White Paper: Tips on Mobile Marketing
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on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 
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I’m happy to announce the release of our latest White Paper, “Mobile Marketing: Grabbing Consumers on the Go!”
If you are looking for ways to incorporate mobile into your marketing efforts, please download your free copy today.
How It Helps
We live in a mobile culture. Whether your customers are businesses or consumers, devices such as smartphones and tablets are changing when, why, and how they are searching, finding, and consuming information.
In this White Paper, we provide an overview of technologies that you can use to market effectively to the ever-growing mobile audience. The White Paper covers items such as:
- QR Codes
- Mobile Websites
- SMS/Text-Messaging
- Mobile Social Media
- Mobile SEO
- And more…
How Can You Get It? And How Much Does it Cost?
Those questions are easy to answer.
First of all, it’s free! Simply head over to our registration page to receive your copy.
Tags Three Ways that a Printer Could Benefit By Using SMS/Text
If you have been to any marketing-related conferences over the past year, I’m sure you’d agree that mobile has been a very popular topic.
Companies of all sizes are looking for information on QR Codes, mobile websites, mobile apps, and more. In addition to those items, there inevitably is a speaker at these conferences that will say this: “Don’t ignore SMS/Text! More people use that than they do the mobile web”.
It certainly can be motivating to hear those quotes and to read articles like this one. But how can you actually implement SMS/Text into your business?
Here are three ideas on how a printer could incorporate SMS/Text into their marketing, sales, and customer support activities.
Notification When A Job is Ready
Most of the printers that I work with send notification via email when a job is ready. In addition to that email, it may be worth considering sending a text-message to the customer at that time as well.
Of course, this may not make sense for all jobs. But here are a few scenarios where SMS may prove to be helpful:
- When the job was flagged as Rush/Urgent
- When the job will be picked up by a customer
- When the job will be delivered by the printer & sign-off is required
Yes, email or a phone call could certainly be used in those situations too. But as more and more people turn to SMS to communicate about all sorts of activities, this may be a way for a printer to also share information with their customer in a channel that they may prefer using.
To Share Information About Specials
Certainly, a business does not want every marketing initiative to be related to pricing specials and discounts. However, those can still be used from time-to-time to create buzz, garner attention, and increase sales.
Many printers are using email and social media to promote their specials. Another way to do that would be through SMS/Text. Since most pricing deals only have a short-window of time, SMS/Text can prove to be an effective way to get your customer’s attention very quickly.
Of course, the message we send out should do more than just provide details of the discount… Make sure that you include a way for them to redeem it!
To Gain Feedback After A Job/Project is Complete
We all want to generate repeat business. To do this, we often have to reach out to customers after a job has been done, seek to get their feedback, and then offer/recommend other activities that we could help them with.
One challenge in accomplishing that is finding the time — both for us (in this case, the printer) and the customer. Using SMS to initiate that conversation could prove to be an effective option for us.
For one, the text message most likely will get noticed by the customer. Also, it may provide the customer with a very quick way to provide feedback. (Many post-job follow-ups that I have seen come in the form of an email that often link to a survey that ask 10 questions!)
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These are just a few ideas on how SMS/Text could be used to help improve marketing, sales, and customer support initiatives.
Have you found anything else that works? If so, please let me know in the comments below!
Emerging Technologies in Mobile Marketing: NFC, QR, and More…
Our CEO John Foley, Jr. had the privilege of speaking at Margie Dana’s Print and Media Conference recently in Chicago. His presentation was titled “Emerging Technologies in Mobile Marketing”.
John covered topics such as Near Field Communications (NFC), QR Codes, SMS, mobile websites and mobile search, smartphones, tablets, and more.
Below are a copy of the slides that John presented. If you have any questions about the topics that are covered, please let us know!
3 Ways Printers Can Reach the Mobile Audience
Canalys recently published its worldwide Q2 2011 smart phone market estimates and the results are impressive… although maybe not surprising.
Across the world, the smartphone market grew 73% year-on-year. More than 107.7 million units were shipped in the second quarter of 2011.
These statistics are important to all businesses, including printers and suppliers. Smartphones are changing the way people search, find, and consume information. When they turn to their phone to find a printer or a supplier, will their experience with your company be a pleasant one?
Here are three things that you can start doing today effectively reach that mobile audience:
Create a Mobile Website
A smartphone makes it easy for people to do a lot of things that they typically did on other devices… and that includes searching, browsing, and buying products & services on the web.
Thus, your company will want to invest time and resources into creating a mobile website as soon as possible.
This will involve some technical decisions as well as discussions on what content and features should be included. But it should be a high priority to accomplish that task! Your mobile website should provide important and relevant information for potential customer may need to learn about your company in a hurry.
Incorporate QR Codes into your Printed Materials
Print still has the ability to play a very important role in creating awareness and demand for a company’s products and services.
By adding QR Codes to your printed materials — including business cards, brochures, direct mail, flyers, signs, and more — companies can take advantage of the emotion and interest that a printed piece might stir up in a smartphone owner.
Start Building a Mobile Database
Yes, it’s true that people do not need smartphones to receive text-messages from your company. But I do believe that people with smartphones are more apt to receive push notifications (whether through an app or via SMS) more than someone that has a traditional feature phone.
Thus, start running campaigns that will collect important mobile phone-related details from your customers and prospects today, so that you can reach them through other methods in the future. You may be able to send them SMS/Text notifications about events, company news, or information on a specific print job.
Event News: Emerging Technologies in Mobile Marketing
On Tuesday, September 13th, I’ll have the opportunity take part in the 6th Annual Print & Media Conference. I know that Margie Dana has been working extremely hard to put this event together and I think that it will absolutely rock.
I also have the privilege of speaking at the event on the topic of “Emerging Technologies in Mobile Marketing”.
Here is a brief video on some of the things that I’ll be covering:
