Mobile marketing gives businesses new and exciting ways to get their messages across to more abd more people, whether new, potential or long standing customers. The ROI can range between gaining new leads, increasing sales, upselling to existing customers or decreasing the duration between sales to the same customers. But how do you decide if mobile is for you?

Goals

All companies should have clear goals of what they are looking to achieve, evaluate whether the benefits of using mobile marketing could help you to achieve those goals. So as an example if one of your aims is to increase the number of sales of a particular product then mobile marketing may be one way of educating potential buyers about that product and help them to make that buying decision.

Integration

Does mobile marketing fit in with what you are already doing? We always advocate a consistent approach across all of your marketing activities and so it is important to decide whether adopting mobile will fit in with what you are currently doing and/or how it can compliment your overall campaign. For example, creating a mobile website might be a way to enhance the use of your current website whilst people are using a mobile device as they may be more likely to revisit your main site if they feel they have had a good experience.

Look at the Competition

If you are still unsure about what to do, look at what others are doing. A good first step is to check out the competition and see what they are doing by way of mobile marketing or look at similar industries for inspiration.

According to eMarketer:

• 42% of media and entertainment companies
• 23% of retail companies
• 35% of the automotive industry
• 30% of the travel industry

are adopting mobile marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. There are many many others.

If your competitors or companies in a similar industry are already doing it then you should seriously think about doing it too as this means that your potential customers are using mobile to connect with these businesses.

In our third post in the mobile marketing series we talk about why companies use mobile marketing, hopefully this will help you to decide if mobile marketing is right for your business.

Mobile devices are personal

Even if you are given a mobile phone or tablet for your work it is very likely that you use it to store personal information, whether that be your contacts, photos, video, appointment information or personal notes. They are also personal in the sense that they tend to have a single owner i.e. you are unlikely to share your phone with someone else. This gives businesses the opportunity of personalising their marketing message to some extent although of course privacy and permission based marketing is all we are advocating here.

They are always on

Most people keep their mobile devices switched on and on or around their person, particularly their phones. It is very rare that someone doesn’t have their mobile on them or switched on. Even when in meetings people tend to turn their mobile device onto silent or vibrate rather than turn it off all together. This means that any marketing messages sent will be most likely read within a couple of minutes of it being sent, but of course this makes the timing of those messages incredibly important. No one wants to be woken up in the middle of the night to receive your marketing information.

They can be used to make payments

The SIM card is a built in payment system it’s just that we have only recently been using them to pay for anything other than phone calls, with apps becoming more and more popular you can use your phone to purchase anything from music, apps to your groceries. People have gotten used to paying for content through their mobile devices too and so things like e-books are a potential way for you to monetise the content that exists within your business.

It’s easy to share

Mobile content is easy to share and therefore can encourage ‘viral’ potential if the content/message/offer is interesting or compelling enough. It is easy and quick to share via mobile and we have gotten so used to doing this via social networking sites that doing this via mobile is almost second nature now.

Easy to Track

Like any campaign, you need to be able to track your marketing activity and the beauty of mobile marketing is that this is very easy to do. Every action can be tracked to a single phone number so it can be easy to measure user engagement. Although there are stringent privacy laws about peoples data and you cannot gain personal information about someone, you can see individuals activity which is vital in measuring success of any campaign.

Mobile marketing encompasses all mobile devices, so smartphones and tablets of all types. Statistics show us that use of these devices in increasing rapidly and the way they are used is changing too, more and more people are relying on their mobile devices to do those things that they would have done previously on their desktop or laptop. We live in a world of fast moving technology where there is a requirement to access information quickly and from any location, this is the main thrust of why mobile devices are so popular.

The amount of internet traffic that comes from mobile devices is ever increasing, in fact according to eMarketer, as of June 2011, 5.02% of all Internet traffic worldwide came from a mobile device. Because so many are wanting to use mobile for so many day to day tasks, companies are working hard to accommodate this, so things like being able to do your grocery shopping or check your bank account will be as easy to do on your mobile device as they are on a desktop or laptop.

Because of this change marketers are looking at how they can harness this opportunity to communicate with potential customers and their existing customer base via mobile devices. Let’s start with the website, most have one now but try and view it on a smartphone and you might get a nasty shock. We are seeing a clear move towards companies having mobile websites that are aimed purely at mobile use so that users can quickly and easily get to the information they want.

According to a recent study*, worldwide advertisers stated the following key reasons why they use mobile marketing:

• 78% said they use mobile because more consumers have access to smartphones
• 61% said they like the ability to target certain demographics based on devices
• 42% said they like the attractive ad formats

* Data is from the June 2011 Google and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) report titled “Global Perspectives: The

Smartphone User & The Mobile Marketer” conducted by Ipsos and TNS Infratest.

In our next blog in the mobile marketing series we will be looking at whether mobile is right for your business.

Marketing activity has seen a massive shift in focus over the last 10 years or so, starting with the advent of internet marketing we have seen a continually evolving digital world. Starting with the website being the main focus for all online marketing we saw this complimented by offline activity, this then changed to incorporate things like paid advertising, SEO, email marketing and video marketing. More recently we have seen the explosion in social media basically transform the was companies market themselves with sites like Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and LinkedIn taking the world by storm, bloggers becoming celebrities and companies having to listen to consumers in a completely different way. A business can have its whole reputation demolished by giving bad customers service as people can communicate so much more quickly and to a much larger audience than ever before.

So what’s next? The name mobile marketing has been linked to the idea of sending marketing messages to someone’s phone, but this is just a small part of it. There are many different techniques that can be used with mobile devices all of which have the potential to help companies both increase their customer base and engage with existing customers to make sure they stay that way.

So our job in this blog is to help educate you on the importance of mobile marketing and how you as a business can make the most of the opportunity that it brings. Over the coming weeks we will be issuing a number of blog posts dedicated to this subject so please stay turned to find out more and if you want to know how we can specifically help your business then find out more about our mobile marketing starter packages.

In amongst yesterday’s mail I received one of those local free magazines which deserved to go straight into the recycling bin. Why? Firstly, it was 90% advertisements and very little actual content and, secondly, the content that it did contain was so badly written that it made me cringe. I showed my primary school age children some examples and even they were amazed at the poor quality.

It wasn’t just that the topics chosen were uninteresting, but the grammar and punctuation were so abysmal as to make the stories almost unintelligible. There was also a lot of repetition and very little actual information given. It was quite obvious that providing content was very low on the list of priorities for this magazine and all they were interested in was cramming as many paid advertisements in as possible.

Of course once advertisers realise that the magazine is usually thrown away before ever being read by anyone they’re not going to be renewing and this publication will join the many others that have died out shortly after they first started.

Unfortunately the same thing is happening on the web. So many websites are guilty of just being full of advertisements or sales messages or creating pages and pages of poor quality content that no one would ever actually want to read. It’s the same type of throwaway content as that contained in the junk magazines that get posted in our letterboxes and it’s going to be just as ineffective in the long run.

If companies are going to go to the trouble of putting up a website to attract leads, it makes sense to provide something of value. Think about what your potential customers might actually want to read about or how you can solve a problem for them and then take the time to write something useful.

Google is also getting better at weeding out poor content websites from its search results, so if you want to be found online you need to stop looking for short cuts and start providing what both the search engines and those using them are actually looking for. If writing isn’t your forte then there’s nothing wrong with paying someone else to do it for you, but make sure you choose a service that will provide good quality content rather than outsourcing to cheap writing services.

Please check your spelling and grammar too, or get someone else to do it for you. Poorly written content (even if it is valuable and interesting) reflects badly on your business, making it appear less professional.  Whether you like it or not, bad grammar and spelling can come across as sloppy and unintelligent and that’s the last impression you want to create.  Proofreading and editing what you’ve written doesn’t take much time and is always worthwhile.

Here’s a basic checklist for when you’re creating content:

• Is it relevant to your business industry?
• Is it useful, entertaining or interesting to visitors?
• Has it been proofread for spelling and grammar errors?

There is already far too much junk on the Internet. Create content worth keeping and you’ll already stand out from a lot of other websites out there. It’s an essential part of any effective online marketing strategy.

I blogged recently about creating quality content. Once you’ve gone to the trouble of creating great content, that people actually want to read, it makes sense to get the most out of it, so here are some suggestions for how to do that.

Syndicate your content

It seems obvious, but it’s surprising how often it gets forgotten in the rush to move onto the next item on your to do list. Whether it’s a blog post or a new page on your website make sure you share it with as many different people as possible. Tools like NetworkedBlogs make this easier by automatically sending your blog posts out to your Twitter and Facebook feeds and save you having to remember.

Social bookmarking is another good way to get your content out there. Sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon are all useful, as well as niche bookmarking sites that relate to your industry. Just make sure you follow the guidelines and don’t only bookmark your own content.

If you write an email newsletter then you can also use this to point subscribers towards content that they might find useful too.

Make it easy for others to share

Getting others to share your content is even more effective than doing it yourself as it will then be read by people out of your network too. Hopefully you’ve already got social media buttons added to each of your web pages and blog posts to make it easy for others to share them on their favourite social networking sites. An occasional little nudge or reminder asking people to share a particular article if they find it useful won’t do any harm either.

Internal linking

If you’re referring to a topic already covered in a previous blog post or on another website page then link directly to it to make it easy for people to find other relevant content. Internal linking is important within your website and blog and helps both search engines and readers to find more of your content.

Recycle content

If you’ve written a good article or blog post it won’t take you long to rewrite it (to avoid duplicate content which the search engines frown on) so that it’s suitable for use on another website or blog. Writing guest posts on another blog or articles for another website is a great way to get more exposure for your own website as well as a link back. Using existing content and rewriting it saves you from having to come up with another idea or having do any additional research for a brand new article.

Do you know of any other great ways to get the most out of your content? Please add a comment to share your suggestions.

There was a time when creating plenty of content was enough to get you noticed, but this is no longer the case. Too many sites have been filled up with content that is low quality and the majority of articles submitted to article directories are even worse. Most of us have come across pages that make no sense and while they may give us a laugh or two, they usually just irritate us and we move on as quickly as we can.

The search engines have caught on to this and are developing algorithms to help weed out the rubbish. Google launched their “Farmer Update” early last year, which was an algorithm that focused on rewarding high quality content sites while low quality sites started to be devalued, and there have several more updates since.

If you’re still outsourcing your content to cheap article writing sites you probably need to rethink your strategy, and quickly. Your content should show that you are an expert in your field, so just think what churning out rubbish says to readers about you and your business!

Here are some tips for creating good quality content:

• Write about what you know but ensure it’s also something your visitors will be interested in reading about (and hopefully share with others).
• Think about writing content that solves a problem for customers, gives them useful advice or shows them how to do something and avoid just blowing your own trumpet.
• Spice up your content with images, video, etc and avoid overly lengthy pages of solid text.
• Encourage interaction by asking questions, creating polls or holding contests.
• Show that there is a human face behind your business by letting a bit of your personality show through.
• If you outsource any of your writing make sure that the writer understands your business and give them ideas of the sort of content your potential customers would be interested in. Don’t expect quality writing if you’re paying peanuts.

At the end of the day writing content takes time regardless, so you may as well spend that time productively by creating content worth reading!

Do you have any other tips for creating good quality content? I’d love it if you’d share them with us in the comments below.

Some businesses are put off from e-commerce because of the time, effort and investment required, and it’s true that starting and online shop from scratch can be really hard work. But once it’s up and running it can also completely change your business, your potential market is massive online and with more and more consumers choosing to shop via the internet it really is something that independent retailers need to consider. The high street is a continually changing place, footfall is reducing and people are spending less.  There will of course always be a need for the high street but more and more are looking for the convenience that online shopping brings.

When you embark on an e-commerce solution then price can become incredibly important, if you are selling the exact same product as someone else then it becomes much easier for consumers to compare prices online than it is in the high street. It’s not the only consideration of course, if you have a well constructed site that is easy to navigate, with secure payment and great delivery and customer service that follows a purchase then this is also critical to the success of your online business.

Like most opportunities, it’s a case of researching the market, finding out what the scale is, look into who your competitors are and then gauge the amount of effort that is required to compete in that market. From there you can see what the real opportunity is for your business. E-Commerce is a huge subject and we will no doubt write many more blog posts about it, but if you have any questions for us then please do comment or get in touch.

A long tailed keyword is basically a more descriptive version of a keyword, so instead of searching for ‘jacket’ you might search for ‘black leather jacket UK’.  On an individual basis they do not account for a particularly large number of searches but they are far more likely to result in sales.  In terms of converting traffic into customers, this is the second most valuable kind of search term as people are very late on in the buying stage, they know exactly what they want and are far more likely to buy.

In terms of a marketing campaign they can form a really effective part of your strategy, there tends to be less competition in the search engines for these kinds of phrases and so it requires less work to achieve higher rankings.  So it may be worth generating 50 targetted people to come to your website rather than 150 people who don’t really know what they want.

It can also help you to achieve high search engine rankings for the shorter keywords too, in fact one of the best ways to get these meaty keywords is to target long tailed keyphrases that include the words that you are really after.  It kind of has a knock on effect to your current efforts.

Research has shown that using long-tailed keywords can increase your conversion rate by around 200% compared to short keywords and so this gives a great opportunity for a business.  In fact as a smaller business in a highly competitive market, it gives you a way to be able to compete and gain results as often trying to compete with a national chain can be cost prohibitive.

So when you are working out a strategy for SEO or PPC, think about striking the right balance between the volume of searches, how competitive those searches are and the likely conversion rates.  By looking at these different elements you can create a campagin specifically targetted to your budget, overall objectives and specific product range.

The ideal strategy for a company is to have a fully integrated marketing plan, this means having a consistent objective and message across all forms of medium, some examples of how to do this are:

• Ensure your logo is the same on everything from business cards to your Facebook page
• Use the same colour pallette for all of your marketing material
• Include your web and social url’s on your offline marketing material
• Keep people informed of your offline activities via your website or blog
• Keep the voice of your business the same

These are just a few ways to ensure that you take a full approach, it is easy to see your online activity as completely seperate from everything else, but they really should be treated as part of the same plan.  In many businesses their marketing professionals are often highly skilled in the more traditional forms of marketing but don’t always have as much knowledge about the internet.

The way that you need to tackle your marketing online is very different, for example, people read a web page in a different way than they might read a leaflet or advertisement in a newspaper.  It is important if you don’t have the skills inhouse to get some external help with this.  This could be a case of out-sourcing everything to an agency who can look after the whole piece for you, or it could mean working with an Internet Marketing Consultant.

An Internet Marketing Consultant will help you to form your strategy, advise on implementation and offer ongoing advice and support whilst still allowing you to retain a tight controls on the where’s, what’s and how’s.  By out-sourcing everything you don’t have the hassle of dealing with the finer detail but have less control.  Either way can work, it really depends on your individual company, the scale of your marketing activity and the level of resource you have in-house.  If you are unsure then speak to a marketing professional who will be able to advise you on the best way forwards for your business.