Mobile Website Marketing Ideas
by: Farhad Divecha
Now is the right time to market websites via the mobile Internet. The market is relatively new and there are only a handful of competitors. Making a quick move now could help businesses establish dominance in the market leaving the competition trailing behind.
The days of SMS marketing are numbered. Mobile marketing (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/mobile-search-marketing/ ) is no longer limited to just sending out blanket SMS messages to scores of users with the hope that some might be interested. The mobile Internet brings the same flexibility to handheld devices as the World Wide Web brought to PCs. A wide variety of marketing options are now available:
Qode
Consumers can simply click a smartcode, enter keywords or even scan a barcode and bypass long URLs, search engines or cumbersome menus to access mobile content using a new technology called Qode. Marketers can use Qode to make any campaign, product packaging, retail display or even magazine publication immediately interactive.
The potential applications of Qode are very attractive, especially for contests, coupons, tickets, polls and real-time information access.
• Qode (
http://www.qode.com/ )
Mobile Search
Google, MSN and Yahoo! now offer mobile search advertising programs either individually or in partnerships. Mobile search, like traditional search offers the option to market via organic mobile search optimization (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/mobile-search-marketing/optimisation.php ) or paid mobile search advertising (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/mobile-search-marketing/advertising.php ).
• Google Mobile (
http://services.google.com/adwords/mobile_ads/ )
• MSN and Ingenio (
http://advertising.msn.com/Mobile )
• Yahoo! and Bango (
http://mobile.yahoo.com/searchmarketing/ )
Both organic and paid search are currently quite non-competitive in the mobile market. Gaining dominance in either is relatively cheap and quick at present and companies that react quickly are likely to be able to reap rich rewards and grow intrinsically owing to the first mover advantage.
Text & Web Triggers
Web triggers allow users to enter their phone number on a website and receive an SMS push with a link or some sort of content. Text triggers allow users to send an SMS message as a request from specific content. Both text and web triggers have been in use for a while now. However very few businesses actually fully understand the potential of such services.
Using a web trigger, for example is a very easy way of getting visitors (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/search-engine-optimisation/visitor-traffic.php ) to the regular website aware of the fact that they can also access the site from a handheld device, on the go, which could be invaluable for travel, news and entertainment related sites.
• Bango web trigger (
http://bango.com/services/technology/access.aspx )
Viral Mobile Campaigns
Mobile content can be promoted virally by encouraging users to send a link to a friend from a mobile website, by encouraging them to forward (WAP Push) a message to another user's phone - often in exchange for points or free content - or even via blog marketing (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/search-engine-optimisation/blogging.php ) campaigns.
The great thing about viral campaigns are that if done correctly, once set up they incur no further cost and continue growing exponentially, for free!
The Next Step
Websites that have the content simply need to make that content available to mobile Internet users. Mobile website optimisation services are usually helpful in ensuring that websites work perfectly on a range of handheld devices. Mobile marketing agencies are then able to help businesses promote that content and monetize it.
• AccuraCast mobile search marketing (
http://www.accuracast.com/services/mobile-search-marketing/ )
Other articles to read:
• Top 5 Link Building Services (
http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/link-building.php )
• Maximising Future Profits With SEM 3.0 (
http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/profits-sem.php )
SEO Weekly (
http://www.accuracast.com/seo-weekly/ )
About The Author
With over 7 years experience marketing products and services online and offline, Farhad Divecha founded AccuraCast, London's leading search engine marketing agency. Under his leadership, AccuraCast has grown to be one of the top 25 search engine marketing agencies in the UK, as rated by The NMA 2006 Marketing Services Guide. His marketing portfolio includes product managing multi-million-selling 3Com PC Cards and the OfficeConnect PC Card brand, and building a significant online presence for over 30 companies in the UK alone.
