Mobile Marketing – Why Small Businesses Need a Good Strategy in Place

Mobile devices – such as phones, tablets and Smartphones – have overtaken desktops as the best tools for accessing the Internet as well as all other web-related services. Mobile devices have also emerged as the best platforms through which a small business can deploy all its marketing tactics. In fact, mobile devices have emerged as the tools of choice for customers to read web content, check emails, and shop online.

Reports indicate that 9 out of every 10 Americans possess a cellphone. More than half of the cellphones in the hands of Americans are smartphones. Consequently, it is safe to say that the world is in the smartphone era, thus one more reason for embarking on mobile marketing. If you are going to use this form of marketing to benefit your small business, a focused mobile strategy needs to be in place covering the following considerations:

• Development of a mobile app and/or mobile responsive website 
• Investment in user specific messages and content as well as notifications
• Social media assets and integration
• A loyalty program that offers customers rewards and perks

Loyalty programs will entice existing customers to continue buying from a business. Loyalty programs are also attractive to new customers who desire to know the benefits they stand to obtain by choosing to purchase their preferred products and services from a specific business.

Cost-Effective 

All forms of marketing must have a high impact. Fortunately, mobile marketing does just that. More importantly, small businesses care about the impact of any marketing promotion on their finances. In this regard, the cost-effective nature of marketing via mobile devices is the best way through which small businesses can achieve their desired goals. Marketing via mobile devices is more affordable to small businesses.

The initial investment that the small business owners make regarding the resources and time required to develop the technology is what requires the most cost outlay. Once up and running, mobile marketing programs provide cost-efficiencies against traditional media expense requirements such as postage, printing and air time.

The cost effectiveness of mobile marketing to any local or small business is also demonstrated by the fact that the cost of developing and delivering it continues to decrease with time. The more the volume increases, the lower the costs of developing and delivering the marketing campaign grows. For a startup, this is great news considering that it needs to save a huge chunk of its finances/capital to build its profitability.

Immediate Results

The best news with mobile marketing is that the content gets to the customers immediately. Moreover, it provides two-way engagement. What this means is that customers are free to respond to the marketing message that they receive. This assists to create the environment for interactivity and direct engagement to thrive between a small business and its customers. There are no intermediaries to create complexities or distraction between the business or customers. The message gets to the customers in its purest form. Similarly, the response by customers gets to the business in it’s purest form.

Faster Response Rates

The fact that customers walk around with their mobile devices means that they will respond faster to any marketing message that a small business sends to them. Moreover, a small business can have real time access to tracking results including downloads, page visits and customer opt-ins. This information is important for a small business to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of mobile strategies as well as be able to adjust and optimize plans accordingly.

Lead Generation: Is It a Matter of Quantity or Quality?

When it comes to lead generation for your business, you have two options: focus on getting numerous new leads or get only the best, high quality leads. Simply put, you either go for quantity or quality. But which is the right way to go when you are looking to advance online marketing? There are certain factors that come into play and are mostly based on your goals of the campaign, the product/service as well as the time and resources that you have to support your lead generation efforts. Here's a quick snapshot of what to consider for the success of your business.

Quantity vs Quality

Some companies believe that quality is better than quantity when it comes to lead generation. Others go for quantity, saying that it results in higher return of investment. What’s your goal for the lead generation? This should be the first question you should ask yourself. If your main effort is brand awareness, reaching or sharing, or selling products with low-touch model at discounted prices, your focus should be on generating as many leads as possible. Whether you seek to get more Twitter followers, blog subscribers, or webinar participants; driving high volume leads is the focus.

On the other hand, if your goal is reaching specific, niche buyers, or if you seek to sell higher priced products with a long sales cycle, your focus should be prioritizing or getting high quality leads into your funnel. You can achieve this with more specific tracking/intelligence, targeting, and of course a good process. This gives you an opportunity to put more focus on the best leads that give you better chances of converting into sales. When you choose to go quality over quantity, you avoid time and energy spent to reach people who have a low likelihood of converting.

Best of both worlds

Yes, you want to have more lead generation by casting your net more. But then you need quality leads that you can easily convert into sales. In this case, and where all factors come into play, your company may do well utilizing both quality and quantity lead generation. Think of it this way: your company decides to consider both programs, with one focusing on quantity and the other quality. The first one generates more leads in a short span of time, but you get more sales rejection percentage and low conversion rate overall. Now, quality strategy will come into play, generating smaller, yet good leads that have higher conversion rates.

Both quantity and quality lead generation programs can work depending on your goals. Marketing experts usually support quality lead generation plans. This is because they provide a higher conversion rate and sales. You will save time from managing a lot of leads that are unqualified. The process of generating these leads may involve more time and effort to focus targeting, evaluate metrics, qualify and nurture inquires. However, you'll start to benefit from increased revenue growth for your  business.

The Argument for IT Outsourcing for Your Small Business

Using IT outsourcing for your human resources department will take your business to new levels. While the HR department is valuable for their human component, you can let technology do some of the work for you and save both manpower and time. What are some ways the HR department can utilize the power of technology? One way is through crowd-sourcing.

Crowd-sourcing is offering jobs to people via job boards or other portal sites and hiring out specific tasks to be done by independent contractors or workers. So how can you harness the power of technology to work for you as a HR department? Here are a few tips.

1. Use talent management software. Using software to pool your resources to find the best workers is an ideal way to maximize your ROI and find the best people for the jobs. It matches personality traits, employment history, and even background checks, to make sure the people you are getting are trustworthy.
2. Keep records of current and past employees in a computer database. By keeping a database of employees, you can pull up records anytime they are needed, or to call back former employees when you need more manpower.
3. Post projects and jobs on job boards. Job boards are a great technology you can use to connect your needs with potential workers. Many are based on a bidding system, so you get to decide how much you are willing to pay as well.
4. Network with crowdsourcing companies. Crowd-sourcing sites assemble hundreds of qualified workers together to browse through jobs they are qualified to do and you get to select which ones will be able to do the job you need. 
5. Use technology to do digital interviewing, communicate with and receive completed jobs from independent, outsourced workers. The use of tools such as "Google hangout," online chat, Facebook, and others provides a way to do "live" face-to-face meetings and collaborate with people from around the globe with no airplane fare, and immediate connections.

How To Utilize The IT Talent Pool

There are many ways today that IT outsourcing used including organization of your human resources department. But the potential is only beginning to emerge regarding crowd-sourcing. With more and more employers opting to hire only the best workers for specific tasks, and hiring out smaller jobs to independent workers, they are learning to maximize their investment by paying for only the work that is done, rather than paying full-time employees for down time.

In addition, they tend to get workers who are the most specialized in their category, and are likely to get the job done the quickest in general, since they are only paid upon completion of the task. This saves thousands of dollars in employee pay per year, and this is a growing trend among corporations and big business today. Utilizing outsourced workers often gets you the best talent and the best rates and you are only paying for the time they actually worked, rather than all of that down time you pay for among your employee pool. Plus, there are no worries about employment insurance or taxes. Outsourced IT people work for themselves and they are responsible for paying and keeping up with their own income and taxes.  So it puts the paperwork in their hands, not yours.

And IT is not the only category you should consider outsourcing. Many more companies are turning to independent contractors for virtual assistance jobs, administrative tasks, and other jobs. It's becoming more and more the smart business option for entrepreneurs.

How To Increase Downloads For Mobile Apps

If you've developed a brand new mobile phone application, worked out all the usability kinks and ported it to Android or Apple iOS, without a doubt you should feel accomplished. Unfortunately, regardless of the lack of competition in your particular niche, how well-developed your program is or how well it works on whatever devices has no bearing on how well the app itself will be received in the marketplace.

Here are a few ways you can actively generate interest in your mobile application and subsequently increase downloads.

It's All In The Description

Your app's description should clearly, comprehensively and succinctly make the case to users that they will find the app useful and beneficial to their lives. Use plenty of search-optimized keywords that are relevant to what your app does, but be careful about having too many. As the keywords field in iTunes Connect is limited to 100 characters, maximize this opportunity by choosing the most recognizable keywords and separating multiple tags with commas. However, be careful about utilizing keywords that are overused or generalized. The consequence of this is that when very general keywords are typed into the search engine, numerous results are generated and this may make it challenging for users to find your app in the marketplace.

Seek Opportunities In Foreign Markets

It certainly does not hurt to have your app available for download outside the United States. That being said, this will require that the written content within your app and its description should be competently translated into the same languages that are spoken by the clients you want to reach. As a precaution, have your description translated ahead of time into such commonly used languages as French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean. The browser version of Google Translate is mostly accurate, but for sake of clarity, it is an exceptionally good idea to double-check your work. If necessary, seek the assistance of a native speaker of the desired language to ensure accuracy.

Make A Video

As communications technology has become more widespread and sophisticated, YouTube has become a popular outlet for people promoting their various products and services, as it appeals in particular to individuals who characterize themselves as "visual people," meaning that their capacity for taking in and retaining information is relative to what they can see. As such, making a descriptive instructional video is an absolute must, as it will serve as a teaching tool and help generate interest in your product. With that in mind, you would do well to hire a professional video crew, complete with voiceover talent to make a video that will get people excited about your app. It also is necessary to include subtitles for local languages, as this will reach clientele in foreign markets.

Get The Word Out By Any Means Necessary

Not all mobile app developers have the luxury of investor backed media budgets for large scale advertising and promotional campaigns. Fortunately, there are numerous free cloud-based resources to bring exposure to your app, such as online classified ads and link exchange programs. There are also services that handle press release distribution, such as PRWeb and MarketWired. Some of these particular types of outfits offer their services for free or for a reasonable price. The important thing is to make sure that you shop around and find services that can bring exposure to your app within your realistic budget allocation.

Social media can not be ignored for drawing attention to brand new apps. Look to use the social channels that target the right audience to promote your app. Importantly, don't be shy to ask your friends and relatives to spread the word about your app with their friends on social media.

Show Photos of Your App in Action

Using clear, crisp, high-resolution screenshots of real people using your app on a device such as a smartphone, laptop or tablet will make an impression on users as it will show your product in action. Make sure the app can clearly be seen on the device, and have anywhere from three to six screenshots, each one containing a different instance of the app.

Use A Cover Image For Google Play

If you are offering your app through GooglePlay, a unique, eye-catching cover image will draw attention, generate interest and increase downloads. Try to avoid using screenshots, but if you must, make sure that they are proportionally sized in the interest of giving your users the notion that you are a well-respected professional with a popular new product that deserves respect.


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How RFID Technology is Elevating Business Asset Tracking and Management

Radio Frequency Identification technology, commonly known as RFID, has started to scale into the operational systems of a wide variety of companies that have a need to accurately track multiple assets in large volumes.

The real-time information that is capable through this wireless technology can help companies reduce costs, enhance manpower time and efficiency, increase accuracy, and improve overall production performance.

The technology is enabled using RFID tags (attached to inventory or equipment) and an RFID reader, which receives and broadcasts information. These RFID readers have the ability to scan multiple tags at the same time, assuring fast and accurate inventory auditing and management as the errors and mistakes of manual inventory keeping are immediately eliminated.

One of my roles as Chief Operations Officer for Kinetic RFID, an innovative provider of asset tracking technology to the hospitality industry, has given me first hand experience to how RFID technology can impact operations processes, and a company’s bottom-line.

Let’s look at hotels and the hospitality industry. One of the largest expenses within these venues is the cost of towels, sheets and related linens. The ability to manage linen loss as it circulates around the hotel, leaves the property for laundry servicing and returns presents a huge challenge. Linen losses and depletion in inventory negatively impacts budgets and revenue, and can also disrupt the customer experience through inefficient allocation of items. By automating the process with the placement of an RFID chip on every towel and piece of linen, manual errors are eliminated and linen inventory can quickly and precisely be tracked and audited in real-time throughout the hotel.

When the tracking of assets is automated with RFID technology, a hotel or any business immediately benefits from access to the live information about the location and movement of each and every asset. Instant audits will show managers exactly where an item is at any given time, which also helps reduce loss through theft. It also guarantees accurate distribution of each item to its proper place.

The level of accuracy that RFID is bringing into company asset management is immediate and indisputable: optimization of operational systems and ROI through stabilizing losses and large-scale replacement costs.

You can get more information on RFID technology and processes at KineticRFID.com

Motivating Employees and Maintaining a Healthy Work Environment

Many employers struggle to find ways to motivate employees that do to require a lot of time or money. There are many options depending on your business and your resources, but here are some super easy was to help your employees feel more motivated, appreciated, and willing to work.

• Create a nice atmosphere. Your employees will spend a lot of their waking hours in the office building so you need to make is as comfortable as possible.  Keeping employees comfortable goes a long way in making them happy and productive.
• Brighten up wall space. Use the walls of your office and building in an effective manner. Post announcements, community events, local sales and discounts, or motivational posters on the walls. Staring at blank walls all the time can be so boring so brighten up the place some.
• Use food as incentive. Don't underestimate how having smaller breaks throughout the day can motivate people to work and make their work time more productive. Also using food in seminars and training can go a long way, too, in getting employees involved and keeping them motivated.
• Recognize employees individually. If an employee has gone above and beyond their job or if they have done wonderful work, you need to take the time to recognize them on a personal level. Stop by and congratulate them, or ask them to your office to praise them in person.
• Recognize employees for group work. Just as it is important for individuals, groups need to get a word of praise when they do a good job. For any and every department, you need to make time to say a special word of thanks to the hard working teams in your business.
• Create social events. Having a few times during the working year for special social events can really help people relax, get to know each other, and have some fun. People are more excited to get involved and work together in the office when they’re on good terms outside of the office.
• Keep attitudes in check. This goes for the attitudes of the employees as well as the customers. Sometimes the customer is not always right and you should stand behind your team when they are doing their job and suffering from the undeserved attitude of impossible-to-please customers.
• Consider your approach. Whether it’s delivering bad news, reprimanding employees, or any other task you face involving your employees, your approach can make all the difference. Take the time to consider how you are approaching the situation before you say or do anything.
• Evaluate difficult employees quickly. One of the most important things to do when faced with a difficult employee is to act quickly. Often you will be faced with complaints or a crisis that must be addressed immediately, such as someone falling asleep on the job or not performing up to standards.
• Choose employees and establish teams wisely. The personality and character traits of your potential employees also need to be carefully examined before you hire them. You should have a list of the desired character traits in mind so you can easily evaluate whether or not an employee is a good fit both for your needs as well as a good fit for your company culture.

Whether you have five employees or five hundred working for you, apply these simple yet powerful principles into your management plans and you'll soon see how more effective your business can be.

The Value of the Long Term Value of App Users

The long-term value of mobile gamers is the most meaningful metric a developer can employ to determine if your app has real profitability. It is a game changing metric for those that are paying attention. Standard model metrics that determine the overall profitability of your app that have been used up until this point fail to take into account future revenue. From a business stand point this has not always been a go-to technique, as it feels like counting your chickens before they are hatched. But the industry has had a long enough time-line now that future revenues are a reliable metric. As with anything new and shiny in an industry, paying attention to this metric can have profound effects on your income.

To take advantage of this metric we first have to figure out how to calculate it. To do this you first calculate three metrics that more than likely you are probably already obsessed with.

Monetization (how much cash revenue you are pulling in). This is determined mainly by calculating three things: The amount of revenue each user will bring in, the amount of revenue that paid users bring in, and the average daily revenue of each active user. This may seem like a lot of calculation of different overlapping areas of revenue but trust me this number is literally gold.

• Retention (people coming back to your app). You get this metric by breaking it down into three areas just like we do with Monetization. The first is how often people come back to your game, be-it daily, weekly, or longer. 

• The second is how many people return to the game overall, and the third is how long they stay logged into the app. (the last is very important for targeted ad revenue which we will get into later).

• Vectoring (how viral your app is). Much like the CDC tracks the path of an outbreak of the flu, you can track the viral potential of your app by calculating the ephemeral quantity of free users that “infected” users will bring in with word of mouth and personal interaction media.

Congratulations! With these macro-metrics in hand you can determine what the LTV of your app users are. You have gained a magic ability that is much sought after in the business world. You can see the future!

Now before you plotting to take over the world there are a few things you need to do first to get the most out of your newfound super powers. The biggest thing and probably the elephant in the room is targeted marketing. Once you know how many customers you will retain over a quarter you can stop wasting advertising dollars on customers you know wont be coming back and focus them like a precision laser at those customers you are going to retain. For app developers the correct balancing act of how much advertising dollars to spend and where is the life and death difference between success and the herd.

With the metrics you now have you can also see where you lose retention of your customers. If everyone is leaving your app after 4 months of regular play, then you now know where your app needs improvement or alteration. You can objectively address the use of your app and make targeted changes to keep your audience coming back for more. The more they come back the better the rest of your metrics will do as a byproduct. Which as we all know is the name of the app developing game.

There are potentially dozens of ways that this metric can help the app developer in ways that standard model metrics cant begin to touch. I only described some of the big umbrella effects that are readily apparent. If you want to maximize your income potential then any information is power when planning for the future. Calculating the LTV of your users is an iceberg disguised as a sundae cone and it can mean the difference between following your own dreams in creating a real foothold in the industry or sinking like the Titanic.


Other posts that might be of interest:
Are Apps Really Money Makers