Radio Ink David Nies Ballyhoo Mobile Marketing

Are You Building a Mobile Application? An iPhone App?

We are! In fact, we’re working on more of them everyday! We used to tell most clients who inquired that they were often too expensive to generate a satisfactory ROI in the marketing world. However, we are generating localized apps with national quality that are affordable enough to be a solid investment. And of course we are only doing them when we first plan a genuine strategy.

When planning a mobile app, a “strategy” is not jamming it full of “cool factor,” i.e. games, snappy features, etc. The app should accomplish two major things: First, the app should provide something of actual value to your prime customer. This is often best accomplished through making that person’s life easier, saving them time, or saving them money. Second, the method by which the app provides that strategy should be tied directly to your business’s core competency.

Let’s look at an example. If you run a chain of urgent care clinics with seven locations and want to build an app, then keep in mind the two things that app should accomplish. First, it should provide value to the customer/patient…in this case, the patient is most likely in a hurry since you are an urgent care clinic, similar to an emergency room at a hospital.

So, why not design your app so that anyone can log in at anytime, instantly see the wait times at each location (people don’t only get hurt at home so they may be closer to a location they don’t know about) and then make an immediate, informed decision about which location to visit. Then, ensure the app is tied to the core comptency. Well, you manage an urgent care clinic of which the mission is to provide quality, fast, convenient care to everyone in need. The app does reinforce that. Take it a step further? Allow the app to take a photo of your insurance card and store it, in case you do need to visit on the go and do not have it with you. Now you’ve just doubled down on proving easy, fast care. That is a successful app design!

So, next time you or someone you know is thinking about an app, call to brainstorm! We are one company who does not require any financial commitment to work through an app design strategy with you.

On a side note: as I was preparing this post Friday, I checked the mail. I received two magazines and just inside the cover of both, I saw app ads. Incredible how fast it is still growing!

Google and AdMob Officially Ok'd by FTC

What's your take on it? I believe it does reflect positively on the industry. Look at what the sale of MySpace came to represent: people asked "Is the social networking arena worth that much interest?" Well, it clearly has proven itself. I believe mobile is the same.

They are plenty of nay-sayers to balance out the optimists but overall, capitalism speaks loudest. For Ballyhoo Mobile, the move is a good thing for now. It puts mobile in the news and on the tongue of more marketers. Ballyhoo serves a unique set of marketers; they are marketers who are looking for a solid mobile strategy that fits into their current marketing campaign and not simply a cheap online package.

If you want to read more about the Google AdMob story, here is the link to a great article on Mobile Marketer: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/ad-networks/6347.html

Mobile Marketing Trends

Mobile Marketing is growing quickly; Mobile Marketer just released a story on five trends feeding this growth. I like the article and wanted to share some highlights with all of you.

Trend #1: Apple. Period.
They are not necessarily the leader in actual process innovation, but they are indeed the leader in creating a frenzied demand for mobile products and hugely increased data consumption. Apple makes people desire wireless, fast, engaged devices. This allows brands to create marketing campaigns that strongly deepen brand equity.


Trend #2: The rapid transition to smartphones.
Partly fed by Trend #1, the world has an increasingly rich appetite for smartphones. More apps and mobile websites are being produced everyday because of this trend...and rightfully so. The numbers on mobile web growth are staggering! This smartphone revolution may be the most influential trend of all relative to the effects on the rise of mobile marketing.


Trend #3: Brands are including mobile in multichannel marketing.
As with anything, once big brands start playing ball, all the small- and medium-sized markets want to join. We are seeing this first hand this year through an influx of interest in mobile marketing (namely SMS marketing and building iPhone applications). Business owners are steadily recognizing their audience is mobile and they need to be there. If they aren't, then they are not speaking to their customers...a recipe for failure.


Trend #4: Mobile commerce is primed to take off and make a major impact.
M-commerce is exciting since almost every test being done (Ebay, Starbucks, etc.) is seeing excellent results. Consumers are much more willing to enter their billing information into their phones and make a purchase than many retailers anticipated.


Trend #5: Location-based services will spur concern from privacy advocacy groups.
The good thing about this is, as privacy concerns are ironed out, more mobile marketing strategies will come to light. Better mobile marketing strategies will be understood by both brands and consumers and that is always a positive.

Mobile Video - Buy Into It

Mobile video is going to be big in 2010! Smartphone ownership continues to grow exponentially, as does data usage. Couple that with mobile video now being easier to create and distribute and you have a major marketing opportunity on your hands.

Ballyhoo Mobile has been in the mobile marketing industry several years and is launching full MMS capability for all of our clients soon.

Whether you are a Ballyhoo client or not, MMS is on the horizon. Will we see capable 3D, scannable bar codes? Not yet. But we will see companies able to send pictures promoting an upcoming event or even a hot, juicy photo of the new sandwich at Fast Food XYZ (the photo also happens to be a coupon). And who wouldn't want to see a sneak preview of How I Met Your Mother or the new James Cameron movie?

Mobile marketing continues to reach new levels and mobile video is going to be another cog in this growing machine. At the moment, more than 200 million consumers have access to mobile video! That is a staggering number and one still growing.

Many marketers predict we will hit a data usage problem due to consumer's newly found appetites for mobile data. Predictions for when we could see an issue seem to fall around the year 2014. In the mean time we will see consumers gobble up mobile marketing and businesses who are quick enough to adopt make money from that consumption.

To learn more about mobile, see pricing structures, have access to mobile marketing white papers or mobile marketing case studies, contact Ballyhoo Mobile.

Feel free to email me directly: dave@BallyhooMobile.com