Part 3. Mobile Marketing CAN boost your revenues!

US online consumer travel sales totaled $79 billion last year and will grow at a 17% annual rate before reaching $146 billion in 2010. Travel firms have an opportunity to differentiate their offerings by creating tour packages that appeal to a growing segment of consumers who crave unique travel experiences.

Differentiate themselves? How? That is where we come in. We add mobile marketing to your business hence you add value to your customers while they are traveling. Imagine you own a tour company and your problem is, like most businesses, how to get more repeat customers? Mobile marketing can solve this:

Objective: Increase repeat customers.
Assume you get 10,000 customers/yr
Avg. sale: $500.00
Mobile marketing can add: 10-20% repeats
Repeat business: 1,000 x $500 = $500,000 in additional revenues!

This is a lot of money just waiting for you to grab. Call us right now and we'll show you how to grab this low hanging fruit.

Until next time keep thinking outside the box!
Christoffer

Part 2. Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing can refer to one of two categories of marketing. First, and relatively new, is meant to describe marketing on or with a mobile device, such as a mobile phone. Second, and a more traditional definition, is meant to describe marketing in a moving fashion - for example - technology road shows or moving billboards.

Marketing on a mobile phone has become increasingly popular ever since the rise of SMS (Short Message Service) in the early 2000s in Europe and some parts of Asia when businesses started to collect mobile phone numbers and send off wanted (or unwanted) content.

Over the past few years SMS has become a legitimate advertising channel. This is due to the fact that unlike email over the public internet, the carrier who police their own networks have set guidelines and best practices for the mobile media industry (including mobile advertising). The IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), as well, has established guidelines and evangelizing the use of the mobile channel for marketers.

Mobile Marketing via SMS has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia as a new channel to reach the consumer. SMS initially received negative media coverage in many parts of Europe for being a new form of spam as some advertisers purchased lists and sent unsolicited content to consumer's phones; however, as guidelines are put in place by the mobile operators, SMS has become the most popular branch of the Mobile Marketing industry with several 100 million advertising SMS sent out every month in Europe alone.

In North America the first cross-carrier SMS shortcode campaign was run by Labatt Brewing Company in 2002. Over the past few years mobile short codes have been increasingly popular as a new channel to communicate to the mobile consumer. Brands have begun to treat the mobile shortcode as a mobile domain name allowing the consumer to text message the brand at an event, in store and off any traditional media.

SMS services typically run off a short code, but sending text messages to an email address is another methodology. Short codes are 5 or 6 digit numbers that have been assigned by all the mobile operators in a given country for the use of brand campaign and other consumer services. The mobile operators vet every application before provisioning and monitor the service to make sure it does not diverge from its original service description.

One key criterion for provisioning is that the consumer opts in to the service. The mobile operators demand a double opt in from the consumer and the ability for the consumer to opt out of the service at any time by sending the word STOP via SMS. These guidelines are established in the MMA Consumer Best Practices Guidelines which are followed by all mobile marketers in the United States. The guidelines can be accessed at www.mmaglobal.com

Stay tuned!
Christoffer

Part 1. What is Mobile Marketing?

Over the last few months I have been working a lot with mobile technologies and mobile marketing. Even coupons, maps, videos, photos or event tickets can be sent to your customers' mobile device.

Wouldn't that be handy for you when traveling? Imagine having all the information you need right there in your mobile device at all times? Mobile marketing is personal, valuable, timely and contextual, and if managed correctly can be a very powerful marketing channel.

To think about:
Think of your last situation where you wished you had a certain piece of information right there and then! Now think about what you can do to help your customers in the same boat. Give them something of value. Give them something that they will tell their friends about. Leave a positive impression of yourself and your business. Mobile marketing can be very powerful.

As an industry, mobile advertising is still in its infancy. Mobile advertising generated about $871 million in 2006, according to Informa Telcoms & Media. That compares with a worldwide advertising market across all mediums that was valued in the billions. But with nearly 3 billion cell phone users in the world, more than 200 million of whom are in the U.S., it's clear that mobile advertising represents a huge opportunity.

Did you know:
7 of 10 people in the US were open to receiving mobile messages?

Until next time, stay tuned for Part 2 where I'll dig deeper into mobile marketing.

Christoffer
www.bcAdvice.com