Are you looking to get started in mobile phone marketing? Don’t worry – it doesn’t have to be hard!

This type of marketing is actually quite simple and so effective that you’ll be very pleased once you have it in place. Let me help you with my easy mobile phone marketing guide.

1. Decide what you want mobile phone marketing to do for your business:
Are you looking for more sales? Are you looking for a new way to interact with your customers? Are you wanting to improve your market share? Are you looking for branding opportunities? Are you wanting to improve traffic on slow days?

2. Determine who your typical customer is that will be signing up for your list:

This is important to know – is it teenagers? Business people? Stay at home mothers? Who are you targeting?

3. Once you know what your goal or intention is and who you are targeting, you can craft the types of messages you will send around that goal or intention. You can also decide in advance how often you will send messages, and what time of the day you will send messages, and how many you will send in a week.

Will you be trying to catch your customers while they are deciding what to have for dinner? Are you trying to appeal to them when they are on their way to work? Are you trying to get their attention just before the close of the work day, or as they are leaving work?

4. Now that you have some idea of who you are sending messages to, what kind of messages you are sending, and when you are sending those messages you want to find a mobile phone marketing vendor. Look for one with phone support. Discuss your plan with the agent and see what they say. Do they offer all of the mobile marketing features that you need and want? Evaluate their available plans and make sure there is one that will meet your needs.

5. Once you have a plan and a vendor and some text credits, now is the time to get customers on your list. Put up signs at your place of business. Hand out flyers with receipts. Have your cashiers verbally tell everyone they talk to about the new list. Remember, there has to be something very good in it for the customer so they will want to sign up.

6. Once you have a list it is time to start sending out messages! It is important to send out smoking-hot deals that your customers just can’t refuse. Make them eager to get text messages from you.

7. Track your results and tweak your campaigns as necessary to keep results inline with your stated goal.

That’s all there is to it! I hope this guide has opened your eyes to how easy mobile marketing can be to get started with. There’s nothing left now but get out there and do it.

Is marketing to mobile phones important to your business in 2012?

In my opinion marketing to mobile phones can be a fantastic source of high-
quality, repeat buying traffic for any business.

So let me help you get started in five easy steps…

Step 1: Decide what your purpose and intent will be with your mobile phone
marketing:

• Are you looking to increase leads and sales?
• Are you wanting a way to get customers in on your slow days?
• Are you hoping for an easy way to send out reminders and notifications?

What would be a successful mobile phone marketing campaign for you? What
kind of open and response rates are you looking for? Are you doing any other
kinds of marketing that you will be able to compare your results to?

Who will you be marketing to? Who is your typical customer and when do
they usually come to your store? What will the tone of your messages be?
How often and what time of the day will you send messages?

Getting clear on these types of questions can help with the rest of the process.

Step 2: Find a text message marketing seller or company to handle your
campaigns or to provide you the software to handle your own campaigns.

Running a mobile phone marketing campaign is actually quite simple. The
software does all the work for you and doesn’t even take long to learn.

You will, however, want to be sure that the company has good support and
that the software has all the features that you want – like coupon redemption
codes or text to screen or mobile voting abilities, if these are important to you.

Step 3: Start building your list.

When you signed up with the company you would have picked out a keyword
and the company would have provided you with a short code. You are going
to want to put these together with your intended message and get the word
out to your customers.

Put signs up on the walls. Hand out flyers. Put the message on your receipts.
Have your cashiers tell people about it. Put the message on your advertising.

Step 4: Send out and track your campaigns

Send a message and see how it does. Ask people to send it to their friends.
Tracking can be as simple as counting how many people respond, or you
could use the coupon redemption features of some software platforms and
see exactly who responded and when.

Step 5: Tweak your campaigns

What can you change or enhance to get your response rates higher? This is
important because if you are always striving to do better, your campaigns
won’t fall flat or complacent.

Done correctly, mobile phone marketing is proving to be the most effective
way to offer deals to customers ever in the history of marketing.

You don’t want to miss out on this so get started today!

2011 was going to be the year that Quick Response Codes (QR codes) were going to take over the world.

On the face of it the revolution has not yet taken hold but it’s likely that their widespread acceptance and use has been delayed rather than abandoned -certainly in my view because with creative thinking QR codes can be a helpful and inexpensive tool to many businesses, small and large.

Possibly one reason for the delay in acceptance was the rumour of QR code viruses that spread in the middle of the y

ear but it’s now accepted that QR codes themselves cannot be viruses and so this potential threat has passed.

What are QR Codes?

QR Code for one of my other sites

For those not yet familiar, QR codes are similar to barcodes used by retailers to track stock and price items at the point of sale.

The key difference between QR codes and barcodes is the amount of data they can hold. One-dimensional bar

codes only hold up to 20 numerical digits whereas QR codes, which are two-dimensional, can hold thousands of alpha numeric characters of information.

As a result QR Codes can store website URLs, plain text, phone numbers, email addresses and pretty much any other alphanumeric data.

It’s the potential for sheer volume of information coupled with their ease of use that makes QR codes so exciting.

They don't have to be in dull black and white!

How Do QR Codes Work?

First you need to generate a code and for this there are lots of free sites on the internet.

http://keremerkan.net works well for me, as does

http://www.qrstuff.com

Both can produce QR codes in colours (be careful because some lighter colours don’t scan very well, at least in my phone) and they can be downloaded as a picture file, emailed or printed. Subscribers can also get analytics.

In due course I’m sure all phones will have an inbuilt QR Code reader but this isn’t the case yet and on some that do (e.g. Blackberry) it’s quite hard to find!

In the absence of an inbuilt reader you can easily download a reader as an App and again there’s a lot of choice,

I-Nigma is the most popular App for iPhones and Optiscan is also very good.

I have an Android phone and use Barcode Scanner by ZXing which is available on the Android Market.

How Your Can Use QR Codes

Start on the basis that you can send offline traffic to an online resource of your choosing and the uses to which you can put QR Codes are limited only by your imagination.

The obvious starting point for most businesses is either their web home page or a VCard (which is often printed as a code on a business card) and whilst the first use is to me a bit lacking in imagination, the second use is certainly valid as it means your details are more likely to be saved by the recipient.

Going up the scale of originality is to use QR Codes in conjunction with Facebook. You can also use Likify to create a QR Code that links to your Facebook Page and which allows a user to “Like” your page with one click.

Instead of linking QR Codes to a static home page, more imaginative businesses now link to a dynamic page (via a short code so that the target can be changed at will) which can then include a free offer or a coupon, both combined with email opt-ins to build a list.

Some Practical Uses For QR Codes

Here’s a few examples:

• Directions to your business premises
• A VCard with your business contact details
• Coupons and special offers
• Restaurant menus
• Free downloads
• Customer feedback forms
• Other places for feedback (e.g. Google Places)
• Instructions (e.g. how to put a product together)
• Property details (e.g. on an Estate Agent or Rental agent board)
• Sign up for newsletter
• Other product information (e.g. codes on wine bottles to tell purchasers more about the wine)
• Your own business App download (or any other App)
• Reasons to come back!
• Digital boarding cards
• Link to fund raising pages
• On car windscreens in dealerships with further details of the car

Remember that if you’re directing to a web page then that page should be mobile optimised and have a strong call to action. If it isn’t you’re wasting a huge opportunity…

The Future For QR Codes

The potential for QR Codes is unlimited.

At present as far as I can see the two things that are holding them back from catching on even faster are ignorance and the

It's a great part of the world too...

fact that downloading a reader is a bit complicated. So anything you can do to help to educate in these areas will help.

What’s most exciting is how QR Codes take the elements that social media is doing well – i.e. bringing people together with technology – and extending it to enhance the experience and in due course to make it easier.

Have you embraced QR Codes in your business yet?

Moving on from my last post, in which I talked about how to learn about your big fish, this post considers how to prepare for the first contact you’ll make with them.

This first contact is vital to your success. You’ll want to instill confidence in them. They need to know you can fulfill exactly what you’re offering:

• On time
• At a good price and
• At the quality you promise

Today we’ll actually go through the big approach and how to make that perfect first impression.

Before you put together your approach plan, you need to decide on which big fish you’re after. Take a look at your notes and the research you’ve done on potential fish. Then decide which one will be the easiest approach to start out with.

There are a series of things to go through in choosing which fish to start with. They are:

• Position Yourself And Your Business
• Compile Your Hit List
• Select the Best Target

Position Yourself And Your Business

You need to position your business to make the first move by listing your income streams, identifying and listing your operational procedures, assessing where your fish is initially positioned, review your big-customer research, and pulling it all together.

Compile Your Hit List

Start with a list of all the companies you’ve been considering. Then narrow it down to the ones who know could use your products or services. Don’t overlook obvious choices, whether they’re big or small. Even small companies could be big fish in the future.

Select the Best Target

Once you’ve got your list narrowed down, you need to decide which one is the best fish to start with. You need to consider a number of things:

• Which have the most purchasing resources to spend
• Does their company vision compliment yours?
• What are their employee incentive programs as they relate to your products/services?
• What’s the company’s real need for you?
• Will the partnership lead you off-course?

Now you should have a target in mind to start with. It’s time to plan your approach and execute that plan.

Here’s the step-by-step plan to help you make a good first impression:

1. Build and analyze your database. Divide your leads into three different categories: hot leads, great fits and secondary leads.
2. Send out introductory mailings to your target to introduce yourself, your company, services, products, and vision. They need to be short, clean and concise. Use a great headline in the letter – preferably one that gives them the benefit of working with you. A good postcard can work well.
3. Follow up with your first phone call 2-3 days after they should have received the letter or card. During the phone call find out the name of the person you need to be speaking with in the future and try to set up a meet with the correct person.
4. Follow up your phone call with another mailing and thank them for taking the time to speak with you and offer more details about your products/services. Use this letter and opportunity to set up a meeting to do a presentation.
5. Follow up the letter with another phone call a couple of days after they would have received the letter. This phone call is to help you further develop your relationship with the prospective client. You should also be able to set up a presentation meeting with them.
6. Call again a week later if they haven’t agreed to a meeting or presentation. Ask if they received your creative letter (the second one) and if they have a minute when you can stop by and introduce yourself in person.

Now, don’t be upset if you don’t seal the deal right away. Some fish simply take a little longer to land. This can all be a little intimidating at first, but when you know you are offering a quality product/service, you can’t go wrong.

Remember The Rule of Seven. The Rule of Seven is an old marketing adage that says that a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action and buy from you.

The Rule of Seven isn’t cast in stone by any means but far too many business owners give up far too easily in their small business marketing efforts. The real winners are those that don’t.

Once you’ve gone through this process and make first contact (and hopefully a good first impression) it’s time to put your best face forward, which means either seeing the prospect yourself or sending the right salesperson to seal the deal.

In my last post I talked about how to bring the big-company mindset into your business and your team. This will help you overcome mental obstacles that’ll prevent you from being successful.

Now, that you’ve learned how to overcome that, we’re going to talk about who your fish are.

It’s important to know about the fish you are looking for before you put a plan together. We’re also going to take a moment to talk about the potential “red tape” you may encounter along the way.

The most important thing to know about your fish is their purchasing habits and procedures. There are four main things you need to work on in order to be successful

1. Responsibilities: You need to know who has influence over purchasing, who does the actual buying and who can kill a deal if they want.
2. Get on Their List: You need to know how to get on their list of people to buy from. Your name needs to not only be on the list, but at the top of it and in as many categories as possible for the more interaction. Ask about a procurement program and what you need to do to go through the application process.
3. Speak Their Language: You need to learn the company’s unique language and communications methods. These could include report names, buzzwords and even the nicknames they have for their employees.
4. Fiscal Budgets: It’s essential you know something of the fish’s fiscal budget, so you know exactly when they are planning their expenses for the year.

Now that we’ve talked a little about what you need to know about your fish, let’s a quick look at the “red tape”.

Bureaucracy might as well be a four-letter word with the emotions it stirs in all of us. “Red tape” is sometimes a necessary evil, but one you can use to your advantage. There are two ways to learn from their system:

1. Analyze their activity.
2. Review their correspondence.

Being an outsider looking in can have its advantages too. If you hate dealing with the “red tape”, imagine how their employees feel dealing with it.

If they need to crunch some numbers, offer to do it. If they need more info, make sure you are giving it to them in a user-friendly way.

In my last post I talked about catching big clients, or “fish”, that will sustain your business over the long run.

Today I want to take that a step further by talking about how to understand and think like a big fish company and how that can help you plan your approach and find success.

Before you can start the process of landing big clients, you have to make sure your entire team is at one with your approach and vision. This is a critical element as you can’t afford weak links.

With your own team onboard there are six keys to finding big client success. These are:

1. First Impressions: You must remember your business has one shot to land a big client. If you or someone in your team makes a mistake, you aren’t going to be considered again. Never give them a reason to doubt your abilities
2. First Priority: Your fish must always feel like they’re your first priority. Return calls and emails immediately and find novel solutions to their problems or questions as quickly as possible.
3. Flexible: You need to be flexible in your negotiations. If they need a special service or for you to customize a product, say yes for the benefit of the long term. More effort or even a little hassle now can pay off later.
4. Long-term: This goes along with the last one a little. As you’re approaching and negotiating with big fish, think longer term benefits for your business. If you go for a one-off big result you’ll lose their interest.
5. Have Fun: Work should be fun, even when you’re trying to land big clients. In fact, what could be more fun? You’re sharing your vision with new people, including them in your future success and you in theirs. People simply work better in a fun, happy environment. Your passion will also be contagious and pull the fish into your vision even more.
6. Help Them: If you take just a little bit of time and offer your clients ways to save money or time by introducing them to potential business partners, this will show you truly are invested and interested in their business. Strive to find balance between your business needs and your client’s needs.

There’s also a few tactics you can use to bring in a big-company vision to the people on your team. You can:

• Post these six keys for all to see.
• Put together a performance based incentive program
• Conduct frequent team meetings.
• Use a “right now” policy that dictates big fish calls be answered immediately.
• Offer awards/recognition for big-company ideas and executions.
• Put together a training and certification program based on the six keys above.

These 6 keys and tips will help you instill a big-company mindset through your company which will help you be more prepared and more likely to land your big fish.

Once your team is thinking this way, you’ll be unstoppable.

Small Business Marketing – Growing Through Larger Client Acquisition

There are a number of factors to take into consideration when preparing yourself and your company to approach the largest clients you’ll ever work with.

Firstly I’d like to start with a brief look at the three paths every business faces and consider which one is the path to success. Then I’d like to talk about the mindset it takes to attract the big fish.

There are three principle paths that business growth can take:

• Snail Speed
• Shooting Star
• Catch the Big Fish

Snail Speed

Most business owners ended up working themselves into the ground without much reward or success. This is what happens when you fool yourself into thinking you’ll find quick success. You may also find yourself following this path when you’re afraid of change.

Shooting Star

This describes a business that shoots to the top so fast that the owners become overwhelmed and don’t have the right resources in place to cope. This can also happen through being overwhelmed by small clients and not taking the time to find larger clients, that will sustain your business after small client acquisitions slow.

Catch the Big Fish

This is the path that allows you to build at a steady pace that you can manage by not allowing your customers to outpace you. You can do this by putting these tips to work:

1. Attract, keep and lock in big clients.
2. Integrate “big business” culture into your company and employees.
3. Acquire the expertise you need to grow.
4. Have the courage to make changes as you grow.
5. Be prepared to invest a little more into going the extra mile

Now we are going to move on a little and talk about the “big fish” mindset. It may sound easy to just find and catch that big fish, but if you’re stuck in a small business mindset, you’ll find it harder than you think.

Think of all the benefits of aiming at bigger clients:

• Inexpensive
• Highly Profitable
• Longevity
• Security
• Deeper pockets…

In order to catch the big fish, you need to believe your company can make a difference to theirs. It’s easy to get into the thought that a large company doesn’t need anything from a small business like yours, but this is entirely wrong!

Once you take a look at how big companies operate, it’s important to know which ones are the best fit with your company. One of the best ways to get in the door is by knowing someone on the inside who can put in a good word for you.

Acquiring bigger clients is all about persistence. Unlike what your parents attempted to teach you when you were young (and you didn’t believe it then anyway!) a “No” doesn’t mean “No”- it just means, “Not now.” It’s your job to persist and ask, “If not now, then when.”

Finally don’t site around waiting for the bigger clients to find you as that’s unlikely to happen. You need to get out and find them – if necessary being prepared to go outside your comfort zone in doing it.

The reason for the poor performance could be closer than you think…

Many small business owners today are unhappy with the performance of their business in terms of sales and profits.

They’re working longer hours, applying greater effort, and spending more for small business marketing and generating lower income. So what’s going on?

What you need to know…

If you’re not happy with the results of your business, it’s important to remember that those results are in direct proportion to the actions you’ve been taking.

If you want different results, then you MUST take different actions.

So if that’s all that’s required, why don’t business owners just do that? The answer may shock you. They can’t stop repeating their past patterns of behaviour. Their past patterns have become ingrained into their subconscious mind and have established themselves as habits.

Have you ever listened to art experts accurately identify a recently discovered painting as belonging to a specific artist such as Rembrandt? How can they tell who painted that picture? Patterns – that’s how. Even though the painting may look completely different than all the others that artist painted, his or her patterns, sometimes referred to as their “style,” continuously comes through with each and every painting.

Why you need to know this…

The exact same thing happens to business owners as well. All of us have been mentally conditioned to perform our daily activities in a certain way. These activities have become habits through constant and daily repetition.

The problem is that the majority of these habits – more than 80% of them – are non-productive.

Imagine what would happen to your revenue if you could reduce that 80% down to 60%. Do you realize that you would DOUBLE your income? Do you know how easy it is to reduce that 80% down to 60%… or even down to 40%… which doubles revenue again? Exciting, isn’t it?