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Table of Contents

.......................................................Mobile Marketing for Dummies 3

................................................Mobile Marketing Using Texts/SMS 4

............................................The Advent of User-Controlled Media 5

............................Mobile Codes Make Mobile Marketing a Breeze 6

................................................................Advertising through Apps 7

......................................................Bluetooth Advertising Hits Hard 8

.............................................Get Ready To Play With Advergames 9

........................Mobile Video Brings Video Advertising to Phones 10

............................................................Get Flashy With Flash Lite 11

............................................................Making Mobile Web Count 12

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Mobile Marketing for DummiesKeeping track of the many different ways that companies can market their products and brands in the modern age is getting more and more difficult. Itʼs getting to the point where there is no conceivable shortage of ways to market your products, but the bigger problem is that thereʼs so many ways that figuring out the best ones for your business and how they all work can be quite a chore. Weʼre here to help.

Mobile marketing is the cutting edge of advertising right now. The term “mobile marketing” tends to refer to one of two ideas: the first one being marketing through mobile devices such as cell phones, and the second one marketing through physically moving objects, such as moving billboards or road shows.

For the intents and purposes of these articles, weʼre going to spend most of our time discussing the first variety of mobile marketing. Getting on board with the second variety is simple enough – at its very base, you could just nail a sign on the side of a truck and that would fall under the second variety of mobile marketing.

The first kind of mobile marketing, on the other hand, is becoming increasingly popular and breaking into it as a startup company is one of the best ways to hit the marketplace with a bang. Mobile marketing has entered the stage where itʼs still considered somewhat revolutionary and a definite novelty, but is also mainstream enough that most of the younger crowd will be receptive to the marketing.

Most forms of mobile marketing are centered around mobile phones. Part of the reasoning why mobile marketing has taken off so much in the past few years has been the advent and popularity of smartphones. With the technology of phones and computers merging as rapidly as they have over the past few years, it should come as no surprise that the marketing wave generated by the spread of personal computers and the increasingly ubiquitous nation of the Internet is starting to spread out into the mobile phone.

If you are a startup company, particularly one who is trying to market to the thirty five and younger set, taking a foray out into mobile marketing via cell phones and smartphones is an excellent choice if youʼre looking to make your products and brand stand on the cutting edge. Itʼs important to keep up with the times when it comes to marketing, particularly when youʼre working as a startup. Itʼs more important than ever to make a serious impression on the market when youʼre first launching yourself into it as a business – and mobile marketing is one way to make that happen.

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Mobile Marketing Using Texts/SMSWhile this is not the most popular form of mobile marketing in the United States by a long shot, the popularity of marketing via text message or SMS is so strong that itʼs definitely worth a mention. There are companies in the United States that do engage in mobile marketing through texting as well, but the restrictions on place in the United States have made this a harder avenue of media marketing to break into unless you are a startup that has a lot of money to spend on advertising.

Mobile marketing through text messages is exactly what it sounds like – a company sends out advertisements and other form of communication to customers through a texting service. This has been a very effective and popular form of advertising throughout Asia and Europe in particular, despite being unpopular at the onset due to people being concerned about spam.

If youʼre an American company, you might shy away from mobile marketing through texting, as it might give the impression that youʼre “bothering” the customer with your texts. While this might be true if mobile marketing through text is handled the same way as “spamming” somebodyʼs inbox is through email, the reality of it is that mobile marketing has found a great deal of purchase as an effective communication medium.

The trick is making it an opt-in system. In fact, in the United States itʼs a legal obligation to make mobile marketing an opt-in, opt-out system, but this is the linchpin that keeps using texting as a marketing medium from becoming spam. Using texts to get a hold of potential customers is actually a great way to engage with customers in a similar way that the customers engage with their friends on a regular basis – through text. If you watch commercials, youʼre likely to come across a company or two advertising their mobile marketing through text methods. Most companies who use this sort of method in the States put out print, television, or radio ads advertising the fact that interested consumers can contact the company through texting and get discounts and other such promotional offers through texting.

If you as a startup are looking to take advantage of this version of mobile marketing, youʼll need to contact a mobile operator for whatʼs called a short code, or the number that your customers will have to text if theyʼd like to opt into your text marketing scheme. Short codes can be prohibitively expensive for smaller startups, though – often they cost at least 600-1000 dollars a month to maintain. To waylay costs, though, you can team up with another startup and split the cost of the short code. This is one great way you can introduce text marketing into your repertoire without it costing you a mint.

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The Advent of User-Controlled MediaOne of the major differences between mobile marketing and other forms is that itʼs considered a form of user-controlled media. What this means is that mobile media is entirely based on an opt-in scheme. With other forms of advertising, customers usually donʼt have much of a choice about whether or not the advertising is going to turn up in their lives. For example, should a consumer be watching television, commercials are considered an inevitable part of the process. The consumer can always mute the television or change the channel when the advertisements come on, of course, but thereʼs nothing the consumer can do about the commercial break taking place. Print ads and radio ads are similar – consumers can avoid them if they so wish, but thereʼs no way that they can “opt out” of the radio playing commercials or the magazine advertising products.

With mobile marketing, however, the entire premise is based off of opt-in services. Should a consumer wish to join your text marketing campaign, theyʼre the ones that have to dial your companyʼs number to start receiving information. If the customer never does so, then you as the company can never send them advertisements through mobile means. Thanks to privacy concerns as well as the popularity of the “do not call list” in addition to other anti-advertising factors that have become prevalent on phones in the past few years, itʼs entirely impossible to go about sending unsolicited advertisements to customers through mobile devices and have it be a legal operation.

This presents a unique challenge to the company that is trying to get its message out through mobile media – namely, often companies must advertise the fact that theyʼre doing a mobile media campaign. This might seems somewhat counterintuitive given that this boils down to advertising the advertising, but the gains that can be reaped from using mobile media advertising are so attractive that any startup with the money to spend on a mobile media campaign will almost certainly see results.

The great thing about mobile media is that it allows companies to get in contact with users the way that friends contact each other. Texting is considered a non formal medium of contacting, and being able to establish a rapport with customers on this personal level goes a long way toward building brand affinity and a more personal relationship with the customer.

If youʼre a startup looking to get into the area of mobile marketing, understand that the benefits might not be as immediate as those you might experience with other kinds of marketing. However, this avenue can give you a long-lasting personal relationship with customers. It really helps if you can find another company to help waylay the costs with you and enter into mobile marketing as a joint venture. If you do this, then youʼre likely to see more immediate returns on your investment sooner.

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Mobile Codes Make Mobile Marketing a BreezeMore traditional forms of mobile marketing might involve strapping an advertisement to the back of a van and driving around. Thankfully due to the relentless drive of technology startups and others companies can now work with more advanced methods of getting the message out to their customers in a mobile manner. Text message advertising is one of the more basic forms of using this type of technology to get the point across to consumers, but now thereʼs even more advanced ways of doing so.

One of the increasingly popular methods of mobile marketing can be found in QR mobile codes. You might have seen strange little white stamp-like stickers around that possess black squares and flecks printed on them. These arenʼt strange little works of graffiti art – theyʼre actually methods of advertising!

With a QR mobile code, a certain message is inscribed within that pattern of white and black. The way that a consumer accesses the advertisement is to take a picture of the box with a mobile phone. The mobile phone accesses the data in the code, and then the customer is taken to a certain point of advertising. This could be anything from a phone number that the ad signals the phone to call, a website, or an embedded video.

The great thing about this kind of marketing is that itʼs relatively inconspicuous and has an aura of mystery about it. The consumer, confronted with this strange little sticker, is often compelled to take a picture of it and see what, exactly, the sticker is advertising. Itʼs a non-invasive way of advertising that definitely gets the attention of potential consumers and often whets their appetite for adventure.

QR mobile codes can be used in a number of ways. Thereʼs the ubiquitous sticker, often found on telephone poles or message boards, sometimes with no other advertising medium around it. If youʼd like to take a more proactive approach with it so that the customer knows what the mobile code is advertising, you can put a mobile code in print advertising or even on a television screen. All the customer has to do is take a picture, and you can continue your advertising scheme though this unique and innovative method of mobile advertising.

QR mobile codes are becoming increasingly popular among startups due to their somewhat secretive nature and the way that they can pique curiosity among the consumer. Itʼs a less in-your-face method of advertising that consumers enjoy – itʼs almost like going on an Easter egg hunt and seeing what might be inside of the egg. If youʼre a startup looking for an innovative way to get your message out on the waves, consider QR mobile codes!

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Advertising through AppsSmartphones have become a ubiquitous part of daily life, particularly for the younger set. Those of us who remember when cell phones first came out, roughly the size of a brick and just as heavy might be a bit bemused by the latest advances in technology. Nowadays, it seems as though the latest smartphones can do everything but physically make you dinner. There are definitely enough apps out there, however, to have the phone tell you how to make dinner, at the very least.

On that note, apps are another way to harness the power of mobile marketing. This is an especially good one for startups to consider, as app development and implementation is actually one of the best ways to get the most out of mobile marketing for your money. For those who arenʼt exactly in the know, an “app” is short for the word “application.” Since smartphones are like mini computers but donʼt work in the exact same way, there are certain programs that companies have developed to help smartphones function more like a traditional computer. These programs are the apps.

Apps are extremely popular in todayʼs day and age, particularly given the prevalence of smartphones. There are apps that specialize on everything from coupons to fashion to locating others in the area for potential dates. What does this mean for people who are interested in mobile marketing? Creating an app is a great way to get your message across to users and help enhance your overall marketing presence.

Companies can use apps to great advantage. Many larger companies either sell or give away apps to interested consumers, and then they pack those apps with either deals or great content to share with the consumers who have installed the apps on their phones. Having an app that centers around your business and products is a great way to keep your loyal customers up to date on what your company is doing and how they can serve the consumer better.

Not to mention, apps are definitely cutting-edge insofar as technology is concerned. If you are able to offer you consumers an app for their smartphones, youʼre signaling to the consumer that both you and your company are hip to the technological savvy of the populace. Youʼll be able to get your customers information on an as-needed basis. Apps can even help customers locate your stores or outlets if they should happen to be in an unfamiliar area and have a sudden Jones for your product.

So if youʼre looking to break into the world of mobile marketing, you should most certainly give app development a second look. If you can get your idea into an app and onto the phones of your consumers, your consumers will most certainly be giving you a second look as well – and a third, a fourth, a fifth, and as many more as fast as technology can travel.

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Bluetooth Advertising Hits HardOne of the newest ways of mobile marketing is through a device known as Bluetooth. If youʼre not familiar with Bluetooth, itʼs time to get out from under the rock and back on top of the mountain of advertising. Bluetooth is a method of transmitting wireless information from one device to another. If youʼve ever heard of wireless mice and keyboards, the secret to their magic is Bluetooth – when a key is struck on a wireless keyboard, the Bluetooth connection registers the information and transmits it to the computer wirelessly, much in the same way that a wire would function to move information in a traditional computer setup.

This method can also be harnessed effectively for advertising purposes, particularly with the development of smartphones. All smartphones these days come with Bluetooth programmed in so consumers can use wireless headphones and transmit information from the device in a way other than traditional wireless communication. This Bluetooth toggle is nearly always on, so the smartphone is receptive to information that could be casting around the area.

This is a perfect way to step in for advertising. Bluetooth advertising works by setting up “hubs” in areas where you believe that interested consumers might be hanging out. A good example of a Bluetooth hub might be at a mall, or a dining hall at a busy college campus. Any place where thereʼs a high density of people is a great place to set up a Bluetooth hub. When a customer with a smartphone walks by that has Bluetooth activated on his or her phone, the hub will pick up on it. At that point, the hub sends a query to the customerʼs phone, asking if he or she would like the information that the hub is sending.

The information sent by the hub can be anything from a screensaver to a coupon to a link to your website to ringtones to a multimedia display. Anything that can be sent wirelessly can be sent to a consumer through Bluetooth. The range of an individual hub can be between 200 and 300 feet – so if youʼre at a convention or any place where there are a lot of people wandering around, think of all the customers that can be queried by your hub!

If youʼre a startup who doesnʼt have a whole lot of money to spend on constant mobile marketing campaigns, using Bluetooth technology can be a great way to get started, since it doesnʼt require constant costs. If youʼre heading to a convention or you have a booth in a mall, you can have a Bluetooth hub set up for that particular event. Even better, you can track the amount of people who accept your Bluetooth-sent queries, so you can effectively figure out how interested consumers are in your information and make adjustments regarding the broadcasting of information and your Bluetooth offerings.

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Get Ready To Play With AdvergamesPeople love video games. Even those who shy away from considering themselves “gamers” enjoy a bit of gaming every now and then – all you need to do is go sit on public transportation for a couple of hours to see the masses of people playing Tetris on their cell phones. Even those who havenʼt made the transition to the fancier smartphones likely know how to play the snake game on their cell phones and probably use it to wile away the empty minutes every now and then.

A savvy marketer sees this and starts dreaming of the possibilities. Bored consumers in locations where they have nothing else to do but tinker with the video games programmed into their cell phones are a prime market to start dropping advertising hints to. The numbers also back up the simple observations – over one third of cell phone users play video games on their cell phones at least occasionally. With this in mind, itʼs easy to realize that this is a gigantic portion of the population. In marketing terms, this is a gigantic portion of the population that could be looking at your advertisements.

This is where the Advergame comes in. The name might be a little strange, but thereʼs nothing weird about how an advergame can help you get your marketing message across to an audience who often has nothing better to do than sit around and play your game. An advergame is exactly what it sounds like – a video game thatʼs been developed with your products in mind. Advergames come in all levels of complexity – one advergame might just be simple Tetris with an advertising banner across the top of the screen, while another company with a larger budget might develop an RPG type game that cleverly involves their products and services while offering the player a competitive gaming environment.

Advergames are a great avenue to explore if youʼre at all interested in using the very best of technology to get the message across to your consumers. You also donʼt need to be very tech savvy in your own regard to get the ball started on advergame development – a simple search online will produce hundreds of companies who are willing to help you design your very own advergame. All you need to do is come up with the idea for it, and let the programmers take care of the rest. Even if youʼre looking for a more complex advergame, there is likely a storyboard artist who works at advergame companies who would be more than happy to help you create an advergame of your very own.

Remember, the more compelling your game, the more contact youʼll have with the customer since theyʼll be inclined to play it longer. Come up with a compelling advergame and you could have potential customers interacting with your advertisements for hours!

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Mobile Video Brings Video Advertising to PhonesWhat if you could combine the very best of television advertising with a smartphone? Many companies are looking into doing just this, by developing what can only be called a cell phone commercial. The basic tenants of this are exactly what they sound like – a video clip is sent to a customerʼs cell phone, where they can watch your advertisements on the screen of the device. Consumers donʼt even have to have smart phones to be reached via this method of advertising, as even the most basic phones these days have color screens and are capable of viewing video.

This might leave you scratching your head a bit – how would you get the mobile commercials to your customers? And since mobile marketing is based so much on an opt-in system, how could you convince your customers to “opt in” to seeing advertisements? In general, people dislike commercials on television and radio, so why would using a mobile phone device make it different?

The thing about mobile video commercials is that they are generally best paired up with other forms of mobile marketing so you can get the commercial to the consumerʼs phone. Itʼs true that you just canʼt start spamming the phones of customers with advertising, even if itʼs the coolest mobile video ever. However, there are certain methods that you can take to get this information to the customer, and get the customer to undertake the consumption of mobile video readily.

One way is through the aforementioned QR mobile codes. With this method, the consumer takes a picture of the mobile code and is then taken to the mobile advertisement. In this way, the customer “opts in” to receiving the mobile video ad. Another way to do it is through Bluetooth projection, wherein a Bluetooth hub contacts a usersʼ cell phone and asks permission to input information onto the device. Should the customer accept, then the hub transmits the mobile video to them.

If this is a method of advertising that youʼd like to undertake as a startup, it helps to pull in the advice of the professionals in order to do it appropriately. You donʼt want your mobile commercial to be any longer than thirty seconds, or you risk annoying the consumer. There are also specialty editing processes that go into making a mobile video show up well on a phone and also project good audio.

Mobile commercials can include anything from real-life footage to animation to a straight up audio track. Itʼs all about how youʼd like to project an image of your company to the mobile consumer. With the advent of increasingly complex technologies itʼs only right that the humble television commercial advance as well - and moving onto the mobile platform is the next step along in visual, multimedia advertising.

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Get Flashy With Flash LiteWhen most people think of advertising, they tend to think in more traditional terms of the word. This is natural, given that technology has advanced very rapidly in the past ten years, and most people canʼt keep up with it as much as theyʼd like. While this technological advance has been going on, however, some things have remained constant in the world of advertising. Television ads and radio ads, for example, have remained as a staple of advertising throughout all the technological upheaval that the last twenty years have been. Aside from film and video quality getting better, the actual tenants of the advertising itself have been the same.

However, when it comes to mobile marketing, itʼs more important than ever to think outside of the box; given how new all the technology is that surrounds these devices. When people think “mobile marketing,” they often spend a lot of time wondering the best ways to convert traditional means of advertising onto a mobile format. While this certainly has its place and has been done with great gusto – the upswing in mobile commercials is proof enough of that – there are other ways to advertise specifically to mobile phones that donʼt translate over into other devices.

Flash Lite content advertising is one way of doing just that. You might be familiar with the program Flash that creates animations for computers – Flash Lite is the mobile form of this art. What many companies are finding great success in is using Flash Lite to create animated wallpapers and screensavers for mobile devices and using these to market their products and services.

Flash Lite content advertising is a great place for startups to begin if theyʼd like to make a foray into mobile advertising but donʼt have millions of dollars to spend on some of the more complex ways of doing so. A Flash Lite animation might cost a couple hundred dollars to produce, but then can be handed out to customers over and over again. Most who work with Flash Lite content advertising say that itʼs one of the most cost-effective versions of mobile marketing that is available right now.

Also, consumers are much more likely to enjoy having animated background on their mobile phones as compared to their desktop or laptop computers. Cell phones are still seen more as entertainment devices as anything else and consumers are more forgiving toward devices and apps that might be seen as “distracting” by computer users.

So in the event that you are a startup company looking to enter into mobile marketing but you donʼt have a limitless budget, consider looking into Flash Lite advertising. Itʼs a great place to start with mobile marketing that wonʼt break your wallet.

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Making Mobile Web CountMany people who own cell phones surf the Internet using them. Smartphones are no doubt the best arena to be surfing the web in, but the truth of the matter is that even the simplest cell phone these days likely has Internet capabilities. With this in mind, remember that more and more people are sitting around, stuck in traffic or waiting for their date to show up, tinkering with the Internet on their phone.

If youʼre a business with a marketing mindset, then this information is doubtlessly making you wonder how you can best turn this to your advantage insofar as getting your message across to the consumer is concerned. Having a website in general is one of the best ways to get yourself out there to the masses, and business websites are all but considered necessary these days to any business who wishes to get off the ground and advertise to a wide range of potential clients. But what about clients who are surfing on their cell phones?

The truth of the matter is that no matter how good your site looks on the computer or how well organized it is, itʼs likely a little awkward for those who are working with mobile browsers. Regular websites are simply not calibrated to handle mobile browsers, and the result is often squished graphics and confusing layouts.

What can assist in this matter is a website that is specifically calibrated for the use of Internet surfers using mobile phones. These specialty websites are often known as “WAP” websites, and generally project a truncated version of the companyʼs full website. WAP websites are a great way to get headlines and multimedia downloads to your consumers in a mobile format.

Spending the money to develop a website that is specifically calibrated for a mobile web browser is another great way for a startup to break into the mobile marketing craze. Lots of people surf the Internet on their phones, and being able to reach out to these surfers is a great way to make your mobile marketing dollar stretch farther than with other methods. Also, if youʼre worried about certain kinds of mobile marketing being too “intrusive,” having a mobile website is a more latent way to take advantage of mobile marketing while still getting in on the trend.

In order to find people who can help you calibrate your businessʼ mobile website, you can search online for companies that specialize in “mobile web development.” Those who do work in this department are different than traditional web designers, so be sure that you know who youʼre working with and what their capabilities are insofar as mobile web design is concerned before making a commitment.

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