Top Ways To Use Mobile Marketing

There are a ton of different ways you can use mobile marketing to benefit your company and bring in more business. You can use it on current customers or you can use mobile marketing to bring in new customers. How, though, can you make the most of all your mobile marketing opportunities? Here are a few quick tips on ways to maximize your efforts in the coming year, thanks to Forbes:

Mobile App

Forbes recommends that every business needs to have their own mobile app. This may be taking it a little extreme as small boutiques may have no need for an app, but it couldn’t hurt. More or less, if you can afford to pay for app development, you should get it just in case, but it may not always be a worthwhile investment. If your inventory never really changes, an app wouldn’t be useful. It also isn’t that important for companies that have a very limited selection or don’t offer any kind of online purchasing options. A restaurant, for example, that only takes orders in-house would have no need for an app. However, a restaurant chain that takes online orders could make a lot of use for an app. It would allow your customers to easily access your menu and order again and again. Consider the nature of your business and needs of your customers before deciding on this.

Deals

Everyone wants a good deal, whether they are bargain shoppers or not, according to Forbes. And on that point, they are right. Deals are where the money is. Customers feel like you have been loyal to them just as much as they are to you when they get regular deals. Most businesses can’t get by without offering some kind of discounts or specials. The best part about mobile, though, is that you can quickly spread the word about the deals and discounts through texting. Your customers will see the text, and there is a pretty quick turnaround to get them in the door.

Events

It isn’t just enough to host company events. You have to somehow notify your customers and send out reminder. The quickest and most effective way to do this is through mobile. Since your customers, most likely, don’t go anywhere without their phones, you can get away with sending a quick text reminder about the event. Your customers will quickly get the memo.

Loyalty

Though Forbes recommends working on a loyalty program, it is not always necessary. Most small businesses fighting to get customers to come back will do well to have a loyalty program. Keep track of loyalty rewards points through mobile is the easiest and most effective way, and you can even send reminders to your customers. However, this typically will only work in specific industries. Again, take a look at the needs of your customers to determine whether or not it would be worth putting together. If not, it would be a waste of time and money.

No matter what you want to do with your business, mobile marketing will help you get there. You just have to determine what will work best for you and your company.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source: forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2013/11/09/the-5-fundamental-pillars-of-mobile-marketing-for-2014/

Business Texting Essential In 2014

Right now is the perfect time for your company to re-evaluate marketing strategies. Take a deep breath and look at the numbers. What did you do this year? Did it help? How much? What can you do better next year? Make sure you are looking year over year to get the full impact. Well, the truth is, everyone can do a little better with integrating business texting into their marketing plans for 2014. Here are a few trends you may want to consider for next year’s marketing plan.

Technology Changes Business

Without the right technology, your business will be missing quite a few opportunities to reach out to new customers. According to Forbes, everyone will be updating technology this year to more open platforms. It used to be that only the wealthiest and most technologically advanced people even had the technology to play with let alone had the ability to see your advertisements through the technology. Businesses have finally realized that they have to start competing on a high level and that means using resources such as business texting to reach out to customers. All your customers have it, so why not make use of it?

Get Personal

Every time you get personal with your customers, you are adding another strand to the rope that binds you. The relationship can easily be severed in the beginning if you aren’t careful, but after enough time, you have a strong rope. Mistakes in the beginning can sever that tie, making it really hard to get back again. The point is that you need to get personal with your customers and make them feel like you are invested in them just as much as they are invested with you. One of the best ways to do this is with business texting. Not only are you going to be contacting them on a more personal level, but they will also have the ability to contact you on a personal level as well.

Need For Relationships

In 2014, you will need relationships if you are going to be successful. As Forbes points out, you can have a new competitor pop up in no time, and all the sudden you are competing for business. And they may even be able to sell it for cheaper if they stole your idea. Without relationships, your customers will have no problem hopping on over to the next business for a lower price, especially if it is the same product. Developing a personal connection where your customer feels like you genuinely care about them and have created a product that fits their needs will make all the difference.

As you can see, 2014 will be a big year for business texting. Because so much of the new marketing patterns will involve getting more personal with customers, you need to get on top of it right now. The early bird gets the worm, so get started today. Make sure you get to your customers and start developing that relationship before someone else did.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source: forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/10/27/how-ibms-watson-will-change-the-way-we-work/

Sprint/T-Mobile Merger: Good or Bad?

There is a Sprint/T-Mobile Merger in the making, and there’s a few things we need to ask ourselves first. As consumers, is this going to be a good thing or a bad thing? For the companies, mixing a couple of the weaker links should, in theory, add up to a much stronger company, but that may not necessarily be the case. In fact, it could make for an even weaker link.

Two Problems To Face

There are always problems with any kind of merger, but the problems seem even worse with the Sprint/T-Mobile Merger. According to PC Magazine, here are two reasons this merger won’t go as smoothly as everyone hopes:

Technology

First of all, any technology company that is about to merge with another technology company needs to consider this. The phones may not be compatible, and combining technology will be much more of a headache than you might know. Both Sprint and T-Mobile have been working hard on their own technology paths for years and will have a hard time trying to make everything work in one line. On top of that, according to PC Magazine, Sprint’s history shows it is not very good at making any kind of changes.

The other question is which company is going to be willing to give up current technology and move to the other one. Since we already know most of their technology isn’t compatible, and one of them is going to have to give up what they already know to make the transition as smooth as possible, one of them is going to end up losing. There can’t be two heads to one snake, or it will never get anywhere. The same applies to this merger. One of the two companies is going to come out on top while the other one loses everything it knows. This same thing applies to the marketing strategies of both companies, which are very well-known for their different marketing campaigns.

Consumers

As far as consumers are concerned, this Sprint/T-Mobile Merger is not a good thing. The first reason is because fewer carriers means less competition, and less competition means higher prices. There is a good chance there will be increased prices after the merger, with both the newly-merged company and with the competition. On top of that, people know the Sprint and T-Mobile companies as separate for their marketing strategies. For example, T-Mobile is known for its speedy girl dressed in pink, and Sprint is known for the unlimited everything commercials. The strengths of both companies could bring together a fast and unlimited network, but only after they have battled the difference in technology and the difference of opinion on how things should be run.

In The End

It will be interesting to see where things go from here and whether or not all works out as planned. For one, it could mean utter disaster for both companies, which is much more likely considering the above circumstances. On the other hand, it could work out really well. If they are able to combine cell phone towers and offer competitive pricing, they might actually be able to top the list of top cell phone carriers.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source: pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2428401,00.asp

Marketing Your Mobile App

Between Apple’s App store and Google Play, there are approximately 1.7 million apps. Of those, very few will achieve popularity and success. The reason? Most app developers aren’t able to combine a great product with a great marketing strategy. The first is obvious, if your app isn’t of high quality, nothing else matters. But even great apps can remain undiscovered if the developers fail to market them effectively. There is the occasional app that goes viral without any type of advertising on the developer’s part. But in most cases, if you want your app to be downloaded, you need to market it. So if you’ve got a great app, but just need to market it, here are a few pointers.

Start With Existing Relationships

Chances are, you’ve already got a base of people you can start with. If you are trying to launch an app to help your small business grow for instance, you’ve already got your customers. Get them excited about your mobile app and they’ll be more likely to download it. If you’re developing game apps, start with players who have downloaded other games you have developed then branch out to players who have downloaded games similar to yours.

Paid Marketing

The most difficult step for most app developers is the paid marketing. After working hard to develop an app you know is great, you may be tempted to think the app will sell itself. This isn’t the case. Almost every app on the top charts got there because the developers invested the money to get it there. To get your app seen you need to purchase ad impressions. Ideally your revenue per customer will exceed your cost per customer.

A Few More Tips

A mistake many app developers make is trying to test too many channels at once. If you try to advertise your app across 50 different platforms, you won’t be able to discern which ones are working and which ones aren’t. If on the other hand you test out a few marketing partners and social media sites at a time, you can separate out which channels are effective and which ones aren’t.

Another mistake developers make is getting too attached to their ads. Sometimes you create a perfect ad that generates a lot of success. It can be hard to move past it but to remain successful, you need to continually develop fresh advertisements.

It’s important to look beyond the cost per install. When considering how much to pay for ad impressions, keep in mind that geography and device type play a huge role. Players in wealthier areas using newer devices are going to spend more on apps that players in poorer areas on cheaper devices.

It’s also important to track where your customers are coming from. While no tracking system is perfect, it’s important to try your best to know how your customers are finding out about your app. If you don’t know how they found it, you can’t know which of your advertising channels is working.

Finally, you need to make sure that your marketing efforts are profitable. In order to know whether your efforts are paying off, you need to pay close attention to your profit margins across all channels.

Mobile Technology News brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source:  venturebeat.com/2013/12/06/a-great-appgame-is-required-but-not-sufficient-for-success-in-mobile-marketing/

New iPhone Concepts From Fans

Apple fans are some of the most crazed ones out there, and they have been working hard coming up with new iPhone designs. It’s pretty convenient for Apple that hasn’t been able to come up with a good redesign since Steve Jobs died. In fact, Apple should probably consider doing some sort of competition to bring in more ideas like this and hopefully bring forth a new phone in the coming years. Here are a few examples of things cooked up by crazed fans for the next generation of Apple products.

Super-Thin iPhone

Apparently, the fans want thinner products. With technology it seems thinner is better with everything. This includes laptops, TVs, phones, and more. I guess that’s why the fans came up with the iPhone Air idea. More or less, according to Value Walk, the phone would be as thin as air. It would be just like the iPad Air but a little bit more extreme. The image of the iPhone concept has no border around the screen with the exception of a small border on the bottom of the phone for the main home button and a small border on top for the camera and ear piece. The edge to edge screen is pretty popular in up and coming smartphone concepts and could be seen very soon.

Curving Your Phone

With curving phones a reality now, since they are already been sold by other phone manufacturers, the Apple fans have come up with an iPhone 6c concept that curves to your face. The phone would still be pretty flat, but the screen would curve just to make talking on the phone easier. It is an interesting concept that wouldn’t make any difference to the hardware in the phone. Really, it would just change the shape of the phone. Many iPhone concepts are like that.

Same Old, Same Old

Have you noticed that Apple hasn’t been able to innovate in quite some time? Oh wait. It came out with the iPad mini, but that wasn’t very innovative. And then there was the iPhone 5c idea, but that was more about marketing and selling more products than innovation. Apple seems to stick with the same old thing with every new product. But is Apple’s same old thing plan any good? Maybe it is.

As a well-known technology company, Apple doesn’t want to just follow the crowd. It wants to be the leader of the crowd. By following the crowd, Apple might be giving up any chance of being the leader again. And many of the new fads in the technology world fade away pretty quickly, so it may not even be worth all the money it would take to get involved. Maybe Apple’s plan to stay out of all the hussle and bussle while coming up with its own new innovations is good afterall. The idea is to stick with what they already know and hopefully come up with something even better. Don’t waste money on new product until you know it is going to work.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source: valuewalk.com/2013/12/iphone-air-and-iphone-6c-concepts/

Samsung Note 3 Lite just like iPhone 5c

Samsung has been fighting its way to the top, and is actually doing really well with sales. The fight between Samsung and Apple may be well worth it, for Apple that is, if Samsung keeps up the progress. More and more people are using the Galaxy Note, and that means fewer people are using iPhones. But it seems Samsung might be copying Apple afterall by releasing a cheaper version of the Galaxy Note 3, the Note 3 Lite.

Just Like Apple 5c

Apple released the Apple iPhone 5c recently to offer a less expensive version of the iPhone. It was released at the same time as the iPhone 5s, and was a cheaper version of the iPhone. It didn’t have nearly as many new features and was, more or less, just the iPhone 4 refurbished. The lower price tag made a big difference for a lot of buyers, even if the phone doesn’t have any of the new features in the 5s.

Just like Apple, it seems Samsung Galaxy wants to please everyone. The Galaxy Note 3 has been doing very well with over 10 million units sold in the last 2 months. The price tag is high though, according to the International Business Times. Buying the Galaxy Note 3 without a contract is $700, and even with a contract it is still $300. That’s a price tag that a lot of people just can’t afford. Though there have been reports on the Note 3 Lite price tag, it is expected the price will be significantly lower to reach out to a larger audience.

Features of The Note 3 Lite

The Note 3 Lite will have the same size screen as the regular Note 3, but the screen will probably be LCD. Some of the other features you can expect from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lite include a less-powerful camera at only 8 megapixels, a less powerful hard drive, and less room for storage. By lowering all these features just slightly compared with the Note 3, the Lite is able to save a lot of money.

Will It Do well?

If the rumors are true and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lite is really on its way, it won’t actually be revealed until sometime early next year, probably at some sort of worldwide conference. However, if it is true, the phone will probably do just as well or better than the iPhone 5c. Though the 5c brought in more new Apple customers, most people who already owned an iPhone got the 5s. The same will likely apply with the Note 3 Lite. People who already own a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 won’t get the lower model, but it will definitely bring over some new customers. The only real difference is that Samsung’s customer base for the Note 3 is a lot smaller than Apple’s iPhone customer base. That means that there are a lot more people who Samsung could easily convert into new customers with this new phone.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source: ibtimes.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3-lite-release-date-coming-low-cost-high-end-galaxy-note-3-variant-reportedly

Samsung and Apple: The Winning Side

Samsung and Apple are at it again in court battles all over the world. With Apple’s claims that Samsung has stolen patented technology and Samsung claiming Apple is lying and has actually stolen some of the Samsung technology, the battles just keep on going. In fact, Samsung has tried to get Apple banned from its home country recently. That may not have gone as well as planned.

Getting Apple Kicked Out of South Korea

South Korea is the home country for Samsung, which is why the cell phone manufacturer though it had a shot trying to get Apple products banned. Samsung thought South Korea would see its side of the argument and recognize Apple stole a bunch of its technology in recent years. And Samsung wasn’t just going after iPhones. It tried to get all products banned that may have infringed on Samsung’s technology, including iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The court wasn’t going to give in that easy though. It turns out Apple will be able to keep selling in South Korea for now. That doesn’t mean Samsung won’t keep trying though.

Samsung Not Happy About It

A spokesperson from Samsung explained that they are very disappointed in this decision, according to PC Magazine. She said, “As Apple has continued to infringe our patented mobile technologies, we will continue to take the measures necessary to protect our intellectual property rights.” It seems Samsung has been losing a lot of court battles with Apple lately and has even had to pay out settlements to Apple in the last year on multiple occasions. Yet, the fight for who should be on top continues.

Will It Ever End?

You might be thinking to yourself that all this fighting in court is getting them nowhere. Apple and Samsung are not any better off after the legal battles. One wins, and the other wins, and they just keep going to court over every little legality. Is it even worth it? Well, the truth is that neither of them will ever stop. If Apple decides to stop, they will just get sued into the ground by Samsung, and vice versa. The only way to really stop fighting over everything like this in court is to have both companies decide to stop at the same time. And we all know that is unlikely.

Meanwhile In The States…

Meanwhile, back here in the states, the people don’t even care about the legal fights anymore. There was a time when people got more involved and were interested, but now it has just become the same old tune. People buying their smartphones can still choose between Samsung and Apple for their devices. And that is exactly what we want. We like being able to choose despite the fight Apple and Samsung are constantly dealing with. And the best part of the options here? We can even get the new Apple iPhone at Walmart without a contract, according to the Huffington Post. You can have your cake and eat it too, and that’s what being American is all about.

Mobile technology news brought to you by businesstexter.com

Source:

pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2428270,00.asp

huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/no-contract-iphone-walmar_n_4433304.html?utm_hp_ref=business