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Customer Acquisition in a Mobile World By Barbara Drazga, www.DrazgaConsulting.com Your potential customers and clients are viewing your brand on a mobile platform right now. Do you know what they’re seeing? Mobile is changing the way we live and the way we run our businesses. According to Morgan Stanley, 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24 hours a day. But many business owners are hard‐ pressed to actually describe what mobile marketing is, and still harder‐pressed to understand how to leverage it to increase their bottomline. With the explosive penetration of mobile devices in our lives and work, businesses know they need to recognize mobile market opportunities. Mobile technology is much more than just the latest ‘app’ downloaded to a smart phone, iPad, or Android Tablet; mobile is comprised of many technologies that are impacting everyday life and every vertical market in a variety of ways. Mobile devices are here to stay and your customers and future customers are increasingly relying on them for more and more tasks. As a business owner, you recognize that building your network and the relationships within that network is the cornerstone to success. Using mobile devices and technology to help you build a targeted list of email subscribers is just one opportunity in the mobile market. ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

Mobile media is a powerful tool to grow your list and help you build relationships with your potential customers. What does this mean for you? It means more leads, more sales, more clients, customer loyalty and more profits. The number one rule with mobile marketing, as with any other marketing tactic, is to focus on your core marketing strategy and add mobile marketing as just one piece of it, according to Elaina Farnsworth, CEO of Mobile Comply. 7 Tips to leverage the mobile revolution to build your contact list: 1. Have a mobile device‐friendly website – Too many websites do not display properly on mobile devices. And with a rapidly growing number of your visitors checking their email and visiting websites on their mobile devices, you need to make sure that when they land on your site, they can easily find what they are looking for, and are provided offers to join your subscriber universe, that they can quickly action. 2. Create a QR code ‐ QR codes are a way to send information to mobile devices (e.g., a smartphone) using its camera. You send a short blurb of text, or a web address (URL) by representing it as a code which people photograph from their phone. This code should be displayed in all of your marketing material, business cards, in‐store signage, point‐of‐sale promotion, floor stickers in store isles, advertisements, publications, etc. Mobile users are adept at snapping a code, and if incentivized properly, handing over their contact info for the goodie you’ve promised. ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

The incentive is more effective if they can use it immediately for a discount on something they are purchasing in store at that very moment. 3. Messaging – Mobile text messaging offers big opportunities for global marketers, with developing countries providing the best models for text‐message advertising, say Wharton experts in response to a recent global Pew Research Center survey of cell phone users. There’s a fine line to walk when marketing with text messages. While text messaging capability has been around for some time, unlimited text packages from cellphone providers now make it easier to push your message out without getting hate‐texts in return. And many people have given up their landlines completely and communicate with the world exclusively through their mobile devices. Text messaging is to today’s technology what fax blasting was to old‐ school marketing in the stone age days of landlines. Despite the misconception that marketing text messaging is about as effective as cold calling during dinner hours, texts as a part of an advertising campaign or a broader marketing strategy is still a viable, effective mode of message spreading. ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

According to Wharton experts, mobile text messaging offers big opportunities for global marketers, with developing countries providing the best models for text‐message advertising. Integrate a call for action using MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and SMS (Short Messaging Service) numbers in your social media, advertising, and marketing. For example you could use snail mail to get your local pastry shop flyer into the hands of potential customers in a certain geographic region. But instead of offering a coupon on the flyer that they will have to physically come into the shop to redeem (and you are still not collecting contact info with this method), you could put on the flyer a call to action like: “Text “FeedMe” to 22387 for a free donut”. Now they may never make it to the shop to redeem the offer, but when they text you, you will have captured their email and cell# for future communications. 4. Go where your market physically is‐Get as many touchpoints as possible with your target market using social media, list rentals, in‐ store signage and promotions – catch their attention wherever they hang out, and put a message in front of them that compels them to whip out their cell phones or iPads and give up their contact info in exchange for your love (ok, Freemium). ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

5. Be creative with incentives – in the mobile economy, you can get even more creative about your offer. There’s a larger chance that your target is physically at the location where they can take advantage of your offer, and therefore you have a potentially higher opt‐in rate from old‐school marketing because they want it NOW. Ask yourself how and WHERE your market is using their phones. 6. Use Apps as marketing tools – There are several ways to use apps to build your email list. You could create an app or a series of apps that meet your target market’s needs and wants. Make sure the app is useful and fun to encourage downloads, and give value to the user. Then use in‐app advertising and registration incentives (where you incentivize them with a full‐ featured upgrade when they register on your website for example). In‐app advertising is an evolving science and it’s important to partner with a firm that can help you integrate this piece into your marketing strategy, if it is a good fit for your brand and goals. In‐app advertising can be based on demographic targeting, allowing your brand to be exposed to as many potential consumers that fit your target audience as possible, or through placement within applications that match your brand’s offerings (a major hotel brand advertising within a travel app, for example). A company called Kiip provides the technology behind a new idea in in‐app advertising. When you create an app for your market, and you set milestones for reaching a level of achievement, Kipp will display a reward screen, where the user is congratulated, then asked for their email address to download their reward (extra points, coupons, etc). ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

You can also purchase advertising within existing apps, as long as the app is directly related to your target market. The jury is still out on how effective in‐ app advertising is at getting people to take action (click on the ad, and actually convert to an optin). I admit I have never clicked on an in‐app add, unless my finger slipped while playing Angry Birds… The app in the image at the left shows an ad for Jeep. It’s a generic ad, and it’s not really targeting a specific market with the choice of app. I would call this more of a brand awareness ad. You will likely be able to convert better when you choose an app that is directly related to your niche. 7. eBooks and Podcasts – Create free eBooks and Podcasts making them available through Apple’s App Store, Amazon, and Google’s Play Store and include an incentive to click through to your optin page. Are you ready to explore how mobile marketing initiatives can add value to your customers and increase your bottomline? We want to learn about your business, and are excited to help you discover how to leverage the mobile revolution! Visit www.DrazgaConsulting.com and fill out our Contact form or eMail us at BDrazga@Gmail.com ©2012 Drazga Consulting www.DrazgaConsulting.com

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