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Archive for the ‘Mobile Marketing for Small Business’ Category
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
You are likely no stranger to Facebook. Almost everyone uses it these days and the company boasts 150 million users on mobile phones alone. The local Groups feature has been a popular Facebook offering since the beginning of the social service and it allows users to connect with people in their local areas. But Facebook Places takes local social networking a bit further.
Enter real time location-based social networking.
Facebook Places allows you to let your friends know exactly where you are located right now. For instance, you’re sitting in a Starbucks at the corner of Fifth and Main. If someone you know is approaching that intersection and sees you sitting there, she could just pop in and say hi. The courtesy of a heads up would be her choice, of course.
The biggest downside seems to be a loss of privacy, but you can change who sees and who can interact with your Facebook Places settings through the service’s privacy settings.
This puts Facebook on the forefront of location-based networking and close to the leading edge on location-based advertising, which is sure to follow. It’s interesting that other location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla see Facebook as friendly to their services rather than a competitor.
(Source) Appearing at Facebook’s announcement, some initial partners, including Foursquare and Gowalla, said they thought Facebook would be an enabler—not a competitor—by introducing a lot of new users to the world of sharing their locations.
Foursquare beat Facebook to the location-based networking space by a year and a half. Gowalla arrived on the scene somewhat earlier but doesn’t have as many users as Foursquare.
Of course, these are not the only location-based networking services online. Facebook Places does have its competition, including Google. Google’s service is called Latitude, which allows you to see where your friends are on Google Maps.
I have a feeling that location-based social networking is just getting started. According to JiWire, more than half of mobile users want to see location-based advertising. That means Facebook Places has a unique opportunity to capitalize and being that Facebook is the most trafficked website online, it has the market clout needed to rival Google in paid advertising services. Places could just be its ticket to the big leagues.
Tags: Facebook Places, social networking
Posted in Display Advertising, Local Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing for Small Business, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Google has rolled out a new program for local business called Favorite Places. At first glance, the program looks promising. But I can’t help but wonder about the implementation.
Google has picked 100,000 local U.S. businesses to be “favorite places.” They sent these businesses a decal to place on their store windows. It is expected that mobile phone users will scan the decals to learn more about the the businesses and to leave a review of them. Question: How serious do you think mobile phone users will be to take advantage of this moment? Mobile searchers already have that capability with other websites.
This looks like another Google attempt to move into an area where someone else is already doing a better job and where Google thinks it might pick up more advertising money. It is, after all, a Google Maps program. Google clearly wants to add your business to its database. What then? I suspect you’ll start getting snail mail from the company, and possibly e-mail, offering you opportunities to advertise through Google AdWords.
What do you think? Is this a slick advertising move on Google’s part or do you think it will actually attract support from businesses and mobile searchers alike? Would you do it? You can.
Tags: Favorite Places, google, mobile search
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 27th, 2009
The people behind Opera Mini, a web browser for cell phones, reports that Opera Mini users have saved billions of dollars just by using the popular web browser. Furthermore, usage of Opera Mini has gone up 238% since October 2008.
The lesson here for web marketers is that the age of mobile web marketing has begun. If you have started your plan for a mobile presence on the web then you should seriously start thinking about that now. I only see mobile web usage going up.
And if you are doing business in some non-U.S. countries, a mobile web presence could be even more important.
In Latin America, the top 10 countries using Opera Mini are:
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Argentina
- Venezuela
- Chile
- Costa Rica
- Colombia
- Peru
- Paraguay
- Ecuador
But are consumers in these countries making purchasing online through their cell phones? My bet is if they aren’t now they certainly will be. Google, Facebook, and Live are very popular in Latin America and Orkut is popular in Paraguay and Brazil.
All that means is that mobile phone users are searching and using social networks in Latin America. This presents a great opportunity for marketers.
Whether in Latin America, the U.S., or elsewhere, you can expect the mobile web to be an important part of doing business online in the future. I only see these numbers going up.
Tags: Latin America, mobile web, Opera Mini, Web marketing
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
With mobile phones thriving, the popularity of iPhone and smartphones, and services like PayPal, you’d think people in the U.S. would be ready for mobile commerce. Not quite. According to Marketing Pilgrim, we’re still lagging behind many countries in the area of mobile e-commerce.
Jordan McCollum points out that there are companies working on providing a secure mobile commerce solution and one of them is Facebook. And she also points out that other companies like Visa, Master Card, and Nokia are moving in that direction as well. But, sadly, there is no mention of PayPal in her article at all. Why not?
You’d think that the leader in Internet pay services would be on the forefront of this emerging technology, but it appears that PayPal isn’t even on the radar screen. And neither are their primary competitors.
It does cause one to wonder just who will emerge the main conduit of mobile commerce – once that is as acceptable as purchasing over the Internet. Even still, there are privacy and security concerns still lingering over e-commerce as a whole. Why should we expect those concerns to falter with M-commerce?
Tags: e-commerce, M-commerce, mobile phones, secure payment processing
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Lately, mobile marketing has been cropping up everywhere. It`s still relatively new, so you`ll find that the competition at this point is still relatively nil. That being said, a lot of small business owners are wondering if mobile marketing really is a good way to go . . . better than, say, email marketing or blog advertising.
While mobile marketing might seem like something out of reach for small businesses, it is actually uniquely suited to them. If you`re a local business, in particular, this could be a great way to go.
Mobile marketing allows you to tightly target your market. You can choose to only advertise to those within your area, for example, so you would end up spending far less money than on a national campaign. It`s certainly worth testing for anyone looking for more publicity in the local area, though you can also expand this to include more generalized areas.
Though mobile marketing may not be ideal for every small business, it is definitely a good way to go for some. If you want to test marketing to a small, very targeted market, then mobile marketing is ideal and could bring you some very impressive results.
Tags: email, mobile marketing, small business
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
There are so many ways to market your small business that it is literally impossible to try them all. However when it comes to testing things, you should definitely think about mobile marketing.
Reason Number One: It`s New
Mobile marketing hasn`t been around that long and it certainly hasn`t been exploited to the extent that email has, which means people are more receptive to it still.
Reason Number Two: Mobile Marketing is Specific
You can target your market very specifically, so you are only reaching people who are interested in your industry. Targeted markets are the key to successful marketing.
Reason Number Three: It`s Cheap
Mobile marketing is still new and reasonably priced, making it the ideal type of marketing to try out. You can spend very little money while testing the method out.
Mobile marketing is still a great thing to get into and if your target market carried a cell phone or Blackberry (which is nearly every target market these days!), then you can try this technique to see if it suits you and your business.
Tags: marketing, mobile marketing, target market
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 2 Comments »
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
You bet it is. This article tells it better than I can. But I’d like to point out a few things that I found interesting:
But when it comes to making decisions, Gen Y tends to rely on their network of friends and their recommendations, not traditional ads. “Ads that push a slogan, an image, and a feeling, the younger consumer is not going to go for,” says James R. Palczynski, retail analyst for Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Instead, they respond to “humor, irony, and the unvarnished truth.” They’re also somewhat distrusting of ads, which is why grassroots efforts can also work. However, don’t get too comfortable, Gen Y doesn’t have brand loyalty – they’re quick to move the next big thing.
Take away: Cut the five-second soundbite. No canned elevator speeches. And don’t expect Gen Y to love you enough to live with you for the rest of your life (I’m not talking about marriage here).
Traditional advertisers know that young people are the most easily persuaded demographic in the world because they don’t have brand loyalty and their willing to try new things. That may change with the younger set today. No brand loyalty means never, not not yet. And did you get that part about valuation of peer opinions and attitudes? If you want to reach Generation Y, you’ve got to give them the ability to communicate directly with their friends about you and not be afraid of what they’ll say. Internet marketing is the only medium that allows you to do that comfortably, affordably, and conveniently.
Web Sites Will Need to Cater to Shorter Attention Spans: No more long boring text! Thanks to constant media input, Gen Y has shorter attention spans and their “grasshopper minds” leap quickly from topic to topic. (They also didn’t read this whole article…too long!)
Take away: Short, snappy articles with short, snappy sentences. And lots of multimedia.
Generation Y, who sees the mobile as a social device first and an information device second, is not using today’s mobile search as much as expected. But Generation Y is using mobile phones to access social networks.”
Take away: Make your website social and mobile accessible.
What Internet marketing is all about.
Tags: generation y, internet marketing, marketing, social networking
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business, Networking for Small Business, Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
For locally based businesses that don´t necessarily need to advertise to a worldwide audience, mobile marketing can be a great way to reach your target market and is often fairly affordable for a small business. While there is a movement toward video ads, most mobile marketing is still text based, so you only need to hire a copywriter if you aren´t comfortable writing your own ads.
Mobile marketing is very effective because it can be used to reach people who are interested in your products and live in the area. Also, people are not yet as jaded of text messages as they are with emails that advertise products. Your text ads can still be very effective and in many cases, if you word them carefully, will be seen as something useful, rather than an intrusion.
Mobile marketing originally became popular in Europe and Asia, long before North America picked it up. Because of this popularity in other areas first, Mobile marketing has already run through the testing phase and is far more refined now that Americans are getting into it.
Consider using mobile marketing for your small business if you aren´t already. It´s a great way to branch out without spending too much on advertising and can be truly efective, reaching those who are interested in your products and services. Text messaging could be just what your business needs to get it moving forward.
Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog
Tags: ads, mobile marketing, small business
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
Mobile marketing is starting to pick up speed. No one is sure just yet how mobile marketing will play out in the end. Text messaging is the current trend, but as more businesses get in on the mobile action, I see the trends changing. Google is starting to offer pay-per-click advertising for mobile advertisers and some local advertising directories like Superpages have been offering pay-per-call for some time now. Personally, I see the pay-per-action game getting more popular, but there are different forms that it could take with regard to mobile marketing. Let’s take a look at a few.
- Text (SMS) Messaging – Text messaging is simply sending out SMS messages to cell phone users. This form of advertising is the equivalent of e-mail marketing, but currently there is a lot of spam. People are just sending text messages left and right. As mobile marketing grows, the sophistication of text messages will also grow and sooner or later mobile phone users will demand a solution to mobile spam. Best practices will begin to develop and I believe we’ll start seeing text messaging newsletters, or e-zines. But for now, you can send out short but sweet offers to your mobile customers to drive them to your store. It’s a beautiful option.
- Pay Per Click – Pay per click advertising is currently the most popular form of online advertising. Google has a dominant position here and likely will for years to come. Since many mobile phones comes with browsers, pay per click advertising will provide advertisers a way to reach mobile customers easily and inexpensively – at first. As more mobile phones come browser enabled, the demand for pay per click will rise and the cost of the ads will go up. This will likely overtake text messages in popularity when the majority of mobile phone users have browsers.
- Pay Per Call – This model requires mobile phone users to click an add to make a phone call. Google may develop this technology later, after its pay per click for mobile takes off. But for now, I only know of Superpages and a few smaller companies offering this option. It is a powerful option and whether or not it becomes more popular will depend a lot on the demand of mobile users.
- Pay Per Video – This mode of advertising hasn’t been developed yet (that I know of), but it has potential. What needs to happen is mobile demand for the medium of video, which hasn’t happened on a wide scale yet. But it could.
- Pay Per Text – Text messaging currently is not a pay per action model. Since you can send out text messages from phone to phone for nothing more than the cost of the service from your mobile provider (which is very inexpensive), but if text messaging providers start offering the service to non-mobile users then there could be a market for the medium. The cost will likely be by bulk texting so advertisers would pay per thousand messages sent, or something like that.
- Pay Per Impression – Google recently rolled out a pay per impression option on its pay per click advertising platform, Google AdWords. It is possible that they could later offer the same option on mobile pay per click.
- Mobile Banner Advertising – Banner advertising has been around awhile. It is mostly used for branding as most people don’t click on the ads anyway. But mobile phone users could very well be the next market as browsers for mobile phones become more in demand.
When it comes to mobile marketing, the field is wide open. We’ve come a long way, but there is still a long way to go. I see mobile marketing for small businesses growing in popularity. It’s already a fast growing product.
Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog
Posted in Mobile Marketing for Small Business | 1 Comment »
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