Posts Tagged ‘advertising’
Text message coupons for Restaurants – A Powerful, Cost-Effective Marketing Tool
April 3, 2012
In our economic slump, restaurants are finding it harder and harder to market themselves. The fact is that people are going out to eat less, and spending less when they do. This has placed a heavy burden upon restaurant owners to get people into their restaurants without spending a lot of money. Conventional means of advertising (Print, TV, radio) are extremely expensive and have limited response rates. However, there is good news. A new from of advertising is sweeping the marketing world by storm: text message advertising.
Text message marketing reaches the user via standard SMS messages. This creates a very personal medium that is always a “vibrate away” from the consumer. In order for the consumer to receive these messages, they must opt-in (sign up) for the service. This means that they have shown enough of an interest in the service to be willing to receive further information from it on their cell phones. This brings us to the world of Text coupons for restaurants.
SMS coupons give you the benefit of being able to send your discount or promotion instantly at the exact time you want. Imagine this: a dad is on his way home from working, thinking about dinner. His phone goes off and it is a coupon for your restaurant offering an incentive to come in for dinner (ex: “PizzaPlanet: Family Night! 25% your entire food bill with a party of 3 or more. Valid tonight only! Tell your friends!” ) His decision is practically made for him! An hour later he shows up at your door with four hungry customers.
For a very low cost, restaurant owners can send text messages to their prospective customers with an incentive to come in, with the imperative call to action to show up today. With very little effort, a text message coupon service for restaurants can send the SMS coupons for you.
So why look into text message coupons? Studies put text message advertising response rate at 20% with some response rates up to 75%! (Carrabba’s Italian restaurant recently ran a promotion and got a 62% response rate on their promotion!) At a time where people are spending less at restaurants, you have to be different and implement new and creative ways to promote yourself. For restaurants, Text coupons are the best alternative to tired and worn out conventional advertising.
Jeffrey Arnold is a nationally recognized SMS marketing and search engine marketing expert. He will work with you directly to formulate the most powerful SMS marketing campaign possible. Visit his site for a FREE TRIAL of his industry leading software and try the service to determine if using SMS marketing and SMS coupons is for you.
A Short Guide To Locating The Greatest Free App Builder Out There
January 6, 2012
Even though it has only been going on for a few months, more and more businesses are starting to rely on mobile apps as a way of staying in touch with their customers and expanding their company. This is such a rich arena and there are so many people using apps these days it is a perfect fit for a lot of companies. Here are some benefits you can expect.
The primary benefit that people get out of this practice is the fact that they are able to interact with their customers in a whole new way. Many clients of small businesses don’t want to be bothered through e-mail or telephone. They don’t want to be contacted these ways anymore. But a mobile app is an inoffensive way of keeping in touch, and is something that a lot of clients can get on board with.
Because of the sheer size of the mobile apps community, it’s also common to discover that businesses create these apps as a way of getting more exposure to their companies. This is actually quite common and a successful way of finding new clients. The mobile app world is huge right now and getting bigger every day so it never hurts to put yourself out there and see what happens.
When you’re looking for the right app developer it’s important that you find someone who is able to give you a preview of what you’re going to be buying. These free previews are a great way of knowing whether or not the app that you’re thinking of buying is going to be worth the price and worthwhile for your company in the long run. Just make sure you get a look at the final product before you buy.
You should also be critical of the price that you’re going to get from any given app developer. There are so many different app developers out there and they are all going to be offering a slightly different price point. The key in this situation is to make sure that you have studied each one carefully, know what you need and know what you want to buy. Then you’ll end up making a good decision every time.
If you’re trying to find the best free app builders out there, you’ve come to the right place. Visit our website where you can learn more about our top-quality free app builders software right now.
The Difference Between Generic and Expert Web Directories
September 1, 2011
An important part of marketing and development for a company is considering how to get traffic to their web site. One of the most important ways that a company can do this is to use web directories. The benefit of a web directory is that it can increase the number of people that come across the site. It is an important tool that allows for more people to be able to find a company and visit their site, allowing for a larger market for a company. As with all things, some web directories are more effective than other web directories.
Many web directories utilize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in ensuring that they are marketing the right sites to the right consumers. SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or web page in search engines. SEO is a complex system that considers how search engines work and then looks at what people search for. This type of technology is able to offer ways to speed-up a website. It is important to also look at the options available for search engines. By selecting the right directory and the right search engine you will have a must greater chance of bringing the right people to your site.
Generic search engines and web directories can often lead a consumer to “content farms”, which often have poor quality and little to recommend them. Many popular companies such as Google and Bing are working to ensure that their search engines are not clogged by spam such as “content farms”. Another important alternative is listing your site in an expert web directory which can help you to increase the likelihood that your site will be high enough in the search lists to be one that consumers will be drawn to. Search engines have many different categories to search within and specific industries, such as the dental industry also have industry specific search engines.
The web address itself is one way to market your site – an easy way to distinguish it is to add a professional HTML listing ending the website with something like /health/dental-health/ which classifies the site as being very specific to the dental field. With this type of approach, it would be hard for a consumer to mistake the website for something that it is not. It would ensure that people are finding the right information reducing the number of unproductive traffic and ensuring that directories are able to target the right audiences. Some directories require specific requirements to be met as well.
With little to no cost, and some research into the options available, it is easy for companies to ensure that they are getting the correct traffic to their website. Other options that are quite successful and happen often involve sharing links on your website to other professionals, offices you might refer clients to or that might compliment the services that you offer. Local business directories are often a great way to get people onto your site as well and help to increase word of mouth. Local business directories would be expert web directories that would assure that the right market was being targeted.
AssistMedic provides search engine optimization to children dental practices in Toronto Dundas. If you are a cosmetic Toronto Danforth dentist you can try their promotion services.
Are More Advertisers Shifting To Social And Mobile Investment?
July 8, 2011
In today’s world technology is taking a leading role in the forefront of society. From our day-to-day lives through to marketing and advertising, the constant advancements in technology are perpetuating a shift in thinking and investments. One of the shifts making itself more than known in the marketing world is the shift taking place from investing in traditional media to social and mobile media.
The internet of course has been one, if not the most revolutionising of technologies in the last few decades, and even though it’s been around for quite some time, it continues to not only assert a certain level of investment dominance over traditional media forms, but it seems it may be increasing its dominance. Statistics show that the combined daily circulation of the Wall Street Journal, USAToday, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post equates to only 36% of the average daily unique visitors (19 million) of Facebook. It is social media sites such as Facebook that have revolutionised the internet and its global usage.
Jon Peddie states in his online article The Social Web and Its Implications that, “The Social Web is not just a fad; it is a fundamental shift in how humans communicate, interact, collaborate, create, inform themselves, prioritize, organize, buy, sell, and play. It is your customers, your friends, your family, your employees, your constituents, your shareholders, and, like it or not, you.” These points reflect a strong recognition of a shift in customer use of Social and Mobile media formats to buy, sell and inform themselves of upcoming products and services and as such it is appropriate that marketers and advertising campaigns find themselves shifting their investments towards these newer and more innovative media avenues.
Other companies such as Verve Wireless are shifting Millions of dollars from traditional marketing to social and mobile marketing. What is important to recognise here, is that Mobile and Social media have been experiencing marketing dollars invested in them for a while. However, what we are beginning to see now, are all the makings of a fully-fledged advertising revolution. Not only are marketers investing more in social and mobile media, but they are doing so at the expense of traditional marketing mediums. This in all actuality should come as no surprise to most of us. Considering the percentage of the world’s population that own mobiles, considering how often we carry our mobiles with us as well as their access to social media content, it was only a matter of time until marketers began to look into shifting the focus of their advertising campaigns from traditional media to social and mobile media.
Media itself is changing. It develops in direct relation to technology and the possibilities technology allows in engaging and interacting with customers. As such, marketing is shifting its sights onto new media formats such as mobile and social media at the expense of traditional media. The dawn of a new marketing era is well upon us.
Learn more about Mobile Marketing. Stop by www.txt2get.com where you can find out all about mobile and social media marketing and what it can do for you.
Is Mobile a Medium or Merely a Strategy?
June 8, 2011
Well, let us try to break it down a bit before trying to answer. First, what are the respective definitions for the terms “medium” and “strategy”?
* A “medium” can be defined as “a publication or broadcast that carries advertising” or “a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment.”
A ‘Strategy’ can be defined as “A process through which, desired outcomes, objectives and goals can be achieved, consciously and systematically, over time.”
If there is anything that these two definitions tell us, it is that there is a good reason why defining mobile has been difficult. Both definitions seem to neatly correspond to the nature of mobile as a marketing tool.
I myself use both terms when discussing mobile commerce, however, I often break down my use of the terms based upon certain elements. I personally see mobile marketing as a medium. Like Television, Radio, Signage, Print, Internet and so on, Mobile is an independent channel through which advertising campaigns can be undertaken. I believe the term “strategy” refers mostly to the specific and unique thinking, planning, and resources attributed with an advertising campaign. In the case of mobile, marketers will develop a strategy with mobile as the medium, and therefore, the strategy is a mobile strategy. “Mobile” is termed “mobile” because of the devices in which campaigns are executed. Cell phones, Smartphones, Blackberrys, Tablets, the list goes on, but what all of these devices clearly trigger in the mind is a sense of mobility. It is my belief that this mobility defines the medium as “mobile,” and as this medium is “mobile,” marketers have to establish strategies specifically in order to achieve the desired outcomes from this medium.
Of course, defining Mobile as a “medium” or a “strategy” is far more than toying with semantics. I propose that to define mobile as merely a “strategy” would seriously demean its legitimacy as an advertising agent. Mobile is one of today’s most dominant, successful and global advertising solutions. It is constantly adapting and evolving to suit customer demands and is revolutionising the world of commerce. Somehow, I do not believe a “strategy” could be credited for this. mobile advertising is a medium, through which communications, entertainment, information, video, photos, social networking and so much more can be relayed. It is a medium that has brought the world of commerce into a new era, and a medium that continues to push the imagination of the mobile marketing world.
This article was written by Alex Speirs of TXT2GET, a leading mobile marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase advertising response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get advice on how mobile marketing can improve your business’ advertising.
SMS Email Marketing
June 1, 2011
Email SMS is a short and sweet message usually sent from a business that offers a promotion, coupon, or event invitation. Everyone texts to each others phone but consumers do not refer to texting as SMS. In the business realm SMS is texting and is used to send out real value immediately to a highly motivated super fan base to increase return on investment. The best place for SMS marketing is within local business.
SMS marketing is not for everyone but local businesses can almost always use this service. The way a local business can benefit the most when using SMS texting services is by offering valuable coupon offers to those who choose to sign up. Contests can also be used in which a text message sent to a number is the entry. After a few hundred numbers have been entered into the system a prize can be sent out. Once the list is built coupon offers can then be sent whenever the local business decides to do so.
The main thing to do when sending out your first few text messages to your customer base it to put in there the option to opt out of future text messages by texting STOP. With any list some people will opt in to it without really understanding what they are doing. For instance, you may opt in to getting coupons for barbecue sandwiches at your favorite BBQ place but later you may hate getting those messages. Even though you hate text messages you still love BBQ and the sooner you allow that fan to opt out the happier he will be.
Always offer a way for your customers to opt out of SMS messages you send to them. You may have someone opt in who truly loves everything about your business but they have a terrible text plan on their cell phone. If you send 10 text messages a month you may be costing that person $5 per month. The person probably didn’t realize the unintended consequences of subscribing to an SMS list so letting people know standard data and text rates will apply may help reduce disgruntled customers.
In conclusion an SMS marketing strategy can be created with little know how as long as value is offered. Be sure to not only offer value but outline the benefits so you essentially talk your customers into your doors through their phone. An SMS subscriber list usually already loves the business sending them messages but they need to be reminded of this and coaxed back in the doors through real honest to goodness value.
SMS Email marketing is new for most small businesses but has amazing results when done right and when value is given. To read more about this topic please visit these additional sites: Telecommunications Services
Google vs. Apple in Mobile Marketing Venture: Mobile Payment
May 31, 2011
Google released the news yesterday that their new mobile marketing venture is to create a mobile payment system, possibly for release before Apple’s.
Google has already adventured into mobile marketing with advertisements for AdWords featuring mobile marketing. Google used an advertising call-to-action to encourage readers to text in response to the ads. In return, they received a mobile coupon worth $50 on any AdWords account- a smart marriage of search engine advertising and mobile marketing.
Let’s go back to the mobile payments. Mobile marketing professionals have been all abuzz about emerging mobile payment solutions for a while already. What is different now that Google is in the mobile marketing race too? Probably because they can use it to get ahead of the other juggernaut. That’s right, apparently Apple are also trialling a mobile payment tool. Drew Sievers, CEO of mFoundry, comments on Google’s strategic development:
“I think they are trying to steal a march on Apple and get out there a bit sooner,” he said.
As an emergent technology, there are still kinks in the system. Since the mobile payments run through MasterCard, the mobile marketing venture is unlikely to work for anyone without a MasterCard account. Another potential problem for consumers (though one which suits Google very well) is that the mobile payment system only works through Android handsets. Whether this will change in the future is unclear, but ultimately Google will need to make this mobile marketing venture a viable one, says Jagdish Rebello, senior director of IHS iSuppli, California.
“The solution essentially provides a commercial trial of the technology and is a good first step,” he said.
This article was written by Emma Rose Smith of TXT2GET, a leading mobile marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase ad response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get free advice on how mobile marketing can improve your business’ advertising.
US Mobile Marketing Report: 1/3 of Android, iPhone Apps Used Before Getting Out of Bed
May 20, 2011
According to the report, which was presented at Ericsson Business Innovation Forum in Silicon Valley on May 11, Facebook is one of the most common apps used. This should come as no surprise to anyone: 18% of the users surveyed logged in to Facebook upon waking. What does this report mean for mobile marketing?
Most interestingly, the study tells us that when communicating with customers, mobile marketing content is more important than the actual mode of communication. The decreased importance of communication vessel is one feature of digital media that will support the use of mobile marketing: while just having a mobile phone used to be enough, now a huge focal point is what the phone can do apart from calling and texting. Apps and the mobile Web are being used socially more and more, and they can also be the channel for successful mobile marketing campaigns. Ericsson also went into the implications of their report for mobile marketing apps:
“Consumers today depend less on the devices they use, and more on the apps that help them… to find a place to eat, organize their family schedules and other everyday activities. The app culture is turning into a new way of living.”
Compared to other apps such as those for Red Bull, Absolut Vodka and Nike, Facebook’s app isn’t classified as mobile marketing because it doesn’t market a specific product or service. However, the prevalence of app usage while still in bed signals that we are engaging in new ways with our mobile devices. When people find themselves near-constantly connected to apps and the mobile Web, mobile marketing is no longer just a peripheral marketing technique. Mobile marketing activities (such as apps, mobile Web sites, and SMS marketing) are now, for many of us, a part of daily life.
This article was written by Emma Smith of TXT2GET, a leading mobile marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase ad response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get free advice on how mobile marketing can improve your business’ advertising.
Mobile Marketing Investment on the Rise
May 15, 2011
The shift in mobile marketing spend is coming at the expense of more traditional advertising channels as an increasingly mobile consumer base demands more from the businesses they interact with. With a more tech savvy consumer comes a new set of demands on executives, and those listening to the calls for mobile marketing are staying ahead of their competitors.
While the big players have been working with mobile marketing for some time, the smaller businesses are recognizing that they need to make the move. With the low entry costs and ease of adoption, mobile marketing is also a great tool in uncertain financial times. The most cost effective to keep your business growing in a recession is to find those tools that are the most effective for the least spend, with the best of these tools being mobile marketing.
A big industry player has announced they intend to invest heavily in a mobile marketing campaign. The investment indicates the importance of mobile marketing in future business planning and development. This business sees a shift towards mobile marketing in the future, and they do not intend to be left behind.
Company executives announced the investment will include a heavy focus on localised mobile marketing campaigns. With enhanced reporting allowed by mobile marketing platforms, businesses are able to use their campaigns to find out more about their consumers: what they want and how best to service them in the future.
The investment is a clear indicator that Verve see mobile marketing as important in the development of successful advertising campaigns.
This article was written by Angela Mabey of TXT2GET, a leading mobile marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase ad response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get free advice on how mobile marketing can improve your business’ advertising.
Smartphones, social networking and SMS: what they mean for mobile marketing
May 10, 2011
The Forrester report found that 23% of Americans aged 18-44 own a smartphone. Across all age groups, 17% own a smartphone; a jump of over 11% since one year ago.
Along with the adoption of the smartphone technology, consumers are changing their data usage and are more likely to have taken on a larger data plan. This tech + data equation is increasing the demand for mobile marketing, to get businesses exposure in front of consumers who are spending larger amounts of time on their phones. The Report also concludes that this key group will continue to drive mobile technology adoption, which is a significant insight for mobile marketing strategists.
Younger people are living a more mobile life, with over 80% of this group sending and receiving text messages regularly. While Generation Y is ahead of the rest, the rate of mobile usage is increasing with 57% of all US consumers over 18 texting. This is particularly significant for the most popular form of mobile marketing: SMS. If people are comfortable using SMS for social purposes, they are more likely to do so for business and sales interactions also.
Generation Y users access social networks on their mobile devices at a rate of 27%, compared to 14% of all US consumers. 32% of Generation Y access the mobile Internet, compared to 23% of all US consumers.
Researchers warned that while it might be tempting for mobile marketing to only target Generation Y; older consumers are also adopting mobile use, just not as swiftly. The researchers concluded that while perhaps more work is required to communicate with older consumers via mobile marketing, they are increasingly mobile, with generally a higher rate of disposable income.
This article was written by Angela Mabey of TXT2GET, a leading mobile marketing company. TXT2GET supply affordable SMS keywords that typically increase ad response by 2-3x. SMS keywords also bring measurability & accountability to advertising, because you can see the exact time and date that responses come in. Click on the link to get advice on how mobile marketing can improve your business’ advertising.