WHY MOBILE MARKETING

Caught between a Rock and technology

As a small business, chances are you are more focused on your local traffic and that makes perfect sense, you should be completely dedicated to picking up all of the local traffic, after all, that is how you will stay in business.
Many local small businesses have noticed a downturn in their "walk-in" traffic and are curious and even concerned about what causes their traffic to drop in recent years.  Naturally, as a brick and mortar location the first thing you would do is drive around, pick up a local newspaper and begin scoping for local competition.  
Keeping a leg up on the competition is harder now than ever before, because your "local" competitor may no longer be local, in fact your competitor may not even be operating from the standard "store-front".  Now you can tell yourself that you don't need all the websites, social media and mobile stuff and to an extent that is true.  The fact is, you don't NEED all of that mobile and social stuff, but unless you want to steadily see your business close, little bits at a time, year after year then you might want to look in to developing even a simple strategy.  
​For years business owners, local or other have participated in marketing their businesses in one form or another some of the standards are newspaper advertising, cable TV, signage, sidewalk or window sign and several others that could make this an even more boring article.  All of the listed media at one time were a good source of marketing but just like using a horse for your main source of transportation, it has kind of ran in to the end of its usefulness.  ​

As the image on the left shows very clearly, that newspaper is not the place to place your bulk advertising budget.  Sure the newspaper can work for you but only on very specific advertising and even in those cases there are likely better advertising sources to put your money.
Cable Television advertising at one point, not that long ago was the premium advertising if you wanted to get y our name out there and be well respected, then came TiVo and just like that the value left the building.

Now we have even changed the game more from advertising you business in a place where there was a likelihood of someone viewing your advertisement at a particular time of day as in newspaper, magazines, cable television and, well you get the picture.  Now, in this day of "I want it and I want it now" mindset we have found the best marketing that you as a business owner can do is Mobile Marketing using SMS and mobile coupons.

It's only natural to think that companies will market their product to the people and to the product or media that most people view.  That is the mobile phone by and overwhelming margin.  Years ago American Express made an advertising campaign based on the premise that their card was so important that you Never Left Home Without it.  Although that was a good tag line, the fact was a lot of people left it at home.  
We are not leaving home without our smart phones, and that's a good thing, for your local business.  Why? we, including me and likely you, have your phone with you right this moment, just like I did, a notification came in while I was writing this article and I looked at it and that is the value of Mobile Marketing.

Here is how it works and how you want to work it, because like most good things if you abuse it, it stops working properly and you don't want to let that happen, because the key is to use your customers phone to make them a Raving fan.
Step One: 
Find a company that specializes in this type of advertising and marketing.  Just so happens I can recommend a good one.  The company that you go with is very important and you want to make sure they have your interest at heart, not just signing you up and making a few bucks and being gone.  As a customer, you need to be able to create your own ads or be able to lean on them when you need work done.
Step Two: 
Plan, you have to develop a strategy, DO NOT go in to this blind thinking that just because you start using these services that all things will begin to work.  If you have bad practices in marketing and cannot plan then it will fail, listen to your MM Representative and give them the time they need to listen to what you want or need.  Planning is a crucial step because your Mobile Marketing company is going to work through a lot of steps to make this successful and I can tell you that it is much easier and much more successful if you start out on-board along with the rest of your staff.  Planning means developing every aspect and step every coupon, and contest along with when they will go out, why they go out then and what message you are sending your customer base.  
Step Three: 
Honor what you send to your customers.  It is amazing how many times communications have broken down in a store between owners and managers to sales or counters.  Be sure you are all on the same page, this kind of goes back to planning but it is important, because this allows you to treat that customer like a king or queen or another very important person.  Why? because as long as they don't opt out, you have a customer looking for YOUR next big deal.   

The return on this investment is typically pretty massive, it's skewed just a bit due to the affordability of the marketing but you will definitely be thrilled with the ROI this provides you.  
What's the downside?  I am glad you asked and the truth is there is a down side and it is this: Success is NOT overnight, so just because we are working in a world of right now, you have to give the process time to and effort to attract consumers and get them to Opt In to your program.  Most know what they are getting and take advantage of it but you don't get 300 or 500 followers overnight, well, in most cases.  So before you go a month and give up because it is too much work and you didn't  feel the need to let consumers know how Opt In because you failed to display the signage and communicate with your sales staff, commit to it 100% and you will be THRILLED that you did.