How To Mobilize Your Business

It’s not difficult at all to Mobilize Your Business or develop a mobile marketing strategy but you must mobilize your business if you want to reach the mobile consumers. Think about this for moment, mobilize. To mobilize implies that something is not stationary and is a state of movement. Now we know that a mobile consumer is someone that is a state of movement  by definition and also has a device that is mobile. So when you mobilize your business we are implying that you, your business, your business information and your products are mobile and accessible by the mobile device the mobile consumer has with them 24 hours a day. So what do we do to mobilize your business?

It starts with developing a mobile strategy and a mobile marketing plan. Having a well thought out mobile strategy will guide you in developing your mobile marketing plan. It will also help you decide which mobile marketing products and tactics you will use to

mobilize your business.

The mobile marketing strategy you develop will be the supporting plank so to speak and you should always refer back to your mobile marketing strategy to ensure that you and your vendors are in following the strategy. Yes, your marketing strategy can be modified but keep in mind that changing your mobile marketing strategy can lead to the changing of your plan, marketing products and vendors as well. You should only change your mobile strategy if your business goals change then alter the marketing strategy to work towards the achievement of the business goals.

To develop a mobile marketing strategy you need to know all of the company background information, it’s current situation and the business goals. The mobile marketing strategy is deciding ‘what you are going to do and how you are going to do it’ in order to archive your business goals. The goal is to mobilize your business.

Here is an example of a well thought out mobile marketing strategy to mobilize your business:
The background and current situation: Businessman A is in his first year selling his products. Both he and the competition sell their products locally instead of nationally. He has a well defined product that is in demand, there is moderate competition, all of his competition markets the same product line and market their products using the very same methods. Businessman A has also taken the time to know who the consumers of his products are, where they go to buy his type of products and what their shopping habits appear to be. Businessman A also knows that his product could be considered seasonal due to the fact his major outlets for sales are seasonal. Businessman A knows that he needs to set himself apart from his competition and knows that to achieve his business goals he will need help and may not have all the creative and business skills necessary to penetrate more of his markets.
Businessman A’s developed Business Goals:
Businessman A wants to find a way to expand his business by:

• setting himself apart from the competition
• selling more products
• developing a strong loyal following
• making his product more accessible to his consumers
• keeping his marketing costs reasonable
• not creating an extra work load due to the marketing efforts

Businessman A thinks he needs a website but he does not actually want to make a majority of his sales through the website itself. He feels that the website itself will ‘brand’ him and his product. This businessman has never heard of mobile marketing and never considered how to mobilize your business.

Businessman A already had a good set of business goals and all of the goals could be achieved with some work. Businessman A also concludes that he is going to need some help to achieve his business goals and seeks the help of a marketing consultant. Most business people should use a marketing/business consultant or coach, and not their teenage nephew.

After two consulting sessions Businessman A and the consultant laid out the strategy to achieve the business goals. The consultant understands the business needs to be marketed locally,  the products should be made available in more local outlets, and  the business owner needs to be engaged on a weekly basis with his prospects and customers. To do this the consultant recommends a mobile marketing strategy that will focus on  mobilizing the business. The reasoning for this mobile marketing strategy was; the business was localized, the business was not easily accessible to the consumer due to the actual business location,  the demand for the product was good but attracting new customers was not easy, and the current method of developing customer loyalty was only word-of-mouth. Our research indicated that the competition was not employing any mobile marketing techniques, the local consumer was sophisticated and open to mobile marketing. The consultant also knew that with mobile marketing tactics all of the goals could be achieved.

The Mobile Marketing Strategy:

In order to reach and engage all prospects and consumers  the company would utilize SMS Text Messaging, a browser based Website, a Mobile Optimized Website, QR Codes, and a Mobile Business Card. This mobile marketing strategy is using two of the mobile marketing channels discussed in our 2011 Mobile Marketing Report. By using this mobile marketing strategy to mobilize your business, the business owner will be able to engage with all current and new consumers in consistent and timely manner. It will also allow for measurable results.

SMS Text Message Marketing will

• Attempt to reach the mobile consumer at every opportunity
• build a list of these consumers who become customers
• market to this list of customers 2 or 3 times per month
• keep the customers on the list up to date with valuable company information

Creating a Browser Based Website

• Use WordPress for the site, it makes it easier for Businessman A to make updates
• Include videos
• Write relevant and (content is your friend) informative articles
• Write unique and interesting content
• Create a product catalog that includes a contact form for the consumer
• Use the website to make company announcement about events, locations and sales

Building  Mobile Optimized Website

• Not a copy of main site
• Include Product information guide
• Include mobile optimized videos
• Include location information
• Include contact form and contact information
• Use mobile website to make company announcement about events, locations and sales

Incorporate QR Codes on all company assets and internet properties

• Place custom codes on all product labels
• Place QR codes to allow opt-in to SMS Message List
• Place QR codes on main and mobile website
• Place QR codes on business cards

Create a Mobile Business Card

• Make the business card personal and localize to the business person
• Allow e-mail from card
• Allow office calls
• Allow mobile calls
• Lead to the mobile website

Incorporate Analytics

• Use Google Webmaster and Analytics on both websites
• Track QR codes
• Analyze opt-in opt-out rate, and conversion rates of SMS Messages

With the strategy laid out it was now time to plan on when and how to implement this mobile marketing strategy to mobile your business. As you will see having the mobile marketing strategy in place will make it much easier to develop a mobile marketing plan and change  the plan to fit any situation that may arise during the implementation. You will notice that this mobile marketing strategy does not include a Social Network component. While Social Networks can be implemented into a Mobile Marketing Strategy the current product availability and other constraints led the business person to decide not to use that marketing channel at this time.

The Mobile Marketing Plan to Mobilize Your Business:

Schedule: Our schedule was to implement everything within 3 to 4 weeks. The mobile marketing products and  tactics formed a solution that was implemented in the order that follows.

We started with the SMS Messaging system first because building a nice website would take 2 to 3 weeks. Everyone agreed that taking immediate action would benefit the business. We could start building an SMS message customer list right away. The SMS system was implemented within a couple of hours and put to work  the very next day. A discount offer to join the message list was set up and it will be made at every marketing and sales opportunity. This would build a list of phone numbers. The businessman will market to the current list and continue encourage people join his SMS list.

Our second action was to build a WordPress website and SEO the website for local markets. We created, edited and installed the  mobile marketing videos made for YouTube and Mobile YouTube. This was followed by writing the relevant content. Before publishing we installed the analytic codes and set up on Google Places. Next we placed the customized QR codes on the website.

The step was to build a Mobile Optimized website with HTML 5,. We added SEO components for localization and installed the analytic codes. The information from outlined in the mobile marketing strategy was included in the mobile optimized website. Redirection from the WordPress site was installed so when a mobile device browses the site they are directed to the mobile optimized website. We build the custom QR codes to direct visitors to specific urls on the mobile optimized website.

The last step of the mobile marketing pan was to build a Mobile Business card. The mobile business card  localizes the owner and includes several ways to contact the owner. We built customized QR codes to be printed on the paper business cards that will direct the user to the mobile business card of the owner.

All of these items were in fact implemented within 5 weeks. Editing the video took longer than expected but everything else went into place very easily. As you can see when you develop a good mobile marketing strategy to mobilize your business it is not difficult to develop a plan on how to do it.

The main reason this mobile marketing strategy, mobile marketing plan and mobile marketing campaign worked so well was that Businessman A recognized he could not do this himself and sought the help of a good business consultant. A good consultant is worth their weight in gold if they know what they are doing.

This presentation of this mobile marketing strategy to mobilize your business is from an actual client of SRI Services and not hypothetical case, nor a case study. Every business we work with is different and so are their customers. You should carefully analyze each business individually when developing a marketing strategy. What works for one business may not work for another. It is my opinion that the business goals will lead you in the direction you should go. When looking for a business consultant find out if they deliver mobile marketing products or mobile marketing solutions. It is mobile marketing solutions that will solve your business problems.

SRI Services welcomes your comments and contacts. If you are looking for experienced professionals in business consulting and mobile marketing to help you contact us. We can help you to mobilize your business with

mobile marketing

solutions.