With an estimated 5.2 billion mobile subscribers in 2011 and 1.7 billion mobile web users expected by 2013 (Infonetics Research), tapping the mobile platform is critical for businesses. While some technology innovations and gadgets are merely shortly lived fads, there are others that transcend time and effectively change the way we function and do business. Mobile technology has expertly turned smart phones into web surfing devices, sometimes surpassing or taking the place of traditional internet surfing on personal computers. As technology advances and connections become faster and more reliable, more and more users will take advantage of mobile web surfing. What does ...

According to the October 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing, 59 percent of mobile consumers plan to use their mobile phone for holiday shopping and planning holiday celebrations, not including making phone calls. In 2009, the number was only 25 percent. The iniquitousness of smartphones means that more people will be using apps, mobile websites, geolocation services, and more to assist them this holiday season. If your business is not present in the mobile world, then you are missing out on a prime opportunity to target holiday shoppers. “Holiday shoppers are always in a time crunch, and in this economy, they’re in a budget ...

Almost 75 percent of online retailers either have or are creating a mobile strategy, according to a Forrester Research study. Approximately 20 percent already have a fully implemented mobile strategy. "Mobile investment is modest now, but we see that it will pick up in the future, especially among the biggest brands that have already invested significant amounts in their mobile operations," said Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president, principal analyst, Forrester Research, and lead author of the report. Online retailers with mobile strategies are investing in features that support a cross-channel experience. One of the most popular features being offered is product and price ...

With a variety of marketing options available, more restaurants are turning to text messaging as a cost effective tool to reach local customers. According to an article from Restaurant News, restauranteurs are finding text messaging a simple, low-cost marketing tool that provides a high return on investment (ROI). In one example, a Dallas restaurant, Scotty P's Hamburgers, ran a tet message platform for a month and received a 12% redemption rate. In order not to neglect people without smart phones, text messages provide a simple, quick way to offer specials and deals to local customers. Scott Pontikes, the restaurant's founder and president, said ...

Mobile ad campaigns are outperforming online ads across a variety of fields including ad awareness, message association, brand favorability, and purchase intent, according to a study by InsightExpress. InsightExpress found mobile campaign norms were 4 to 5 times higher than online norms. "Online campaigns continue to offer exceptional reach, flexibility and variety," said Joy Liuzzo, Senior Director of Marketing & Mobile Research at InsightExpress. "However, the high levels of engagement, the explosion in technical capabilities, low levels of clutter and the novelty of mobile advertising all likely contribute to increased brand impact." Mobile internet campaigns increasaed unaided and aided awareness by 9 percentage ...

One of the few untapped areas of marketing is mobile marketing. People are already using their phones for text messaging, checking email, surfing the web, and more. Mobile marketing may seem overwhelming, but there are 5 simple ways to join in the mobile market. Text Messaging There are more than 300 million cell phone users in North America and almost all of them support text messages. Your potential market is vast. Send out coupons and deals to people who sign up for your text message list. If you run a restaurant, send out your daily specials or deals to entice people ...

As a full service marketing agency, it’s difficult not to notice the marketing efforts utilized by the businesses around us. It’s great to see campaigns being launched and creativity being stretched. So we thought it would be interesting to make this a regular feature and see what companies are doing to help grow their business and increase their exposure. Today’s featured business: North Face I’m a big fan of North Face gear, so I was intrigued when a colleague sent me an article about a new marketing strategy that North Face is planning on utilizing. I had a feeling that one day ...

Google AdWords will display location-specific business phone numbers with destination urls in ads on high-end mobile devices starting this month. This way, viewers can click-to-call businesses the same way they click the url to visit websites. The phone number and closest business address will appear as a fifth line of ad text when the ad appears on mobile devices with full HTML browsers, like the iPhone, Nexus One, Android, Palm WebOS. Results can be seen on the Campaign Summary page within AdWords from the "click type" segment option under the “Filter and Views” drop down. The cost of a click to call ...