There are many danger zones you need to dodge as you send out your mobile marketing messages. There are so many different moving parts with marketing to an “on the go” audience. And it’s easy to leave out a key element or forget something that can make or break your mobile marketing efforts. Here are five danger zones you need to avoid as you work your mobile marketing plan:

1. Forgetting a call to action

Think this is basic Marketing 101 stuff? Well, it sort of is. But it’s easy to get dazzled by the brilliant message you cooked up and then not have a clear call to action at the end.  Every single marketing message should be reviewed to ensure that the call to action is crystal clear. Is the end user supposed to check in? Post a photo? Answer a poll? Tell the audience what to do, and make it obvious. Because if you don’t, your marketing message was just a wasted effort.

2. Forgetting the legal aspects of mobile marketing

Marketing isn’t all fun, outside of the box thinking. You also have to stay within legal regulations and industry guidelines. Someone on the marketing team should know what you can and cannot get away with. And, just because you can get away with something, doesn’t mean you should do it. So make sure that your message is not misleading or illegal and that your delivery is completely above board. You don’t want to deal with the clean-up from a messy mobile marketing campaign.

3.  Not testing your mobile site or message

Once you have a mobile site in place, you need to test it to ensure that it embodies all that is user-friendly for your mobile device audience. No excuses here…for site testing, you can use ready.mobi for free. It even whips up a report for you that will tell you how well your mobile site works on a mobile device. And don’t forget the marketing messages themselves. Test them out – within your business or a small portion of your demographic. Something you think will be a huge hit may go over like a lead balloon. Testing helps take out some of the guesswork with your mobile marketing.

4. Forgetting the delivery method

You always have to keep in mind that your audience is not on desktops or laptops. They are using a smaller screen and it’s not easy to maneuver around. Don’t require a kazillion click-thru actions or force them to scroll back and forth. They also don’t have a printer (so don’t send a message that requires them to print out a coupon!). Some end users may be limited on the amount of information they can receive, so keep the information and images within limits that don’t overload their bandwidth. Of course, as with any marketing message, keep it relevant, and in this case that relevancy should be to those who are on the go.

5. Not using the capabilities your audience does have at its fingertips

Think of all the functions a smartphone or tablet has. Should your call to action include a request to call? To download an app? What about taking advantage of its camera or video-taking capabilities?

What is NFC?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication and the short answer would be that NFC identifies us. It allows smartphones to be identified and it establishes a radio communication. Think short range wireless RFID technology.

You may have heard of NFC and its ability to make mobile payments easy. Account information is stored on the smartphone and when in close contact with the payment receiving technology, it passes along that account information, enabling a payment to be made.

However, NFC can be a great marketing tool for mobile marketing. And there is also talk of how NFC will help in terms of rewarding customer loyalty. The bonus is that NFC is more interactive and engaging than your typical marketing message. It’s not a “look at me” marketing strategy. It’s more of a “hey, look what we’ve got for you, are you interested?” kind of connection with the audience.

How does NFC work?

NFC is like your short and skinny pal. He can’t reach very far. And he can’t throw a weighty punch. But he’s scrappy and useful in certain situations.  This low power and short-range wireless link allows for information to be passed between a smartphone and another device. While it is short range (think inches), it does not require contact. But most importantly, it allows for the information to relay back and forth between two devices instead of that relay being a one way street.

Not only is it short-range, NFC is slow. Especially when you compare it to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. But the perk is that NFC consumes very little power. It won’t strain a smartphone battery and suck it dry.

A smartphone enabled with NFC can share and interact with another NFC device, or with a “passive” NFC tag. No app needed. And the NFC tag is like a tiny chip that may be embedded (in a poster, a business card and so on) somewhere and has data ready to transfer to a NFC enabled device. The tag doesn’t even need power. Instead, the radio frequency field generated by the NFC device (like your smartphone) does the work, and the data from the tag is transferred to the device.

• What’s so awesome about NFC?
• How is NFC used in the real world?
• How can you put NFC to work for your business?

Get the answers to these questions and more in:

Taking stock of your fulfillment company is an important part of achieving and maintaining success. You rely on your fulfillment company to fill orders, and to do so with a high degree of speed and accuracy. Even if things seem to be going well, it’s always a good idea to take some time to assess your fulfillment company and make certain that it’s the right “fit” for your needs.

Click on this image to receive a white paper on integrated marketing!

Head Back To School

Well, not really. But if you remember back to business classes, your instructor likely had you do at least one quasi-SWOT analysis. Need a refresher? SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats and Opportunities. And a great way to evaluate your fulfillment company would be to look at the strengths and weaknesses. We’ll call it a SW analysis.

Working on an in-depth SW analysis of your fulfillment company requires you to dig deep. This isn’t the time for listing superficial issues or problems. This is when you really get to the nitty-gritty of what’s working and what’s not. What strengths your fulfillment company consistently displays, such as efficiencies within their systems and what weaknesses (such as order inaccuracies) have popped up on your radar.

Don’t forget to do some basic research. Things may have easily changed over the time you have been working with your fulfillment company. Look for customer testimonials. Search for reviews or forum threads that may dish on your fulfillment company. If a former customer is not happy, you may want to know why, so that you can try to prevent any similar issues occurring for you.

If you have never physically evaluated the facility, or it’s been a long time, then you should take a tour. This isn’t time for a white glove test. It’s not about being squeaky clean, but you most definitely want an orderly and organized warehouse for your materials. You want to know that it’s OSHA compliant. That safety is taken seriously and policies are in place. You also want a secure location and a warehouse that has security in place to deter theft. You want to know what your fulfillment company is doing to protect your inventory.

Check The Data

You should have metrics in place. If you don’t, you need to put them in place now, though it’s hard to make a true assessment of how things are going if you haven’t been tracking anything.

Look at costs. Have any costs been reduced since working with your fulfillment company? Is your fulfillment company working towards reducing costs? Have they identified ways to reduce costs and made it clear to you what needs to happen in order to achieve those numbers?

Your fulfillment company should have a clear organizational structure and should be set up to optimize the ROI on everything from employees to inventory to fulfillment software.

Here are some measurements and information you should ask your fulfillment company for:

• Delivery / distribution speed (broken down at points such as picking, packing, shipping)
• Number of errors per day (in order fulfillment process)
• Length of time inventory sits
• How often inventory is tracked / updated
• Who is accountable for data, and how is accuracy of data confirmed

Click on the image to read more of my team’s take on fulfillment.

Would You Like Fries With That?

Everyone knows that fast food chains are notorious for upselling when a customer places a food order. Sure, you were only there to pick up a soda, but those fries sound pretty tasty. And hey, it’s easy to say “Yes.” The point is, your fulfillment company should have value-added services they can offer you. And they should make you aware of them, whether you need them or not.

Imagine working with your fulfillment center for a couple of years and not knowing that they have additional services that would have made your working relationship easier or more advantageous for you. Something like this would make you question whether your fulfillment company has your best interests in mind. They should always be thinking about ways to make your working relationship better and more advantageous on both ends. And leaving out important information like other services they could offer you is a huge oversight.

Pull Out A Scorecard

Scoring your fulfillment company may sound hokey, but it’s not. When you assess your fulfillment company and look over the strength and weaknesses of that company, keep score. It can be as simple as a range of 1-10, and then developing 5 to 10 key components of your relationship and their ability to provide accurate and on-time fulfillment. As you score each component, you may have a little light bulb going off over your head. Maybe things haven’t been going as smoothly as you thought. Or maybe things aren’t as bad as you imagined. It’s easy for one or two situations (especially bad ones) to really cloud your vision.

At the very least, you should score your fulfillment company in the areas of customer service, inventory management and tracking, warehousing and shipping. But you may want to drill it down to more specific components in order to better see where the issues (if any) are.

Keeping score and then coming up with the overall tally can paint the big picture for you. If your fulfillment company is hitting mid-range scores on every key component then you really need to decide if mediocre work is going to cut it. In fact, as you create your scorecard, you should determine an overall score that will mean it’s time for some major changes, time for a meeting of the minds or time for a big high five for all involved. In the end you want to feel 100% confident that you are getting what you are paying for and that you’re not paying for more than you actually need.

Traditionally, web-to-print has been all about helping customers retain brand control, get their collateral faster, get better return on investment for marketing campaigns and realize savings on printing budgets. This was done by providing a system that encompassed online ordering, tracking and collaboration of materials. Web to print is still all about those things, but it has evolved with technology and now can be used to bridge the gap across multi-channel campaigns.

Today, a web to print solutions provider can help with:

- direct mail campaigns

- personalized URLs (pURLS)

- QR Codes

- website development

- social media

- cross channel marketing

It’s important to make sure that the data your business has is used to make your messages relevant. Catchy phrases and funny graphics only go so far. You need to make sure your message fits your audience. And along the way, your audience will tell you their preferred method of communication. With multiple touches, your marketing campaign will receive a better response rate. And it all wraps up with a more relevant and personalized way to reach out to your prospects and customers than other, less integrated approaches.

Web to print is able to automate many tasks that are typically repetitive, or done manually or offline. This frees staff up to work on other responsibilities. And it can help the overall budget, by decreasing production and fulfillment costs. In fact, the affordability of web to print solutions allows smaller companies with tight budgets to still get a lot of bang for their marketing bucks and reduce wasteful spending that often happens when campaigns are conducted without the consistency and care that can be found with web to print. Web to print also allows for timely adjustments to campaigns when needed. By tracking response actions and rates, you can make better informed decisions about your strategies.

Another important aspect of web to print is the ability to retain control of branding – with online offerings and print materials. It’s easy for things to become disjointed when they are handled with various solutions.  Instead, with web to print you streamline things so you don’t have too many hands in the cookie jar, watering down your message and overall brand.

In a nutshell, web to print helps you manage not only print collateral from any location at any time, but it can be used to create a fully functional, cost-saving cross channel campaign. The benefits include customizable content, managements of digital assets, consistency in branding, budget savings and higher response rates. And who doesn’t like better ROI on campaigns?

Want a little more info on this new world? Here is a free White Paper on integrated marketing. I call it the Holy Grail. 

When you are in the thick of all things marketing, staying on top of the latest in mobile marketing and how to interconnect your print and online media, it’s easy to forget that your average consumer does not stay on top of such things.

Here are some tips on how to teach your target market how to use QR codes so you can have a successful QR code campaign in the future.

• Get your audience over any fear they might have. By providing them information, you are showing that you are reliable and trustworthy.
  

  My QR Code cufflinks!

• Start simple and remember that different people learn differently. Offer your instructions in different formats. Create a white paper or a series of blog posts for those in your audience who like to read step by step directions. Create a downloadable audio file with those same step by step instructions for those who like to listen, especially on the go. And then don’t forget to employ some videos that show everything broken down into steps.

• Don’t assume you are dumbing things down too much. By creating your instructions in a series of blog posts and videos, your users can pick and choose what they want to read or watch. So they can skip over anything that is too simplistic. But don’t make assumptions that your target market knows how to do even the most basic of things. Not everyone knows they need a scanning app.

• Make your videos and blog posts readily accessible. Don’t let them get buried under newer offerings. It’s okay to promote them every so often to remind your audience that you can virtually walk them through the process of getting a scanning app on their mobile device, how to scan that app and what to do from there.

• Stay on top of QR code news and share with your audience.

We post about QR codes we find in everyday life, on mailers, at the store, you name it. It shows that we keep our fingers on the pulse of how others are using QR codes, when they’re working and when they’re not.

And a great side benefit is that while you are sharing with your audience and helping them to learn more ways on how QR codes can bring them discounts, information and more, you are also learning some great marketing techniques (or maybe learning from the failures) yourself.

Mobile marketing doesn’t end with QR Codes. They are only the beginning.

You should plan your content, all your content, for mobile. Sound crazy? Maybe it is. But here’s the thing – you know you need to keep your mobile content relevant. Mobile users don’t want the fluff. They want what they want, when they want it…on their various mobile devices. So when you are planning your content using responsive web design, you should think from a mobile standpoint.

Ask yourself:

• What information do I need my mobile users to see?
• What information do my mobile users want to see?
• What other content would be beneficial to my mobile audience?
• What else can I add that would improve the overall mobile experience, not seem stupid or come across as absolute fluff? What would be cool but not annoying and useless?

Once you answer those questions, then look to your website. Think about your desktop audience. Would you answer any of those questions differently when posing them about your desktop users? And if you do answer those questions differently, why?

Look, just because you have more real estate when you’re creating your website for your online (desktop and laptop) audience doesn’t mean you should abuse that real estate and fill it up with a bunch of gratuitous images, text blocks and so on. No, you don’t have to have a minimalist approach, but you should think in terms of streamlining.

Ever been looking for something online, whether you are on your smartphone or on your computer, and gotten annoyed at trying to wade through a lot of “junk” that just makes it that much harder to find the content you really need? Well, consider your audience. You don’t want them to be that annoyed user who is one touch away from heading to another site to get what they are looking for.

It wasn’t too long ago that many businesses were stripping away content as they developed a mobile site. They looked at their traditional website and wondered what they could take away to make it “fit” on the small screen of a mobile device. And some are still doing this.

And when you get down to it, doesn’t it just sound…well, wrong?

Doesn’t everything you have on your traditional site have a reason for being there? Isn’t it all wonderful, tasty goodness that you (or someone on your team) thought at some point had a good reason for being online?

It’s depressing to think about what you need to strip away in order for a mobile site to be readable or useable to the audience. Sure, there are certain businesses that have mobile users who are searching for very specific things. And having a different mobile site (or perhaps even an app) may make absolute sense. (Not sure what your business needs? This is when you partner up with a company like Grow Socially – they can take a look and help you either way).

But when you know that you don’t need specific mobile functionality that would necessitate an app or separate mobile site, isn’t it logical to provide your audience with a responsive, seamless design? And in that case, working from small and then scaling up makes total sense. You aren’t stripping away anything. You are building a new, awesomely terrific experience that can be enjoyed by users across all devices.

Learn more about responsive web design and mobile strategies here.

The mobile marketing world can be full of obstacles and pitfalls. Some marketers may ignore it in an effort to deny its importance. Others may just not want to deal with the work involved with gearing things toward mobile devices. And many marketers dabbles in it, getting their feet barely wet and stepping slowly, as if trying to avoid any major screw ups.

But taking any one of these paths can set you back with your audience. Because it ignores the obvious – your audience is using mobile devices. Your competition is using that to their advantage. (And if they’re not, then you can gain some serious ground by beating them to the punch and adopting various mobile marketing methods into your overall marketing strategy.)

Whether or not you have joined the fray, you may very well be losing the mobile marketing battle. Here are some signs that you’re behind the 8-ball and need to step it up:

• You lack a mobile optimized site or app.
• You’re not sure what to provide or offer to your mobile audience.
• You’re not sure how to tap into the mobile marketing world and start integrating mobile marketing into your overall marketing plans.
• You don’t believe there are any differences in marketing to your mobile audience versus your online audience.
• You are unable to figure out how to bridge the gap from other marketing efforts, like your print materials, with mobile.
• You have been dabbling with mobile marketing but your current mobile marketing efforts are lackluster.
• You aren’t tracking efforts so you don’t know the success or failure of your mobile marketing campaigns.

If you recognize your business with even just one of these above scenarios, you are losing the mobile marketing battle.

Mobile marketing is moving along at lightning speed and while you may think it’s hard to keep up, you still have the ability to create a support team that helps you handle all of these issues with ease.

There is no doubt that mobile marketing is hot.

New articles, press releases, case studies, and products are released every day that talk about ways that companies can reach the growing mobile audience.

I truly believe that there is an opportunity for service providers to capitalize on that trend.

In my last article, I talked a bit about the USPS Mobile Barcode Promotion. But today, I’d like to bring it up a level — and provide an overview of some of the various mobile marketing technologies that you should be aware of.

Here’s a quick and not-so-dirty version of what marketers are talking about when discussing mobile marketing:

SMS stands for Short Message Service (and it basically means texting). This is the initial concept that brought mobile marketing into being. And it’s still used today. There are a lot of positives in regards to utilizing SMS as one of your marketing tactics. It’s far-reaching (since pretty much every cell phone can receive an SMS) and is low cost.

MMS is Multimedia Message Service. Think of this as SMS on steroids. In addition to the text, the MMS tickles the audience’s senses with the addition of audio, video and images. Imagine a commercial on a little phone screen and you’ve got the idea. Of course, this type of marketing costs more than a more simple and straightforward SMS.

QR Codes are quick response barcodes and they are those funny looking squares that you can now see just about everywhere, from posters to magazine pages to product boxes. It’s a two-dimensional barcode that a user can point and click her smartphone at and be directed to an advertisement or website.

In-Game Marketing is just as it sounds. All those cool games that users can download on their phones and tablets could use a sponsor, or promotional messages can be delivered within the mobile game itself.

Mobile Web Marketing can refer to a couple different things. A person referring to mobile web marketing can mean that the website is optimized for the mobile user. A lot of websites are not mobile-friendly and by designing something with the small phone screen in mind, it can make itself much more nifty to use. It can also be referring to mobile ads – pretty similar to the pop-up type ads you run across when you cruise the internet on your computer but typically created for smartphones which have a strong internet connection.

Location-Based Marketing is terrific because it is customized content based upon the geographical location of the user using GPS technology. It takes relevant marketing to another level by delivering the “good stuff” that the user will appreciate and eliminating the advertisements that user would not find useful. Think about certain services you would use…wouldn’t you appreciate an ad for that service when it’s in your neighborhood, as opposed to the very same service that is clear across town? You may also have heard of proximity marketing or “Bluetooth Marketing” which is based upon a much shorter range of wireless technology.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is certainly an item to pay attention to. To put  it simply, it is wireless technology that allows an initiator and a target to interact within close range. How is it different from a QR Code? One of the main reasons is this — With NFC, you do not need to open up an App first to interact with the product or printed material.

Here’s a video demonstration of NFC vs. QR Codes:

Augmented Reality (AR) is a very exciting technology as well.  What is it? Here’s one definition: “It is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.”

Augmented Reality has been buzzed about in the print world for a few years, but I think that marketers are only recently starting to figure out how to use it in a way that provides true value to the end-user. Pay attention to apps such as Aurasma, Layar, and others. I have recently seen an increase in the number of print advertisements and magazine covers that are incorporating AR, to provide additional content to its audience.

As mobile technology evolves, so do the marketing methods. In the future, we will continue to see further customization of messages and encouraged interaction between the message sender (you) and the recipient (your audience).

On Tuesday, I posted about a very funny (but appropriate) response I recently saw to a question about the use SnapTags over QR Codes. (In case you missed it, you can see the post here.) But funny and thought-provoking comments aside, the issue itself still stands—which is better and why?

With the rise in number of proprietary 2d mobile barcodes being applied to everything from direct mail to posters, it’s a relevant question. Go with the open source code or the proprietary code that comes with more bells and whistles? Most of the issues related to SnapTag apply to other proprietary barcodes, as well, so let’s pick on SnapTags.

• SnapTag and other proprietary tags are just that — proprietary.  They require you to buy into someone else’s system and pay them to do it.
• Proprietary tags come with more upfront functionality than QR Codes, but while the code itself may be proprietary, the functionality isn’t. You can get all the same functionality with QR Codes (such as the ability to track in detail or encode personalized URLs) with a little programming that someone on your staff can probably figure out for free.
• That is, if you even need all that functionality in the first place. Most of the tracking you need may be gotten by using a URL shortener (which you probably want to do anyway) that tracks for you. Not everyone needs to track unique hits or embed personalized information.
• Proprietary tags still have the challenge of being recognized by the public as being a code readable on the user’s smartphone, except they have the additional barrier of requiring a proprietary reader. Viewers have a better chance of having a QR Code reader (any kind of QR Code reader) than they do the proprietary one. So you have an extra hurdle of requiring that extra step before they can view anything. (Hmmm . . . did your incentive cost just go up?)
• Plus, you still have to provide  scanning and download instructions just like a QR Code. There are far less people who recognize proprietary codes like SnapTag than QR Codes.
• Proprietary codes require URL redirection. This means that the URL you are generating is not your URL, but a SnapTag or other proprietary URL. This means that should the company turn off its servers, the code goes nowhere.  (Here’s one expert’s take on this — worth your while to take a look.)
• Plus, as a user, proprietary codes just creep me out. Maybe it’s because I write about these things too much, but proprietary codes just scream, “I’m tracking you!!!” while QR Codes may or may not be set up for that level of detail. I feel more anonymous with QR Codes, and when I’m responding to any kind of marketing schtick, I like it that way. Maybe that’s just me.

Granted, if you want an all-in-one-package that is just handed to you with little effort and your campaign is going to be completely over in a very short span of time and it’s worth it to your client to get in, get out, and get what they need quickly, proprietary codes offer a lot of ease of use and functionality. But taking the long-term view? As for me, I’m sticking with QR Codes.

As you’re likely well-aware, the mobile channel continues to experience significant levels of growth. According to the CTIA Wireless association, mobile subscription penetration in the United States exceeds 100% of the population; many people own and use more than one mobile device. Furthermore, CTIA estimates that that close to 30% of U.S. households are “wireless-only,” meaning they subscribe to wireless phone services but not landline services (myself and many of my friends are part of this population). The pervasiveness of mobile technology has led to increased time spent by consumers in the mobile channel, making it a prime platform for marketing and advertising.

To that point, research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. mobile ad spending topped $1 billion in 2011, and expects spending in this channel to grow to over $4 billion by 2015. While various forms of mobile marketing have been around for well over a decade, only in the past few years have marketers started dedicating a more substantial percentage of their budgets to mobile in conjunction with other shifts to digital spending. Despite growth in these newer channels, it is important to remember that marketers are still dedicating a substantial percentage of their budgets to traditional media, including print, television, radio, sponsorships, and much more. Even so, marketers are focused on return-on-investment more than ever before, and they are constantly looking at ways to make their marketing across all media types more measureable and impactful.

In particular, a slew of mobile technologies are now being employed to integrate print and other media types with mobile and online channels, including mobile response codes, short code prompts for mobile messaging, augmented reality, and much more. InfoTrends recently completed a study entitled Mobile Technology: Making Print Interactive, which  investigates how mobile is being integrated with print and other media types. In this study, we captured consumer, marketer, and service provider perspectives to understand how mobile technology can be effectively utilized within traditional, offline media to drive audiences to engaging online experiences.

One key finding from our study highlights that, especially for mobile response codes, marketers are turning to their print service provider partners to help them create, deploy, and manage integrated mobile campaigns. Print service providers have a tremendous opportunity to develop domain expertise in the mobile channel through integrated campaigns and programs, but they need to make sure they have the right strategy, provide the right mix of services, and have the tools and technology to support their efforts. Below are some key considerations for service providers looking to build out mobile marketing services:

1. The mobile channel is still relatively new for many marketers and advertisers, and they are looking for guidance how they should approach mobile in a way that will meet their goals and resonate with their target audience. Providers need to take a consultative approach to mobile, capturing key characteristics of the client, its products and services, and the audience it is trying to reach to make recommendations. For instance, mobile apps are hot right now, and many clients may ask for them, but it’s up to the service provider to help guide clients to solutions that fit their specific needs… and then execute appropriately.
2. Understanding how to design, deliver, and manage digital content designed for mobile devices is a requirement, not an option. There have been too many times where a QR code is slapped on a printed piece that links to content that doesn’t render well on mobile devices, ultimately delivering a bad user experience. In our study, we found that once consumers interact with mobile response codes and other mobile technologies, they tend to interact again and again. The end-to-end user experience is a critical component of any mobile marketing campaign; a good experience will help drive future interaction and engagement in the mobile channel.
3. To that point, when you’re getting into mobile, it is important to note that a wide range of tools and technologies are on the market that help companies create and deliver mobile content, generate and track mobile response codes, perform campaign management, and much more. In other words, don’t start from scratch! Many software platforms allow service providers and agencies to whitelabel their solutions to use as the backbone for their integrated mobile campaigns. Technology from the likes of 3Seventy, Blink Capture, iFlyMobi, NetBiscuits, Print2D, ScanBuy, ShareSquare, SumoText, Tatango, and many others can be utilized to help power your mobile marketing services.
4. As mentioned, marketers don’t want to have to wait for sales figures to see if their marketing investment paid off. They need actionable insights that can help them optimize campaigns in real time to have maximum impact. As such, measurement and optimization are table stakes when it comes to mobile marketing (and digital marketing in general). Mobile technology can provide marketers with a wealth of data, including location information, which can help personalize content and also influence campaign optimization to ensure that campaigns meet defined objectives.
5. Finally, don’t just limit yourself to mobile response codes. The ease at which people can generate QR codes has been a catalyst for substantial growth in marketers and service providers integrating them across different media types. Nevertheless, mobile message marketing, mobile advertising, and more are becoming much easier to get involved with; providers need to consider these types of services when developing their mobile services strategy.

Mobile will undoubtedly continue its upward trajectory in terms of adoption and share of ad spend. Service providers need to, at a minimum, investigate if and how they should include the mobile channel within their existing suite of product and service offerings. While the aforementioned considerations only scratch the surface, they can help guide you and your clients to success with mobile.

Has your company expanded its service offerings to include mobile marketing and advertising? Share your experiences and your own key considerations in the comments!

If you’ve already made the leap to creating a mobile website for your business, we commend you. Mobile website traffic continues to rise… and it will do so even more with all of the fortunate folks that received a smartphone as a gift this holiday season.

When they interact with your company on a site that was optimized for mobile devices, they will no doubt be grateful that they don’t need to “tap-to-zoom and scroll-to-read” throughout each page of your website.

But in addition to providing a pleasant experience, you also need your mobile website to provide value to its visitors and to your company as well.  Here are three ways that you can do that successfully.

1. Add Click-to-Call and Click-To-Text Links: One of the best ways to develop an effective mobile website presence is to take advantage of the functions that really wouldn’t work as well on another device. You can do this by adding click-to-call and click-to-text links on your pages. By clicking on these links, people will be instantly brought to the appropriate application inside of your phone, to either dial you or send you a text-message.

2. Include a Form to Collect Data: One of the best ways to demonstrate the value of your desktop website is to incorporate lead-generation forms. The same can be done on a mobile website. Whether you are inviting people to request a demo, to download an eBook or White Paper, or to simply request more information, you could do this by building and adding a mobile Form. This will allow you to better serve the mobile audience that wants your information… but yet that doesn’t to deal with the hassles of zooming and scrolling to get it.

3. Incorporate Images that Links to Maps with Directions: Does your business have a retail location? Will you be exhibiting or attending a trade show or conference? If so, you can use your mobile website to direct people there. Simply include an image of a map on a page inside of your mobile website. Then, grab a URL that will link to a site such as Mapquest for the appropriate address. Simply link the image to that URL, and you’ll make it a lot easier for people to find out where they need to go right from their phones.

These are just a few ways that you can increase interactions on your mobile website. I hope that you find these tips helpful!

“Get near any group of marketing professionals and you’re likely to hear a chorus of ‘mobile.’” In fact, mobile is pretty much all we think about, according to a press release announcing availability of Mobile Marketing: Plans, Trends and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?

Some 560 respondents, split between corporate management and marketing/sales management professionals, spilled their thoughts to King Fish Media,  Maxymiser, HubSpot, and Junta42, the quartet that partnered to gather and publish the results of an online survey conducted April 12-27, 2011.

Among the key findings:

• The mobile market is very much in its early stages, with corporate plans in a state of flux.
• Companies are faced with a growing base of installed mobile devices.
• Thirty-three percent of companies currently have a mobile strategy in place, and among those who don’t, they plan to have one ready within the next 12 months. Note: for a round-up of corporate strategies and attitudes toward mobile (curated by CMO.com), check out  this link featuring dozens of articles related to mobile marketing.
• While only about 12 percent of brands’ marketing is spent on mobile, 82 percent plans to increase their spending on mobile over the next year, with 30 percent snatching dollars from the mainstream marketing and advertising budgets.
• Most commonly, brands are using mobile initiatives to build/grow relationships, which explains why the most popular mobile content (for now) trends to social media networking, branded content for distribution, and mobile enabled email..

Additional findings:

• About 75% of companies are planning apps using the iPhone platform vs. Android (45 percent), iPad (41 percent) and BlackBerry(41 percent).
• Looking out 12 months, interest in iPad (76 percent) and Android (75 percent) rises significantly, while iPhone and BlackBerry stay flat.
• Interestingly, 68 percent of companies have no plans to develop apps using the Windows operating system.
• Social media, branded content, email, geo-location/maps, and general reference are most often mentioned as applications being executed as part of a mobile initiative.
• Original branded content, ads, expert content, and videos are the types of content used most often in mobile format.
• Commerce over mobile channels is slow to take hold among respondents. Less than 20 percent of respondents said they are currently conducting mobile commerce, mostly over a mobile website. Interest does rise for 2012.
• Relationship marketing (customer loyalty and retention) is at the heart of the perceived benefits of mobile marketing.
• In terms of ROI for current mobile programs, 24 percent report that it has exceeded or performed as expected and a full one third have not measured it at all.
• Forty-one percent say future mobile marketing programs will need to show a positive return to continue the program and 34 percent say they will be tracking it, but a positive return will not be required at this time.

“The mobile marketplace has gotten the attention of marketers as a valuable media platform, but it is also still taking shape and in its early stages,” explains Gordon Plutsky, director of marketing and research, King Fish Media. “This report will hopefully offer some clarity on the direction of this developing communications channel, so that marketers can react in ways both prescient and strategic.”

For more industry info and for free whitepapers… click here!

According to Steve Snyder, chief sales and strategy officer, Consent Media, well crafted mobile campaigns have 2.6x the ROI of corresponding email campaigns. In his presentation “Using Mobile Marketing to Drive Print Sales and Expand Client Relationships” at Print Solutions 2011, he presented audiences with the following chart:

This is an ROI of 2.6x for every dollar spent.

Why is the ROI for mobile much higher than email? From what we understand about mobile campaigns, the power comes from the opt-in. People are very possessive of their mobile phone numbers. If they opt in, they’re your very best prospects. They are the most likely to respond to your offers, and when they do, they spend more money. Hence the near-triple response rate of 8% and higher per-order revenue.

People have to opt into email, too, but the nature of email communication is very different. When I look at my own inbox, I get some 200+ emails per day. Email is much higher volume and far less personal. Years ago, most of my email was sent by individuals to me individually. Today, it’s almost exclusively coming from lists: e-newsletters, press releases, industry news, and spam. I can ignore it for months on end.

Texting is a different animal. I’ve seen stats that 94% of texts are viewed within four minutes. If you get in there, you’re golden. Big difference.

You may never become a major supplier of mobile campaigns, but it’s important to understand how and why mobile works so you can integrate it with print. After all, how do your clients get mobile numbers? Print ads, direct mail, flyers, posters, cups, and other printed materials. So you may drive mobile campaigns yourself, but even if your aren’t the mobile provider, you need to get in there when the mobile campaigns are created so you can be the one doing the print that drives it.

I recently read a blog post about someone’s positive experience with QR codes in Home Depot. He was thrilled that while shopping in the store’s garden center he was able to scan QR codes to find out more about how to plant and take care of plants, trees, vegetables, and fruit. He was over the moon about it. Me? Not so much.

Lowe’s is doing something similar, and I, too, scan the code during my shopping trip. But unlike this writer, who apparently makes shopping decisions based on planting instructions, I scanned the code because I was hoping to see the bush I was thinking about buying in full bloom at full size. I wanted to see what — after it was planted — it would look like.

As in Home Depot, what I got was lots of planting instructions and plant care. I appreciated the effort, but that’s not the kind of information I need. I need to see what the bush actually looks like. Not just the little square showing the flowers in bloom they have on the tag. I want to see the entire plant in a landscape somewhere.

After all, I’m not planting the bush in the store. I’m making a buying decision.

When we talk to our customers about QR codes, it’s important to talk to them about why someone would scan the code. It’s not all about benefits to the marketer. It’s about benefits to the person using the code— at the moment they are most likely to be scanning the code (like standing in the aisle surrounded by perennials in the Lowe’s garden center).

For that, you have to get inside their minds.  It’s not, “What can we put on there that’s cool?” It’s what does that person who is scanning the code need at that exact moment? What type of information would exceed their expectations at the moment they scan the code?

That’s marketing — and if they want to be successful using QR codes, those are the kinds of questions we should be encouraging marketers to ask.

Everybody is talking about mobile marketing these days. From the perspective of the print provider, this transition is a threat to print. But does it need to be?

In order for your customers to send out mobile marketing campaigns, they need to gather mobile phone numbers. How are they going to do that? Marketers cannot buy these numbers. Consumers must provide them. They must sign up. Opt in. How are marketers — your customers — going to get them to do that? Often, it’s through print!

Think about all of the case studies you’ve read about mobile marketing. Think about the examples you see in your own life. How are marketers getting people to opt in with their mobile phone numbers? They are printing — yes, printing — offers on direct mail, posters, paper cups, tabletop tents, billboards. (“Text BESTOFFEREVER to 12345!”)

Basic text marketing is not complicated. Marketers have been doing it for years. What’s changed is the explosion of inexpensive third-party providers to make it happen. Even the smallest marketer can afford a text messaging program these days. So partner with one of the zillion text messaging providers and get your customers into mobile marketing in the most simple, basic way possible. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated to be successful.

Are you going to make a ton of money doing mobile marketing? Probably not. But in order to gather mobile numbers, your customers are going to have to print. So while selling basic mobile marketing programs might not be profitable, the print jobs necessary to gather the mobile phone numbers to drive them just might be.