Make mobile marketing work for your small business.
Within the next 5 years, the landscape of the world will ultimately change, especially for technology. Gone are the traditional methods of communication, such as landline phones and traditional mail. Replacing these forms of communication are mobile devices and social media messaging. More than 250 million people across the globe possess a minimum off one mobile device and many possess multiple devices.
What a business must embrace in these changing times is how to incorporate an effective mobile marketing strategy that reaches as many people as possible. Does a business attempt to reach all 250 million in one shot or does a business start smaller? The key is to start small and eventually reach the maximum amount of people. How does a business reach customers and eventually expand? The answer is a location-based mobile marketing strategy.
Location-based Networks
What is a location-based network? Simply put, the ability to share your location and the location of your friends using social media venues such as Twitter and Facebook. Hyper local location-based networks such as Scvngr and Foursquare allow users to perform multiple tasks based upon the check-in location. This should be second nature to any business that utilizes social media within a mobile marketing strategy.
The Ideal Business Model
Is location-based marketing the right fit for your business? If a business thinks location-based mobile marketing is only suited for business to consumer models, you are potentially missing the opportunity to be as profitable as possible. As a business that relies on a diverse customer base, thoughts should move away from business to consumer and migrate to consumer to consumer. The reach of consumers is potentially farther than any business.
Location-based Applications
Businesses understand the need to incorporate location-based mobile marketing, but which is the best fit for your particular business model? This is answered based upon what you sell or plan to market to market. Location-based services such as Instagram and Foursquare allow users to engage with each other by sharing pictures and check-in to various locations. By sharing locations, customers discover new places and businesses. When new businesses are discovered, you now have the best free advertisement on the market, your potential customers.
Making Money
How do you make money with a mobile marketing strategy? Since the return on investment is a continuing and an ever evolving machine, the monetization of location-based applications depend on partners and advertising. When businesses utilize services such as Facebook and Foursquare to check in, the customers receive deals and the business get a portion of the revenue. The process takes time, but the rewards are plentiful.
Location-based mobile marketing isn’t simply a passing fad; it is the way of the future. A future that will surely pass over any business that is not willing or able to embrace the new landscape of the social media market. Remember the numbers or the potential reach of any mobile marketing campaign. More than 270 million mobile devices are on the market. The number of connected devices is expected to exceed the world’s population by the end of the year, leading many business owners to question if they have a marketing plan that can reach 7 billion consumers.