Big Food Franchises are Winning the Mobile Monopoly Game

McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, Burger King and more are winning the mobile monopoly game called Mytown by Booyah.com. Mytown is the new mobile monoply game according to the New York Time and other popular tech sites.

Mytown by Booyah is described as an location-based mobile entertainment app. Mytown is similar to the very popular Foursquare in that users checkin when they are at a location the difference between Foursquare and MyTown is that MyTown offer points for checking in, MyTown users check in to get virtual goods or rewards to advance through a Monopoly-like game.

According to Advertising Age "Quick-service chains Subway, McDonald's, Starbucks and Burger King have the most unique check-ins on MyTown, a location-based game with more than 3 million users that provided the data. Subway has seen nearly 6.4 million check-ins from more than 500,000 users since the app launched in December".

So here is the question for you, small business owner. When are you going to take your place in an organized fashio around these location based apps? When are you going to take advantage of having your customers tell their friends that they are at your store, restaurant or whatever.

Don't let the big boys dominate the space, Create your own plan and get started in mobile today.

 

Mobile Phones Can Do Damn Near Anything

OK, I get it mobile phones can do anything

Amazon may dominate mobile marketing if other retailers aren’t careful

If you have ever doubted that mobile retailing isn't real, Amazon just posted 1 billion (thats right folks) n sales in their mobile channel. “We’re seeing rapid growth in Kindle, Amazon Web Services, third-party sales and retail,” Mr. Bezos said in the statement. “We’re also encouraged by what we see in mobile. “In the last twelve months, customers around the world have ordered more than $1 billion of products from Amazon using a mobile device,” he said. Read more in Mobile Commerce Daily

After you read the article, it's time to start thinking about how you can join Amazon in this mobile tsunami

Event Company uses SMS marketing to grow VIP list 69%

Oscar De LA Hoya's Golden Boy Productions used text messaging to grow its VIP list 69%. Thats a 59% optin rate better than any media I know of. The company offered an opportunity to win a signed boxing glove to anyone that text "PLEA" (Spanish for the word fight) to a short code.

“There are now five billion texts sent every day, said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of Hipcricket, Kirkland, WA. “There are four times as many texts as phone calls every day.

“Why not communicate with your customers the way they communicate with each other,” he said.

138 million consumers use SMS technology, including over 60 percent of every age group between 13 and 34 years old, according to a comScore study cited by the presenters.

How can you use text marketing in your business.

Call us an we can setup you up with the service we use or click here to signup for a free 15 day trial and then start promoting

  • If you own a cupcake bakery, make an offer for a bakers dozen of cupcake for anyone that text's "cupcake" to your shortcode (if you use our service it 69302).
  • If you own a clothing store, offer a discount on clothing os free clothing
  • If you own a restaurant, offer a discount or free lunch
  • If you are a car mechanic offer a free lube job

Any business can use text messaging and should start today,

To learn more about mobile marketing and using it to grow your business

TEXT "almmarketing" to 69302 .

Dedicated to your success

Start a Business Using eBay and Iphone App and SMS marketing

Technology is creating all kinds of business opportunities and this is one that really stands out for me. I was recently reading an article on  Mobile Commerce Daily about how eBay has just released a iPhone app for fashionista's.

Since I fancy myself a fashionista :) , I had to try it. Its an interesting app and can be the basis of a great business for someone that owns a clothing store or is running a niche fashion business.

The eBay Fashion App runs on the iPhone and it is a great app. It allows the shopper to search for the products they want, store them in a closet, combine them with other items to create outfits. . Really cool app and a potentially great business.

Here is the business idea

Imagine you have a list (or build a list) of women that have small feet and love designer shoes. (based on my research, designer shoes for women with small feet are hard to find). Lets also assume that you have a bit of information on each c;client including name and address, shoe size, favorite colors, and favorite designer. You also have their email address, Twitter and Facebook info as well as their mobile phone number.

Lets say you find a very limited supply of Jimmy Choo (told you guys I was a fashionista) shoes in small sizes. These are the latest shoes with the most recent design and even women that wear regular sizes are having a hard time buying these shoes and the women that owns them will be the star in her crowd.

So the entrepreneur sends a text  and Twitter messages to the list, pointing the women to the eBay iPhone app, the women can see the shoes and buy them immediately.

How amazing, almost all of the parts are readily available and the entrepreneur doesn't need to figure out merchant accounts, shopping carts and the like they can just use eBay, text messaging and iPhone.

Amazing. the idea of this post is to birth the idea, its obviously not fully formed but I belive its doable in some fashion, the goal was to talk about how mobile technology is creating new business opportunities.

Tell me what you think.

Dedicated to your success

D

By the way, the eBay iPhone app is available now at the App store and here is a picture.

Local Search is Driving Foot Traffic to Local Business

Kantor Media Compete's Q1 Smartphone Intelligence survey reveals that 1/3 of smart phone users that search for local business with their phones end up calling or going to the store they found. Just another reason why your business needs to focus some marketing dollars and claim your online business real estate. According to an interview with Compete's director of technology and entertainment Danielle Nobe, the survey reveals,

  • Smart phone users are using their phones to search for local busines
  • One third of all smart phone owners reported calling or shopping at local business after finding that business using a local search application
  • Smart phone users use their phones to find addresses and phone numbers of local businesses

What should business owners do to take advantage of these new findings

  • Make sure your website is optimized for smart phones. Customers are finding business online and it's important that when they find your site on their phone that the site helps them find the information they need including address and phone number.
  • When in your store, users are using their phones to send pictures and to get opinions via text message.
    • 39% of users send a picture and 33% send a text to get an feedback about your product
    • 40% of users call someone to get an opinion while in your store.

Based on this evidence smart business owners need to start thinking about how to incorporate mobile marketing into their marketing mix today

Mobile Marketing is Driving Customers into Stores

One in 3 customers that have subscribed to mobile alerts indicate that the alerts have caused them to go to a store, according to a recent article in Mobile Commerce.

Not only are customers being driven to stores by mobile alerts but 27% report that alerts are driving their buying decisions.

The results are reported by a survey conducted e by Harris Interactive, commissioned by Placecast.

Checkout the article here http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/mobile-alerts-drive-1-out-of-3-recipients-in-store-27pc-to-make-purchase/

Why small business must have a 360-degree local and mobile Web strategy

This post is derived from an article in Fridays article in Mobile Marketer called "Why brands must have a 360-degree mobile Web strategy". The point of the article is that brands need (must) enlarge their marketing strategy to include not only a mobile Website but promoting including what I call "mobile access" to every part of their business in every area of business.

The article's point was that either online or offline, brands needed to include the mobile experience. So, if a customer searched on a Website on their phone, they needed to see a mobile Website. If they received a coupon and clicked on the coupon, the coupon needed to be formatted in an easy to read fashion for mobile phones. 

The mobile experience needed to be included in every aspect of marketing including advertising. So, on every ad, print, TV, radio and online, the user should be able to use their phone to respond to the ad. 

In today's marketing and advertising environment, I could not agree more. But I believe that small business MUST do the same thing.

Small business customers are using their phones as well, to find products, services restaurants that they want. A small business customer will need to see a mobile webster, if they get click on an ad on their phone, the landing page needs to format for ease of use on the phone and small business also need to give user the opportunity to respond on their phones to other types of advertising in every media.

So, Mr or Ms Small Business Owner, you need to heed the same advice for brands (your business is a brand as well, right) start thinking about how your customers can interact with your business using their smart phone NOW. Don't wait until it's to late.

How Having A Mobile VIP List Can Grow Your Sales 22%

trumpia-case-study-the-atticThe Attic, a streetware retail chain in Southern California sold $22,000 in merchandise in 23 hours using mobile marketing. Here;s how

Two Days before the sale, The Attic

  • sent out 1200 mobile messages to their mobile list describing theVIP sale.
  • 1200 VIP list members that received mobile messages
  • 236 (20%) showed up at the store on the day of the sale BEFORE the store opened.
  • Only customers with the VIP message and coupon number on their cell phone could buy sales items sent
  • The Attic had $20,000 in sales in just 3 hours.
  • Each VIP spent about $86 dollars

Great Conversations

  • A Single Blog Post helps the Attic build a list of 280 customer numbers in 2 days. Customers texted “ATTICSALE ” to 69302
  • From a single blog post about the sale The Attic collected 280 numbers within 2 days (customers were encouraged to text “AtticSale” to 69302 – Trumpia’s shortcode)
  • Promoting sale required NO marketing effort because of the power and immediacy of mobile text and IM
  • There were no paid print, radio, or Internet ads whatsoever
  • Attic’s VIP sale wasn’t even on a traditional shopping day (Thursday from 6-9 PM) and shows how effective texting can be if combined with:

Because of mobile marketing the Attic can boost sales on a slow day, without expensive print or other media advertising. The Attic has a list of VIP clients that respond to ads that are sent directly to their cell phone.

THE SAME STRATEGY CAN WORK FOR YOUR COMPANY. CALL 267-940-7504 or complete the form below to use Mobile Marketing to Grow Your Business

KFC Sees 13% Mobile Coupon Redemption

KFC added 6,000 subscribers to its mobile loyalty program and saw a 13 percent redemption rate for coupons sent to the list over a one-month period.

The database and coupons were part of the fast-food giant’s “Relief Plan” campaign, which was comprised of four distinct weekly offers. KFC saw a significant bump in participation when traditional media outlets were engaged to get the message out – including an email blast to a group of existing subscribers.

Read More at Mobile Marketer.com