Your Local Business Can Take Advantage of Pokémon GO

MobiGo247

If you’re a local business owner and you haven’t kept up with the recent buzz surrounding Pokémon GO, there may be a good reason for you to tune in now!

What advantage can this give to your local business?

Well, what makes this mobile-app unique is that it’s sending users to real world locations in order to capture Pokémon and the location” may be your brick-and-mortar store, leading to an increase in foot traffic.

Here are a few ways you can take advantage of this phenomenon using social media, and attract a wave of gaming customers to your business location.

  1. Set a ‘lure’. If your business is near a  “Pokéstop”  (download the app to check), you can purchase something called a lure. A lure attracts more Pokémons, and therefore more gamers, to your location for a span of 30 minutes, costing as little as £1.
  2. Discounts. Give a discount to gamers who post screenshots of their captured Pokémon they caught near to your premises and tag you on social media. This spreads the word to their followers (who are most likely also in your area) that your location is a good place to catch Pokémon.
  3. Offer free WiFi if your business is located near to a PokemonStop or Pokemon Gym.  The Pokemon Go app is data hungry and will soon eat away users mobile data.  Let the players login to your free Wifi via their social media accounts and follow your business page. Then you can periodically post when you are setting a ‘lure’ or offering a discount on your products or services.

We have a range of mobile marketing solutions, that with a little imagination can drive Pokemon Go players to your place of business.

Why Mobile Websites Can Boost Your ROI

These days, it’s absolutely essential for local businesses to have a mobile website. Yet, understandably, business owners may wonder if the return on investment (ROI) is worth it and better, yet, will a mobile website help boost ROI. Not only is a mobile website important for the success of your business, but it can certainly boost your ROI:

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  • Click to Call: Mobile websites provide a simple way for consumers to tap a button or screen and have their call connected to a business. The convenience alone has helped a multitude of companies gain new business.

 

  • Shopping at Any Time, Any Hour: One of the best benefits for customers is that a mobile website allows them to shop any time, any place, and anywhere. With so many people on the go, this is important to feature to offer. Round-the-clock shopping of course, gives local businesses the opportunity to reach more potential customers.

 

  • Mobile websites can be developed to accommodate any type of device that has an Internet connection, from iPhones, Android-based smartphones, and more. Subsequently, this allows everyone the ability to access a mobile website that is user-friendly according to a device’s dimensions and capabilities.

 

  • Faster Loading Times: Mobile websites are designed to load much quicker than traditional websites on mobile devices. With faster load times, not only are people twice as likely to stay on a mobile website to seek information, but they are also like to become return users. Furthermore, optimised mobile websites increase the chances of customers referring others to your business.

 

  • Consumer Smartphone Habits: Smartphone usage is not a fad, and its use is expected to continue to grow. Within the next few years, seeking information online via mobile devices will eclipse online searches performed any other way.

 

More than half of all smartphone users have shopped online, found business information, located store addresses, and researched products via mobile websites. Many of these smartphone users have gone on to make purchases in-store after utilising an enhanced mobile website. In addition, the average smartphone user spends at least one hour per day using their phone. A good majority of this time is spent visiting websites.

 

  • Location-targeted Mobile Promotions and Deals: Mobile websites can be customised in order to target consumers based upon location. Built-in GPS placed on mobile sites, the ability to connect while in-store, and location-based coupons are among a few ways to target local customers, which in turn can boost your ROI significantly.

 

A Complete Mobile Marketing Solution

Having a mobile marketing campaign in place is something every business owner should have in place. The growing number of mobile users world-wide provides an almost endless supply of potential prospects and new leads.

Mobile Marketing

A Complete Mobile Marketing Solutiom

There are some main types of mobile marketing campaigns – SMS Marketing, Mobile Websites, QR Code and NFC marketing, as well as Mobile Wallet Loyalty marketing. Each of these can be used independently but work well as part of an integrated campaign.

QR Code and NFC Marketing
These square codes and small programmable chips provide a seamless link between traditional and mobile advertising. QR Codes are often printed on flyers, newspaper and magazine ads, business cards, posters etc. and NFC tags can be added to these mediums as well. This gives your traditional media a techy and interactive feel. QR codes can also be posted on social media or included in emails to encourage more people to scan them. When QR Codes are scanned and NFC tags are tapped, the user will be directed to specific content or encouraged to download a virtual business card or coupon.

SMS Marketing
SMS marketing has proven its longevity and is still a top tool for mobile marketers, and will be many years to come. You can use SMS marketing to send out mass messages about promotions, new products or business updates as well as schedule appointment reminder messages and send birthday greetings to your top clients. This can also be used as a fun way to interact with your audience via text-to-screen features.

Mobile Websites
Often dubbed as the epicenter of any mobile marketing campaign, mobile websites allow the mobile focused consumer to stumble upon your business. Consumers are continually bombarded with promotions, deals, and marketing messages. That’s why it’s important for potential prospects have an exceptional user experience. A mobile website will have improved functionality, usability and quick loading times and mobile websites are optimized for viewing on the mobile platform.

Features like tap-to-call, social media, mobile payments/stores, tap-to-map, text boxes, image boxes and a lot more are available features for mobile websites. It’s important to note that mobile websites are also considered as mobile web apps and can compete with any native app in terms of functionality, availability and price.

Mobile Wallet Loyalty
In any highly competitive business, it’s important to give your existing customers incentive to continue using your product or services. Mobile Wallet Loyalty programs allow the business owner to provide coupons, discounts, news updates, stored valued cards or even digital business cards to the consumer directly to the lock-screen of their smartphone. Looking to reach consumers and entice them to visit your establishment? Couple the mobile wallet with proximity based solutions and when a customer walks past the specific location, they are instantly sent a message that is relevant and engaging.

Mobile Purchase Behavior (Awareness)

In the overview of this series we discussed at a very high level how a mobile marketing strategy can assist a consumer down the path to purchasing your product or service over your competitors. Here is a quick recap:

  • Consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to assist them in the consumer buying process.
  • There are 6 stages in the consumer buying decision flow:
    1. Awareness: The recognition of a need, this is really an analysis of maslow’s hierarchy of needs in combination with marketing efforts.
    2. Consideration: The creation of an evoked set of alternatives. This is a mental short-list that the consumer creates based on internal and external influences.
    3. Preference: Based on the criteria that is most important to the consumer he/she will narrow down the list to a preferred brand.
    4. Purchase: This is where the consumer will actually buy a product or service
    5. Loyalty: After the purchase the buyer will enter into stages of post-purchase evaluation where they will re-evaluate the purchase they just made and file the experience away (in their minds) for future reference
  • A complete mobile marketing strategy can assist in every stage of flow because of the proximity to a mobile device for the consumer and the marketing efforts a brand undertakes.
In this post we will dive a little deeper into the Awareness stage.
The Awareness stage is when a consumer recognizes that they are missing something that they want or need.
There are a lot of factors that influence this realization:
  • Self-expression – Reflection of personal tastes
  • Affiliation – Be a part of a group
  • Independence – Stand out from the crowd
  • Novelty – Be Awesome

How does this tie into a mobile marketing strategy?

When designing your mobile marketing strategy you need to consider QR codes as your first line of communication with your buyers. QR codes or Quick Response codes allow you to engage with a consumer in a specific and measurable manner.
Specific – QR codes can be placed anywhere and can have built-in context or some text around it to give it context. The power of the QR code is that it allows you to understand and track the intention of a buyer. So when they are in the Awareness stage you can grab their attention at the right time and place.

Measurable – If implemented correctly QR codes can help you track a lot of valuable data about your consumers. Things that can be tracked are:

  • Number of QR scans
  • Geo-location
  • Date
  • Type of mobile device (brand)
  • Mobile operating system (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc)
  • Other Custom Events that help track campaign performance
By reaching consumers at the Awareness stage through the use of QR codes brands have the unique ability to understand who, what and where they need to engage consumer so they will spend more money and always have that brand on top of mind.

 

How to build a massively successful mobile web site

HTML5 is considered by many the future of mobile web design. It has been heralded as the mobile web’s saviour by more than a few bloggers and fortune 50 companies (Silicon Angel, Mashable and Apple).

Leveraging a post from a fellow mobile web app advocate (Pinch/Zoom) I am going to quickly walkthrough what it takes to build out the correct infrastructure for a massively successful mobile web app. This is not meant to be a technical discussion but more of a commentary on the key point made in the original blog post.

Device Detection

The core to device detection lives within a file that outlines all the different user agents (mobile software provider). Your user agent script needs to always be updated to reflect the changing market conditions, especially now thatGoogle has purchased Motorola.

Offline Browsing

15% of all mobile browsing is done offline so it is important to think about how the data is cached on the phone and how many levels deep someone can browse. By having a offline mobile data strategy you can guarantee that your users’ experience is optimal even when data connectivity is lost.

Interactions and Transitions

Javascript and CSS are the main building blocks to a solid user experience. With tools like jQTouch, Sencha Touchor jQuery Mobile making mobile sites look and interact beautifully is easy. However, these libraries are just a base to build off of, the first step is to identify the your mobile business objectives. After you have identified your business objectives you can pick and choose the components that support those objectives, giving the customer what they want, when they want it.

Conclusion

When considering your mobile marketing strategy you should consider:

  • Device Compatibility – Native apps only work on 1 device type, mobile web apps work on all devices
  • First identify business objectives, then build interactions to fulfill those goals
  • Have a offline mobile data strategy to ensure your visitors experience is consistent whether they have connectivity or not.
  • Consider the options. Without proper planning any technology project can be expensive, especially a mobile one. By focusing on what your customers need you can optimize your marketing and technology dollars in the most efficient maner.

 

The Time For Mobile is Now

Google released this great video, here are some highlights from the video:

Mobile is so big that it is changing and creating consumer trends
125 Years of Angry Birds are played everyday
1 in 3 Mobile searches have mobile intent
59% of mobile users visit a local store after searching for it on the mobile web
Mobile is huge in niches that you would expect, and some you dont expect
17% of all Auto searches are mobile
15% of all Finance and Insurance searches are from mobile devices
30% of all Restaurant searches are from mobile phones
What does all this mean?

with 79% of all large online advertisers not having a mobile optimized site, people are becoming frustrated with the brands that do not take mobile into account.