Month: October 2012

Mobile Coupons That Work Like Magic

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In these days of budget tightening in most American households, coupons are growing more and more popular. But beyond tedious clipping of paper coupons, is a growing trend for convenient and low-effort mobile coupons. According to research done by American Express, in 2009 mobile coupons redeemed across the US number approximately 200,000, but they estimate that by next year 70 million mobile coupons will be redeemed, worth $2.4 billion in discounts to eager consumers.

There is virtually no limit to the types of deals that your business can offer with mobile coupons. It really doesn’t matter whether you offer dollars or percent off, buy one get one or any other type of offer as long as it’s valuable to your customer or potential customer and is relevant and time-sensitive.

Coupons sent using mobile messaging are 10 times more likely to be redeemed than paper coupons of any type. Coupons in newspapers have lower redemption rates than those mailed directly to consumers, but mobile coupons trump these time and again.

Cost is another factor to consider with mobile coupons. Having a paper coupon mailed either directly from your business or as part of a bulk mailer such as ValPak costs you $.25-$.40 per coupon and these are redeemed on average at a rate of just 1%. By comparison, mobile coupons cost around 1 penny each and are redeemed at double digit rates between 11%-26%.
There are a couple of different options for offering mobile coupons, including:

• Posting them on your traditional or mobile website to either print or with a code they can provide at checkout or when ordering.

• Using an aggregator site such as https://getyowza.com or www.cellfire.com to offer your coupons on their sites. Yowza cost as little as $99 and Cellfire offers a variety of plans.

• Text them directly to customers who opt-in to your email text list. People will give you their cell number in exchange for an instant discount and this lets you easily build your database.

Zero coupon fraud is another pro of mobile coupons vs. paper. People try to sneak in expired paper coupons, print duplicates and all manner of sneaky methods to get more than their fair share of a discount. Mobile coupons virtually eliminate these issues because they are attached to an individual cell phone account and will clear out of the coupon cache upon expiration so customers can’t pull them up and try to pass the deal off as current.

Immediacy, relevancy, portability and ease of use are the big drivers in the double-digit mobile coupon redemption rates. Immediacy means that by setting a same day or 3-5 day redemption window, you encourage people to act quickly to take advantage of the deal. No one likes to miss out on a deal, so they will move rapidly to take advantage of a discount.
Relevancy is crucial. If you mail diaper coupons to childless couples, you’re likely to get a 0% redemption rate. However, mailing coupons to parents of a newborn will likely get you a much higher redemption rate. Because mobile coupons are driven by coupon searches or opt-ins to business text lists for establishments frequented, you can offer relevant promotions to drive increased revenues.

Portability is a big plus for consumers – if you forget your box of coupons at home or your flyer that offered a discount, your customer is out of luck. But everyone always has their mobile device with them, so mobile coupons are accessible anytime, anywhere which encourages redemption when it is convenient for the customer which means profits for your small business.

Ease of use is critical – many people don’t want to hassle with clipping coupons and may not even look through coupon mailers that come in their box because they literally have to sift through pages of offers that won’t interest them. Mobile coupons offer what consumers want with little to no effort on their part. They get a text or access a site and show the offer or code to the sales person or order taker and they’re done – coupon redeemed!

If you’re not using mobile coupons, the good news is, it’s easy to get into. Even without having a mobile website, you can start offering mobile coupons. It’s a low cost promotional tool that can drastically increase sales by improving your relationship with your loyal customers while expanding your customer base.

The Power of Mobile Marketing!

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Think about how many people you see out and about with smart phones in hand – checking emails on the go – texting friends and family – watching videos and surfing the web. It’s a growing trend and businesses who tap into the mobile communication stream are profiting and growing their businesses.

There are many different aspects of mobile marketing –

• Mobile Websites
• Text Marketing
• Mobile Coupons
• Mobile Tagging (QR Codes, etc.)
• Mobile Applications (Apps)

Businesses small and large are implementing mobile marketing strategies to bring in customers, move inventory, increase appointments and increase revenues. No matter what your small business is or does, you can profit using low-cost mobile marketing strategies. Here are some examples of the power of mobile marketing –

• Medical, dental, optometrists and chiropractic practices use mobile marketing to remind patients of appointments, follow up on office visits, provide wellness information and promote new service offerings to encourage ongoing use of the service provider

• Beauty salons, barbershops, health spas, massage therapists and aestheticians use mobile marketing to prevent cancellations by offering pre-appointment reminders, to fill open time slots or increase foot traffic on slow business days

• Retailers, whether clothing stores, accessories shops, bookstores, wine and liquor stores use mobile marketing to move dormant inventory through discounts offerings, promote new products and advertise special sales and in-store events

• Service providers such as auto repair shops, landscapers, housepainters, handymen, HVAC, carpet cleaners and maid services use mobile marketing to promote services and offer discounts to increase their client base

• Restaurants, bars and nightclubs use mobile marketing to fill empty seats on sluggish nights with last-minute coupons and offers to bring in customers and invigorate profits on what would have been dead nights

• Movie theaters, stage theaters, comedy clubs use mobile marketing to offer 2-for-1 deals and last minute specials to fill empty seats that represent lost revenue at every performance

No matter what your small business does or where you are located, mobile marketing can benefit you. Mobile marketing is so successful because it is easy to implement, requires little technical knowledge and is one of the most affordable modes of advertising and promotion.

According to a recent Nielsen report, roughly 50% of all Americans now own a smart phone – that’s a nearly 40% increase from the prior year. Smart phones mean mobile web access – more people now use the mobile web on their smart phones to search for places to shop, dine, party and for service professionals – including home repair, medical, personal services, hair salons and more.

If your small business doesn’t have at least a mobile website, you will be passed over by consumers who shop for businesses on the mobile web. What’s more, people now ignore most promotional emails – they head straight into the spam folder! Direct mail flyers hit the trash can, unread, 84% of the time. Mobile marketing circumvents the normal filters that create barriers between consumer and service provider or retailer.

Mobile marketing can be easy to implement and is one of the lowest cost forms of advertising. Ignoring the mobile marketing trend can be hazardous to your bottom line and the likelihood of your small business either thriving or dwindling.
Ian Carrington, Google’s director of mobile advertising recently said, “Businesses need to get mobile in order to provide a positive user experience for their customers. At the moment, businesses are not keeping up with consumers.”

The Importance of Mobile Websites

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Between 2009 and 2011, mobile web browsing grew by 1000%. It went from less than 1% to a 7% market share in less than two years. A recent study in March 2012 by Opera (a web browsing company) showed that 43% of respondents say that mobile web is their primary means of accessing the internet. If this trend holds out, the mobile web is set to almost entirely replace the traditional web by 2015 according to research firm IDC.

What these statistics translate to for small business owners is that a web presence is now mandatory. Traditional websites that were designed to be viewed on 10-15” screens are largely incompatible with the much smaller screen of smart phones and tablets. Not only will your standard website be difficult, if not impossible, to view on the smaller screen, the functionality will be unusable.

Websites that work well on mobile devices are those that have been designed specifically to function on the mobile web. Most mobile devices won’t load Flash graphics – a common aspect of traditional web design. Large graphics files are also incompatible with mobile web browsing. Your website is expected to load within 3-5 seconds on a mobile device and any load-time exceeding this leads to lower and lower browser satisfaction.

Bloomberg news reported last week that “twice as many mobile-phone users abandon a website for reasons such as sluggishness than their desktop counterparts.” If your site won’t load, 1/3 of users will try to reload the site and 2/3 will move on instantly. After another failed reload, all but 1% of browsers will move on, most likely to a competitor that has a mobile web presence that meets their needs.

The Bloomberg reporter then added that, “almost half of all mobile users are unlikely to return to a website at all if they had trouble accessing it from their phone.” This means that you have lost the opportunity to engage that potential customer, likely forever. But using a free mobile web converter or low-cost mobile web designer can prevent you from losing business you never knew you could have had.

The Bloomberg article cites one of the problems with slow load times is that “often it’s because the webpage isn’t designed to load quickly on a wireless device.” Mobile web design can be very thin and provide just the basic information about your business to your potential customer including:

• Location – preferably with click-to-navigate option for GPS navigation

• Phone number – preferably with click-to-call functionality

• Hours/Days of operation – in the easiest to read font and format

• Opt-in – a link or info on how to opt-in to receive text offers and information

• Calendar – if you offer special events or certain items on certain days, a simple fast loading calendar or roster is helpful

• Photos – if relevant, for menu items, inventory, etc. and if they are fast-loading, these can be helpful to customers

Whether you enlist the aid of a professional mobile website developer or decide to go it on your own with a mobile website builder utility, any mobile web presence is infinitely better than no mobile web presence.

The Mobile Coupon Boom – Tap In or Tap Out

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In 2010, just 13% of mobile smart phone users were using mobile coupons –totaling around 7.2 million Americans. By 2011, this more than doubled to over 15 million smart phone owners redeeming mobile coupons. Growth projections indicate this number should reach 26 million by the end of 2012 and 34 million by 2013.

Mobile web analysts anticipate that over the next four years, annual mobile coupon redemption will top $43 billion in the US alone. Nearly 70% of smart phone users say that mobile coupons are useful and nearly one-third of Americans will search for mobile coupons using their smart phone or other mobile device. Over 25% of smart phone users indicate interest in proximity based marketing, saying they would like to get mobile coupon offers when they are physically in or near a business.

Booze Allan Hamilton, an international marketing firm, has this to say about mobile marketing, “As smartphones change shopping, merchants face a stark choice: Fall in behind their newly enabled consumers or fall behind altogether.”

Even if your target customer is an older adult, don’t assume they don’t own and actively use all the features of a smart phone. In fact, 83% of smart phone users are age 25 and older. Statistics also reveal that smart phone users are in higher income brackets – meaning they may have more disposable income – making them a desirable customer.

Among adults earning more than $75,000, 60% have a smart phone and in the $50,000-$75,000 bracket, nearly 40% own a smart-phone. Yet even high earners love to get discounts and mobile coupons and they have the money to redeem them and then, based on a positive experience, come back to your establishment and pay full prices.

When it comes to finding mobile coupons, smart phone users have very specific preferences. A recent study by Microsoft showed how consumers like to receive mobile coupon offers. The results are:

  • Most prefer to receive them via text message
  • The second most popular option is via email checked on the mobile device
  • The third option is to be texted an offer while they’re in an establishment
  • The fourth most popular is to find mobile coupons using an app
  • The fifth most popular option for getting a mobile coupon is scanning a QR code
  • The least popular option for getting a mobile coupon is in exchange for a social media check-in

However, what may not be evident from these results is that while QR codes and social media check-ins are the least popular methods in the survey, they are on the rise. Many survey participants may have rated these lowest simply because they are inexperienced with using QR codes and location-based aspects of social media.

Microsoft research indicates that mobile coupon use will have doubled between 2011 and 2013. Their recent study shows that 10% of all cell phone users redeem mobile coupons but the rate is 20% among smart phone users. They project these numbers to be 16.5% and 30% respectively by 2013.

Nancy Cook, Vice President at Valpak – one of the top firms in couponing, both mobile and paper – said recently, “A strong offer will work in any space and mobile even more so, because it can be relevant when a consumer may actually be ready to make a purchase.”

The numbers don’t lie – mobile coupons are a powerful and growing segment of mobile marketing and marketing in general. Tap in to this growing trend or look to find your customers tapping out on you.

Mobile Text Marketing – Tapping into Profits

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As an adult, you may be warming up to texting in your personal life – a domain once dominated by teens with fast fingers. Beyond sending 160-character missives to friends and family, text messaging for business is now wide open as a potential source for revenue. Text messaging is also commonly called SMS (short message service) messaging or bulk texting or bulk SMS messaging.

In a recent report, CTIA research showed that last year over 193 billion text messages are sent each month for a total of 2.3 trillion texts sent last year. A growing number of these missives are from businesses reaching out to consumers.

Text messages have a 99% open and read rate compared to emails which, if they are not clogged in a spam filter, can hope for a 9%-23% open rate but only if they are extremely well-written, relevant and requested.

Mobile text marketing is used by small businesses to send mobile coupons, announce special events, sales, new inventory or programs announcements and special offers. In order to implement mobile text marketing for your business, you first need a set-up for mobile texting. You can try to do it yourself by downloading free text messaging software (just do a Google search for the latest versions.)

Otherwise, there are many companies that can send out text marketing messages for you for around 1 penny each while others charge a flat rate for a certain number of texts sent each month. Some of the current small business SMS marketing firms include:

It doesn’t matter what firm you use, so long as they aren’t likely to go out of business tomorrow and that you own your text database and NOT the firm. If you ever come to a parting of the ways with your text service provider, you should be able to take your list with you when you go. Read the fine print and make sure you won’t lose your database of cell numbers if you walk away at any point.

Once you’ve got the software or consultant set up and are ready to start receiving opt-ins to build your database, you must encourage people to sign up. The best and fastest way is to offer something free or at a great discount to encourage enrollments – here are some high opt-in strategies that have worked to build a customer text list rapidly:

  • Redbox offers a free rental or cents off code to get people to text a keyword and be signed up for their mobile text list
  • Ed Hardy clothing chain offered a 10% coupon that could be reused for a certain number of days to drive opt-ins
  • Belle Tires got a huge opt-in rate by offering $20 off coupon on future purchases in exchange for opt-ins to their list

After you build a list of a couple of hundred numbers, you’re ready to send out your first offer! The key is to only tap your list when you have a high-value, relevant offer they are likely to be interested in and not too often. Depending on the nature of your business, once a week may be plenty, for others, twice a month may be more appropriate.

For restaurants, video rentals, dry cleaners, movie theaters or other entertainment, weekly texting may be appropriate since these are high-use industries. Spas, salons, landscapers and other occasional-use services may prefer once or twice per month texting. Clothing stores, tire shops, jewelry stores and other higher-dollar establishments may want to limit their offers to monthly or special event/special occasion texts.

Once you start texting out offers, redemption rates will help you analyze your customer preferences and tweak your text marketing efforts to maximize revenue while not treading on your customers’ patience for excessive texting.

No matter what strategy you implement, mobile text marketing will be a boon to any small business – people appreciate relevant mobile offers and respond at double digit rates to interesting offers!