Akers Consulting Group

Archive for April, 2011

The topic of mobile marketing comes up very often in my conversations with small business owners.  Typically, the conversation boils down to the following factors:

1) They don’t fully understand how mobile marketing works, what is involved, and/or how to leverage it to help their business.

2) They perceive it as something that only large companies can afford.

3) They under appreciate the power of mobile marketing, especially for small, local businesses.

If I ask them how familiar they are with SMS texts, mobile landing pages, QR codes, shortcodes, opt-in programs, etc., and I get a response like “A QR what?” then I know that I have an opportunity to really help them.  Most small business owners are too busy with other business tasks, not allowing them to keep up with the constant changes and improvements in the mobile marketing area.  As a business person, what they do understand are the staggering numbers that show how consumers continue to become more and more reliant and attached to their mobile phones.

Here are just a few of the key statistics:

• There are 5 billion plus cell phone user vs. only 1.8 billion Internet users (almost 3x in market size.)
• Of these users, 51 Million use smart phones
• Your Mobile phone is one thing that most people will not leave home without
• Mobile Text Offerings have open rates of 95%
• 73% of new mobile phone buyers report that text messaging is the most important feature on their phone
• The typical mobile phone user now sends more text messages than mobile phone calls
• 50% of all social media interaction is done via mobile phone

Mobile marketing is a great way for a business to actively engage its current clients, resulting in increased loyalty and greater frequency in purchases.  QR codes are very powerful for small businesses, and are one of the fastest growing marketing tools.  SMS texting programs can send exclusive messages to your best customers, resulting in immediate action and results.

Best of all, these effective programs are now affordable to the small business owner.  If sales growth is one of your key goals, find a marketing professional that provides a wide variety of mobile marketing programs and will tailor one to your specific needs and budget.  Talk to several, and choose one that will explain how the programs work, how other businesses similar to yours have utilized them, and will provide you full service, including any necessary printed materials.  Better yet, add mobile marketing to your overall integrated marketing strategy, including local on-line presence and social media marketing.  Then you’ll start seeing tremendous results.

Mobile phones are not going away, in fact they will continue to do more tasks, offer more features, and make us even more reliant on them.  Soon, electronic payments made from our cell phones, for ordinary purchases, will be common.  Get your business involved in mobile marketing now, and leverage the power this platform brings to small businesses.