Local Mobile Advertising - 4 Powerful Benefits For Local Businesses
Perhaps we should first begin by defining the difference between local mobile marketing and local mobile advertising.Local mobile marketing takes place when you communicate and deliver value to customers and potential customers through the mobile channel. Local mobile advertising is the process of placing your marketing message or call to action within one or more of the available mobile advertising channels.
A subtle difference you say? Perhaps, and I don’t want to belabor the difference so let me just leave you with this distinction. When you are interrupting a mobile device users daily routine with your marketing message, you are using mobile advertising. Once they are interrupted and you begin to engage them, educate them and exchange value with them you are using mobile marketing.
Benefit Number One – Numbers, Very Big Numbers
Somewhere around 75% of our nation has a mobile phone. Roughly 55,000,000 already have smart phones . According to a recent report by Morgan Stanley, by 2013 more people will be accessing the Internet with smartphones and mobile devices than with wired Internet connections.
Benefit Number Two - It’s Always with Them
Quick, what are the three things that every person always has with them ? Something along the lines of keys, wallet, and cell phone would be a great guess ! Unlike magazines, newspapers, radio and even the wired Internet, mobile advertising and marketing always has an audience . Now lest you think that this whole mobile thing is completely one-sided , your potential customers (people just like you and me) benefit by having information at their fingertips and immediate access to knowledge, research and reviews.
Benefit Number Three - Multiple Modes In One Little Package
Remember when we said that people always have their mobile device with them, well it can help you deliver your message in more ways than you have ever thought of . Text messaging, paid search advertising, organic search advertising, mobile display ads, click to call ads, app advertising, click to map advertising and proximity advertising are all possible because of smartphone technology.
Benefit Number Four- Your Competitors Don’t Get It…Yet
The simple fact that you are almost done reading this article means that you are in better shape than 95% of your competition . Of course this will not last long, but if you adopt this early, you will have the oppurtunity to literally grab market share as you please.
Scenarios We’ve Seen
Consider this scenario. Your landscaping business already uses a well developed mobile marketing and advertising system. A potential customer, Mary, has left the office and is now sitting on the sideline of her son’s baseball game. During the seventh inning stretch she conducts some quick research on landscape design and notices your $500 coupon advertisement. She clicks on the ad and is immediately connected to one of your staff who books an appointment, then refers Mary to a helpful article on your website that addresses just the type of design information she looking for . Within the week you have the sale.
Now consider your competitor, John. John has a decent website, but it is not designed to educate and sell, doesn’t show up on Page One of the search results and is difficult to navigate from a desktop let alone from a smartphone. And, since John doesn’t have a local mobile marketing and advertising plan, Mary doesn’t even know he exists because her selection has been made without her ever returning to home.
Finally, your rival Bill doesn’t even have a website. He has relied on word of mouth and the yellow pages for years. Now, he is at risk of going out of business because the new mobile economy is leaving him in the dust. Bad for old Bill, awesome for you!
Are these three scenarios far-fetched? Absolutely not. In fact you probably know competitors with attributes from all three scenarios. The thing is, with the right help you could be landing new clients and customers through the mobile world before your competition ever has a chance to speak with them!