Get ready for mobile coupons

A recent survey from Juniper Research says that mobile coupons will become very popular in a few years and retailers would send around 3 billion mobile coupons by 2011.

Mobile coupons, in my opinion, are a brilliant way for a retailer to connect to his customers directly. It is way more effective than the coupons you find in newspapers and magazines. Most people, including yours truly, often forget to make use of the coupon clips within the required timescale. I, for one, collect various coupons from newspapers and magazines but hardly make use of them because most of the times I forget to take them when I go shopping. With mobile coupons, there is no such problem. You get a coupon in your text message and all you have to do is show it to the retailer/shop owner the next time you shop for something. Since we always have our mobile phone with us, it becomes easier.

QR codes can be a good idea, but then you can’t expect everyone to have a mobile phone with camera facility to scan the ads. But still, it’s a very good technology that can be used effectively.

We’ve already seen some examples where mobile coupon campaigns have been quite successful and I think it will continue to be so. Like I’ve always said, the most important thing is to provide value to people. If you do so, you’ll always find takers.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.

University grads come up with a text message based mobile advertising idea

Two graduates from Carnegie Mellon University are working to make text messaging (SMS) facility in your mobile phone more useful than ever. They believe that text message is the ideal and the easiest way for marketers to reach their customers effectively.

The idea is simple. The advertiser will have text codes in his ads and when a customer wants to know more details about the product/service advertised, all he needs to do is take his mobile phone and send a text message and get the information he wants right in his mobile phone. This technology will be launched this summer by the famous Smash Technologies.

This will be a great opportunity for retailers and small business owners to advertise their products/service more effectively. Also, it’s the customer who makes the first move in this campaign by responding to the ad with a text message. So, he can always choose to only respond to those ads which he finds useful. As a result, what you have is – no privacy concerns for the consumer and an effective advertising method for the advertiser.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

2 comments.

Could local mobile marketing become the next big thing?

Mobile advertising, especially when targeted at a particular area, can bring in some great results. It can help retailers and local small business owners to a great extent. In fact, I would go to the extent of saying that local mobile marketing will be the next big thing as far as mobile advertising is concerned. I’d back up my claim with a few reasons.

The number of mobile phones is significantly larger than the number of PCs in the U.S. There are two mobile phones for every PC in the U.S., to be precise.

Internet advertising has a response rate of 1% whereas mobile advertising has a response rate of 5%, which is unbelievably good.

People hardly leave their mobile phone home. They carry it everywhere, making it ideal for advertising.

You can target your core customer base very easily. Mobile users will trust you as they know that you mean business and won’t spam them with unnecessary ads.

When someone responds to your ad, he/she will most likely look forward to other such offers in future. For example, if someone buys a makeup product, they won’t mind you send a discount coupon for makeup products as and when you have an offer, as they are most likely to make use of it.

It makes the job of the customers very simple. If there is a new offer in town, they need not go all the way to the shop in person to find it out. They can simply get alerts on their mobile phone and decide whether to shop or not.

However, the potential of local mobile marketing has not been exploited fully by retailers and small business owners. But as I mentioned some time back, retailers all over the country have decided to buck up and make use of the phenomenon that is mobile advertising. So, get ready to shop through your mobile.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

0 comments.

Pay per call - The next step in mobile advertising?

With mobile advertising gaining momentum by the day, marketers and advertisers are thinking hard to come up with mobile advertising campaigns that will catch the attention of mobile users. One such idea is pay per call.

Pay per call is the concept of sending adverts to mobile users with a little twist. The ads will have a phone number which the user can call to get more information on the product or service advertised. This form of advertising is sure to get you a lead, as a person will call you only when he is interested in your product/service. So, if you can impress him with your sales talk, you are sure to get a sale.

However, pay per call costs more than traditional pay per click advertising in the internet. But it has better conversion rates and it’s been proven that people are willing to call the number immediately if they like what they see in the ads they get. This is especially good for retailers and small business owners who want to reach out to people in the local area more effectively. If you are a retailer and you’ve introduced a new product/service, the best way to inform people is to send mobile ads with your number on which they can get back to you. Since you target the local customers, they will definitely give it a try if it’s useful to them. So, this form of advertising is more effective, more targeted, and more likely to get better results.

So far, pay per call hasn’t clicked big time with local mobile marketers but experts predict that it could become a big deal in the coming days.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

3 comments.

Iamota Impact - Mobile marketing service for retailers

Iamota, a mobile application service provider, recently launched a service called ‘Iamota Impact’. This service is targeted toward retailers and small business owners and it will help them come up with effective mobile marketing campaigns. Iamota is confident that their service will find lots of takers as mobile advertising is considered hot in the retail sector.

With this service, retailers will be able to create an account in Iamota’s website. Through this, they will have access to a number of mobile users with whom they can interact and try to sell their products or services. They can send text messages with product information, discount coupons, contests, polls, and so on. All this is done on an opt-in basis, which means mobile users will have the choice to opt in or opt out of any of these marketing campaigns. This means a win-win situation for both the retailer and the end user. While the retailer is able to target his consumers more effectively, the consumers have the right to either accept or deny his offers, thus making it extremely easy for both the parties involved.

As of now, this service works with Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Virgin Mobile. The makers of Iamota Impact are confident that their service will reduce the complexity in the mobile channel and help business owners reach their target consumers more effectively without spending big bucks.

In my opinion, services like this, which are targeted toward retailers and small business owners, are extremely important for the growth of mobile marketing and advertising industry, as retail industry is one industry which can use mobile advertising and marketing very effectively to its advantage.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising.

0 comments.