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Is Mobile Advertising Worthwhile?
Small as These Devices are, Mobile has the Potential to Become the Juggernaut of the Mass Media Market.
It might be hard for some people to imagine that mobile advertising is a lot like other media channels we’re already familiar with. But if you’re going to bring your young, upwardly mobile audience with you you’d better not miss this train.
So what is it that makes mobile marketing so different and yet so effective?
Mobile – It’s Pervasive!
For a start the explosive growth of smartphones is hard to ignore. Over a third of the population have smartphones and that number is growing fast. Capabilities that one never dreamed possible a decade ago now play out in the palm of your hand. You can read the news, play games, watch videos and TV, take photos, listen to your favorite tunes or radio station, surf the internet and oh wait — make phone calls.
Mobile – It’s Personalized!
As you perform all these activities demographic information is being complied and stored in databases, often using your phone number as a unique identifier. This makes it one of the best mediums for true one-to-one marketing and personalized advertising.
Not only are consumers able to be uniquely identified but they are almost never separated from their mobile devices.
Mobile – It’s Pull-Based!
Traditional push marketing techniques have left a jaded audience. An audience not willing to be targets of traditional advertising. People want only want to see things that they’re interested in. In response, Opt-in marketing has become the foundation for many mobile marketing campaigns.
Your Mobile Marketing Arsenal:
There’s a plethora of options when it comes to mobile marketing but an effective campaign incorporates just the right combination of several of these channels.
- Mobile friendly sites: Ever tried to navigate a large and complex site on a tiny screen? Mobile-friendly sites or Mobis as they are called, reduce content to small, manageable blocks that don’t require excessive zooming and scrolling. See our recent article on Mobile Websites.
- Mobile apps: Small downloadable software applications that number close to 500,000. As users install each app, they’re telling us what interests them so advertising on these apps can be aligned accordingly.
- Social media: Twitter, Facebook, InstaGram, and other social media platforms all have mobile friendly sites or apps. When targeting consumers, these platforms cannot be ignored.
- Mobile advertising: Small ads on mobile websites, apps and even in your notification area.
- Mobile commerce: From purchasing something on eBay to redeeming a Groupon or scanning a QR code to get the best price – mobile commerce takes many forms.
- QR codes: Blocks of ink that look like a maze gone wrong. Using a phone’s camera, users can scan the codes to access information, offer, prices, websites and more. Since users initiates the scan, they tend to be more receptive to whatever is communicated.
- Proximity marketing: Using the GPS on your phone, Apps and even mobile websites can tap your location and serve up location-based offers, advertising and other forms of marketing.
- MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service. May evolve more in the future but for now has been eclipsed by other channels of communication.
- Mobile email: While the ability of phones to receive and store emails has been around for a while, its still the number one medium for business and more complex personal communications.
- SMS: Short Message Service. Even the phone-only die hards are finally succumbing to the advantages of texting for some situations. Marketing via SMS must be based on opt-in since users feel this highly personal medium is sacrosanct. The great thing about text message marketing is that 90 percent of text messages are read within a few minutes minutes and almost all are read later.
So where to go from here? Before your competition gets the jump on you, make a start on developing your mobile marketing strategy!
Engage an expert who can help with the technology aspects and the practicalities of reaching your audience.
Trial some campaigns that work for your target audience and budget. Ensure you have a mobile version of your website or get started on having one designed and developed. Mobile devices aren’t going away any time soon!
Engage an expert who can help with the technology aspects and the practicalities of reaching your audience.
Trial some campaigns that work for your target audience and budget. Ensure you have a mobile version of your website or get started on having one designed and developed. Mobile devices aren’t going away any time soon!
Contact Us today to discuss how Acorn Interactive can help your business grow.
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Website Design for Product Manufacturers
Think Big, Think Broad, Think Strategy
The right strategy can pay big dividends.
The highly complex, multi-faceted business of product manufacturing is enough to make the average executive’s head spin. It’s little wonder, then that management in this sector leave a lot of the marketing to the distribution channel and as a result, sales and brand value can suffer.
The corporate website can play a major role in growing and reinforcing a company’s brands. The decision to choose one brand over another is frequently preceded by research – usually undertaken by the customer on one or more websites that may or may not include that of the manufacturer.
Therein lies the problem.
If the manufacturer’s website is not the active leader in search engine positioning and communicating the brand, then it by default, the task falls to its distributors, resellers, bloggers and even the competition. As a result the brand can become diluted, inconsistent and fall into the trap of differentiation by price alone.
The manufacturers website can have an enormous influence on any manufacturer’s sales and support ecosystem. In fact, it can literally reshape the way manufacturer’s products are perceived, priced, purchased, distributed and supported.
Manufacturers Have Many Special Requirements that Traditional Websites Fail to Address
Manufacturers’ websites also vary dramatically depending on the products and services offered and whether brands are consumer or business targeted. Many manufacturers also require consulting and creative services to correctly align their brands with the right target markets using appropriate brand communications.
In addition, existing customer relationships also rely on the manufacturer to provide a higher level of customer service based on price-points, specific service levels, etc.
Here are the features and services you should be considering when thinking about looking to revamp your corporate website.
The percentage of mobile users viewing your site will depend on the target demographic and market sectors targeted by your business. Restaurants for example will attract a much higher percentage of mobile users than restaurant purveyors. It’s important to have good web statistics in order to assess your current traffic and to plan accordingly.
Brand Reinforcement & Awareness
Manufacturing companies need to consider many factors in their marketplace to stand out above their competition. Here are some of the modules that will add value to the site and your customers:
- A Multingual Content Management System (CMS)
- Professional, Custom, brand-aligned Templates and color palettes
- Creative approach to Brand and Product Identifiers/Trademarks/Logos
- Content Development Services
- News Module for case studies, product releases and industry events
- A Comprehensive Products Module to showcase descriptions, specifications, images, videos, downloadable brochures, software and more
- User Testimonials Module
- Brand Management Module – ensure consistent brand representation and messaging across the channel
Customer Support
- FAQ Module to reduce customer support inquiries
- Forum for reducing support costs
- Support Desk Module to increase support effectiveness
- Client Extranet to improve client communications
- Downloads module for Manuals, Parts Lists, Software Drivers and more
- Warranty Information
- Parts and Accessories Ordering
Sales
- Employee Intranet
- Sales CRM Module
- Email Subscriptions and Broadcasts
- Social Media Integration
- Dealer Locators with built-in Google Maps Wayfinding
- Built-in best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Dealer/Distributor Extranet to handle orders, inventory, lookups etc.
- Clear and compelling Opt-in Forms to generate leads and drive sales.
Contact Us today to discuss how Acorn Interactive can help your business grow.
Image Credit: On Freepik
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