Is your marketing program adapting to new technology? If you are using Web video, e-mail marketing and social networks, you deserve congratulations because you are able to talk with the 1 billion personal computer users worldwide.
But what about the other 2.4 billion people who are mobile subscribers?
Yes, 3.4 billion people worldwide are using mobile communication devices (if you call them cell phones, your age is showing). In the U.S., the number is more than 40 million, according to Nielson.
And with increasing bandwidth, technology improvements in equipment, special applications and lower cost service packages, the move to hand-held devices will only continue to grow.
Today, mobile marketing is, according to the Mobile Marketing Association, concentrating on:
Couponing: Consumers are increasingly opting-in for mobile coupon delivery. Geo-targeted systems can even deliver bar-coded coupons that tie back to retailers’ customer relationship programs.
Content: Offers of free or discounted content provide the incentive for consumers to participate in campaigns.
Social networking: Viral marketing allows companies to earn media through the sharing of cool applications and programs.
Mobile advertising today is still in its infancy. Three formats dominate — mobile message advertising or primarily text messaging; mobile display advertising, which includes display banners, links or icons placed on mobile sites …
If you’re like most marketers, you spend a lot of time and resources creating and promoting your brand through offline channels such as television, radio, and newspapers. Clearly, it’s something worth protecting. But what if you could improve your branding investment and make it even more worthwhile, reinforcing your offline branding efforts through search? Many search marketers doubt whether search can play a role in reinforcing brand perceptions. But evidence increasingly shows that the doubters are wrong: search can in fact play a powerful role in your overall branding efforts.
Today, search is ubiquitous. Given that, it can’t help but impact brand. Think about it: your customers and prospects go online every day, but what if you’re not there for them when they need you? What happens if they can’t find you?
It’s simple really. If they can’t find you, they’ll surely find your competitors. And when they do, what do you think their perception will be? Chances are, they’ll consider your competitors to be superior. In fact, research by our firm shows that 39% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned among the top search results are the leaders in their field. And that is …
Improving the visibility of the steps involved in your website checkout process could increase your online sales by 100% or more, according to business expert Rick Wilson.
It is critical that customers feel comfortable on your website if you are to make online sales, says business expert Rick Wilson. Businesses that do not display the number of steps in their checkout process are missing an essential aspect on their website, according to Wilson, Executive Vice President at MivaMerchant.
Speaking on a recent online business TV show, he says that knowing the number of steps in the checkout process and what step you are up to, is vital to making the customer comfortable. Showing these steps is probably the most significant change a business can make on their website, he says.
On the business TV show…
It’s really easy for people think of their next brilliant website idea, put the website together, throw it up on the web, and then…? It’s a common problem, throwing up the website without a plan. Many websites and products that are great never take off, while terrible ones do - why? Usually because they had a solid plan from the start.
Before you do anything, you need to do some research. You need to find sites out there that resemble yours in anyway, direct competition or not, and study HOW they get to where they’re at. Find out what their users think, what they like and dislike about the site.
Next you need to figure out how you’re going to market the site and get it out there. This is probably the biggest problem you’ll face - You spend months putting together this great site, you’ve dedicated hours and hours every day, and it’s finally launched - you sit back in your chair, and you wait… And you wonder why you’re not getting users. You need to come up with a solid marketing plan - there are hundreds of techniques, all depending on your budget, but for this posts sake, just remember …
Some interesting articles in this months issue of Wired… One in particular that I liked was “Why $0.00 is the future of business” - So I thought I’d recap a little here.
In 2002 Yahoo launched their premium version of its email service, charging $29.99/year for 25mb. Like the law that dictates a unit of processing power halves every 18 months (See Moore’s Law) bandwidth and storage drop even faster. With revenue profits soaring, Google in 2004 introduces Gmail, offering 40 times the storage than Yahoo’s paid service, and it was FREE! In 2007 Yahoo countered by offering unlimited storage, for free. In 2002 the revenue per user was about $.25 and the cost of bandwidth and storage per gigabyte was $2.50 - But only 5 years later the revenue per user had shot to $90 per user, and the cost per gig had dropped to near $.25! With such dramatic changes, you can see how limited email service went from $30 a year, to unlimited service for free. This is the world of internet economics!
Another section in the article talked about Google’s free directory assistance program. AT&T and its competitors earn $7 billion a year from directory assistance …