Blog: November 2011

Even Harry Potter is getting in on QR Codes - a nice custom code that when scanned snaps through to the Harry Potter app in the app store.

The about.com is a great example of website that renders perfectly on all devices

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Steve Jobs

“Rather than tailoring disconnected designs to each of an ever-increasing number of web devices, we can treat them as facets of the same experience. We can design for an optimal viewing experience, but embed standards-based technologies into our designs to make them not only more flexible, but more adaptive to the media that renders them.” Ethan Marcotte

We are moving into the post PC era as more and more people migrate to smart phones and tablets as their preferred medium to access the internet. Web designers are facing increasing challenges to develop solutions that are viewable on all platforms. We have seen a proliferation of apps and mobile web sites but is this answer? Responsive web design using flexible fluid grid based layouts, flexible images and media queries are a design solution that many web designers are adopting.

By creating a flexible layout with fluid grids the responsive website changes in accordance with the browser and resizes and repositions the content. The images are flexible and can be dynamically cropped or resized on the fly. By using media queries and a collection of style sheets in different widths multiple layouts can be achieved in CSS3 .Parameters can be set so content appears according to the device that is accessing it.

What must to be considered is the goals you want to achieve from your mobile offering, the costs involved of developing and application, a dedicated mobile site or a responsive web site. Consumers on the move have a completely different mind-set from PC users and are more action orientated; they want the relevant information delivered instantly and ease and speed of use is paramount. A mobile application is likely to have advanced features that a simple mobile website cannot deliver. A QR Code reader can be built into the app to facilitate the scanning of QR Codes to link directly to relevant content or the exact information the user is looking for is an example.

For those who are developing a new website a responsive website should be considered as the advantages are plain to comprehend. If you are using QR Codes in your marketing mix a simple mobile website with strong calls to action may be a more cost effective option.

The Virtual Store

Waitrose and The John Lewis partnership are testing a ‘Virtual Store’ using QR Codes in a window display. The Brighton Waitrose store is displaying products featuring the John Lewis Range of ‘Top 30 favourite things for Christmas’. Consumers on the go can scan QR Codes that accompany the product in the Waitrose window which directs then to the product on the John Lewis optimised mobile website where the goods can be purchased. This initiative mimics the Tesco virtual store in South Korea and offers a Click and Collect pick rather than the Tesco’s home delivery service. John Lewis marketing director Craig Inglis says the roll-out of "click and collect" to Waitrose branches is proving popular and claims the "24-hour virtual shop in the heart of Brighton takes convenience to another level".

Mobile and location-based marketing

Most businesses are suffering from intense competition, customers have more choices than before and this requires more intelligent marketing. Markets are complex, blurred and fragmented and very unpredictable. The change is constant and new challenges and opportunities emerge rapidly. Customer are calling the shots demanding you do business where, how and when they want.
• Mobile technology has become one of the major drivers of change.
• Children these days are rapidly replacing their toys with mobile devices.
• Mobile devices are often the first thing people switch on in the morning and the last thing they switch off at night.

This change in consumer habits presents new opportunities, new innovations and new demands. As mobile has been identified as a major driver of change you must consider how you can change the rhythm of you business cycle and align it with this change. If you are going to do business on customers terms then you must engage them differently too. Customers are hard to reach and it is getting more and more difficult to attract their attention. You must go out and get them rather than wait and hope they come to you. You need to do business how and when they want and that means mobile. Your mobile marketing should focus on creating value for your customers, addressing their real needs and outperforming your competition.

If you are entering into the mobile marketing landscape then you must endeavour to integrate it into your overall strategy
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• Mobile marketing itself is not a strategy; mobile marketing is a means of communication to support your business.
• Mobile marketing works best when integrated with social media so take time to learn about social media marketing.
• Make sure all those involved in your location-based mobile marketing know how to appropriately engage in social media.
• Monitor your competition on social networks and see how they are engaging their prospects.
• Don’t copy, innovate, and define your own objectives.
• Get into the mind space of your customers, what problem can you solve for them with your mobile offering?
• Remember that social media is a great tool for referral marketing. Think of ways to interact with mobile users through social media and get them to pass your message on.
• Creativity is the ability to see relationships when none exist “Thomas Disk” Get creative with your social media marketing.
• Make sure your business has a great Facebook page.
• Make sure you claim your Google Places listing and that it is optimised for mobile search.
• Make sure all you social media accounts, your website, blog, twitter account, scopp.it, knol are all connected to your location-based mobile web pages.
• Make location-based, social media and mobile marketing part of your daily routine.
• Look for ways to better serve your customers through social media and mobile marketing.

Your strategy will only produce value if it is followed by rapid action. Whether you are in retail based or a services based industry you will always have the challenge of competing for the available funds of the purchaser. If you supply significant greater value than your competitors then buyers are likely to change their allegiance. As a business owner you need to make sure that the people working in your business fully understand your mobile marking strategies and realise that the best way of pleasing you is to do an excellent job serving and delighting your prospects and customers.

Personal Portable and Everyday

Over an extremely short period the mobile phone has evolved into a vitally important channel of communication that is used by billions on a daily basis throughout the globe. Mobile is now ready to position itself as the principal channel for marketing. Mobile marketing is a platform that will change the fundamental qualities of how we receive and react to traditional media. Unlike PC’s the mobile phone is in reach 24/7
• You must have a mobile marketing plan
• You must listen and learn about your customers and get close to them
• You must do your research
• You must remember to look for ways to enhance your relationship with your customers via your mobile marketing
• You must uses the reach and speed of mobile technology
• You must ALWAYS deliver value
Situalis provide clients with deep insights into the ramifications and the endless opportunities that mobile marketing afford businesses.
• Mobile marketing can drive traffic to YOUR mobile website.
• It can include a Click-to-call
• Landing Pages can be built to support YOUR marketing
• You can encourage opt-in e-mail sign up to build a database of prospects who are interested in your product or service.
• You can deliver useful information via text, imagery, podcast, or video to your prospects
Ask yourself; what product or service do I want to sell, who are the prospects that are likely to buy my product or service, where are they and how will I reach them via their mobile devices?
Anything you do that results in a less that delighted customer or the customer exits your mobile website should be regarded as a fault or. If you don’t deliver 100% on your promises then your offering is flawed.

Speed, simplicity and usability are the key factors in mobile marketing

• Mobile screens are small.
• Consumers on the move often suffer from time poverty.
• Keep it simple stupid, offer bite-sized pieces don’t try and tell the whole story.
• Some internet connections are notoriously slow.
• Make the mobile experience rewarding.
• Make sure everything works well, simplicity is the key.
• Mobile user traditional seek out specific information, they are not casual internet surfers. They need to access the information you are providing quickly.

The Mindset of Your Mobile Shoppers

Before you dive into your local mobile marketing campaign you should give serious thought to your shopper and their mode of shopping.

The transactional mobile shoppers have a fear of paying too much. Mobile shoppers in this mode will be searching via price comparison sites and deal apps to seek out the best deal available. They enjoy this process and are not deterred by the time it takes them and don’t factor this in as part of the purchase price. Mobile transactional shoppers can be an excellent source of word-of-mouth marketing as they are quite happy to brag about the fact that they got a product for the lowest price; they feel clever. Mobile transactional shoppers can be extremely promiscuous always looking for the best deal or bargain and are not traditionally loyal.
The mobile relational shopper has an entirely different mindset and considers the purchase to be one in a long series of purchases. They know which product they want and are looking for a store to buy it from. I wanted to buy a book recently so where do I go? I’m in a relational shopping mode so I click on Amazon, log in, type in the book I’m looking for, get a few price options from different stores, chose Amazon , not the cheapest but I know they will deliver quickly, they have got my card details stored, click and paid for the book, job done in minutes. My time is valuable and maybe I could have spent another 30 minutes to save a few quid on the book but realistically if I had spent another 30 minutes and factored in my time then it would have cost me far more . I’ve found the right place to buy and I will go back again and again.

In-App advertising: Real-Time Marketing

Advertisers, marketing companies, brands and business of all sizes are constantly looking at ways to promote and market themselves via mobile devices. The mobile platform has tremendous potential to engage consumers and deliver highly relevant targeted content to mobile phones and tablet computers. It has been suggested that in app advertising is likely to return a greater investment that TV advertising. Whether this will be proven to be true remains to be seen but anyone entering the mobile marketing space or companies considering beefing up their mobile marketing campaigns should at least consider in app advertising. In app advertising has also become a channel that app developers are using to monetise their apps.

Consumers are estimated to spend more time on smart phones and tablet computers that they do consuming traditional media. In app advertising can be set up to target specific devices, be delivered during a certain time period, to a certain region, town or city and be targeted to a specific demographic set by different parameters like age gender or income. This specific targeting makes in app advertising an attractive proposition as it stacks up favourably when compared with broadcast advertising and marketing. Most mobile shoppers are young and affluent and a survey suggested that nearly 50% of consumers have used their mobile devices to research and browse products while in a retail outlet. Click-to response campaigns have gained traction as savvy retailers have acknowledged that the best time to market to these consumers is when they are in the decision making process and ready to buy. This makes in app advertising most suitable for location-based marketing and location-based services

The four main reasons for massive growth in mobile app marketing are:

1. It is estimated that over one million smart phones are activated daily
2. There are over 400,000 apps available for idevices and the Android Market is rapidly catching up
3. Smart phone users spend more time on mobile apps that the average internet user spends online
4. The increased size of mobile device screens means more publishers are integrating advertising into their apps

Types of Adverts for Real-Time Marketing

• Click to Call ads enable your business to include a clickable business number in your mobile advert. Consumers can click on the phone number and call you up
• Hyperlocal adverts are perfect for location-based and proximity marketing as they show the local business address, phone number and proximity to the business in question. They are a good way to drive traffic to your store or service business
• Sitelink adverts are a great way of directing mobile users to specific product pages. Useful relevant information is delivered and the precise moment the mobile user requires it.
• Offer adverts. Limited offers or time sensitive deals can be sent to mobile devices. You can encourage users to redeem these deals, save them for future or share them via email, SMS or social networks
We help YOUR Business find the right mobile network
• We will only recommend networks with a broad extensive local reach.
• Your chosen network should serve at least 65% of local mobile search applications
• Your network must be able to connect with local business advertisers
• Your network must serve ads directly to local consumers at a hyper-local based postal code level or a set radius around a location target
• Your network must offer both search and display ad serving
The AdTap platform has been developed so advertisers, publishers and ad buyers have complete control of where and when their ads appear. We manage client’s mobile ad networks.

Viral Mobile Marketing: Fish and Chips or Pilates?

The is a misconception about mobile marketing that it’s all something new and it requires ‘Mobile Marketing Strategic Experts’ to manage it. Mobile is simply a new channel for reaching a target audience. The skill is to understand exactly who your target audience is, where you can find them and what messages to craft to get them to do a desired action. Viral mobile marketing presents an even greater challenge as you need to figure out how to get your targets to pass your message on. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about mavens, influencers and sneezers in his brilliant book ‘The Tipping Point’ where he analysed the social dynamics that caused rapid change. Seth Godin followed this up from a marketing perspective in his book ‘Unleashing the Idea Virus’. Godin says that counter to traditional marketing wisdom, which tries to count, measure and manipulate the spread of information, it can spread from customer to customer and that marketers should create an environment or communities of interest where ideas can replicate and spread. Emanuel Rosen ‘The Anatomy of Buzz’ Creating Word-of-Mouth Marketing, Mark Hughes ‘BuzzMarketing’ Get people to talk about your stuff ,Russell Goldsmith ‘Viral Marketing’ get your audience to do your marketing for you, and Dr Ralph Wilson one of the early pioneers of viral marketing have all written extensively on the subject.
Social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and mobile devices have given marketers the platforms and tools to bring these ideas to fruition. The social networks have facilitate the rapid spread of information and marketers can now measure and track the flow of information from person to person.

Have you seen this?

When you come across something you like so much or find it so relevant to your work you are almost compelled to pass it on to like minded people. My business is involved in QR Codes and I love infographics, data visualisation graphics. Recently I came across some amazing Custom QR Codes and infographics by a firm JESS3. The Custom QR Codes and the infographics were the best I had ever seen and I felt I should share this with those in my business network. A business partner of mine had already seen the QR Codes and had posted an article on his business Facebook page and tweeted about them on Twitter. There is nothing new about this word-of-mouth marketing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and my Samsung Nexus S just enabled me to do in a fraction of the time it would have normally taken. I felt compelled to pass this on for a number of reasons. I knew it would be gladly received by my business colleagues; it had value for them and most of all it was quality. I understood that my target audience would be motivated and were likely to pass my message on to someone with like minded interests. I gained no financial benefit from my word-of-mouth marketing but it gave me great satisfaction to pass it on, that was my reward. Human beings have a psychogenic need to communicate with other people. I felt that by passing this on to others it may benefit their work and ultimate I may become more popular with them.

Email, SMS, Mobile devices and Social Media have provided the opportunity in which viral marketing can thrive. The ability to pass on and share any message, wherever we are, instantly, with anyone we know or are associated with, make ideas travel extremely fast. Richard Dawkins in his seminal study, The Selfish Gene described ‘Memes’, self replicating units of knowledge that are passed from brain to brain and mind to mind. A meme has the power to alter ones perception and behaviour through replication or imitation. This therefore is the Holy Grail for mobile marketing as it is exactly what viral marketing via mobile devices sets out to achieve.
To launch a successful viral mobile marketing campaign you need to get ‘deep’, deep into the minds of your target audience. You need to listen to them, discover what they are emotional about, what motivates them to take the desired action you require to pass on your viral mobile marketing message. Monitoring social media will give you some of these insights and talking directly to your prospects will enhance your understanding.

Dr Ralph Wilson’s six principles of viral marketing states that for any viral marketing strategy to be successful it must contain one or more of the following:

1. It gives away product or services. This could be bite sized chunks of your product or service
2. Provides for effortless transfer to others, emails, tweets, SMS, Social Networks
3. Scales easily from small to massive. YouTube videos
4. Exploits common motivations and behaviours
5. Utilise existing communication networks
6. Take advantages of other’s resources

The more of these elements your viral mobile marketing can embrace the more powerful your viral marketing will be. Analysts of viral marketing have concluded that although there are many variables in viral marketing the social velocity (the speed which the viral message spreads) is dependent on the 4C’s: Content, Connections, Community and Conversions.

Marketing messages received from friends, family members or work colleagues can often have a profound influence on recipient’s attitude and behaviour. My wife was at work and received a deal offer on her mobile from a nearby chip shop that do the most amazing Fish and Chip take away meals. She showed this deal to those in her office describing the wonderful taste of their fresh lightly battered fish and hand cut chips. When she received the deal there were about 50 people who had taken the deal, everyone in her office without exception bought into the deal, many of them shared the deal via Facebook and SMS using their mobile devices, in the space of an hour over 400 people had taken the deal. The deal was local therefore easily accessible, the deal was personally recommended and it travelled quickly. She received the deal a few hours before lunch time so it was timely and mobile was the preferred method of transmission as the office did not allow email access from work computers. When people think of viral marketing it is often related it to a global audience. This viral mobile marketing campaign worked so well because it was locally targeted, offered value and utilised the connectivity of mobile devices (not PC’s) and the influence of social media. It also fulfilled a biogenic need that had arisen from a biological condition, hunger. Content with value, the always on connectivity of mobile devices, the connection of social networks, and recommendation made conversion of this deal effortless unfortunately it doesn’t always work like this. The deal the next day was for 2 Pilates sessions for the price one, this unfortunately wasn’t so successful, my wife had no interest in it whatsoever it wasn’t relevant to her and she automatically deleted it from her mobile device. I checked the deal online and saw 4 people had taken it up.

Riches from Local Niches

Seth Godin calls them hives we call the niches. Whatever you call them your challenge is to attempt to dominate your local market for your product or service. To do that effectively you need to craft your communication it such a way that your targets are compelled to pass your marketing message on and you must create something that is virus worthy. You need to monitor what the local community are saying about you and reward those who are talking about you. Word-of-mouth by itself just isn’t enough you need the systems and tools in place to amplify positive word-of-mouth so it spreads quickly.