MixMobi Blog

Quick Response Codes: Doing It Right!

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:56:43 -0500

Recently I blasted a national magazine for their inept use of Quick Response codes:

None of the promotions delivered anything of immediate value to the reader
Most required the reader to fill in lengthy forms
Several directed the reader to desktop-only websites

One advertiser sent me an email this week. I had “won” a $5 off coupon (which I need to print to redeem) seven weeks after filling out their very lengthy form. In this case the Q in QR stands for “Quagmire.”

This week I want to celebrate a publisher using Quick Response codes right. MSP Magazine’s first digital issue, July 2010, includes several QR codes. The Neoreader codes deliver readers:

Strong editorial content coordinated with the issue, including videos
Offers instantly usable on reader’s mobile phone

Aside from optional, fast opt-in’s, MSP Magazine demanded no long form-filling exercises of the reader. And every piece of content was immediate.

For readers on the go, sampling content using QR or 2D codes, keep it fresh, fast and immediate. Great job!

(Disclosure: MSP Magazine is a client of MixMobi, which was used to create and share content via QR codes in their July issue.)

Beyond the Sugar High

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 11:25:44 -0500

At the beginning of every trend, businesses experience the “Gee Whiz” moment when doing anything related to the trend is enough. And the flashier, the better.

But over time, the sugar high passes. The experiment turns out to be the P&L equivalent of empty calories.

Typically businesses next start to explore how this newest development can generate revenue and earn its keep.

Anyone watching social media recently has seen this arc. Companies are now far more hard-nosed about Facebook and Twitter practices than they were one year ago. And now, mobile in the US is entering its post-sugar-high phase.

Tomi Ahonen’s razor sharp analysis of the likelihood of making money from iPhone applications last week kicked up lively discussion that marks this transition.

(The analysis itself is well worth your time. It was also intelligently commented on in Kevin Tofel’s column in GigaOm and by Kevin Kelleher in Big Money.)

Ahonen painstakingly assembles solid data and asserts that the average developer makes about $3,000 per year on an app. Worse yet, de-averaging the numbers leads to the estimate that most developers will make less than $700.

But it’s not just developers who should be paying attention. The same realities apply to companies as well. The disenchantment with standalone mobile applications is your signal to insist on two new standards. Every mobile initiative must:

Preserve precious customer information. When you find a platform, operating system or promotion that does not allow you (or your client) to retain consumer information like phone numbers or email addresses, stop and find an alternative that does.
Be architected to make a return on your mobile investment. Sometimes, one component of your overall mobile approach will be a loss leader of course. But the entire suite of coordinated mobile platforms must make money overall.

Want an example? Here’s a great concept for transforming what would otherwise be a loss into on-going profit. Store-locator smartphone application on multiple platforms are expensive. And of course consumers expect it to be free. But for any large, multi-unit chain, it’s a must-have on mobile.

But how can you turn those expensive smartphone applications into a profit center? Take a page from traditional retail co-op marketing, such as Sunday newspaper circulars.

Does your company sell other firms’ branded merchandise? Charge suppliers for promotional space on your mobile store locator platform. That’s a win for you and a win for your suppliers as well. Over time, charging for access will both stimulate those suppliers’ sales in your stores and create on-going profit for you.

Ultimately, a new technology or technique doesn’t mean we throw out our core businesses practices. The best results come from applying solid profitability expectations to all new opportunities.

Photo credit: Leafar, 2008

(Disclosure: Tomi Ahonen sits on MixMobi’s Advisory Board.)

No Matter Where Your Customer Is...

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:55:06 -0500

Not so very long ago, we associated mobile use exclusively with being out-of-home. After all, why would you need a mobile at home when your landline was at-hand?

We know more and more households (now 1 in 4 according to the CDC) are going “mobile-only.” This story has always implied simple substitution of one device for another.

But the narrative is actually more interesting than landlines going the way of the thatched roof.

Agency Initiatives, surveying 8,000 mobile owners in Italy, Sweden, U.K., U.S., Australia, China, India and South Korea, found that 60% of mobile use takes place in the home.

Even factoring in landline substitution use among 25% of Americans, this is a startling statistic. More astounding yet:

50% of respondents reported surfing the mobile web while watching television or listening to radio
Over 30% browse the mobile web at home as they use their PC, or read newspapers or magazines

Too often mobile is considered an also-ran, a leading-edge initiative or an experimental “toe in the water.” But clearly mobile should be considered an adjunct to any tv, radio, or print campaign, leveraging messages and engaging consumers further.

Image credit: Alan Godfree, Creative Commons License

Whose Garden?

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:05:45 -0500

As readers of our blog know, I write often about the virtues and traps of “walled garden” approaches to mobile. Today, instead of writing about closed vs open, I’m going to ask you to think about a different aspect: in whose mobile garden will your clients and customers live?

Recently a client with whom we have been exploring mobile marketing related an interesting experience.

He had been approached by a text message provider with a marketing solution for small restaurant chains. The pricing was appealing and the service sounded convenient. The catch? The merchant would never have access to his customers’ mobile number and never be able to port those numbers to a different solution. For him, lack of access to and control of his customers’ information was a deal-breaker.

In more subtle forms, this occurs frequently in mobile marketing (and with group deals marketing as well). The flow of activities and benefits for the merchant look strong and the pricing is reasonable.

But, like asking “Who Benefits?”, ask yourself: who will own my customers’ data? If a trend like location-based check-ins proves popular with your customer base, can you quickly and smoothly migrate to continue to provide mobile offers on another platform? Will you be able to adapt your data and your promotions to a trend we haven’t even heard of yet? And who truly owns and controls the monetization of offers — you the agency or merchant, or the solution provider?

As interesting as the perennial walled / open garden argument continues to be, be sure to also ask yourself in whose garden your mobile marketing will occur — and who will reap the biggest benefits over time.

Photo credit: Chris Wimbush, licensed for reuse under Creative Commons

Creating Mobile Offers is Now Even Easier

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:41:28 -0500

Tonight we deployed a new set of features to make it even easier (and fun!) to create and maintain Offers and MixMarts in MixMobi.

These new features include:

Adding/removing offer elements (text, headers, images, links) at any time
Drag & Drop reordering of offer elements
When creating a new offer, easily select between offer templates we provide, copying one of your existing offers or start with a blank offer
More consistent user experience overall
Better printing handling of offers (and yes, there still are a fair amount of people who print off electronic offers)

We know our customers are going to put together some really creative offers with this new flexibility. Please try it out and let us know how what you think!

The most exciting opportunities in mobile?

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:11:39 -0500

Lars Erik Holmquist, of the Mobile Life Centre in Kista, Sweden, wrote an insightful piece titled “The Age of the Mobile Mash-Up” in Crunchgear last week:

“This is where I believe the most exciting opportunities lie right now in mobile applications: picking and mixing from hundreds of mobile web services and social networks, moving the grunt work from the handsets to the cloud, and adding a dash of location and context-awareness. …the step from thought to users is shorter than ever. We are finally entering the age of the mobile mash-up, and it will all be happening at even greater speed than the Web 2.0 revolution.”

In a world in which many are only starting to pay attention to mobile marketing, it’s important to note that the biggest opportunities lie not in locking down, but in opening up. Since emerging from beta three months ago, we have started to see this phenomenon mature.

Big clients understand that they they can assemble open API utilities to present unique, valued mobile services to consumers, while leveraging the massive investment they have made in databases (for example, store locators). Combined with co-op marketing with their suppliers, for example, the mobile cloud can provide profitable, location-aware opportunities easily and fluidly to all web-enabled mobiles.

Similarly, small businesses are learning that mobile promotions that are not open and do not give them access to opt-in databases will keep them from building their business. I was pleased this week when a marketer working with us mentioned rejecting a mobile marketing firm that would not give his client opt-in mobile numbers. The business owner shrewdly understood that just buying the messaging wasn’t the point of the mobile marketing exercise; the point is long-term engagement.

How about you? Do you have a compelling opportunity to assemble existing services easily and quickly to meet your specific requirements? Are you thinking fixed and downloaded, or open and flexible? Making the most of “the most exciting opportunities” in mobile today is a new and emerging process. Ensure your business gets the most out of it.

Want Loyal Buyers?

Wed, 19 May 2010 09:07:34 -0500

A new study from iVillage and SheSpeaks highlight the “dramatic” influence that online community and digital coupons have on women buyers. Key findings:

68% of women are influenced by digital coupons
Coupons and others’ comments impact food and beverage, health and beauty, and household product purchases the most
60% of women surveyed said digital offers influenced their purchases more than one year ago

Interestingly, Facebook and Twitter, while important, were of lower influence for women than reviews, articles or blogs.

Photo credit: Mo Riza via Wikimedia

How NOT to use QR

Fri, 07 May 2010 10:08:29 -0500

I often use newer technology as it is deployed In Real Life to stay up to date with how mobile is being used in marketing.

This past week I had an experience that stunned and saddened me. So here’s my Public Service Announcement: Don’t Let This Happen to Your Brand.

A major US magazine published an interactive print version this month. Over a dozen advertisers included a Quick Response (QR) code in their ads.

I was enthused to try a Real Life QR example. Ralph Lauren has been a leader in mobile marketing, and I assumed that the magazine and its advertisers would at least be close to that high level of sophistication. (Check out why RL was named 2009 Mobile Marketer of the Year.)

Sadly, the magazine’s use of QR was worse than uninspiring. It was a total washout. How did the magazine go wrong? Let us count the ways:

Zero instant gratification Not one of the promotions gave me anything on the day I participated. Not a store locator, not a game, not a coupon. For the majority, I opted in to enter a contest for a give-away. Of the minority who offered coupons or discounts, not one delivered a coupon to my phone. Disappointed, I then assumed I would receive them through email with instructions to print the coupon. Reality is far worse: I opted in to these promotions Monday morning, May 3. As of Friday, May 7, I have received nothing - not even a simple acknowledgment of my opt-in to receive the magazine’s future promotions. A colleague predicts that I will eventually receive those coupons in a week or two… via snail mail.
Zero further call to action Similarly, almost none of the promotions had any call to action beyond entering the contest or requesting a coupon and submitting my contact information. One merchant did instruct me to go to their website using the coupon code provided to order the product. But I couldn’t do that on my smartphone because their site isn’t mobile-friendly. So the advertiser is asking me to go to the trouble of scanning the QR code to receive a code which I must remember and use on my desktop. What exactly was the point of getting that code on my mobile?
Long opt-in forms Consumers are willing to opt-in if it’s fast and easy. SMS has taught marketers that lesson. But the first promotion I opted into required me to fill in nine fields of data. What are the chances of consumers doing that routinely? Unless it’s a particularly outstanding offer, I would say very low. And remember, I’ve not yet received anything in four working days in return for that effort.
No SMS alternative call to action The magazine gave non-smartphone owners (or smartphone owners who don’t want to download the code reader software) no opportunity to interact with the promotions. (Remember that many smartphones are provided by employers who forbid downloading non-work-related apps or utilities.) Advertisers would be appalled to learn that, for a few cents more, they could have reached literally 3x or more consumers.

The sad likely outcomes of this misguided effort?

Consumers will be turned off
Advertisers will be disappointed
The publisher will get a brief “sugar high” from being perceived as progressive, but these campaigns will at best underperform, discouraging future mobile marketing experiments

I was struck to see an old-fashioned “bingo card” at the back of the magazine. Then I realized what they had done: transferred the old-fashioned reader response card to mobile. No immediate reward. No gratification. Nothing really mobile-friendly or mobile-usable. Look no further for examples of why print is languishing even as the tools for reaching readers are more numerous and exciting than ever before.

How to be a Mobile Marketing Genius

Mon, 03 May 2010 15:38:34 -0500

In addition to providing fast, easy, effective mobile offers through Software as a Service, MixMobi also consults with larger firms to integrate MixMobi in major projects.

Our goal when consulting is simple:

We want you to be confident and to feel like an expert without spending months on research.

Regardless of industry, these basics inform every recommendation:

Demographics are Fundamental Before you invest in any mobile marketing, you and your senior leadership must understand your target audience’s mobile usage. For example, a university marketing firm should be confident quoting Pew Research’s finding that “Cellphone texting has become the preferred channel of … communication between teens and their friends.” Cheat Sheet: Pew Research and Tomi Ahonen’s blog (links to both are included here) are two of my favorite sources for demographic stats related to mobile.
Smartphones are Sexy… but SMS is still The King and Social Media is the Crown Prince Smartphone applications generate $13 billion revenue worldwide to SMS’ $113 billion. Mobile measurement firm Ground Truth recently found that consumers use mobiles for social networking 60% of the time. If you are considering a mobile marketing program without an SMS or Social Media component, think again. Cheat Sheet: If you’re not sure how to use SMS or Social Media with mobile in your industry, find a competitor who uses one or both successfully. Remember why the good Lord gave you eyes: plagiarize.
Measure Twice, Execute Once Measurement is still often crude or incomplete in the mobile world, so ask any marketing provider how much time and money they have invested in results measurement for mobile campaigns. It should be substantial. Cheat Sheet: If your prospective mobile marketing provider isn’t enthused to talk about measurement, keep looking until you find a partner who is.
Know before you Go Regardless of what mobile marketing methods you choose, or what firms you engage to help you, you’re ultimately responsible for your campaign. Cheat Sheet: Particularly if you are new to mobile marketing, appoint someone on your team to ensuring your program is compliant with the Mobile Marketing Association’s Best Practices.

It’s extremely easy to be distracted from the basics. The iPad is gorgeous. I love my iPhone and am dazzled by the new HTC Incredible. The opportunities in 2D (which I spent the morning researching today) are entrancing.

But as with any discipline, it’s always the basics that will make or break your campaign. So have fun exploring, but focus on these four fundamentals. And be a Genius.

Photo: Greg Kinear in “Flash of Genius”. President Nixon and Elvis, Wikimedia.

If You Build It...

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:22:21 -0500

Earlier this week, I blogged about Morgan Stanley’s latest predictions, focusing on their observations and forecast on mobile.

We enthusiasts, hip-deep in the details (and often guilty of gazing too far into the future), need to stay grounded with where companies are today and what happens next.

For a bracing counterpoint to Morgan Stanley’s projections, I found Multichannel Merchant’s “Outlook 2010: E-Commerce” survey and ATG’s “Cross-Channel Commerce: The Consumer View” survey cited by eMarketer today:

Consumers, though they are avid cross-channel shoppers, have only embraced mobile browsing and purchasing on a small scale. Three-quarters of respondents to ATG’s “Cross-Channel Commerce: The Consumer View” survey said they never researched products on their handsets in Q4 2009.

At first glance, this appears to be a perfect antidote to Meeker’s “swing for the fences,” “don’t be left behind” mindset. (So if you’re advocating for mobile marketing within your firm, make sure your boss doesn’t see it.)

But upon further examination, the data and Meeker’s predictions are not contradictory. In fact, shoppers’ lack of mobile activity is quite predictable: no matter how much they want to browse, research or purchase via their mobiles, there’s virtually nothing provided by the merchants to support those activities. Numerous studies have repeatedly shown consumers to be highly dissatisfied with mobile interaction opportunities. Far from not being ready for mobile, consumers (even in North America) have been ready for some time.

This being the start of baseball season, I’ll leave you with this thought. As progressive retailers from Target to JC Penney are finding in mobile marketing: if you build it, they’ll already be there … waiting for you.

What Just Happened ?

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:12:57 -0500

Mary Meeker and her team at Morgan Stanley published an updated Internet Trends mega-deck yesterday. It updates her startling predictions of a few months ago. Here’s a cheat sheet to the slides you need to read to avoid being left wondering “what just happened?” in mobile marketing.

The mobile internet continues to ramp far faster than the desktop internet did. The interesting implication is that this river is rushing past you much faster than the internet did — your time-to-market margin for error with mobile is shrinking faster every day (Slide 7).
Morgan Stanley predicts mobile internet users will outnumber desktop users within five years (Slide 8). Note not just the intersection point predicted here, but the slope of each line. They also believe that this phenomenon will be “bigger than most think” with 3G, social, video, VoIP and more sophisticated mobile devices converging (Slide 22).
Social networking is surpassing email (Slide 12). Much of this phenomenon is unevenly distributed by demographic, but it’s still important to remember, especially regarding social + mobile marketing.
For you macro-econ fans: Morgan Stanley asserts that we are now two years into a ten year mobile internet computing cycle (Slide 17).
Boss still not convinced your company needs social media presence? Facebook and YouTube saw the biggest growth in share over past three years (Slide 31).
“Game-Changing” platforms integrating social networking and mobile “emerging very rapidly” (Slides 45 - 60). Skim these slides for a quick overview of many significant developments and their impacts.
Mobile phone usage is becoming more data-intensive, used less for voice over time (Slide 62).

The deck ends with this pithy prediction: “Rapid ramp of mobile internet usage will be a boon to consumers and some companies will likely win big (potentially very big) while many will wonder what just happened.”

Start Your Engines!

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:24:39 -0500

In times of tumult, we can easily get over-stimulated. Like second graders eating too many birthday party cupcakes, we get distracted by every. little. thing…and unable to get much of anything done.

Fourth quarter 2009 and first quarter 2010 have been an endless parade of distractions in mobile marketing. New devices, turf wars, what Tomi Ahonen calls a “bloodbath” in smartphones and (this past week) the iPad.

Whew. If I’d had that many distractions in grade school, I’d still be repeating long division. But now that we’re solidly into 2010, it’s time to stop being distracted and start getting mobile. More and more companies are realizing:

For once, the public is way ahead of marketers. Adam Cahill of ClicZ said it well: “many (if not most) brands are still in the ‘dipping our toes in the water’ phase when it comes to mobile. Meanwhile, consumers have cannon-balled into the deep end of the pool and aren’t looking back.” (Emphasis mine.)

Applications can be fun, and they can be an important part of the mix. But reality is that only 20% of consumers own smartphones and half of paid smartphone apps get less than 1,000 downloads. That’s just not mass marketing.

Asia is leading the way, and in many countries, well over half the 18 - 34 demographic is on social media, with most using it via mobile devices. 62 - 84% of adults 18 - 34 are on Facebook in countries including Vietnam (83%), India (79%), South Korea (75%) and Japan (67%). This tsunamic wave is rolling our way - and fast.

Steve Cannon, Mercedes-Benz USA VP of Marketing is quoted in MediaPost this week as “not in a rush to execute on social media. … It will take us time to articulate why [Mercedes Benz] is a premium product. The good news is we have time to do it.”

Mr. Cannon, if you have not started to learn your way around social media and mobile marketing, you are now standing at the starting line and the competition will lap you. Ladies and gentlemen: Start Your Engines.

Photo credit: ChilledPhill

Mobile worldwide “by the numbers” at Mobile March,...

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:35:20 -0500

Mobile worldwide “by the numbers” at Mobile March, Minneapolis, MN, March 27, 2010

Driving Miss Daisy

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:48:59 -0500

Knowing how to drive an automobile wasn’t required to participate in modern life during the first half of the 20th century.

Many men and women in particular were unlikely to know how to drive until mid-century. Women’s increasing participation in the workforce during World War II, the growth of suburbs, and the new American Interstate drove near-100% participation very quickly.

Mobile today resembles the saturation turning point for automobiles after World War II in North America.

CTIA recently reported that 91% of Americans (over 285 million) carry at least one cellphone. Subtracting pre-schoolers, we’re close to 100% market saturation.

As described in Experian Simmons’ “American Mobile Consumer Report” this week, American mobile subscribers can be grouped by mobile usage habits:

- Social Connectors (22%) These mobile users are responsible for 600% growth in Facebook use via mobiles in 2009. Communications with friends is crucial for this population and both social sites and text messaging are as (if not more) critical for them than voice.

- Mobirati (19%) This population grew up with cellphones and cannot conceive of life without one (or two!) mobile devices. They use their mobile for voice, texting, alarm clock, web browsing, social media and entertainment. Other researchers including the Pew Internet and American Life Project have noted that this segment and Social Connectors increasingly use their mobiles as their primary internet access device (vs desktop or laptop).

- Pragmatic Adopters (22%) This segment did not grow up with mobile phones, but they are learning that they are handy for more than just voice communications. The “gateway drug” into texting for this segment is staying in touch with teenage or adult children. Once there, these users are primed to discover mobile web browsing for sports, weather and news.

- Mobile Professionals (17%) Originally pioneered by brick-phone lugging sales professionals, this segment is now quite broad. Frequently Mobile Professionals’ mobile device is a smartphone (typically Blackberry) provided by their employer for work use.

- Basic Planners (20%) Behind the Pragmatic Adoptors in the learning curve, subscribers in this group only use their mobile phone for voice communications. Note that this group numbers only 1 in 5.

With 91% penetration and only 20% using their mobile only for voice communications, mobile is truly at its turning point.

The takeaway? 228,000,000 Americans are using their mobiles for more than just talk today. In a few short years, use of mobile for far more than voice will be a near-universal habit. Is your business ready to communicate, share, promote and sell via mobile?

Photo credits: “Driving Miss Daisy,” Sony Ericsson Daisy edition

*As fans of the film know, the “Miss Daisy” character does know how to drive. She is forced to accept a chauffeur after an accident renders her “uninsurable.”

It's for you: Reality on Line One

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 11:38:32 -0500

Mobile March this past Saturday in Minneapolis was a big success. The speaker lineup was outstanding, and attendees Lisa Grimm, Aaron Weiche, and Vanessa Bright have each blogged recaps worth reading. Slides from presentations are posted here.

What stood out most for me about the day were:

Diversity of attendees I chatted with a striking number of marketers who said they were attending simply to understand more about mobile - something they said they knew they had to do. There were also many attendees I see regularly at Social Media and Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA). It was good to see those worlds intersecting and cross-pollinating more.

Level of interest The event sold out and I expect this could easily be a semi-annual conference in future.

Reality in the presentations I was delighted to listen to Michael Becker at a recent MIMA event on mobile. He brought a level of reality to a topic that has been the sad victim of too much hype over the past two years. I was even more delighted Saturday to hear speaker after speaker help the audience understand what consumers want, and how different most consumers’ mobile habits are from the mobile habits of enthusiasts (like us!) Mark Mosiniak of Best Buy and Doug Rosen of Carlson (pictured here) made this point very effectively, as did others.

Ironically, I had coffee the day Mobile March with a marketer who believes social media is in adolescence, while mobile is in its infancy. I disagree, and the presentations Saturday prove the point. Consumers are ready - for what they want, not for all the bells and whistles too many of us want to force on them. Mobile is here, it’s real, and those who are adapting best will be far ahead of the pack by the end of the year.

Finally, major kudos to Justin Grammens, Phil Wilson and Linda Cummings who probably need six months to recover from the amount of work it takes to put on a quality event. Thanks also to sponsors Recursive Awesome, RemainComm, Focus, Verizon Wireless, Fusion Room, Best Buy, and The Nerdery.

Mobile Web 2.0: Evaluate your route

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:04:38 -0500

Juniper Research forecasts that Voice over Internet Protocol (VOiP) and social web activities will increase sector revenue to $18.9 billion in 2014.

I was pleased to see that, In addition to the usual dazzling growth projections, Juniper acknowledges that there are many paths to market and “fragmentation at every level.”

Mobile marketing in this tumultuous moment reminds me of mountain climbing. Rarely is there only one way to reach the summit. And each route will give the climber distinct blessings and challenges.

Route charts reflect the investment in time and route degree of difficulty. The benefits of each climb are expressed as scenery and traffic (lower is better of course).

If you’re attracted to the growth and revenue of mobile 2.0 marketing, consider the investment and the benefits similarly.

1) Time

Consider time in two dimensions. One dimension is the amount of time from concept to execution. This time “tax” is the highest for custom development (especially for a smartphone application) and lowest for a ready-to-use platform

The second time dimension is how long it takes you to interact with customers on a given campaign or promotion. Can you deploy a social-mobile promotion in less than one week? In one day? How about in real time?

For both development and deployment, faster is better.

2) Information

There are many benefits to mobile marketing, but one of the most subtle and difficult to find is real-time reporting. How quickly can you understand who is engaged with your mobile web 2.0 content? How quickly can you act on it? This data benefit must be acquired in any approach, but speed of information acquisition can be the Achille’s Heel of mobile marketing.

Like a climber in training, consider your route into mobile marketing carefully. Some routes on the fragmented path are easier and faster, while others will be more difficult but more rewarding.

Photo credits: Wikimedia.org, Casey Marshall

Time to Make YOUR Donuts!

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:29:19 -0500

As we know, the most common challenge to social media marketing innovation has been return on investment.

Happily, we appear to be getting well past the “You just should” engagement arguments and into quantitative territory. (Disclaimer: While it’s possible that companies should “just” do it, having worked in the Fortune 500, I’m here to tell you it ain’t enough of an argument.)

I’m delighted that companies like Dunkin’ Donuts are being showcased not just as using social media, but as actively tracking responses and returns.

And while Dunkin’ Donuts is appropriately praised for being able to quantify engagment and clickthroughs in this recent Portfolio article, I find the following quote from David Puner even more exciting:

Twitter “a great place to get that real-time feedback and to find out what consumers want from you as a brand.” (Emphasis mine.)

Not just feedback; real-time feedback. So Dunkin’ Donuts is

engaging
responding
listening

… as events happen. A very small number of companies are actually interacting with customers in real time. If you are not, you asking the competition to steal your customers.

Not yet listening to and interacting with your customers in real time? Your alarm clock must not be working — because it’s time to make YOUR donuts, now.

(Photo credit: Salim Virji 2006)

Start Here! Mobile Marketing for Small Business

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:25:38 -0500

I had the pleasure of appearing on Pamela Muldoon’s Next Stage Business radio show this past Saturday. Pamela is a small business expert and always produces compelling content for her listeners.

You can listen to the interview here.

Interestingly, the most important steps in understanding mobile marketing is the least technical: understanding your customers’ mobile device ownership and the ways they use those mobiles.

The easiest way to understand the importance of this first step is illustrated by two companies:

Surfer Girl is a surfing apparel company appealing to young women. They have a significant Facebook following. Surfer Girl’s demographic own fewer smartphones than average (significantly less than 20%), favor text messaging over other mobile uses, and frequently access their favorite brands using their mobiles and social media.
New Reflections is a three-location AVEDA spa and salon chain. New Reflections clients own more smartphones than the 20% average, with Blackberries being the most commonly owned device. Clients’ favorite mobile use is acessing email.

Surfer Girl should consider extending mobile offers that are fun, fresh and relevant via social media, participating in social media conversations of interest to tween and teen female customers.

New Reflections may want to focus on mobile marketing through compelling mobile-friendly offers delivered through their popular, existing email marketing campaigns. Customers can bring offers into the salon on their mobile, increasing redemption rates.

Understand how your customer wants to interact with you via her smartphone or feature phone and you are half-way home with mobile marketing!

[Image courtesy of Cafe Press]

New Look!

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:12:00 -0600

The informational side of MixMobi got a new look last night thanks to some great work by the folks at Livefront. Over the next few weeks we will also be incorporating that design into the application itself along with some usability enhancements and other new features. We’re very excited about all the new customers who found us via Mashable and other venues the last few days. If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions please let us know!

—Kelly

MixMobi Featured: Mashable's Spark of Genius

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:51:50 -0600

Thanks to the Spark of Genius program at Mashable for our outstanding coverage today. The entire team is very gratified to get this recognition and to spread the word about MixMobi’s easy, fast, effective mobile promotions.

In addition to the Spark of Genius writeup, we’re talking to many people about our Enterprise and White Label programs, designed expressly for larger companies and resellers. Please contact us for more information (info(at)mixmobi.com) and we’ll be happy to explore the advantages MixMobi can bring to your marketing platform, PR agency or advertising endeavor.

I want to particularly recognize partner Kelly Heikkila, MixMobi’s outstanding primary developer. Kelly is not only brilliant technically, but is also an experienced, insightful business person who has brought the platform to life in every dimension.

Finally: We’re just getting started! From internationalization to smoother SMS integration, our development roadmap is full of excellent additional functionality suggested by you, our customers. Thank you for your ideas and for your support.