In case you haven’t noticed , the largest new movement in local business marketing and advertising is cell phone advertising . How big is this trend? Let me put it in perspective, the technology experts have predicted that by 2013 more of your customers will be accessing the Internet via mobile devices than hardwired desktop anchors !
If you would prefer to not be left in the dust of your competitors you’d better get smart quickly about the ins and outs of mobile marketing and advertising.
Understanding the Full Picture of Local Mobile Marketing and Advertising
Mobile Internet Search Functionality
Probably the easiest way to take advantage of the approaching tidal wave of mobile marketing is to make sure you have a high-quality website that is easy to view and navigate using one of the new smart phones such as the iPhone or one of its Android equivalents. If you did not know, very soon people will ditch their wired connections and turn to their cell phones to do any product and service research for offline purchases. Therefore, you must get this right!! Though a beautiful, nice flowing website is great, your website must also be designed to sell, capture leads, and create conversation.
Display Ads – Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
There are many advertising platforms for mobile devices only springing up that allow you to create ads that are in turn distributed to mobile users. Google’s Adwords, Admob, Adfonic and their competitors can all display your ads. Each network has its own peculiarities and most differ in the types of targeting you can do . Depending on what you want to do, some networks will work better for you than others.
Text Messaging Advertising – Short Codes and SMS Messaging
When a TV show or big brand tells you to text a specific message to a specific number, that is a shorty code . A short code will cost you $500 – $1000 per month by itself … and then you still have to market and advertise it! Unless you have a large budget to spend, I would recommend staying away from such short codes.
SMS messaging is simply sending text advertisements to a targeted demographic of individuals . Since text open rates are so high (but will surely decline just as we saw with e-mail over the past 5 years) SMS messaging can be a good means to get your advertising message across. Think of SMS messaging like you would opt in e-mail… only better.
Push Notifications
“Push” technology allows you to “push” your Twitter, Facebook and other social media feeds out to mobile device and smartphone users (primarily iPhone) who have downloaded Apps to allow them to receive updates from their social feeds . If you already have a solid social marketing plan in place “push” can make it that much more powerful by tying in your followers through mobile featured content.
App Display Ads
“There’s an App for That.” You should be familiar with that phrase by now even if you are not familiar with what an “App” is. Apps are little software programs that can be downloaded to mobile devices such as the iPhone and Google’s android phone that allow the user to play games, calculate distances, make funny noises… virtually anything you can imagine. Smartphone users love Apps and download them constantly. Many apps are free to their users because they are used as a platform for advertisement . And these ads can be yours!
Click to Call
In some ways, what could be more powerful? Your potential customers are already using their mobile phones to conduct research, check in with their other social networks and generally stay in touch. So by using a click to call advertisement you can take your potential customer from a visually engaging ad to a visually engaging conversation in just one click. Your options are only limited by your imagination but since clicking on this type of ad instantly dials a phone number you can make a connection to either a live operator, an informative recording or a combination of the two. This is powerful marketing technology whether you use it for lead generation, appointment setting or product and service sales.
Search Ads
Having a smartphone allows for quick research, information gathering, and the ability to make purchases as soon as you need them no matter where you are . So it only stands to reason that the big search-engine companies like Google, Yahoo and Bing allow you as an advertiser to display your ads contextually right along with the user’s search .
The difference here and what is so powerful is that soon, no one will need to come back to their office or their home in order to conduct the research they need to purchases products and services like yours.
Click to Map
Click to map advertising functions in a manner similar to click to call. The key difference, when a user clicks your advertisement, they will be given directins from their current location to your business . Obviously, click to map advertising is perfect for anyone who is already out and about looking for something like a restaraunt or nail salon.
Time to Act!
Don’t be left behind by this very fast moving trend of local mobile advertising and marketing !














