Are You Ready for Mobile Marketing?

Remember the chill that ran down your back when you first watched that great scene in Poltergeist – the one where the girl turns around and announces in her cute little voice, “They’re heeere…”?

That’s the same chill most small business owners feel when they hear or read the words, “Mobile marketing is heeeere”.

Mobile marketing: using smart phones (iPhone, Androids, Blackberrys and more) to market to, and interact with, your customers.

That touch of fear makes sense –  many small businesses just figured out what they should be doing online when along comes mobile marketing with all new things to learn and skills to master.

Well, if it’s the fear of the unknown that’s got you in its grip, then fear no more because Matt is here to save the day! In this post, I’ve collected links to a number of great resources and tools that will help you figure how to get started with mobile marketing.

Note: as always, I selected the tools based on features, functionality and ease-of-use for non-technical folks.

So read on, banish your fears and embrace the new business opportunities that mobile marketing is bringing your way!

Why Mobile Marketing?

The first question you may have about mobile marketing is, “Why should I care?”. That’s actually a very good question because if mobile marketing tactics do not help you achieve your business goals, then you can stop worrying about them for now.

For that reason alone, you need to learn more about the different ways that mobile marketing tactics can help a business. Once you know that, you can decide whether you should use those tactics or not.

To help you get started, the links below are chock-full of information about how to use mobile marketing, and why you should consider doing so.

• The Top 5 Reasons for Mobile Marketing – a straightforward post on why a business should consider using mobile marketing.
• 10 mind-blowing mobile infographics – a ton of visual data on mobile marketing – growth, usage, impact and much, more.
• Mobile Marketing: 56 MUST Have Facts – lots of data on the growth and impact of mobile marketing. You should also check out Mobile Marketing: What Are You Waiting For? on the same blog for some great tips on getting started with mobile marketing.
• Why nonprofits should explore mobile marketing – if you’re a non-profit, this post makes a convincing argument for using mobile marketing.
• Essential Mobile Marketing Resources – learn more about mobile marketing with this collection of links to many online resources.

Mobile Websites

It seems that the best first step in mobile marketing is to create a version of your website that works well for mobile phone users.

To help you learn more about getting this done, below are links to posts with how-tos and tips. Below those links, you’ll find links to some online tools you can use to create your mobile site.

Mobile Website How-Tos and Tips

• 9 Tips for Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Users
• 10 Key Considerations for Your Mobile Web Design Strategy
• Best Approach to Mobile Website Design
• The Importance of Mobile Friendly Websites
• 8 Popular online apps to test the mobile version of your site

Solutions for Building a Mobile Website

Note: an important feature to consider when selecting a mobile site solution is the ability to detect whether a user is coming in from a phone or a computer and then redirecting them to the appropriate site. These solutions include that functionality.

• WixMobile
• GoMobi
• dudamobile
• WordPress Mobile Pack – this is for more “hands-on” folks comfortable with the back-end of a WordPress site.

Mobile Apps

Mobile apps can play an important role in your mobile marketing efforts (learn more by reading “3 Reasons Mobile Apps Are The Future Of Mobile Marketing”). Below are links to two solutions for creating your apps of your own.

• First read “Matt About Friday: The “How To Design an App for Your Business” Edition” and then visit BiznessAPPS
• Snappii – I discovered this solution after I wrote the post above.

Text Messaging a.k.a. Short Message Service (SMS)

Text message marketing is really growing as an effective strategy for small businesses. Though there are strict regulations and rules (such as customer opt0in) for using text messages, they are straightforward and easy to follow.

Text Message Marketing How-Tos and Tips

• The insiders’ guide to mobile marketing using SMS: the golden rules and top tips
• The Benefits of SMS Marketing
• SMS Marketing Strategies
• 2 Great Examples of SMS Marketing
• Why SMS Marketing is Better than Email Marketing
• 6 Highly Profitable Text Message Marketing Strategies

Solutions for Text Marketing

Note: I have not personally tried any of these solutions.

• BoomText
• ExpressText
• Tatango
• TextaBit
• DCMobile Text
• EZTexting
• Zoomerang Mobile Surveys

Location Based Marketing

There are a number of mobile phone apps (e.g. Yelp! and Foursquare) that allow consumers to use their phone’s GPS to search for businesses that are close to them such as, but not limited to, restaurants and retail stores. These apps also allow consumers to rate and review these business.

Location based marketing refers to the practice of assuring that your businesses is listed within these apps, managing that listing and encouraging positive reviews and ratings.

Learn more about location marketing, and the apps that support it, using the links below:

• The Beginner’s Guide To Location-Based Marketing
• Location-Based Marketing: What’s in it for Me?
• The 5 Golden Rules of Location Marketing
• How Location-Based Services Can Boost Your Small Business
• 9 Killer Tips for Location-Based Marketing
• 17 Location-Based Marketing Tips To Drive Word of Mouth & Referrals
• Location Based Marketing Association  – of COURSE there’s an association.

Mobile Advertising

There are two primary approaches to mobile advertising:

1. Mobile search ads – similar to the sponsored ads you see on regular search engine search results pages; and
2. Mobile advertising networks – these are businesses that can place your ad within other mobile sites and apps.

Here are a couple of resources to get you started with mobile advertising:

• How To Get Started With Mobile Marketing – in the second half of this post, you’ll find links to tools for implementing both types of mobile advertising approaches.
• mobiThinking guide to mobile advertising networks (2011) – an in-depth look at the different mobile advertising networks.

QR Codes

Essentially, QR codes are bar codes that, once scanned by a phone, take a consumer to an online site. I call QR codes “hyperlinks that work in the real world” and I’ve written about them a number of times before.

Learn more about QR codes, and how to use them, with the links below:

•  The “Connecting Offline Marketing with the Web” Edition
• Matt About Friday: The “How to Make and Use a QR Code” Edition
• 3 Ways to Map Out Fall Sales Success with QR Codes
• 3 Ways QR Codes Can Heat Up Your Summer Sales

Weekly Link Roundup

Each week, I collect the 10 best posts that I’ve read and share them with you here.

These posts focus on small business solutions or resources online (or both!).

Enjoy!

10,862 Comments Later, I Realize Blog Comments are NOT a Business Model: Great post and right on the mark when talking about online business goals (a topic I speak about a lot in my forthcoming book).

Infographic: Half-Life Of Social Media Shares: How long with each of your updates on each of your social platforms be effective for engaging your audience? Learn the answer here in this handy infographic.

Crowdsourcing Needs A Standardized Taxonomy: Interesting for us web geeks – a common nomenclature is always a plus no matter what the undertaking.

Forty Million Mobile Users Access Social Nets Daily — comScore: Mobile access is growing by leaps and bounds? Are your online strategies ready? Take a look at the post above the weekly link update to find out!

A Complete Facebook Marketing Strategy: More of a tips and tricks list than a strategy, this post is still full of good info.

Picking through the bones of Social Media failures : I always like case-study posts and I liked the conclusion drawn here.

Survey Finds a B2B Content Gap: Interesting “state of the union”-type survey results on how businesses are using content marketing and their results of doing so.

5 Top Facebook Apps to Market your Business and Brand: A useful list of Facebook apps for businesses, bands, non-profits and for selling and contests.

How to Run A Successful Facebook Contest: Great post with how-tos, advice, tools and more!

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Awesome Landing Pages: It’s hard to convert site traffic effectively online without a good landing page. This post is a great resource on how to build one.