Mobile Money Machine

The launch count down of wom Mobile Deals  has finally
started!

The launch date is:
Saturday, 9/10/2011, 9:00 AM EST

We are having LIVE webinars and teleconferences.
Go to:  http://27updates.com and enter Promo Code 22562

We will offer CASH CREDIT in your wom Mobile Deals
account at EVERY live meeting. This will allow
you to start sending out wom Mobile Deals!

You can get a link for this launch sales page by
logging into womVegas.com, then click on Account,
then click on links.

It contains the schedule of LIVE meetings about our
launch of wom Mobile Deals
on Saturday, 9/10/2011, 9:00 AM EST

You can use that to recruit people to the
webinar center.

Be sure to get YOUR link from account, and then
links, so it has your PROMO CODE on the end.

BELOW IS THE MEETING SCHEDULE:

All times listed below are in Eastern Standard Time.

Thursday 9/1/2011: 5 PM and 11 PM

Friday 9/2/2011: 11 AM

Saturday 9/3/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, and 11 PM

Sunday 9/4/2011: 11 PM

Monday 9/5/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

Tuesday 9/6/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

Wednesday 9/7/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

Thursday 9/8/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

Friday 9/9/2011: 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

LAUNCH DAY: Saturday 9/10/2011: 9 AM, 11 AM, 5 PM, 11 PM

You may join us in the webinar center OR
in the teleconference at the above dates and
time. 

Every first-year business student, aspiring entrepreneur and average consumer knows that competition in an open marketplace is a core value of capitalism and supports a free economy.

But in emerging new industries such as mobile marketing, upstart providers offering bargain-basement prices and substandard service can hurt not only our individual businesses, but our entire industry.

Mobile marketing, with its technological sophistication and as-yet-unimagined applications, is still misunderstood by most of the advertising world.

Those of us out there in the trenches every day trying to convince advertisers of the benefits of a mobile marketing campaign know how important these two key elements are:

-Educating our clients about how and why mobile marketing works
-Providing expert client service and support

Yet while we are focused on creating increased awareness for potential clients and a positive experience for existing clients, new mobile marketing companies are springing up, offering deeply discounted pricing and bare-bones services.

In a brand new industry such as ours, this creates a negative impression for advertisers who are just beginning to explore the unknown territory of mobile marketing.

As a result, the offerings of established, full-service companies become devalued because advertisers begin to see it as a cheap product.

Fool service
Here is how this scenario might play out.

Let us say the XX Company wants to drive sales for a specific retail product, such as laundry soap, by offering a coupon via mobile marketing. It is seduced by the low prices promoted by mobile marketers offering a bulk package of messages for pennies per message sent, and no additional fees. What is wrong with this picture?

The lack of a solid marketing plan for starters.

Typically XX Company would get an allotment of messages without an effective plan or way to use them. Is there an accessible, knowledgeable expert advising XX Company about how to realize the most benefit from this campaign? Who is explaining the dos and don’ts of text messaging for marketing?

Some of these unsupported campaigns make glaring mistakes, such as leaving out the company name to indicate who is sending the message or asking the consumer to go online when the goal is to drive store foot traffic.

These campaigns might even ask consumers to text a keyword to a word (PIZZA) as opposed to the numeric short code (74992). These are simple errors that most of us in the industry can recite in our sleep, and they are easily addressed by a company that knows the business.

Many of these low-priced packages supply the platform without the services of a skilled manager who can study the product, the audience, the budget and other factors to provide assistance and guidance in order to create an effective campaign.

So XX Company tries to manage the campaign in-house with no education or support. Once the company realizes that the campaign failed, it is lost to mobile marketing forever, firmly believing that mobile marketing is ineffective.

This is how perfectly good advertisers end up getting burned and giving mobile marketing a bad rap.

To be fair, there is another possible scenario that does not involve substandard services, but produces the same result for the industry.

In this situation, a viable mobile marketing company offers full-service programs for an extremely low price just to establish itself as a market leader.

The company works to get as many major brands on board as possible, by severely under-pricing pricing the technology and service. At the end of the year it will either raise its prices – I know of one company that did this and slapped existing clients with a tenfold increase – or it will sell their now-valuable company to the highest bidder.

It is a great business strategy for generating case studies and building a company’s client portfolio, but it compromises the ethics of our entire industry.

These strategies are natural processes in the business world, and competition is expected and healthy.

Depreciation appreciation
We know that technology products are destined to become cheaper and most widely distributed over time, but usually this happens later in the evolution of a product or a technology.

Mobile marketing is still in its early phase, so to introducing this kind of cost- and quality- cutting so early in the game does not bode well for what the industry will look like in five years.

More importantly, it is devaluing the technology and service of mobile marketing.

As a media buyer in my previous life, I recommended and bought traditional media such as print, radio and television as well as online digital buys on behalf of clients.

I have never come across a media channel that delivers an immediate, one-to-one ad that is trackable and viral, and bottom line, generates one of the highest returns and drives immediate foot traffic to the point of sale. When used correctly, this type of media is extremely valuable and should be priced accordingly.

In a perfect world, all our companies would come together to create pricing standards and educational guidelines for brands and advertisers.

The Mobile Marketing Association is making strong efforts to accomplish content guidelines. But unethical competition has the potential to thwart our industry before it even gets off the ground.

So I would like to suggest that mobile marketers find a way to work together as a unified group – perhaps via the MMA – to establish parameters that define and secure the value of mobile marketing. It is not an issue that only affects our individual companies. It affects our entire industry and, now, while we are still in the early stages, is the best time to act

By Bryce Marshall

Director of Strategic Services, Knotice

Many of our most-trusted online and offline marketing tactics have very little capacity to support or adapt to the context of time and place. They certainly cannot get down to specific increments of minutes and seconds, or meters and footsteps - like mobile interactions can. The mobile Web, specifically, unlocks for consumers the power to interact with, find, or demand the content they want at exactly the time and place they want it. Therefore, the mobile Web fills the gaps between layers of static, broadcast, or stationary media… between online and offline experiences… and between Web stores and physical stores.
The best mobile Web attribute is how it gives marketers tactical accessibility to consumers. Brands already have the content consumers are seeking. Marketers should be working hard to fill the gaps between the layers of media with consumer-friendly mobile experiences.

There are three gap scenarios where consumers are hungry for valuable mobile experiences from their favorite brands. Marketers should start here.

Deliver the best of online… to on-the-go consumers
Right now consumers leverage mobile devices to search for information or make purchases while they are on-the-go. They seek convenience within a busy schedule, or a diversion from boredom. They want smaller and smoother interactions – small bites, not full entrees – because the factors of where and when prohibit deeper interaction with your brand through traditional Web or physical stores. But, they are consumers nonetheless. The mobile Web fills the gap between virtual and physical and allows a shopper to buy or start processing a purchase decision immediately.

Deliver the best of online… at the point-of-retail
Right now consumers use mobile devices to help make purchase decisions while in a retail store. In fact, Motorola released a study recently indicating 51 percent of retail shoppers around the globe used their mobile devices in some capacity to help make a buying decision during the 2009 holiday shopping season. Consumers want the kind of specific and detailed information they find online – like user reviews and discounts – to help make informed purchase decisions. Shoppers intuitively know this information is available, but not accessible in a traditional retail setting. This great content should help shoppers make informed buying decisions at retail, and that is possible with the mobile Web.

Deliver the best of online… to make retail portable
Many consumers use the traditional Web to research products, or create a shopping/wish list, all while intending to buy at a retail store. Simply, they are using online tools but not online buying. Marketers can embrace this online-to-offline migration by creating mobile solutions that combine virtual and physical experiences in a consumer-centric mashup. For instance, allow online browsers to create a mobile cart or shopping list, then forwarded it to their mobile device via SMS. The message should contain a link to a personalized mobile shopping list where shoppers can quickly reference product information, SKUs, pricing, and store location information. All of this ensures a seamless and profitable multi-channel retail experience, with the mobile Web acting as the glue.

Mobile users are looking for information right now. They are ready to make a purchase decision right now. They simply crave convenience, direction, and purchase confidence. Deliver these experiences in every mobile Web interaction and your shoppers will be grateful, and you will be profitable.

By Andrew B. Morris, CEO & Founder, Morris Advisors, Inc.

Mobile marketing, done well, is a very personal experience. It’s a conversation between the marketer and an individual consumer who has given permission to the marketer to reach them via a very personal piece of technology. The content of the conversation may be personalized as well, based on the consumer’s specified preferences and interactions with the marketer. This dialogue is initiated with a customer enrollment and becomes more effective as information about the customer is gathered, thus enabling more personalization.

Payments are also intensely personal for consumers and, as a result, are critical to marketers seeking to build one-to-one customer relationships through mobile channels. Consumers ‘vote with their wallets’ to respond to the marketers call to action and purchase their products or services. The registration for any new payment product provides a wealth of valuable customer information. And yet, the important relationship between mobile marketing strategy and payments strategy is often overlooked.

What’s in your wallet?

Today, consumers still sometimes pay with cash or checks, but increasingly purchases are made using some form of electronic payment, such as a credit or debit card. Looking to the future, although the plastic payment card remains alive and well, technologies and business models are taking shape which will enable the mobile phone as a payment device. But regardless of whether a plastic card or a cell phone is used for payment, the underlying funding accounts each come with different operational costs and characteristics.

Merchants pay a ‘discount fee’ to banks and payment processors, typically between 2 and 5 percent of the face amount, in order to accept a credit or debit card payment. The merchant discount fee also covers the cost of the rewards points received by consumers using those payment cards. Since the customer registered with the bank for the payment product, the bank controls the costs and the customer relationship.

Other payment accounts, such as gift cards or store credit cards, are issued by the merchant. In this case, the customer registers with the merchant rather than the bank. The processing costs for these payment products are generally much lower (sometimes almost zero) and the merchant controls the marketing conversation rather than the bank. As a result, some of the early implementations of mobile payments in the U.S. market have been by retailers using mobile technology to propel usage of their own gift cards or store credit cards.

An Integrated Approach

Mobile marketers would be wise to consider the role of payments in their strategy, including:

1. How to integrate mobile marketing into the consumer’s experience before, during, and after the payment transaction at the point of sale?
    
2. How to leverage enrollment for payment products to initiate and enhance mobile marketing dialogues with consumers?
    
3. How to leverage mobile technology to increase marketing effectiveness while also decreasing operational costs for processing payment transactions?

For more on the role of payments strategy in your mobile marketing initiatives, contact us at contact@morrisadvisors.com

Those of us in the business of mobile marketing take it for granted that most people have mobile phones and that sending advertising messages to those phones is a brilliant idea.

But it is staggering when we actually stop and think about how many kids are walking around with mobile devices.

According to a study by The Yankee Group, more than 50 percent of 13-17 year-olds today own mobile phones, while some estimates say that two-thirds of all American children have them.

A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the number of 8-18 year-olds with mobile phones jumped from 39 percent in 2004 to 66 percent 2009.

And according to that same study, this age group spends 20 percent of its media consumption time on a mobile device.

Ready for another shocker? Twenty one percent of 8-10 year-olds have mobile phones.

Statistics like this are enough to convince media buyers across the country that mobile marketing is best way to reach this audience, and technically speaking, it is.

But is it moral?

Legally, nobody under 18 can opt-in to a promotion without a parent’s permission, but it’s impossible to ensure that parents are actually giving their blessings, so any savvy 13 year-old can respond to a call-to-action that she sees on television or on signage at the mall.

Certainly, as parents, few of us would dismiss the blessings bestowed on us by technology that allows us to stay in closer touch with our children than ever before.

And most of us recognize that mobile phones can be an effective learning tool to teach kids responsibility in terms of staying in touch, budgeting, understanding limits and other important lessons in maturity.

It is also a great discipline device, because parents can take the phone away from their children as a consequence for misbehaving, and restore phone privileges as an incentive for good behavior.

But marketing to those children is a different story.

Tweens and teens are on the receiving end of an ideal conduit for advertising messages, but the mobile marketing industry is still scratching its head wondering how to reach them in a morally responsible manner.

As the mother of four children and the CEO of a mobile marketing company, I feel I am in a unique position to address this.

One of the most troubling — and expensive — issues for parents is the easy availability of premium SMS (ring tones, videos, games, apps).

Kids of any age can sign up for these goodies and generate hundreds of dollars in charges.

There are numerous Web sites that offer this, and they do not require a credit card, just a mobile phone number. The charges appear on the phone bill.

All kids have to do is state that they are at least 13 years old and have a parent’s permission. So in a situation like this, what is the role of the parents versus the role of the advertiser?

It is a sticky question, because the advertisers are usually following the letter of the law via the posting of terms and conditions, rules and disclaimers.

If that is true, then, perhaps rightly so, the responsibility falls to the parents.

Through the use of content-blocking software and the ability of some carriers to block premium SMS, this kind of activity can be controlled.

But we still have to find ways to help our kids use today’s technology as a learning tool rather than a source of rampant consumerism.

One way to do this is to research Web sites, apps and other mobile offerings that have educational value.

For example, my 11 year-old participates in educational games on his mobile device, including word jumbles, math puzzles and contests based on history or science questions.

The brands behind these activities are usually textbook publishers, schools or libraries.

Granted, he is only 11, and in a few years he will lose interest in these games, but for the moment, I would like to think that he is being conditioned to use his phone for deeper pursuits.

It was not that long ago when parents worried about how to monitor the content their kids could view on computer screens.

It was not that difficult, because the computer was typically in the living room and we could supervise what our kids were looking at.

But the game has changed since then, because mobile devices are private, and we cannot watch over our kids’ shoulders all the time.

I am often asked by clients how they can market directly to tweens using the mobile channel.

In addition to making sure the campaign is within legal parameters, I suggest educational content that would not be offensive to parents or create a negative association for the brand.
For example, a national pizza franchise could run a contest where kids count how many olives are on the pizza, or practice fractions calculating how many slices are in a pizza pie.

As a parent, I would encourage my child to participate, and would very likely purchase a pizza from the pizza franchise as a result.

We cannot forget how influential kids and tweens are when it comes to parents’ purchasing decisions.

All of us — parents and marketers — have to step up for the cause of adding true value to mobile marketing.

As a mother, I take this as a challenge to become a better parent.

As a mobile marketer, I see it as an opportunity to continually come up with more creative and socially responsible campaigns for my clients.