How Inbound Marketing Would Have Gotten A Local Plumber a New Customer

Like many, Christmas Day was all about family. We stayed up until 5am Christmas Eve wrapping gifts and promply at 8am are kids where awake wanting to start the holiday festivities.

We have a great Christmas, we have teenagers and they got gifts like DF Hero and watches and clothing, we ate breakfast and the kids played DJ Hero all day while we prepared dinner.

We had a great dinner, watched movies and eventually I did the dishes, dumping the garbage in the garbage disposal, ran the disposal and washed  the dishes. Everything was done when I discovered that we had a clogged sink and dispite my working hard to unclog, the sink was full of water, clogged, a disaster.

I'm no handyman but I did try the plunger to no avail, the sink was clogged with standing water and garbage and nothing was working. So, like any good geek, I went to Google and entered "how to unclog a sink", here was what Google returned.


The results where somewhat helpful but what strikes we is the following;

  • Not one local plumber ranks in the search results
  • Not one local plumber is running PPC ads on this phrase.

What I was looking for where some really simple tips from a local plumber. My plan was to try the tips and if they didn't work call the plumber that provided me help. If I had found one local plumber with just that, either a site I could read with pictures or ideally a video, that guy would have gotten my business.

Instead I used Craigslist.com, guessed at a plumber, called him only to be told he could come out for 5 days. I called another plumber who didn't answer and finally called back a few days later. Bottomline, my kitchen sink was clogged for three days with water and smelly food. I eventually go the problem fixed, I did it myself.

Moral of the story, a little inbound marketing guide from a local plumber would have gotten a new loyal customer, instead a half competent do it yourself jobs

To discover how Inbound Marketing can help your plumbing or Service Business, get our free special report by completing the form
 

The Big Boy Mobile Marketing Series – Lane Bryant Growing Sales with Mobile Coupons

Mobile Marketing is being used aggressively by the big boys and here is another example. Each example in this series has been an example of a mobile strategy and this one is mobile couponing.

Lane Bryant is offering shoppers location based coupons and promotions that can be redeemed on their mobile phones.

Lane Bryand has partnered with Yowza, a company that creates a free application that can be downloaded to iPhones, Androids and other mobile phones.

Users can search for their Yowza app for Lane Bryant deals based on their current location or zip code. They can then present the coupon at the store when they checkout.

Lane Bryant is featuring instant offers as large as $75.00.

How Can I Use This Mobile Strategy in My Business?

This is another example of how major retailers are aggressively using mobile marketing and mobile coupons. If you want to use the Yowza app, you can signup here. But if you want a true mobile marketing strategy, designed to leverage mobile and your business,

 

Schedule a FREE STRATEGY SESSION by clicking here.


 

 

3 Tips for Getting into Mobile Marketing

Great tips from MarketingSherpa.com

Your Customers Are Using Mobile Phones. Are You

Noah Elkin, senior analyst at eMarketer, New York, recently reveal a list of trends that reveal how your customers are using their mobile phones. After reading this list, you will know how and what you need to do to lverage mobile marketing in your business.

eMarketing Mobile TrendsYour customers are buying smart phones and consuming and creating information daily. Customers are creating content, sharing content, reviewing your products and  looking for information. These trends create tremendous opportunities for your business and marketing to your customers.

The biggest trend in mobile usage is social networks like Facebook and Foursquare. But users are checking the weather.surfing the net, looking for directions to stores and restaurants and of course they're shopping.

The most important way that you can leverage mobile usage in your business is to design a plan, a strategy to being the process. Emulate the big guys, include SMS marketing and mobile coupons. Check to see how you site looks on your iPhone and your friends Droid. Start either small or with a full blown plan but the important thing is to start and start NOW.

Want  help developing a mobile marketing plan. Schedule a FREE STRATEGY SESSION by clicking here.

Social Networking Is All About Mobile, So Why Aren’t You All About Mobile?

 

Over the last few posts it has become obvious that customers are using mobile phones for a variety of reasons and one of the biggest is social networking. 

When you look at the various social networks almost all of them require a smart mobile phone. If you check in on Foursquare.com, Gowalla.com, Where, Facebook Places or Yelp.com you have to use a mobile phone. Each site uses mobile phone location services to tell if you are close to where you want to check in and you typically can't check in if you aren't close to the location.

 

The point is

Social Networking is all about Mobile, So Why Aren't You All About Mobile?

Aren't you already mobile? You most likely own a smart phone like an Android or iPhone. You are probably like most smart phone users, you use the phone to play games, send or answer text messages, look for stores and restaurants, check the weather and you probably have downloaded the PayPal app and you shop on your phone. (Somebody is shopping, Paypal expects to close 2010 with $500 million in mobile payments).

So the question is, Why haven't you started a mobile strategy for your business? If your spending thousand of dollars and hours of time on social networks, social networking marketing.

If you've hired a social network guru, why havn't you include mobile marketing in you business marketing plan. 

It's time to start NOW

 

Want  help developing a mobile marketing plan.

Schedule a FREE STRATEGY SESSION  click here.