ways to leverage social media for the benefit of your mobile campaigns and to boost your social network presence. Though the next sections will cover specifics from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the concepts will readily apply to whatever new social networks arise.

Using Social Networking to Market Your Mobile Campaign After you have established your social network, you will have a group of people ready to connect with your company via mobile as well. The invitation process may be as simple as extending an offer to them, and each social network has ways to make this possible.

Facebook

One way to promote your mobile campaigns on Facebook is to post a status update and link to a press release or blog post announcing your mobile campaign. By By clicking through to read the information, your social network “friends” friends”” can find out mor friends more about your campaign and how to take action from your website. A more direct approach is to post your opt-in marketing message as a status update (Figure 10.1). Although it may seem awkward, it’s ’s best to comply with mobile marketing best practices and include the

Figure 10.1 Here is an example of a Facebook status update with an opt-in message.

134 The Mobile Marketing Handbook phrase “message and data rates may apply” and to let people know how often they are likely to receive messages. Another place to promote your mobile campaigns is on your Facebook Page. If you have a text message campaign, you can add an online sign-up widget to your Page so new people who discover your Page can opt-in to your mobile campaign (Figure 10.2). They may or may not be using their mobile devices when they find your Page, but they can still sign up to receive text messages when they are. This is the power of integrating your marketing and your mobile campaigns: You can capture people’s attention on multiple platforms and be everywhere for them. Your text messaging vendor provides mechanisms to create online sign-

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up widgets, and you simply have to insert some code from your text messaging platform into your Facebook Page.

If you want to be creative, you can also make a video about your mobile

marketing campaign and post it. This is a great way to announce your mobile website or SMS campaign while providing details about what people

Figure 10.2 This is an online widget that is embedded in my Facebook Page. Visitors to my Page can sign up for weekly SMS messages about mobile marketing.

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can find on it. Or you can offer instructions on how to opt in to your text message campaign if you think your audience may need some guidance.

Twitter

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There are several ways to use Twitter for your mobile marketing campaigns. First, you can add your opt-in message to your profile page either in your bio or on your background graphic, or possibly both. You can also tweet your opt-in offer periodically (Figure 10.3). But be sure to sprinkle these special offers in among a variety of other tweets so it doesn’t look as though you are over-promoting your products or services. Otherwise, you could lose followers and/or reduce the number of potential people if they are considering whether to follow you and your content. One way to ensure that you don’t forget to post your opt-in messages is to schedule automatic Twitter updates through SocialOomph, HootSuite, Seesmic, or other services. As noted in Chapter 6, Twitter has a built-in text messaging feature that lets users send tweets directly from certain accounts to their mobile devices, but it’s best not to rely solely on Twitter as a text messaging platform because you do not own the list of people who have agreed to communicate via mobile. mobile. At At any point, Twitter could stop sending texts or discontinue its service, and your marketing efforts would disappear just as quickly. In addition, users opt to get fewer messages on their cell phones in

Figure 10.3 This is an example of a Twitter post with a text message opt-in offer.

136 The Mobile Marketing Handbook comparison to the number of tweets. To comply with best practices, you would have to create a Twitter account just for mobile use and send tweets no more than once or twice a week.

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As with Facebook and Twitter, you can post your opt-in message as an update on LinkedIn, and then people who see your updates on LinkedIn can sign up for your mobile campaign. However, use caution. It is easy to use ping.fm or SocialOomph as a service to update your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts at once, but this functionality isn’t a viable option to use every time you update because the people who are connected with you in all platforms will receive the message on all three accounts at once. This may seem as though you are bombarding them with commercials. On the other hand, repetition is a great way to get your message across. The best bet is to use this method much in the same way as you would use salt in a recipe: A little is good and makes the dish tastier; add too much and the dish is ruined.

Using Mobile Marketing to Build Your Social Network

Mobile is an effective tool to build your social network. You can use it to bring more traffic to your Facebook Page, get Twitter followers, and Facebook Likes. It can even be used in a one-on-one interaction to create a social networking relationship. y including links to your social profiles (F By (Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn) in your mobile marketing efforts (via text messages, mobile advertising, and your our mobile website), you you can increase the number of visitors to these places (Figure 10.4). Again, it is the connection on multiple platforms that makes this kind of marketing so powerful. Mobile is one method to build and expand your Facebook and Twitter social networks. To do so, you just need to use the right call-to-action. For example, when I was at a friend’s house for our book club meeting, she was playing one of the music channels on her television for background ambiance. On the screen in the lower left was a Facebook Like bubble with the call-to-action note: “Text Like Music Choice to 32665.” Of course, since I had my phone with me, I sent a quick text message, and “liked” Music Choice in about 10 seconds. I would never have remembered to do this once I went home after the book club meeting. You can use this same mobile call-to-action on signs, radio ads, billboards, on business cards, in mobile ads, and even while giving a speech.

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Social Networking Meets Mobile

Figure 10.4 You can send a link directly to a mobile Facebook Page by using m.facebook.com and then using the Page name.

All you have to say is: “To like me on Facebook, please text the words ‘Like FacebookPageName’ to 32665.” As more people get their mobile devices connected to Facebook and start checking in on Facebook Places, this technique will become second nature to Facebook users. To suggest that people follow you on Twitter, use the words, “Text Follow TwitterID to 40404,” and this will trigger their service to follow the Twitter account they put in the message.

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Practice Using Mobile to Interact With Social

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Try this exercise on your phone. First, make sure you have activated your phone to work with Facebook. Log in to your Facebook account. Choose Settings and then the Mobile tab. To activate your phone, Facebook will send you a text message with a code that you will need to input into a box that appears in the sign-up process. The following short codes are for U.S. phones. Use the appropriate short code for your country (you will learn which one it is when you activate your phone). Text “Like MobileMarketing Handbook” (two words with a space) to 32665 to Like the Facebook Page for this book. This will automatically subscribe you to SMS updates from To stop the SMS update this account as well as Like the Page. T part of this action, just reply UNSUB, and you will still have liked the Page, but you will not receive an SMS message each time an update is made.

Mobile obile can also be used to build your social networ network in a one-to-one exchanging business car cards to keep in touch with conversation. Instead of exchanging someone, you can use your phone to invite the person to connect on LinkedIn, n, follow follow you you on Twitter, Twitter T witter, or Like you on Facebook. Now, you have witter, established a more meaningful ongoing dialogue than simply having the person’s contact information on a piece of paper. You have used mobile to expand your social network. networ

Mobile Social Networking Interwoven With Events One of my favorite ways to use mobile social networking is as an extension of a physical event, such as a conference, trade show, festival, sporting event, or other occasion where people are gathered together. Mobile social networking adds a layer of connection to the event that makes it even better for those who participate. People can meet with one another easily, share on-site news, participate in polls or voting, or just chat about the event while they are there.

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Although people at an event are already networking face-to-face, they often find social networking a welcome addition. In fact, it is precisely because they are at the same event that social networking can add to their experience. For example, people who follow each other on Twitter post updates about the event live from the audience, which is called live tweeting. It creates a connected undercurrent of conversation at the event for the people participating in social networking. By including a hashtag, such as #SXSW (the hashtag used for the SXSW Music Festival) at the end of a Twitter update, all the tweets about a particular event or topic are grouped together according to that specific hashtag. It creates a conversation among

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people inside the social network around that hashtag. It is also common now to see TV shows putting their hashtags on screen to encourage conversation while viewing. Naturally this will happen most often by those viewing the show on a mobile device.

Everyone who is interested in that topic can search for the hashtag on

Twitter or in a Twitter platform (SocialOomph, HootSuite, or Seesmic), and then read all the comments that are made to the group in one location. You by participating ticipating in event social netcan use this kind of marketing tool by

working. You will not only increase your exposure at or around the event because everyone else participating will see your brand repeatedly, but you can also invite people to attend your on-location events (trade show parties, trade show booths, lunches, and so on), and you can even extend speyou. cial offers to anyone following you.

Mobile Photo Sharing

Mobile obile can also connect users instantaneously through photos photos. Anyone with a camera phone can instantly upload and share photos. By using services such as Flickr, Photobucket, SnapMyLife, and dozens of other photo sharing sites, people can have a photo stream that is instantly shared with the world. According to TomiAhonen Consulting, the number of active users worldwide who use the camera feature on phones has now passed the 3 billion mark. Ahonen says, “So we are now at the point, where the number of people using the camera on a cameraphone, outnumbers the users of any other type of camera, digital cameras and film-based cameras—by 10 to 1.” With this kind of pervasive use, it is clear that mobile photo sharing can be a welcome component to any mobile marketing strategy.

140 The Mobile Marketing Handbook Marketing With Mobile Photo Sharing

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If you can figure out how to get your customers engaged with your brand by taking photos and sharing them, you can market with mobile photo sharing. Punch Pizza, a Minneapolis/St. Paul pizza chain, launched a photo contest because it discovered that its customers were taking photos of the restaurant and pizzas and posting them to blogs. Originally, the pizza chain prohibited photos of its wood-fired pizza ovens because it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want its proprietary oven design to be stolen by competitors. When the pizza chain realized this particular policy was producing negative feedback from customers, the chain changed its strategy and launched a photo contest on Flickr. Grand-prize winners in each category were awarded a $500 dining card to Punch Pizza; runners-up in each category received a $250 dining card. The restaurant also coordinated this photo contest with Facebook Pages to take full advantage of the social networking tools. The contest generated 286 entries with positive feedback from customers who loved the idea. In this instance, the pizzeria took the cue from its customers who were already taking photos and leveraged the action for marketing purposes. Punch Pizza started its social mobile campaign with a photo contest and has continued to use mobile and social in powerful ways. You can do the same for your business if you have have a product or service that can be photographed for people to share.

Online Resource Guide

Find ind updated content, audios audios, videos, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

Additional Reading

Shama Kabani, The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Gener Generate ate Buzz, and Increase Revenue (BenBella Books, 2010) Mitch Meyerson, Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars (Entrepreneur Press, 2010) Mari Smith, The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web (Wiley, 2011) Chris Treadaway and Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day (Sybex, 2010)

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U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 10, text MMHQUIZ10 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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11 CHAPTER

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Location-Based Marketing

Location-based marketing is quickly becoming one of the most powerful ful tools brands can use to add significant value for their consumers, become wiser about their habits, and deliver more relevant messaging. —Ian Schafer, hafer,, CEO, Deep Focus hafer

What Is Location-Based Marketing?

Location-based marketing is the process of distributing marketing content that is associated with a particular place. Sometimes it is referred to as proximity marketing. A business can access a person’s location through his or her mobile device’s built-in GPS, or determine a position by the nearest cell phone tower tower, tow er, wir er, wireless eless access point, other near-field communication technique (infrared beaming), or Bluetooth discovery. Cell phone users can also initiate the process by telling others (people, websites, apps, busiwher they are located. Based on the location of nesses, or even signs) where mobile devices, devices, marketers mar can then communicate with (aka, market to) cell phones, laptops, and other devices in a certain geographic area. The location of the mobile device figures prominently into the marketing. In fact, in 2010 ABI Research predicted location-based marketing could be worth $1.8 billion by 2015.

When to Use Location-Based Marketing as a Marketing Tool Location-based marketing is an important factor to consider in today’s world. Consumers are actively searching on their mobile devices for

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144 The Mobile Marketing Handbook location-specific information and choosing to check in on social networking sites, such as Facebook Places and foursquare; or on review sites, such as Yelp; and download location-based shopping apps, such as Shopkick. Those businesses that pay attention to what consumers are doing and interact with them where they are, physically and virtually, definitely have the edge on other companies. Keep in mind that an entire generation has grown up with the internet all their lives. They don’t remember when going online was unusual or special. To them, the internet is everywhere and connected to everything. They do not think the internet is something to be accessed only from a fixed location, either at home or in a place with Wi-Fi. Combining this inherent knowledgebase with the rise of social networking

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eates the perfect storm of location-based marketing. creates

How to Use Location-Based Marketing: Best Practices, Tips, and Techniques

As always, the bottom line for success with mobile marketing is getting permission and providing value,, and this is especially true with location-based marketing. Just because technology might allow you to send a message automatically to a nearby phone does not mean that you should do so. Even marketer’s though it seems to be a mar keter’ss dr keter’ dream, eam, proximity mobile marketing has the greatest possibility for being perceived as “creepy and invasive” by consumers if the company that makes the initial contact does not have consumer permission. permission. While consumers know know that their phones always know where they are, it can be unsettling to realize that their phones are sharing location information with outsiders who are trying to market to them. Keep this in mind as you move move ahead with proximity marketing. For these rreasons and others, location-based marketing should not be done by proactively reaching out to unsuspecting folks.

Local Mobile Search The easiest way to launch location-based marketing is to be readily available to nearby consumers when they are looking for your business or your type of business with their mobile devices. As outlined in detail in Chapter 8, a Google local business listing is the best tool when consumers search with local parameters (a ZIP code or city name). When considering location-based marketing, start there first and then move into more advanced tools.

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Check-In Tools

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An added component to social networking is a concept called “checking in,” and it involves people using a mobile device to alert their social network of their current location. (“I just arrived at Joe’s Pool Hall. Ready for the big tournament.”) This can be done through sites such as foursquare and Gowalla and distributed onto social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Check-ins may also be done directly on Facebook through its Places feature or on Twitter by turning on the device location. In addition to being a social networking feature for consumers, check-in tools can also be part of a powerful marketing strategy for businesses. When consumers check in at your place of business, you can extend a discount or special offer to them (Figure 11.1). This can be a way to reward loyal customers as well as a promotional tool to attract new customers. Let’s say someone checks in on foursquare at the nearby computer store. You could have an ad on the foursquare site that says, “Come down the block to ant. Get a free dessert with your meal.” The ad would be disour restaurant. played after the person checks in within a certain distance of your store. For loyal customers, you can have a reward, such as a free beverage with a meal, after the 10th check in. To make the most of check-in tools, be sure your business is accurately and completely listed on the most popular sites including foursquare, walla, Loopt, and Facebook Places. Include whatever details the site Gowalla, ws because this will make your listing unique and robust. D allows Determine what promotions you might be able to offer and experiment with a few. You won’t know what works until you give it a try.

Check In on Foursquare

If you are not yet registered with foursquare, go online to www.foursquare.com using either your desktop computer or your mobile device and register. Then check in somewhere, even if you are at home. Unless you live in a very remote area, there will likely be offers from nearby businesses. Even if you don’t plan on becoming a regular foursquare user, check in as much as you can during a week. You will see lots of ideas for promotions and get a sense of what information is good to have on a business listing page.

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146 The Mobile Marketing Handbook

Figure 11.1 Foursquare check in with special nearby

Location-Based Shopping Apps

Unlike the check-in features associated with social networking that are designed to broadcast your location to your social network, a locationbased shopping app such as Shopkick is a private communication between you and a retail store. By downloading the Shopkick app to your smartphone and then having it running when you go into a store or a mall, your phone will alert the stores when you walk in and will then give you offers, reward points (called kickbucks), and special discounts. The check in is not done for social purposes; it is done for shopping purposes with 100 percent explicit permission needed from the consumer.

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This marketing is powerful. In fact, Ad Age referred to it in an article titled “Planning Your Next Move in Ad Land” on January 4, 2010: “One in five shoppers—and four in 10 of those ages 18 to 29—said they planned to use their cell phones to shop over the holidays, according to an annual survey by Deloitte. Of those, 45% said they would be researching prices, 32% said they would be looking for coupons, 31% said they’d be reading reviews, and 25% planned to make purchases. It’s clear that retailers who don’t embrace mobile phone technology in the coming year will be left behind, much as those retailers who sat on the sidelines during the early days of digital or social media are now playing catchup.”

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Interactive Signage

One ne useful tool in a location-based marketing campaign is interactive signage. Essentially, this is a sign that becomes interactive when people nearby send a text message to a short code noted on the sign, begin to browse on the mobile web because there is a mobile URL on the sign, take a picture of a 2D bar code, or turn on their Bluetooth-enabled device to accept a message. An excellent example of interactive signage is the Clear Channel Spectacolor HD digital billboard in Duffy Square in New York City. This sign features es audio (people can listen to broadcasts from the billboard on their mobile phones), SMS messaging (people can send a text message to and play games with the billboard), Bluetooth (audio and/or video can be downloaded wnloaded from the billboard), Wi-Fi (the area has a free Wi-Fi hotspot), and streaming content (CNN provides current news, weather, and sports). You can see a demo of the sign at www.spectacolorhd.com. Businesses Businesses with high foot traffic and a number of television screens (sports (spor ts bars, bars, bo bowling wling alleys alleys, nightclubs, and hotels) can use a digital television advertising service such as bizM3’s Hoast2Coast Network that creates a banner ad across the bottom of the screen. The banner displays informabusiness, new menu items, promotional specials, upcomtion about your business ing events, and often a mobile marketing call-to-action. It is a great way to build your opt-in list by posting your SMS opt-in message. Interactive signs don’t have to be giant digital billboards, either. They can be as simple as a flyer posted with a text message call-to-action or a For Sale sign on a home with a floor plan and pricing information via mobile available upon request. An interactive sign might be a table topper at a restaurant that has a voting campaign announcement or a stand-alone sign at a mall that provides alerts to people when they are in a mobile zone to offer the information they need to participate. The important component of an interactive sign is that it allows people to do more than just view the message,

148 The Mobile Marketing Handbook possibly soak it in, and then move on. The interactive part is what makes the sign a direct response tool. The art of creating interactive signs is an art that you will want to master. When creating an interactive sign, keep some of the following key principles in mind: • Make your call-to-action obvious and exciting. Show the value that the respondent will receive (Figure 11.2). • Be clear about what exactly the users will receive on their mobile devices or expect via the interaction. It might be helpful to put the exact message that they will receive on the sign itself.

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• Include some graphic element to indicate that you are asking them to perform a mobile response. Until mobile response is a common occurrence, you may have to introduce people to the concept about the importance of interacting via mobile. • Be sure to spell out any costs associated with their responses.

Figure 11.2 This image of a TV screen using the Hoast2Coast Network demonstrates digital signage and text messaging working together.

Augmented Reality When mobile social networking is mashed up with location-based marketing, it offers consumers a chance to leave virtual mobile sticky notes at

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practically any location for augmented reality apps. Here’s how it works. Suppose Susie has lunch at a new Thai restaurant in her neighborhood. She likes it, and while she’s waiting for the waiter to bring her check, she uses her mobile phone to check in on Facebook Places, tweet about it with her location-enabled device, or write a mobile review on Yelp. A few weeks later, Tom, who lives in her neighborhood, is going to lunch. He pulls into a parking lot and sees several options where he could dine, so he opens up the augmented reality app on his smartphone and uses it as a viewing device to scan the area. Because his phone knows where he is, it shows Susie’s review as a virtual post-it note overlaid onto the real picture as if it was just waiting for him. The mobile sticky note is a phenomenon that may catch on with many people. It just depends on how practical and easy it is to use. Your role as a business owner is to have such remarkable services or products that your customers will want to leave virtual sticky notes about your business. You can also remind them to do so with strategically placed signs along the way. ou can use mobile sticky notes in your marketing by by putting up a sign You in your establishment that shows your positive mobile reviews. This can encourage more people to add reviews via mobile, which will show up as augmented reality comments in the future.

Your Car as a Mobile Device

Car manufacturers including Ford, GM, and independent companies are offering technology packages that are essentially turning cars into mobile devices. These high-tech add-on packages do so much more than simply route your cell phone through your car’s speakers for hands-free calling. The Ford SYNC and GM’ GM’s On-Star packages let users update Facebook Pages, have text messages read to them, and respond to them via voice as well. Drivers can perform a search for a business and have turn-by-turn directions given to them from start to finish. This will become the perfect location-based marketing opportunity to deliver mobile coupons. As people drive around, they can interact with the internet. Cars are the new mobile device.

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Bluetooth Marketing Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology that essentially sets up a small wireless network between multiple devices, is one of the most exciting and controversial mobile marketing tools available. It is exciting because it offers the ability for multimedia files (ringtones, MP3s, graphics such as coupons or wallpapers, jpgs, gifs, and others) to be distributed to mobile devices quickly and without cost to transfer the files to either the business or the mobile user. This gives businesses and consumers what they want: a rich multimedia experience that doesn’t cost anything to accomplish. It is also exciting because the marketing campaign is location-specific, making

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it a unique mobile experience. However, it is controversial at the same time because the technology can

be implemented by making an unsolicited initial outreach to a mobile device. Here’s how it works: Businesses using a Bluetooth marketing system can automatically send messages to any mobile device within a certain distance (usually about 30 feet) with an active Bluetooth. This initial message will ask consumers (Yes or No) whether they want to accept a Bluetooth download. Proponents of Bluetooth marketing, especially those selling the luetooth marketing systems, systems, believ believe e that this first message is asking perBluetooth mission to send a multimedia Bluetooth message as par part of a permissionbased campaign.

But many others do not agree, including the Mobile Marketing

Association and myself. This unexpected first message is what gives luetooth marketing the potential to be a sleazy marketing technique if not Bluetooth used properly. If you think I’m exaggerating, just read these snippets from sales copy (which have been changed to shield the identity of the companies that produced them but not enough to change their meanings) from ebsites selling Bluetooth marketing softwar websites software: “The system can be used covertly by undercover personnel in situations where handing out written ials would either not be proper or permitted.” According to another, materials “Our software turns any computer into an advertising server that sends out your message 24 hours a day to unsuspecting cell phone users who come within 300 feet of your computer.” Eye opening, isn’t it? Not only is this kind of aggressive marketing ineffective, but it leaves a bad taste in consumers’ mouths for interacting with businesses via mobile. For both of those reasons, I do not advise using this marketing approach. The good news is that Bluetooth marketing can be handled with a more consumer-friendly approach, and this permission-focused method offers some tremendous opportunities for value-based campaigns.

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Establishing Mobile Zones An effective use of Bluetooth in marketing is to build your campaign as a true opt-in version. You can do this by reducing the minimum range needed for mobile devices to receive a message (maybe a few feet), and then marketing effectively so people choose to participate and receive a Bluetooth message. This established Bluetooth Zone would make people aware that by entering this zone, they will receive a message if their Bluetooth device is on and discoverable. Consumers will welcome this permission-based concept. Of course, you will have to provide adequate value to them so they will want to interact with

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your campaign. You can offer a variety of things: coupons, audio files, screensavers, videos, games, business cards, ringtones, or pictures. Just remember emember the six things your customer wants from you via mobile: locationspecific information, timely knowledge, things that make life easier, financial reward, entertainment, and connection.

Mobile Zone Ideas

Here are some ideas for Bluetooth Mobile Zones that work well in a commission-based scenario. I am noting this again because some v venplete permission-based

Bluetooth technology for marketing maintain that customers dors using Bluetooth don’t mind getting that initial message as a surprise. I disagree and suggest that businesses should only issue a special offer via Bluetooth when the person who will get the offer is expecting it and has explicitly asked to receive it.

• Concert-goers can get a picture of the performer they came to see, a teaser audio from an upcoming release, and a discount

coupon for the new CD. This Bluetooth Zone can be set up on the way into the concert, and fans could grab content on the way only if they approached the signs/kiosk to do so.

• At a trade show, a business can offer a video that demonstrates its product or service, a virtual business card, a brochure, or an audio message. Anyone who steps into the booth space can receive the initial message with the offer. • Games, videos, or audios can be distributed in waiting rooms or amusement parks with long lines. Screensavers from the rides can also be offered, along with coupons for snacks or other items.

152 The Mobile Marketing Handbook • Sporting event attendees can have the option of buying screensavers of the most famous players or the team logo and a coupon for buying a souvenir before they leave the venue. • Museums can offer interactive information to accompany exhibits, including videos that give additional background on a particular exhibit, a game that makes the exhibit more interesting for kids, or even an audio-guided tour that includes a gift shop coupon when they finish the tour.

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• Tourist towns can offer a Bluetooth Zone at the visitors’ center. Signs can be placed in businesses all over town reminding visitors to get their Bluetooth Guide to the City at the visitors’ center. Coupons, audio tours, videos, scavenger hunts, and event calendars can also be offered at the center’s Bluetooth Zone. luetooth Zone positioned at key • A shopping center can have a Bluetooth places including the food court, each of the entr entrances, and the kids’ play zones. Merchants at the mall can offer a variety of coupons, events can be promoted, and even special guides can be provided for mall walkers.

Obviously, there is a huge difference in businesses that randomly reach out to anyone with a phone nearby and those that offer people in close proximity a chance to participate in something they find attractive. The same, but the initial approach that offer to consumers may be exactly the same, proactively pushes it on them or attractively pulls them in is different. The results will be dramatically different for both campaigns and for mobile keting in general. Consumers may be annoyed with any tactics that marketing push Bluetooth marketing, and they may not want to participate in anything via mobile. This is much the same as how fast consumers learned to give out temporary, fake, or not-often-checked email addresses to avoid marketers They will also quickly learn to leave their marketers aggressive email marketers. luetooth turned off or at least make their devices undiscoverable. So stick Bluetooth with mobile zones that entice people into participating for your sake as well as that of the entire mobile marketing industry.

Geo-Fencing Another location-based marketing tool is geo-fencing, an SMS powered way to connect with customers when they are in a specific location. It works using cell phone tower triangulation to determine the location of the phone, and text messages are sent when a phone is within the boundaries

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of a predetermined geographic area (that’s where the term geo-fence comes from). Before this all starts to sound like the worst possible case of text message spam, let me assure you that messages will only send to phones that have previously opted-in for this geo-fenced text message campaign. Naturally, the same STOP command functionality would allow subscribers to opt out at any time as well. An example of geo-fencing in use would be a shopping mall or downtown area that has marketed a mobile campaign encouraging shoppers to enroll in their “On-Site Mobile Coupons” or “Downtown Info Alerts” programs. The marketing material for these campaigns would need to clearly state that opting in would result in users receiving messages every time they came to the mall or entered the downtown area. Whenever a user’s phone crossed into the geo-fence area, a text message would be sent with updated information, special offers, or other alerts. This location-specific contact means that information would reach customers when they are physically close enough to take action on the announcement. IIt is entirely different than receiving a coupon in the mail and needing to remember to take it with you to the shopping center. The coupon or special offer arrives on your mobile device when you need it. As you might expect, geo-fencing text message campaigns cost more for the businesses than regular text message campaigns. However, for the consumer, they function and cost exactly the same as a regular text message. nlike apps that requir rrequire equire equir e smar smartphones tphones to function, geo-fencing works on all Unlike cell phones that enable text messaging. Unlike Bluetooth marketing that requires phones to have their Bluetooth set to “On and Discoverable,” geofencing just works automatically for consumers consumers. To learn about vendors R that offer geo-fencing, check the Online Resource Guide.

Online Resource Guide

Find ind updated content, audios audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 11, text MMHQUIZ11 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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More Mobile Methods

Mobile is one of the greatest technological and cultural transformations in history. It has revolutionized communication as we know it, and will have equal impact on how and when we gather and send information. —Brian Fling, flingmedia.com

Trying to decide on the definitive tools and techniques of mobile marketing is a little bit like trying to get a 2-year-old to sit still. M Mobile changes actically every day as more people buy phones and developers create practically new tools. Businesses think of new ways to market with mobile, and consumers rely more heavily on mobile to do more in their daily lives. This chapter is a compilation of some important topics that need coverage in this guide, but don’t need their own chapters.

Mobile Email

Many any people regularly check email on their mobile devices. Is your outgoing email easy to read on a mobile device? Chilling question, isn’t it? In the early days of email, everybody sent and received text-based emails. Then came HTML emails. Gradually, as more software started to read HTMLdesigned email effectively, more businesses started sending out complex, graphic-filled emails with multiple columns. Now that so many people are checking email on their mobile devices (where multiple graphics might not even allow the email to open or may render it just plain useless), it’s time to think about offering an easier way to read mobile email. Just as there are dozens of mobile web browsers, there are also dozens of email clients that operate on thousands of mobile devices. There is not one solution for all phones. One way to ensure that your emails are readable on

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mobile is to send text-only emails. This means that your desktop readers will lose the benefit of more graphically pleasing emails, but at least those who happen to catch the email while they are mobile will be able to open it. This option works on virtually any phone since it is plain text. Another alternative is to create two separate emails. In one, you can use all the graphics and columns that you want for your desktop readers. Inside that email, you can add a link to a mobile-friendly email that is simply a mobile webpage with the email on it. The mobile version of the email needs to have less content and fewer graphics (no bigger than 20K combined) as recommend by WC3 (World Wide Web Consortium; www.wc3.org). This gives mobile email readers with a mobile data plan an easy way to click ough to see the mobile version, but it still gives desktop readers a robust through version of the email. In this approach, you still have to create two separate emails, and if your readers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have an unlimited mobile data plan, it will not be a great solution for them since they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to pay data connection fees to read your email. I have chosen the approach of covering mobile first. In this strategy, an email template is used that is purposely created for mobile devices. There is just one email, and it is created in such a way that it works for mobile consumption both in content and deliverability. Desktop readers get the same version, which is a narrow, single-column email with a few small graphics. The email is short and easy to read. In todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s busy world where people are dealing with email overload, thinking about mobile first appeals to desktop readers as well.

Receive a Mobile-Friendly Email

To see a live example of my mobile first email design, sign up for my newsletter newsletter, Mobile Marketing News Brief. You will get a welcome message that shows my email template. Be sure to look at the same email on your desktop browser. Sign up here at this mobile-friendly website at www.mobilemarketingprofits.com/info/newsletter-sign-up.

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Mobile Commerce

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Since the purpose of marketing is to generate sales, it is important to discuss mobile commerce (the ability to buy something using a mobile device) in the context of this book. According to Experian Simmons’ “2011 Mobile Consumer Report,” more than 33.3 million U.S. consumers already engage in shopping-related activities on their mobile phones and 7 percent, or 2.3 million, of those consumers have made a purchase on their devices. Compared to the 72.6 percent of internet users who have bought something online (as released by eMarketer in July 2011), it is clear that mobile commerce ce has a long way to go before it is widely adopted by the general public. That said, the easier it is for consumers to make a purchase using mobile, the more likely they are to do it. And it can certainly be worth the effort. As reported in Mobile Commerce Daily on June 13, 2011, “Electronics retailer etailer Crutchfield saw a 33.7 percent jump in conversion rates when it offered consumers PayPal as a method of payment on its mobile site versus not offering it.” Mobile payments can be made within a mobile app, on a mobile website, in-store purchase. You will need a or using a mobile device to facilitate an in-store mobile merchant account (the way to accept payments) and a mobile shopping cart (the way to gather contact information and coordinate delivery of the products purchased). Here are some tips for accepting mobile payments for your business: • First, test your existing shopping car cart and merchant account set up on several different mobile devices. It may work well, or you may find out that it is impossible to make a purchase on y your mobile site. Even if it works well, you may want to try other mobile payment options to see if it increases your mobile income. • Explore options, which include PayPal, Explore your your mobile payment options Amazon Mobile Payments, Google Checkout, and many other companies that are getting into the mobile payment space. (Check the Online Resource Guide for a list of mobile payment options.) It is worthwhile noting that one of the reasons that people do not make mobile purchases yet is that it doesn’t feel safe to them. Using a payment solution from a company they already trust may help them to feel safer when making a mobile purchase. • For in-store mobile payments, you can use a service that allows you to process payments using your mobile phone as a credit

158 The Mobile Marketing Handbook card swipe machine (such as Square), or you can set up near field communication (NFC) to accept payment via customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mobile phones when they pass it in front of your NFC terminal at check out. Typically, the swiping technology is designed for small business, and implementing NFC technology takes the budget and IT department of a large corporation. The Online Resource Guide has a vendor list for both of these payment processing choices. â&#x20AC;˘ In all instances, when offering a mobile payment option, you want your customers to feel like making a mobile purchase is safe. To accomplish this, be sure to have any possible trust factors

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in place, such as graphics designed by your mobile commerce merchant that uses its logo or third-party vendors that verify authenticity.

Mobile Bar Codes (QR Codes)

Another mobile marketing tool is the mobile bar code (often referred to as a 2D bar code), which is a 2D bar code that mobile phone users can photograph or scan with their mobile phone cameras. Bar code reader software that is installed on their phones automatically perfor performs per for an action that is embedded in the code. For example, it could turn on their mobile browsers and go to a specific mobile website, send a text message to the phone that scanned the code, or even add contact information into the address book of their phones. Basically, this is a form of shorthand for digital devices to read that saves consumers time inputting information into their phones. It is a life. It is most mobile call-to-action that brings other marketing media to life commonly used with print advertising.

There is not just one type of mobile bar code code. There are dozens of types

that are used, and each type of code generator has to have a code reader. Some of the more commonly used are QR codes, Data Matrix, and Microsoft Tag. Mobile bar codes have been widely used in Japan for years and have found their way into use in North America as well. The main reason QR codes (a specific type of mobile bar code) have widespread adoption in Japan is that bar code readers are included with all mobile phones as standard software. Therefore, when businesses started to use them, virtually every consumer already had the proper software on their devices so they could interact with the bar code.

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Try a QR Code

Use the QR code reader on your phone to photograph this QR code. It will take you to the website for this book. If you need a QR reader, go to tinyurl.com/barcodereader to download one for your phone. Notice that if you did not have a QR reader on your phone already, it takes more time to use the bar code than to simply type in www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com on your mobile browser. This is why I believe mobile bar codes will not catch on fully until bar code reader software is universally included with phones.

In North Nor orth th America, we we are are still deciding which code will be the predomiIn nant one. Since handset makers hav have just recently started embedding bar code software into phones, it is up to the consumer to download the software they want to use. Ironically, consumers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know that they even need the software until they see a mobile bar code they want to scan. This means that businesses will be marketing with mobile bar codes that will drive consumer adoption of bar code reading software, and this will determine the dominant code. It is unlikely that consumers will want to download multiple bar code readers. Since they are becoming the most commonly used mobile bar code, QR codes will probably become the dominant type of mobile bar code in North America. To create a code and allow consumers to take action with it, you will need to use a bar code generator such as the one at www.mobile-barcodes. com. While there are a number of actions you can embed in the code, I suggest using something that adds value to the user experience. For example, a

160 The Mobile Marketing Handbook code that sends people to a robust mobile landing page is good because it saves the consumer time typing in the URL. In contrast, using a QR code to call a phone number is an overuse of technology. It would be simpler to post the phone number and let people call the number directly.

2D Bar Code Best Practices The following 12 best practices were written by and printed with permission from Roger Marquis, founder of 2D-BarcodeStrategy.com. 1. Overall Design: When designing an advertisement that features a thought. Instead, the 2D barcode the code should not be an afterthought.

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barcode itself should be given as much consideration and

attention as other elements of the ad’s overall design (e.g., type

face, image placement, headline copy, etc.). Also, if the barcode

., what the code links to) is to be considered the and its resolve (i.e., ’s call-to-action, which it often is, then all the more reason that ad’s

the code should be worked into the overall design of the ad early in the creative design and strategic planning process.

2. Placement: The 2D barcode should be placed in an area of prominence on the page v ersus other images or cop versus copy. For

instance, the code should not be placed near the spine of a

magazine, because that could make it difficult for a person to magazine,

scan the code let alone see the code code.. Also Also, it is important to

ensure that there is enough clear or white space around the code, so that the code can be scanned and read properly. Typically this space should be two modules in width.

3. Size: 2D barcodes should be a minimum of 0.75 0.75” x 0.75” in size to ensure that they can be scanned with a high degree of accur accuracy

and success. Note, Note, how however, that each type of 2D code (i.e.,

ScanLife EZcode EZcode, Microsoft Tag, JAGTAG, BeeTag, QR code, Data Matrix code, etc.) has its own set of parameters and these should be considered when sizing a code. 4. Short URLs: Using short URLs will make for a simpler code, which then, in turn, improves scanning efficiency. 5. Descriptive Copy: Because 2D barcodes are still new to U.S. consumers, companies should seriously consider placing descriptive copy next to the code, which will help consumers learn about the codes and know how to scan them. Included in

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this descriptive copy should be information on how and where to download a reader app.

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6. Branded Code: A branded or customized 2D barcode is one that incorporates a corporate logo, corporate colors, or any other image or wording right into the code itself. While this may look interesting and tie into a company’s overall branding it can also make the code that much more difficult to scan and be read correctly. If a code is to be branded with a logo then the code should be scanned and tested for readability. Also, when taken out of context (i.e., standing alone), the brand being placed on the code should be recognizable and of meaning to the target audience. 7. Inventory Management: As 2D barcode-based campaigns are inventory system in e some sort sort of inventory created, it is helpful to have place to manage all of the codes that could be generated and used from one campaign to the next. In developing an inventory system it also helps to set up different categories that the codes can be sorted by.

important and useful as it is to track an email 8. Metrics: As important campaign, direct mail campaign, ad click-thru rrates, etc., so too should a 2D barcode campaign be tracked, measured, and analyzed to determine success rates and return on investment. analyzed Typical metrics are number of scans, date and time of the scan, wher the scan took place. type of mobile device used to scan, and where

To ensure ensure the greatest degree of success, 2D barcodes Testing: To 9. Testing: v should be tested using a variety of scanning software (i.e., reader operating systems and mobile devices before going live. apps), operating

Pages: Any and all pages that are ar linked to a 2D barcode 10. Mobile Pages: should be optimized for mobile viewing.

11. Environment: onment Consideration should be given to the environment in which a 2D barcode may be displayed. For example, if a barcode was to be displayed in a retail store’s front window, the glare from the window’s reflection might impede a person’s ability to scan the code properly. Also, if a barcode was to be left outside in the elements, faded or washed out codes might not scan correctly, so proper protection should be used to house the barcode (e.g., a piece of laminate). Codes on fast moving objects also won’t work well, in addition to codes that are positioned on sharp angles or curves.

162 The Mobile Marketing Handbook 12. Call to Action and Offer: 2D barcodes are merely a gateway to move consumers from the printed or physical world into the digital world; they themselves should not be viewed as the call to action or offer of an advertisement or campaign. Instead, the real call to action or offer is the item that the code resolves to (e.g., an exclusive video, a contest, a purchase coupon, etc.).

Image Recognition Marketing

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Similar to bar code marketing, image recognition marketing requires a cell phone user to take a picture of an image (a printed ad in a magazine or newspaper, a book cover, or a CD case). However, the similarity ends there. Instead of processing the image through software that has been put on the phone, the user sends the image via email or short code to a visual image recognition company such as SnapTag or JAGTAG. The information regarding the image is instantly sent back to the phone. phone.

Mobile Video

Video ideo has huge potential as a mobile marketing tool. According to data released in March ch 2011 from the Nielsen Company, about 24.7 million U.S. mobile subscribers age 13 and up watched video on a mobile phone in 2010. This is just about a 40 percent year-over-year growth from 2009 mobile video users. Mobile video can be incorporated into mobile marketing campaigns in the following ways: • An SMS (short message service) campaign by including a link to a mobile video posted on a mobile-optimized website or YouTube that has a powerful mobile interface • As a part of an MMS (multimedia messaging service) campaign where the video is the multimedia component

• By posting a video to YouTube since its powerful mobile interface can bring viewers to your video in the same way the desktop version does

Mobile for Nonprofits Nonprofits can and should use all the same mobile marketing tools that commercial businesses do. Nonprofits can also use text-to-donate. The most famous example of this is the 2010 mGive/American Red Cross “Text HAITI to 90999” campaign that raised $37 million to aid the people of Haiti

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after the devastating earthquake in 2010. Powered by a text messaging company that works in conjunction with the carriers, the text-to-donate feature is uniquely available to verified nonprofits. Donors can text a short code to donate to charity, and it is paid through their cell phone bill. See the Online Resource Guide for companies that facilitate the text-to-donate process.

Mobile Marketing Awards

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When you create your amazing mobile marketing campaign and get the results you expected, submit your campaign for a mobile marketing award. There are dozens of awards and new ones coming all the time. Check the Online Resource Guide for a list of mobile marketing awards and the criteria to enter.

Online Resource Guide

Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 12, text MMHQUIZ12 To You will receive the first question and the to 21970. Y choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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3 PART

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Marketing and Tracking Mobile Campaigns

Mobile marketing does not work well in a vacuum; you must integrate it into other marketing strategies so it can be fully implemented. Chapter 13, “Marketing Your Mobile Campaign,” describes the ways you can market your mobile campaigns and integrate mobile into your marketing with examples and techniques that you can tr try on your own. Don’t underestimate the impact of marketing your mobile campaigns from the results you get. Without proper marketing, mobile campaigns will fail. The most important part of marketing mobile campaigns is making sure consumers know what’s in it for them. The relevant value to them must be obvious. One of the best practices in any type of marketing initiative is tracking your results to see what is working and what isn’t. Fortunately in mobile marketing, there are plenty of activities you can track while proving the ROI of an effective mobile marketing campaign. In Chapter 14, “Tracking Your Mobile Campaign,” you will find various results that you can track in your mobile campaigns such as mobile website visitors, clicks on mobile ads,

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and opt-in and opt-out rates on SMS lists. Fortunately, one of the easiest things to track is mobile coupon redemption rates. Knowing how many mobile coupons were redeemed will definitively prove your ROI from mobile marketing. Marketing and tracking are the beginning and the end of the campaign. Marketing leads consumers into it and tracking analyzes what results come out of it. Remember to close the loop and use the tracking results to change your campaign for the better. If there arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough people participating in the campaign, then it is the marketing that needs to be adjusted. If plenty of people participate, but the end result isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t what you want, then you need to adjust the campaign itself.

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Marketing Your Mobile Campaign The interactivity of the mobile phone will make legacy media come alive. TV, radio, print and billboards can all be made interactive with mobile, bringing out new forms of advertising even in old media. Mobile will be woven into the center of most campaigns and no longer isolated to tiny mobile-specific islands. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Chetan Sharma, Mobile Advertising

Why You Need to Market Your Mobile Campaign

Even though mobile is a powerful media tool, it does not work well in a vacuum. After you have have built your mobile presence or created a mobile marketing campaign, you you will have have to raise awareness about your campaign if it is to succeed. Use other marketing tools to dr drive consumer participation in mobile campaigns. campaigns. It It is only through aggressive marketing integration that mobile is effective effective as a marketing tool. As an example, businesses cannot just start start sending text messages to a list of cell phones; a text message campaign takes some outreach, such as signs, advertisements, website optin boxes, and email announcements to get customers to participate. A mobile website requires traffic-generating work, including search engine optimization (SEO), mobile advertising, publicity, and putting your mobile site on your printed marketing materials to attract visitors. It obviously requires other marketing efforts to help your customers discover your mobile campaigns. In case you think of marketing your mobile campaign as an afterthought, think about this version of the 80/20 principle. Lining up the technology behind your mobile marketing campaign is 20 percent of your work; the remaining 80 percent is all about planning and marketing the campaign. It

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is ironic that the success of a mobile marketing campaign depends on its marketing; however, it is easier to understand the concept when you consider that adding a mobile component to other marketing actually improves that marketing. For example, a billboard embedded with a mobile coupon generates immediately trackable sales instead of just drive-by brand awareness. It is synergy at its best. The combined effort of mobile added to your original marketing is stronger than it would be alone. You may find that your marketing becomes so entangled that you don’t know if you are marketing your mobile campaign or using mobile as a direct response tool to enhance your other marketing. Either way is fine. In many ways, mobile is the key that unlocks each of the other media’s true potential. A marketing campaign that customers can immediately interact with and that is in a multitude of environments is one that can be truly successful. That is what mobile brings to the table in a big way. Incorporating a mobile response mechanism in your other marketing can help make all your other efforts more effective because your customers make them immediately actionable. One example of this is a bus stop bench ad for a real estate agent. Without a mobile component, these bench ads are brand-awareness tools. The agent is hoping that people who see the name in the ad will recognize the name in the future when they need to buy or sell a house. If the ad included a text message campaign such as “Text LISTINGS to 12345 to find out what houses are for sale in the area,” the bus bench ad has now become an interactive resource for home buyers. It has also become a better-bang-for-the-buck marketing tool for the real estate agent. By analyzing the response rates for a series of ads, you can determine which ones bring in the most and the best leads. By tracking the responses, it makes the bus bench ads a valuable business analysis tool as well.

Integrating Mobile Into All Other Marketing

When you launch a mobile marketing campaign, launch it with gusto gusto. Inform nform your customers about it in all of your current marketing methods. Make sure your salespeople know about it and tell their customers. Add it to all of your other marketing: ads, radio spots, email campaigns, in-store signage, billboards, flyers, company newsletter, social networking, publicity campaigns, and main website. It should be impossible for anyone who sees your marketing or interacts with your business in any way to miss the launch of your mobile marketing campaign. If you have created your mobile campaign correctly, it will provide value to your customers; they will want to know about it. The following are some ways you can market your mobile campaign.

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Papa John’s Excellent Adventure in Mobile Marketing

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Throughout this chapter, I’ll be using a Papa John’s Pizza mobile marketing campaign as a working example. The campaign being referenced is the launch of Papa John’s campaign to order pizza via text message. This initiative, which was announced in November 2007, is a well-integrated mobile marketing campaign and makes for a high-quality example even today because they used solid marketing principles that stand up over time. Because I am a Papa John’s customer, I personally received some of the marketing messages. But that is not the sole reason I am aware of this campaign; I also saw the extensive media coverage and blogs about it. Papa John’s Pizza called upon Fleishman-Hillard, its branding and public relations agency, to devise a strategy that gives us an excellent example of how to market a mobile marketing initiative.

Online Marketing

There are many ways to market your mobile campaign online online, including promoting your mobile campaign on your company website, integrating opt-in prompts in your social media efforts, leveraging the power of bloggers to get the word out, and launching an online advertising campaign about it.

Integration With Your Company W Website

How many visitors come to your website? Every one of them should see an opportunity tunity to participate in your mobile marketing campaign. This is a nobrainer when it comes to integration strategy. Not only can website exposure lead people into your mobile campaign, but it can also help them participate when they see it somewhere else. People are used to a website being a repository for all things related to a particular company. If they need to know more about what you are doing with mobile, they will go to your website. This is the perfect spot to post ways to participate in your mobile campaign. Offer your website visitors the choice of opting in to your text message campaign from your website. They don’t have to do it just from their cell

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phones. This keeps them interacting with you where they are most comfortable. It also leads visitors to interacting with you from one form of communication channel into another. You can do this by getting the widget from your text message vendor, or your agency can do it for you. Be sure to include specific instructions about how to participate with your mobile campaign. Remember: Your audience may need help and guidance, especially if you are trying to reach beyond the under-30 market. Having a send-to-mobile option on your website is one way to connect people to you in their mobile world. This technology will send a text message to their phones with either what they want or a link to it. The option is convenient for the customers, makes the search easy for them, and eliminates the chance they will forget about your campaign once they log off your our website. After all, the message will be waiting for them on their phones. Customers already use this on sites such as Myxer.com, MapQuest, VH1.com, and Weather.com. Consumers will soon begin to look for it everywhere. Start by putting a mobile option on your maps/directions page, contact page, or anything that people are from are likely to want sent to their mobile fr your site. This can be as simple as having a short message service (SMS) auto-responder message set up to send basic information such as hours, major cross streets, and a click-to-call phone number. (Learn more about how to set up SMS auto-responders in Chapter 6.)

Leveraging the Power of Bloggers

Blog readers and bloggers are typically tech-savvy folks, and because of that, they are also likely to participate in mobile campaigns. In addition to getting consumers to participate in your campaign, blogging can help you garner offline media exposure. The Papa Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign included a blogger outreach component that helped the company get coverage in two national magazines. magazines. Blogs Blogs first featured the news about its new text-toorder pizza capability. Writers from national magazines read the story in the blogs and then covered the story in their publications. So if you already have a company blog, be sure to post entries about your new campaign. If you are not blogging yet (yes, even if you are from a big corporation), you need to start. It is an extremely powerful marketing tool online. In addition to announcing your campaign on your own blog, share the news of your campaign with other bloggers who cover your topic or who share the same audience. You can do this by contacting bloggers with whom you have already established a relationship through commenting on their

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blogs, linking to their blog in posts on your blog, or in some other way. A blog announcement campaign can do wonders for your marketing, but you must approach bloggers in a way that works for them. A mass email to a list of bloggers won’t work. They need to be contacted individually and personally for your outreach to have any effect.

Advertising Online

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Advertising on websites and blogs for your mobile campaign is also a good way to get the word out. You can either contact bloggers directly about placing an ad on their sites, or you can work through a blog ad network. If a blog is a good match for your audience (for example, if your campaign will appeal to busy moms, then use a mom-oriented blog) and the blog already has ads on it, look for an Advertise Here link or page. If you want to go through an ad network, you can use the network’s services to place ads for you on the blogs that they represent. You’ll work directly with them, and they will coordinate with the blogs handling ad placement and payment. Some reputable blog ad ated Media Publishing, Blogads, and Chitika. networks include Federated You can also launch a pay-per-click ad campaign (Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Engine Marketing, or MSN’s Microsoft adCenter) to promote your mobile offering. This internet pay-per-click campaign is designed to drive traffic to your desktop website. From your full-size site, you can encourage participation in your mobile campaign. If you do this, make sure ou create a special landing page (a webpage specifically designed to be the you first page visitors see when they click on an ad) that is focused on y your mobile campaign. If you promote the mobile campaign in a pay-per-click ad, the visitor should be directed to it from the first click without having to search around your site for it (Figure 13.1).

Online V Video ideo

Marketing arketing with YouTube and other online video sites is an art in itself, but it is a powerful one. It works well to create videos that tie in to your mobile marketing campaign and promote them. As a part of its text message campaign launch, Papa John’s created a text messaging versus ordering by phone showdown at the Mall of America on November 19, 2007. Fran Capo, the world’s fastest talker, competed against Morgan Pozgar, the LG National Texting Champion, to see who could order a pizza faster. Capo called her order in; Pozgar sent in her order via text message. They posted the video of this on YouTube; in the video, you can see that people were signing up on the spot for the online registration for text message ordering.

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Figure 13.1 This Holiday Inn advertisement (the banner ad on the right) on the Daily News mobile page is a smart smart way to market a mobile campaign.

If you ou have have a new mobile marketing campaign and want to sho show your customers how it works, you can create a video, post it on YouTube, and send the link to your customers via email. Ask your audience to go to YouTube and search “name of video” to find help for getting through the procedure. You’ll also probably get more folks finding you this way.

Another critical step is to announce your mobile campaign to your email list. If you have an email list for your regular communications, send out a few email alerts to let them know about your mobile marketing campaign. Papa John’s did it. A few hours after Papa John’s posted the media release, I received an email announcing a new way to order pizza. Here was the subject line: Order your Pizza with a Text Message! New from Papa John’s. It makes sense to tell people who already communicate with you about a new way to work with your company. You should keep reminding people in subsequent emails, too. Not every email is opened, so you shouldn’t assume that announcing it one time has saturated your email readers. In

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fact, you are likely to see your response increase the more often you include information about your mobile campaign in your email newsletters, customer service communications, announcements, and other messages. But donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overdo it; after the initial big announcement, include the news of your mobile offering in all emails according to your usual email publication schedule. Also be sure to include your mobile campaign in your email signature as well (Figure 13.2). That way, everyone you email during your daily activity will be alerted to your mobile campaign.

Signage

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Signage (billboards, posters, banners, counter displays, window decals, or signs inside your place of business) can drive a tremendous mobile response. Marketing your mobile campaign efforts with signs engages members of your audience when they are actually mobile. The flip side is that mobile brings signs to life; signs embedded with a mobile call-toaction become direct response marketing (Figure 13.3).

Figure 13.2 My email signature incorporates the way to sign up for my weekly mobile tips sent via SMS. Notice that even in my email I have explained the terms and conditions.

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Figure 13.3 This is an example of using signage to attract people to your optin list. There There is no room for terms and conditions so they will be supplied in the first message.

Signage/Mobile Integration Tips

To integrate your signs and mobile campaign effectively, consider the following tips:

â&#x20AC;˘ Put your call-to-action prominently on the sign. It should be obvious that you want the readers to do something besides just reading the sign as they are passing by. â&#x20AC;˘ Give people a reason to participate by spelling out the value they will receive. They should be able to tell at a glance what benefits they will receive. It should also be easy for them to figure out what you are asking them to do.

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• Include a mobile phone graphic to help people understand that you are suggesting they use their phones to respond. Until mobile is completely ingrained in people’s minds, you may need to help them think it through.

How to Use Signs to Drive Mobile Response Getting people to respond to your signs via mobile involves a few strong marketing techniques and a bit of finesse. Here are some ideas for eliciting a response:

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• Let people register or RSVP for an upcoming event. This could be done via a text message, by posting a mobile website that people could use to send in their name and reservation, by using a 2D bar code for them to scan to get a VIP code immediately, or by rregister. ing a phone number they can call quickly to register egister.. offering

our mobile coupon offers and experience an immediate • Share your response to your signs. By offering different coupons, you can track which signs are bringing you the most business. You can also increase the participation in your mobile coupon campaign keting it with signs. by marketing

• Entice passers-by to turn on their Bluetooth devices to receive a multimedia message from your business business. (See Chapter 11 for details.)

Business Cards/Marketing Cards

These days, I seldom use business cards. What used to be a standard business tool is becoming extinct. However, there are plenty of great uses in mobile for this perfect-sized marketing tool that don’t involve simply exchanging your contact information. For example, when I was waiting at Quiznos for a sandwich recently, I saw a sign inviting me to join their text

message club. Since the toaster oven was quicker than I was, I had not yet finished getting signed up by the time I needed to pay for my sandwich. But there was a stack of business cards near the cash register with all the details (Figure 13.4). These cards can be given out in your store, at events, at networking meetings, and trade shows. Another example of a business card with a mobile response is shown in Figure 13.5.

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Figure 13.4 This is the marketing card I spotted at Quiznos with instructions on how how to sign up for the mobile club.

Mobile Business Car Cards ds

Mobile business cards are not a way to market your mobile campaign, but instead, they are a mobile marketing tool. Instead of exchanging paper cards, businesspeople can send and rreceive mobile business cards. As an example, you ou can get my mobile business car card by texting KIMD to 50500. (Message and data rates may apply. You will only get one message in reply and are not being added to a contact list.) Powered by Contexts.com, it is a free tool that anyone can use. As you will see when you request it, the service simply sends out a text message containing my contact information.

Advertising Unless you are a major brand or have a major budget, you probably wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t launch an ad campaign just to tout your mobile rollout. But you certainly

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Marketing Your Mobile Campaign

Figure 13.5 Here is a business card that was transformed into a marketing card by adding the text message opt-in instructions. Notice that it includes a text opt-in and a way to sign up using interactive voice response. should add mobile as a direct response to your existing ad campaigns, whatever their reach. each.

Magazine/Newspaper Advertising

While it may seem odd at first to incorporate mobile response into pr print ads, keep in mind that people keep their mobile phones close to them even when they are at home. A person curled up on the couch reading the newspaper is more more likely to have have a mobile device instead of a computer nearby, so don’t don’t hesitate to put your mobile call-to-action in your print ads (F (Figure 13.6). You never know where someone might be when he or she is reading the paper. This is an ideal time to add your mobile bar code (see Chapter 14) so your audience can quickly and easily get to your mobile site. Your audience can take a quick photo or insert your short code to sign up for your text club, a series of text messages that are sent out on a regular basis. If you have a mobile campaign, there aren’t many scenarios where you shouldn’t include your mobile call-to-action, the specific action that a marketer wants a consumer to take as a result of their marketing efforts.

Radio Businesses including a call-to-action in radio ads have been big moneymakers for decades. In the good ol’ days of radio, people were encouraged

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Figure 13.6 This ad featured in Teen Vogue shows a Microsoft Tag and provides instructions on how to pique the reader’s interest (“get the free mobile app at http://gettag.mobi”), plus the compelling reason to do so (SNAP this tag to go behind the scenes with the L.e.i.’s Model Citizen winner and shop the look).

to mail in their requests, much as Ralphie did in the classic movie A Christmas Story. Ralphie listened to the “Little Orphan Annie” radio show every day. He ordered a secret decoder kit so he could decipher a secret message that was shared on the air. He requested and received his decoder

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kit through the mail, but the magic was the interaction of having the kit in front of him while he listened to the show. But much to Ralphie’s dismay, the secret message was actually an ad to “Drink More Ovaltine.” (The hidden message in this story is that your value can’t be corrupted by your marketing, or it won’t work.) When most people started listening to their car radios during their commute, vendors started giving out phone numbers on the air to get people to buy their wares. It was once a sure bet to make mega book sales by having an author interviewed on the radio and providing a toll-free number to order the book. Mobile marketing has emerged as another opportunity to match a callto-action with radio. Just as the other methods of driving contact from the radio peaked and then dropped off, this will as well. So, if you want to try it, do it now. And don’t disappoint your audience with the “Drink More Ovaltine” trick. It didn’t work in the movie, and it won’t work for you either. The following examples are some ideas for integrating radio and mobile: • Radio listeners can be encouraged to “Text KEYWORD to 12345 to get (something they want) from (whoever is talking on air),” or they can be encouraged to call a number and receive a text message offer in return. retur retur eturn. n. Higher response rates rrates, ates,, as much as a 10:1 ratio, have been realized when people call first and then receive a text.

Advertisers can conclude ads with a mobile call-to-action. By • Advertisers putting different tracking methods in place (such as using different keywords), an advertiser can determine which radio station is getting the best response. You can also determine the best time of day to drive the most participation because the response is immediate. Chapter 6 has more ideas for integrating text messaging with radio campaigns campaigns. To listen to a radio ad with strong mobile call-to-action, check the Online Resource Guide. a strong Notice that the call-to-action (“Text Sturgis to 67777”) is mentioned three different times.

Television Integrating mobile and television can be more than just announcing your mobile campaign; in fact, mobile response to television has one of the highest known mobile response rates. It all started in the U.S. with American Idol. According to Chetan Sharma in his book Mobile Advertising, the 2005 American Idol voting was the “single biggest TXT (text messaging) event in the world.” Amazingly, the 41.5 million votes received via text came at a

180 The Mobile Marketing Handbook time when text messaging was largely unused in the U.S. market. By the 2006 season, 120 million votes were received by text message. The 2009 season counted 178 million votes via text message. Of course, not every company blending television and mobile will get these impressive results, but there are plenty of ways for businesses to leverage the power of television with mobile. It is clear that given the right incentive, people will participate. Just as it was when commercials first started mentioning website addresses to drive internet traffic, it is unusual and exciting to see a mobile call-to-action now. Take advantage of that while the novelty helps boost your response. Take a look at some of the following ideas for using television and mobile together:

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• Nonprofit and charitable organizations can have a text-to-donate option at the end of their ads. This could considerably raise

donations because it is quick and easy and wouldn’t wouldn’ interrupt viewers’ television watching.

• Musicians can fulfill immediate music downloads straight to mobile instead of suggesting a CD purchase at a store or an

iTunes visit that will later have to be synced with a music player.

• Restaurants ants (fast food or the sit-down variety) can offer a mobile coupon. People who requested a mobile coupon and have it

are more likely to go to ready and waiting on their mobile devices ar

the restaurant they saw advertised than a passive viewer who had no interaction with the ad.

brochure or • Car dealerships can include an option to request a br

test drive immediately after seeing an ad for a car. A mobile site

with a full-features list and photos might also appeal to car shoppers.

• Pharmaceutical companies can offer to send a reminder text to “check with your doctor” about XYZ prescription.

• An interactive poll that gives viewers the opportunity to tell you what they think about a particular product or even the ad itself would be new and exciting. An ad filmed like a mini show can give viewers the chance to vote on the end of the story in an upcoming episode. The options are endless and depend upon the creativity of your mobile strategy team to devise the right idea for your company. If you are already using television advertising, it is almost a no-brainer to integrate mobile.

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The companies that choose to jump in early with well-thought-out campaigns will win big time.

Repeat the Mobile Call-to-Action

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When you include a mobile call-to-action in a radio or television spot, you must repeat it several times. In a 30-second radio spot, I suggest announcing the call-to-action at least three times. For a television commercial, it is best to keep the call-to-action on the screen for the entire time the ad is on the air (Figure 13.7). People need more time to respond because mobile is new new. They need to remember two things: the short code and the keyword. It is a new call-to-action that they may not be familiar enough with for the process to be easy.

Trade Shows/Consumer Events

An industry trade show or consumer event (such as a bridal expo or holiday festival) can be the perfect place to market your mobile campaign; in fact, it might even be a good reason to launch one (Figure 13.8). Because your customers are are physically gathered together for a specific purpose for a finite period of time, it is the ideal scenario to promote and run your mobile campaign. Y You ou can market your mobile campaign in any of the following ways, from om presho pr preshow eshow w adver advertising tising to on-the-floor pr promotions: • In your trade show directory ad or preshow trade magazine ads, ask people to sign up for a text message club so they can be updated on news or special events during the show. • Create a series of value-packed text messages that can be sent at key times during the show. Be sure not to be too commercial and send only texts about your own company. Push information that trade show attendees will want to know about, including your own promotions. • Help attendees participate more fully in the event by offering event details on your mobile website. You can distribute business

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Figure 13.7 This is a photo of a TV commercial from Sears. This call-toaction banner across the bottom was on screen for the entire 30-second spot, which gave me ample time to grab my phone and send a text for the coupon.

cards with the mobile website address at your booth. Be sure to put some in the pressroom, too.

â&#x20AC;˘ At a consumer event, you can encourage signups for your mobile coupon campaign, giving a free gift or on-the-spot discount to anyone any one who signs up.

â&#x20AC;˘ Signage around the event can direct attendees to your mobile campaign and will help increase booth tr traffic.

Social Networking

Be sure to announce your mobile marketing campaign to your social networking circles, including your friends on your Facebook Page and to your Twitter followers. First, if you are social networking correctly, you will have a sizable following of those who communicate with you on a regular basis. Sharing the news about your campaign will simply be part of the conversation. Plus, the entire concept of social networking is designed so you can tell two friends, and then for them to tell two friends, and so on. You never know who else might see it and jump on board. Social networking is an excellent

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Marketing Your Mobile Campaign

Figuree 13.8 Her Figur Here H er is an example of a conference mobile site built on the Movitas platform. Notice that the conference attendees will enhance their event experience by interacting with this mobile site.

way to market mobile campaigns. (Chapter 10 covers social networking as a marketing tool for mobile in more detail.)

Product Packaging Ever since kids started cutting the tops off of cereal boxes and mailing them in to cereal corporate headquarters to earn valuable prizes, there hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been a better way for consumers to interact with product packaging than with mobile. Not only can product packaging be a good way to promote

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mobile coupons and contests, it can also be an effective way to get consumer feedback. Any product that is highly portable, such as cups, is a good match for a mobile marketing campaign. After all, your customers are likely to have both necessary items (your product and their mobile devices) with them when you want them to take action. If you combine that with solid value, chances are you will stop seeing product packaging as a cost of goods expense and see it as marketing. (For any accountants out there, I don’t really mean that this be done in actual accounting. I’m just making a point.) In some cases, incorporating mobile marketing into your product packaging can even help sell your product. If you have a product that generates prepurchase questions or research, you can add a mobile bar code or mobile web link on the product package and explain that there are product reviews and a FAQ available. You could even offer a text message coupon on the package. By doing this, you help your customers gather all the information they need about your product, and you may entice them to buy your product using an interactive coupon.

College Marketing

It is no secret that younger mobile users are likely to be the most enthusiastic mobile users. As long as part of your target market is college students, consider promoting your mobile marketing campaign to them using guerrilla illa marketing tactics on your local college campus or hiring a college marketing firm to create a nationwide campus campaign. Obviously, this will depend upon whether you have have a local business or a nationwide company. If you have a local business with personal access to a college campus, you grassroots inexpensively. You can can use grassr gr assroots campaign tactics quite easily and inexpensiv post flyers on campus billboards, speak at sororities and fraternities, sponsor a function or speech, or even give away T-shirts with your mobile marketing message (when students wear the T-shirts to class, your business is being marketed). You can create a social networking persona to interact with students. (See more about social networking with mobile in Chapter 10.) You can also advertise in and send media releases to the college newspaper about newsworthy events, including the launch of your mobile campaign.

Mobile Marketing for Your Mobile Marketing One way to market your mobile technology campaign is through mobile “moving” marketing. Anywhere people in your target market are gathering or walking around, you can market to them with movable signs. On behalf of MGM Grand, mobileStorm designed such a campaign. A billboard was

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transported down the Las Vegas strip where thousands of people were walking up and down the street. The sign invited people to send a text message with a short code to place their names on a VIP list for a party at a nightclub. A local restaurant can accomplish a similar tactic at a local arts and crafts fair or local festival by hiring or recruiting 10 to 20 people (or more for a big event) to walk around the fair in matching T-shirts with a text message coupon offer on the back of the shirts (Figure 13.9). The repetition of the matching T-shirts would catch peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention, and the unique offer would create the response. The point is to reach people and interact with them while they are moving around with their mobile devices. If you provide value to the customer and make them aware of it, you have a winning recipe. When Amazon.com first started, the company representatives attended BookExpo America, the book industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest U.S. trade show, and had dozens of people roaming the trade show floor in bright purple T-shirts. Amazon.com was quite visible at that show. Think about how much more powerful that marketing could have been if Amazon.com included a mobile offer on the back of each shirt. Such a large company can

Figure 13.9 This is an example of what text could be displayed on T-shirts for use as part of your mobile marketing strategy.

186 The Mobile Marketing Handbook even have several offers going at the same time; people would naturally try to collect on those offers.

Word of Mouth

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Positive word of mouth (people telling their friends about a product/service they liked and then giving a recommendation for it) is one of the most powerful persuasion techniques known. According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, the marketing practice is “giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place.” By definition, word-of-mouth marketing is not something that can be controlled or manipulated, but you certainly can and should take proactive steps to help your mobile campaign get recognition. Here are some good word-of-mouth marketing approaches you can take when promoting your campaign.

Sparking Word of Mouth

The trick to word-of-mouth marketing is that you can’t make it happen. You can only make it easy for it to happen. Start by creating a mobile campaign ’t do this, nothing else you try in don’t worth sharing and talking about. If you you don relation to word-of-mouth marketing will work. Then build ways into your campaign for your customers to share it. The tell-a-friend concept is powerful, and sometimes all it takes is giving people a way to do so and it happens. Wherever you can throughout your campaign, make it easy for people to share what they are experiencing with your company via mobile.

Word of Mouth Starts at Home

Since ince your customers interact with your call center and salespeople regularly, these staff members are often the primary points of contact with your company. Make sure they are fully aware of everything you are doing, especially mobile marketing campaigns. A new mobile marketing campaign is the perfect topic for them to share with your customers. Give them talk points they can use to discuss your mobile campaign when speaking with customers. It could be as simple as suggesting they say, “Did you know that you can get [share the benefit to the customer here] from us by [describe how to participate]?” Have your staff ask customers whether they have visited the company’s mobile website yet and then share something with them that will make it worth their time to do so. Often giving people specific ideas of when and where they will find it useful to use your mobile site will be just

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what they need to hear. Leveraging your employees’ interaction with your customers is likely to be one of your most effective methods to drive people into your mobile campaign.

Educating Your Customers on Using Mobile For now, you may need to educate your customers on how to participate with mobile so your campaigns work. If your customers don’t already know how to send a text message, spell it out for them step by step. If the mobile web is completely foreign to them, give them a little primer. Social networking is likely to take a bit of education on your part if you want to ben-

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efit from it. But it will be worth it. If you are the first one to introduce them to the technology and how to use it, your customers will be interacting with your company first.

Explaining How to Send a Text Message

Author’s Note: You ou have permission to use the following wording in your marketing materials.

To send a text message, go to the Messaging Messaging center on your phone (it

might be called something different on your phone). Find the option to Send a Message Send start that process. In the space essage or S end a Text, and then star

where you input who/what number to send the message, this is where you type in the short code (list your short code here in the text). The body of the message is where you put in the keyword (insert your keyword here). Then hit the Send button.

Message apply. This means that we will not charge essage and data rates may apply

you any fee to send this message or to get the reply from us. If you have a text message plan, these texts will count as part of the number of your allocated text messages. If you don’t have a text message plan, your cell phone company will charge you for each text message that is sent. This usually costs about 15 to 20 cents per text message.

Online Resource Guide Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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Additional Reading

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David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition (Wiley, 2010)

O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 13, text MMHQUIZ13 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

14 CHAPTER

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Tracking Your Mobile Campaign You can potentially double your profits by measuring the results of your marketing. Some weapons hit bull’s-eyes. Others miss the target. Unless you measure, you won’t know which is which. —Jay Conrad Levinson, chairman, Guerrilla Marketing International

Why You Need to Track Your Mobile Marketing Campaigns

The beauty of mobile is that you can track your campaigns effectively. You can tell exactly what is working and what isn’t. The days are long gone that ohn W Wanamaker anamaker once described: described: “Half the money I spend on advertising is John don’t know know which half.” wasted; the trouble is I don’t With mobile, mobile, you you can also track your other marketing efforts as well. If you With have a billboard billboard campaign that currently implements a br have brand-awareness campaign (where (where you you are requesting brand recognition only and not a specific response), you may not know how well it is working. Are people driving by in their cars actually seeing it? Are they noticing your brand and your campaign? If you add an offer for a mobile coupon only on that billboard, you can now count the exact number of sales that are a direct result of that billboard. Sweet! You can literally divide the cost of the billboard and the text message campaign by the number of sales. Was it worth the cost? The figures let you know if it was. You will still accomplish your brand awareness as well. This results-oriented mechanism can be embedded through mobile marketing in almost any other marketing you do. You are tracking your mobile marketing campaign, and by tracking it, you are also getting input about your other marketing efforts.

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190 The Mobile Marketing Handbook In the mobile world, there is not just a single set of metrics used for tracking mobile. For each type of campaign, there is something different to track. Depending on the goals of the campaign, there are also a number of variables to consider. The following are some examples of tracking methods. You will have to develop your own set of criteria for your specific campaigns.

Calling Campaigns How many times did the phone ring and which marketing tool was responsible? These are basic questions that are worthwhile to track whenever possible. With calls that come in on your regular phone line, it may not be

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practical to ask callers how they found your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s phone number, but this could be done for a day or a week to get a snapshot of the results. Or you could use a different phone line, number, or extension to determine the sources of the call. For example, a special phone line on your mobile website can provide data about the calls from your mobile site, and then you can use a different number in your short message service (SMS) campaigns. Tracking pay-per-calls or listen-to-recording will have built-in tracking

tools to calculate how many people are calling from these marketing channels.

Text Message Campaigns

With text message campaigns, the basic metrics are opt-in, opt-out, and response esponse rates. Tracking opt-in and opt-out is easy: Your text messaging vendorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s software will do this for you. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be able to see how many new subscribers you have and how many have unsubscribed by replying STOP to your messages. messages. You may want to use different keywords on different marketing materials to see which ones are generating the best response. You could also use a certain keyword for your in-store signage and another for your print advertising tising to see whether your campaign is appealing more to current customers or to new business. If your opt-out rate is high, then adjust the message you send and/or your frequency of messaging. Typically, people opt out when messages are irrelevant or too frequent. Beware of having too many opt-outs because it will trigger a notice to your text message vendor and/or the carriers to flag your account. A company can be shut down for having too many opt-outs, so pay attention to your rates. If you want to know if your rates are within the acceptable range, ask your text messaging vendor for guidelines.

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Example: Number of opt-ins this month: 200 (list grew by 66%) Total number on list: 500 Opt-outs this month: 15 Opt-out rate: 3 percent Response rates from SMS messages could calculate the number of phone calls that are generated, the number of clicks to a mobile website, or the number of mobile coupon redemptions. Or you may have a set of messages without a call-to-action, such as informational texts. In that case, track your opt-out rate.

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Mobile Coupons

Text message campaigns most often track response rates for mobile coupons, and there are many methods you can use to do this. If you have a computerized point-of-sale system that will integrate mobile coupon codes, then this is probably the best way. A cashier will simply input a coupon code into the computer system and handle the discount and the tracking. If that is not an option, then you can manually track mobile coupon redemption (writing the number of coupons on a piece of paper as they are redeemed) or rely on your text message vendor to track the results for you. Either way, you should track the coupons sent and redeemed, the profit made for each coupon, and the total revenue for the campaign. The profit per coupon may be an exact amount (one free ice cream cone, $3.99) or an aver av erage age price per redemption (average sale, $25). average Example: Mobile coupons sent: 100 Mobile Mobile coupons redeemed: 15 per Coupon redemption rate: 15 percent ofit per coupon: $10 Profit evenue: ev enue: $150 Total revenue:

Some text message vendors have a built-in mobile coupon redemption tracking system that will do all the tracking for you. Check the Online Resource Guide to see which vendors have the most robust tracking systems.

Mobile Web For the mobile web, the first thing you should track is how many people are visiting your desktop site via mobile, which you can do using Google

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Analytics. (See Chapter 7 for an example of analyzing mobile visitors.) If you have not optimized your site for mobile visitors, then you can be fairly certain that many of these visitors are disappointed from the interaction with your company. This number will tell you how urgently you need to develop your mobile web presence. Just as with the desktop web, you will have certain actions you want your visitors to take, such as signing up for your newsletter, requesting a demo of your product or service, or setting an appointment. You also want to track the length of site visits, the pages viewed, and the source of the visit (where they found your site). Mobile analytics software including AdMobâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mobile Analytics or Bango Analytics are both good options. Check the Online Resource Guide for more details.

Mobile Advertising

When you undertake a mobile advertising campaign, you will find robust tracking data right at your fingertips inside the mobile ad network. You will be able to view all the important numbers: impressions (how many times your ad was shown), clicks (how many times the ad was clicked), and the CTR (click-through rate or the number of clicks divided by impressions). Additionally, you ou will want to see how how much you have paid for all clicks and the average cost-per-click (CPC). Example: Impressions: Impressions: 1,000 Clicks: 50 CTR: 5 percent Cost: $25.13 Average age CPC: $.50

Mobile Apps

Users can now track just about anything and everything related to apps. One of the big benefits of having an app is being able to track a great deal of information very easily. Here is a partial list of the data about your app that you can track using AppClix (www.appclix.com), a mobile application analytics service. As you can see, you will have ample data to find out what is working and what isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. App downloads Gross revenue

Top 10 ad campaigns Top 10 ads

Tracking Your Mobile Campaign Top 10 referrers Unique users New users New users per day Return users Sessions Sessions per week Average session length Sessions per user Session length per user

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App store commission Net revenue Free trial to paid upgrades Free trial to paid conversion rate Free trial to paid upgrade revenue App store rating Current ranking in main category Top 10 days Top 10 device types Top 10 countries Top 10 carriers

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Mobile Bar Codes (QR Codes)

Mobile bar codes let you track the number of scans, date and time of the scans, types of mobile devices used to scan, where the scans took place, and whether any follow-up response was garnered. In order to do this, you need to use a bar code generator service such as ScanLife with a built-in management platform. None of the free generators have this feature; you will need to pay to have your bar code results tracked. Using sing a service such as ScanLife lets you also upload your productsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; 1D bar code (UPC number) and create an action for it. Consumers can stand in the store and scan your product package for additional information. All this can be tracked as well.

Social Networking

Social networking is likely to be difficult to track unless you focus specifically on getting people to opt in to your SMS campaigns. Simply use an optin sign-up on your Facebook Page that traces how many people opted in from keyword when you announce om Facebook, or you can also use a special keywor your our SMS campaign on Twitter to track how many Twitter followers have actually signed up.

Online Resource Guide Find updated content, audios, videos, and mobile marketing vendor recommendations at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

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O B I L E

U I Z

To take the Mobile Quiz for Chapter 14, text MMHQUIZ14 to 21970. You will receive the first question and the choices for your answer. Send a reply text with your answer of A, B, or C. Once you send the first answer back, you will receive the second question. After you have answered all three questions, you will receive a text message with your score for this chapter and your cumulative results.

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Be sure to register your phone for the Mobile Quiz first (see the Interact With This Book section at the beginning of the book). You can reply STOP at any time to stop all messages and remove yourself from the quiz process. If you need help, simply text HELP HELP. Message and data rates apply; U.S. phone numbers only. only. Mobile quiz powered by TextingForward.com, LLC. If you want to take the quiz online, go to the Online Resource Guide at www.mobilemarketinghandbook.com.

AFTERWORD

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Moving Ahead in Mobile We have officially passed the point of no return in mobile marketing. Quite simply, it is here to stay. It’s not possible to ignore it or to hope that consumers will stop trying to access websites via their mobile devices or that they will stop checking their email on the go. Certainly, we can view text messaging in the same way; it’s here to stay, too. People who search via mobile rely and act upon the results they get from their mobile device (which may be anything from their cell phone to even their car). The bottom line is that consumers expect to use mobile to com communicate and engage with the companies they do business with now or will in the future. Mobile has become a critical component in the marketing mix for many businesses, and it will only become more entrenched over time. I encourage you to proceed with confidence and create a dynamic mobile marketing campaign for your company or your clients. This is the rright ight time to use this pow powerful po wer erful ful tool to facilitate the communication and engagement consumers want. S Start with a sound marketing strategy and then choose the right tools to accomplish your goals. Take ake the opportunity to engage with this book (and me) as outlined in the section “Interact With This Book.” I would love to hear about your successes and the lessons you have learned in mobile. If I can help you in any way with your mobile marketing endeavors, let me know.

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APPENDIX

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How to Start a Mobile Marketing Business When I wrote the first edition of The Mobile Marketing Handbook, Handbook, I never expected to have people from around the world ask me how start a how to star mobile marketing keting business, but it happened. At first, I told these soon-tobe mobile marketing entrepreneurs epreneurs epr eneurs that I didn’t have any information or services for them. But as I received more requests for business-building guidance, I decided to help. After all, I started as an entrepreneur a year after graduating college in 1988, I’ve been a small business marketing consultant, and I certainly understand the excitement involved in starting a lifetime. So I business based on the biggest marketing channel in our lifetime developed a mobile marketing entrepreneurship program and now offer mobile marketing training and tools to mobile marketing entrepreneurs and professionals. This special section features the key points and additional resources you’ll you’ y ou’ll ll need to start start your your own mobile marketing business. In case you are wondering wonder ing why mobile is a good business opportunity, here are three top reasons: easons: 1. Mobile obile is the new mass media. The days are long gone when the morning delivered day-old news and three television ning paper deliv networks dominated the mindshare of the population. Today, people have their own media device in their pockets, purses, or within reach at all times. Businesses must have a solid game plan to be available to their customers on these mobile media devices and a proactive way to reach out to their customers. Mobile is not a fad; it’s here to stay. It is an integral part of our daily lives and is destined to become more so going forward.

2. Mobile marketing is still a fresh opportunity. Businesses need help with their mobile marketing strategies and implementation.

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198 The Mobile Marketing Handbook At this point, there aren’t many mobile marketing consulting firms and consultants. By acting quickly, you can be on the cutting edge of this opportunity and stake your claim before the market is saturated. 3. While mobile technology may be new to some, the concept of smart marketing is not. You can quickly learn the ins and outs of mobile marketing and apply these basic tools to established marketing principles.

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There are several different ways to build a mobile marketing business, some of which are similar to internet marketing business models (mobile affiliate marketing, creating content and monetizing traffic with ads, and creating eating and selling apps). But the opportunity that is best suited to the strategies ategies and tactics in this book is selling mobile marketing to local businesses. Retail stores, restaurants, nightclubs, spas, real estate agencies, and car dealerships are just a few examples of the businesses that are are perfect matches for mobile marketing. I’m talking about creating a mobile marketing business that offers mobile marketing services to these local business owners wners and their marketing teams. You’ll need a solid understanding of mobile marketing and how it can be used as a marketing tool, all of which is included in this book. Next, you’ll need to decide what type of mobile marketing services you want to offer. Here are the most frequently used options: • SMS/text messaging sales • Mobile website building

• Business listings services

• Mobile marketing consulting

• Mobile app building for businesses

Once you have chosen your business model, you will need to find vendors that offer the services you can refer, sell, or resell. For example, if you want to offer text messaging services to businesses, you will need to find a text messaging company that has a referral or reseller program. Then, you can refer businesses to them on a commission basis, or you can become a reseller and sell text messaging services using their software. Choosing the right vendor for your company is important. The basic criteria are mentioned in Chapter 4, but you also need to consider vendors’ reseller programs carefully. By understanding the basics in mobile marketing and how to align yourself with the right vendor(s), you can begin to reach out to businesses with

Appendix

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mobile marketing. Because mobile is still new, you may need to educate these businesses at the beginning. One of the best ways to start is to show businesses what their mobile website would look like. You can also use demos of SMS campaigns to demonstrate the details of this technology. Case studies and stories about mobile can also help to educate them about the benefits of using mobile marketing for their businesses. For those who want to know more, Mobile Marketer (www.mobilemarketer.com) has a daily email that you can subscribe to for the latest mobile news and trends. For more information about how to start your mobile marketing business, you can request the free report â&#x20AC;&#x153;Insiders Secrets to Starting & Building Your Mobile Marketing Businessâ&#x20AC;? from the International Mobile Marketing Business Network (www.immbn.com).

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Glossary

Additional glossary terms can be found at www.mmaglobal.com/ glossary.pdf.

2D bar code. A graphic image that can be photographed by a cell phone camera and causes the cell phone to take an action embedded in the graphic, aphic, such as providing details on a specific product. product. It I requires software to be already operating on the phone (also referred to as a mobile bar code). three-digit code that is dialed after the abbreviated dialing code. A two- or three-digit # sign. Allows callers to dial quickly into a campaign without using a 10digit phone number. ad blindness. The phenomenon in which consumers cease to notice ads are always in the same place or are ar unnoticeable for because the ads are whatever reason. reason. Short for mobile application. A piece of software softwar that is downloaded app. Short onto a smartphone or tablet. application providers. The official industry term for text message companies. reality The combination of reality- and computer-generated reality augmented reality. mation that together gives a differ information different view of reality (a smartphone app that allows the camera viewfinder to display virtual information about a physical location). Bluetooth. A wireless short-range communications tool that transmits data over short distances from fixed and/or mobile devices. brand awareness campaign. A marketing campaign that is designed only to increase awareness of a brand name and not set up to elicit direct response. call-to-action. A specific action that marketers want a consumer to take as a result of their marketing efforts.

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202 The Mobile Marketing Handbook click through. The process whereby a website visitor clicks on an ad and gets to the page that is being advertised. click-through rate (CTR). The percentage of clicks an ad gets in relation to the number of impressions. If 100 people see an ad and three of them click on the ad, the CTR is 3 percent. click-to-call. A link on a mobile webpage that when clicked initiates a phone call. click-to-video. A link on a mobile webpage that initiates a video to play on a mobile device. connection aggregators. Companies that technologically connect text mesviders) to cell phone carriers carriers. sage companies (application providers)

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conversion. Percentage of people who take a suggested call-to-action comiginally offered the option. If 100 people see pared to how many were originally the call-to-action and five of them do it, the conversion rate is 5 percent.

are given a phone by their corporate data plan users. Cell phone users who are er and have access to a data plan. employer

cost-per-thousands (CPM). Standard advertising rate of charging/paying w many thousands of people view an ad. for how

y cell phone carriers for mobile web icing plans charged b by data plans. Pricing access, text messaging, GPS, and other uses in addition to standar standard

phone calls.

double opt-in. The process of consumers agreeing to a confir confirmation message that they want to receive a text message or email subscr subscription.

Facebook that is similar to a acebook Page. Page. The business page listing on F Facebook ofile, but specifically for business use. use profile,

feature phone. A basic cell phone that cannot install and run r apps. feature

Low- or no-cost marketing mar guerrilla marketing tactics. Lowtactics that are often implemented at a grassroots level.

Signs igns that tur interactive signage. S turn interactive when a direct response mechanism is added to them via mobile mar marketing.

keyword. In text messaging, the wor word that is sent to the short code triggering the campaign. long code. A 10-digit number that is used in a text message campaign. loyalty program tracking. Customers keeping track of their purchases at a certain business to receive a reward for their purchases. microblogging. Blogging in short snippets using a third-party service such as Twitter. microposts. The actual blog posts of microblogging. mobile coupons. Discounts or financial incentives offered via mobile devices. Usually delivered by text message.

Glossary

203

mobile-specific analytical software. Software that analyzes traffic and other data on mobile websites. multimedia messaging (MMS). Messages that are sent with audio, video, or graphics included. multipart MIME format. Email formatting that allows a variety of nontext information to be included in the message. Important to mobile because it helps people receive emails easily on their mobile devices. off-portal. All mobile web content, applications, and programs that are not specifically offered to cell phone users directly through their cell phone carrier. on-deck search engines. Search engines provided to cell phone users from

In C for jb opy ma et ri ti an gh on ce t 2 T s@ 01 od a 2 y, in fo I nc to . da y. co m

iers that only display search results that the carr carrier chooses to their carriers

show them.

on-portal/on-deck. Content provided by cell phone carriers.

dvertising model that allows an advertiser to pay for the ad pay-per-call. Advertising only when a customer calls because of the ad.

ertising model that allows an advertiser to pay for pay-per-click. Online advertising adv the ad only when a customer clicks on the ad and enters the advertiserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

site.

ing sites. Websites Websites that allow allo users to upload photos and videos photo-sharing net so that they can be easily shared with others. to the internet

emium SMS. Text Text messages that are are paid for by b the consumer, usually a premium recurring subscription subscription or a pay-to-vote option. recurring

ximity marketing. Marketing Marketing that is done specifically to consumers who proximity are in close proximity to the business doing the marketing. mar are Most often

associated with Bluetooth marketing.

pull marketing. Marketing that pulls consumers toward the advertiser by attracting them to the content. attracting

marketing. Marketing Marketing that pushes the message at the consumer usupush marketing. y interrupting the actual content. ally by

code QR stands for quick response. QR code. A specific type of mobile bar code. revenue-per-customer. Amount of money generated per customer. search engine optimization (SEO). The act of making your website (desktop or mobile) more visible on search engines to attract more visitors to your site. send-to-mobile option. A button on a desktop website that when clicked sends content to a mobile phone. short code. A five- to six-digit code that is used in a text message campaign. short message service (SMS). Standard text messaging. smartphone. A cell phone that can install and run apps.

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split tests. Offering potential customers two or more options and seeing which option achieves better conversion. tablet. Touch screen computer-like device such as an iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab. text club/subscription. A series of text messages sent out on a regular basis. text message campaign. Marketing campaign using text messaging as the primary tool. text message voting. Voting via text message. text-to-mobile-site link. An embedded link in a text message that when clicked launches the mobile browser and loads the site activated in the link. text-to-win contest. Contest ontest in which someone wins by by texting a particular par short code. tinyurl. A site that takes lengthy URLs (website ebsite addresses) and converts converts them into shortt URLs that are copied and pasted more easily for consumer use. transcoding. Process unnecessary graphics ocess of stripping out all unnecessar aphics and coding displayed from a desktop-built website so that it will be display ed more more effectively on a mobile device. user agent field. A piece of code that is placed in the header of a w website and allows the site to “see ““see” see”” how it is being browsed (by full-size computer or mobile device). This lets a site serve the right content based on the device viewing it. VIP code. A special code that allows allows users to be placed on a VIP (ver (very important person) list at a venue. venue. viral al marketing. marketing. Mar Marketing keting that is spread spread naturally from consumers via forwarded email. word wor d of mouth. Often seen in forwar for war garden. phrase ase describing carrier portals that only give certain walled gar den. The phr content to consumers. consumers. WAP push. A phrase was phrase that means sending a text-to-mobile link. WAP W once the standard standard protocol protocol for building mobile sites. sites widget. A piece of code on a w website that runs a small program on the site. Can be used on mobile devices as well as desktop sites.

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About the Author

Kim Dushinski is the CEO of the International Mobile Marketing Business Network (IMMBN) and president of Denver-based Mobile Marketing Profits, a mobile marketing training firm. She is a teaching assistant for the University of Virginia, V Vir irginia, teaching mobile marketing mar for their Online Graduate Certificate in eMarketing. She was named one of the Mobile Women to Watch 2010 by MobileMarketer.com. A strong advocate for smart, ethical mobile marketing, Kim speaks internationally to businesses and mobile marketing entrepreneurs about how to profit with mobile. Some of her audiences include the Association of Small Business Development Centers, the Graduate Management Admission Council, Colorado Small Business Development Center, the American Marketing Association, the Houston chapter of the American Advertising Federation, a select group of Colorado State Senators, The System Seminar, and the Social Media Success Summit. Kim is a contributing author of Success Secrets of Social Media Marketing Superstars and a contributor to DigitalMarketingOne.com, and has written articles for Advertising & Marketing Review, Brilliant Results, and Search Marketing Standard. Her contributions appear regularly in the American Express Restaurant Briefing. She has been quoted in the Denver Business

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Journal and The Bottom Line, and has appeared on numerous radio shows across the country. Kim is a co-host of the Mobile Marketing Review, a podcast produced by mobileGroove, which reviews mobile marketing campaigns from around the world. Kim is a successful entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in sales and marketing as a marketing director at a travel agency, desktop publisher, small business marketing consultant, an internet marketer, and partner in MarketAbility, a book publicity firm. She lives in Colorado with her husband, Ken, their daughter, Anya, and their dog, Luci.