If you get a chance, you’ll want to download the report for yourself. But here are several of the top findings that we thought you might find helpful.

1. Marketers place higher value on social media in 2013

“Social media is important to my business”

86% of marketers stated social media was important to their business, up three percent from last year. 97% use social media to grow their sales and revenues, up from 94% last year.

2. Marketers agree: Facebook marketing is effective

“Facebook Marketing is effective”

92% of marketers place a high value on Facebook marketing. Twitter comes in second at 83%.

Large businesses with over 1000 employees are also more likely to state that their Facebook marketing is effective (46%) vs. the self-employed (29%).

3. Time spent on social media

Weekly time commitment for social media marketing

62% of marketers use social media for 6 hours of more every week, up from 59% in 2012.

Age also plays a great deal in the use of social media marketing. The younger the marketer, the more he or she spends on social media — of those spending more than 40 hours per week doing social media marketing, 63% are under the age of 40.

4. Top two benefits of social media marketing: increase in exposure and increase in traffic

While most marketers are using social media to gain marketplace insight (69%) and develop loyal fans (65%), those benefits don’t rank as highly as increased exposure (89%) and increased traffic (75%). All nine benefits included in the chart have increased since 2012.

5. Most commonly used social media platforms

The top six have virtually stayed the same since 2012, but social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon have declined drastically with a 16% drop in use over the span of two short years. The same goes for forums and geo-location services like Foursquare.

Based on years of experience in social media, the most commonly used platforms remain largely the same with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn being the three top used platforms, respectively. Once two to three years of experience has been established, YouTube passes Blogging as the fourth most common social media platform used.

6. Blogging considered one of the most important social media platforms for experienced marketers

Marketers with 3 or more years experience

Facebook remains as the most important platform among marketers with nearly half of the votes (46%) with LinkedIn (16%) and blogging(14%) as second and third. However, among marketers with three or more years of experience, blogging surpasses LinkedIn to 17%, becoming the runner-up most important social platform among marketers.

7. Marketers invest for improvement, YouTube remains top priority

The top five areas that marketers will focus on include YouTube (69%), Facebook (66%), blogging (66%), LinkedIn (65%), and Twitter (64%). It is important to recognize that younger marketers are far more likely to utilize photo sharing sites such as Instagram, with 48% of 20-to 29-year-olds using them versus no more than 33% among those over the age of 40.

Podcasting in 2013

Podcasting activity will also see a huge increase in usage this year. 5% of marketers are currently involved in podcasting. That will jump to 24% in the next year. This increase can mostly be seen in marketers with five or more years of experience with 31% of those marketers wishing to increase podcast activities.

8. Top areas that marketing wish to know more about: blogging takes the lead

Blogging leads the pack in terms of tools that marketers want to know more about.

9. Social media outsourcing, not so much

Do you outsource your social media activites?

A majority of those surveyed (74%) say they do not outsource any of their social media marketing efforts. Among those who do outsource to third parties, the top three areas are design and development, content creation and analytics.

10. Email marketing leads the “other forms of marketing” in 2013

Email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and event marketing are the top three most important forms of marketing for those surveyed (outside of social media, of course). These are the same three that lead this category in 2012 and 2011.

It should be noted that more experienced marketers were far more likely to participate in mobile marketing, which is an indication of the growing importance of mobile marketing.

The post 86% of Those Surveyed Say Social Media is Important to Their Business appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

If you can’t beat them, join them! Many businesses have had great success from leveraging the community building capabilities of social media. When it comes to popularity, social media sure does understand the definition. According to industry statistics, over half of the population of the United States is using social media. Of that percentage of people, over 1 billion of them are on Facebook. Are you utilizing social media to your advantage?

As a business owner, if you already are, this is great news. However, simply having a presence on Facebook is no longer enough. Social media is all about engagement, and engagement can be hard to come by when your target audience is already so overwhelmed with information overload. This leads to business owners looking for new and creative ways to reach their audience, engage them, and keep them coming back for more.

Like This, Not That

When it comes to the leading social media network, Facebook, one of the most essential things a brand wants to do is generate a following. Once an individual “likes” your page, any updates you add to that page are visible in their news feed. This is great! It’s just like having “free” promotion!

But what happens when everyone else seems to be getting the likes, and you’re spending all of your time posting relevant content, only to receive no engagement? You take a different route!

Working with clients who use social media to leverage their connection to customers — both current and prospective — I have seen many trends come and go. One innovation that I do not foresee going anywhere, however, is the concept of a Facebook contest.

Who doesn’t like to win a free prize? We’ve seen brands grow from zero to 700 followers simply by hosting a contest on social media. Not only do you draw buzz around your brand, but you have the opportunity to form new relationships with prospective clients, competitors, current clients and social media users all around the web.

According to Social Media Examiner, 40% of Facebook users will “like” a business page if they become interested in offers, contests of discounts provided by the company through their social media channels. This is great news for businesses. If social media is all about engagement, and engagement can be fostered through a creative contest, it’s surely a no brainer when you ask the question “Do I run a contest?”

The next question, however, may not seem so easy. How do I run a successful Facebook contest for my brand?

Easy as 1, 2, 3

The idea of running a successful Facebook contest or promotion should not be something that you fear! With some innovation, creativity and attention to detail, you too can increase your following and excite your fans, today!

First, think about the specific goal of your promotion. Do you want to generate more likes, or are you looking for increased engagement? There is a difference between the two, and you will want to determine this immediately. This will dictate the type of contest you run. Second, ask yourself what you are willing to spend for the contest. Obviously, everyone loves to win a prize. Will you be giving away gift cards? Will you spend additional budget money on promotion outside of Facebook, and of course, what outside app are you using to run the contest?

Ah of course, you might now be wondering about the outside app, right? Facebook has specific terms and conditions about running a contest. One of the most important rules is this: you must use a third-party app to comply with any contest and promotional guidelines.

Here are some third-party apps I have seen clients use successfully and with ease:

1. Fanappz
2. Virtue
3. Offerpop
4. Wildfire

Keep in mind that although some of these apps require a fee, they make it virtually effortless to comply with the rules and guidelines and also to run a successful contest.

Finally, the third and final part of the contest: what will make it successful?

Don’t Go At It Alone

Use your leverage. The most successful campaigns are that way because they understand the value of partnering up. There are plenty of businesses out there in your target audience that have been successful. Use them to your advantage.

Consider partnering with a company or local charity for your contest. Often, other companies are willing to join in on your efforts and provide an incentive — they get free publicity and you get an awesome prize and the buzz of their followers.

Intrigue Your Audience

In order to generate a buzz, create engagement and get people excited about your contest you want to have a strategy.

• Make sure your prize is enticing
• Create a contest idea that is engaging ñ social media is about interaction, fun and entertainment. Photo contests are great. Who doesn’t love a cute baby or pet?
• Keep the rules simple
• Always have a plan
• Promote the contest extensively – you will want to do this before, during and even after! Utilize your resources. Have your employees promote the contest, use your other social networks, and, most importantly, let your customers know by word of mouth, too! This is really the most important piece of the puzzle in my opinion. It is just as important to promote the contest as it is to run it. It really won’t do you much good to give something away if no one is around to get excited about it!

Success Stories

Don’t believe it can be done? Creating a contest that has gained traction on social media and generated results is something I have seen in many brands.

• Partee Insurance: Every Wednesday, this California insurance agency runs a game of Hangman from their agency Facebook page. The staff promotes and shares the contest throughout the day and the best part? The winner gets a stuffed cow! Why a stuffed cow you ask? Cee Cee the Cow is the mascot of Partee Insurance. Not only has this business increased their following to well over 800 likes, but they engage their customers on a weekly basis! The consistency of the contest is imperative to its success, and with the prize being a brand related item, it only furthers the awareness they are generating!

• The Weimer Group: This Pennsylvania insurance agency takes the local partnership recommendation for success and runs with it! What are the rules? Like and share their business page to enter. Simple, isn’t it? Together with local businesses, the agency gives away prizes, weekly. By encouraging individuals to share the rules, images and contest promotion as an entry, they are creating a viral buzz- increasing their following, promoting to new individuals, and raising their brand awareness. With over 600 likes on their business page, it’s clear they are doing something right!

Looking for something a bit more global? Check out Dunkin Donuts.

This is a brand that has taken to social media contests and made them incredibly successful. Whether on their regional, local or national level, Dunkin Donuts uses images, hashtags and shares to generate a buzz. In their most recent campaign, the company is encouraging coffee lovers everywhere to post the ways their iced coffees put a spring in their step on Vine and tag the post with the hashtag #IceDD. Winners earn cash or free coffee.

Take a look at what they’re doing:

• Cross-promotion across multiple social networking platforms
• Offering a cash prize
• Offering a brand related prize
• Utilizing hashtags to promote brand recognition
• Encouraging users to create unique content that is shared all over the web — “free” brand promotion.

Get Started Today

So tell me, what are you waiting for? Get together with your team and think of a creative idea and run with it! What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll gain some followers, perhaps a few new local business partners and friends, and hey… perhaps some new customers, too!

John Boudreau, COO and Co-Founder of Astonish, has been in the insurance marketing and technology business for nearly 10 years. Clients of the Astonish digital marketing system often have outstanding results as described in this Astonish results review. 

The post Facebook Contests: How to Use Them to Get More Customers appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

The news is that Facebook’s “Home” app isn’t catching on the way Facebook would have liked. That said, it’s important to note that  for every well-known app like Foursquare, Yelp, Instagram and Vine, there are 50,000 apps that didn’t make it.

So if Home falls flat, it’s in good company.

Here’s what happened with Facebook Home. It appears that after an initial surge of interest, the number of downloads has fallen dramatically. Users have given low ratings to the app, have complained that it drains battery life and say it makes it difficult to use other Android apps and service.

As if that weren’t bad enough, last week AT&T dropped the price of a new HTC smartphone that comes with the Home app pre-installed from $99 to just 99 cents.

Ouch.

Mark Zuckerberg pushed Home as a major milestone in the company’s strategy to embrace mobile. After being criticized for not doing a better job integrating Facebook into the mobile world, Facebook did an about face and has vigorously promoted some of the new features that leverage mobile.

(If you’re interested in learning how to use Facebook mobile advertising for your business, you might want to read Facebook Mobile Ads: How to Run a Campaign that Gets Results which I posted last week.)

It’s too early to count Home out. Zuckerberg isn’t giving up on Home just yet. In fact, on a May 1st conference call he said, “This product is still very early and this is just a first release in a long journey.”

That comment was yet another sign that the app will be around for quite some time. And some would even argue that it’s simply the first step Facebook is making in a long-term strategy to get into the mobile device world — a world currently owned by Apple, Google, Microsoft and, to a certain extent, Blackberry.

The bottom line is that this is just a bump in the road for Home. It’s not going anywhere. In fact, I suspect you’ll see new versions of Home being introduced in the next few months.

What are your thoughts?

Jamie Turner is the CEO of social media and mobile marketing firm 60 Second Communications and is the Founder of the 60 Second Marketer.  He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

The post News About Facebook’s New Home App: Is it a Failure? appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

It’s enough to drive you crazy.

Fortunately, there’s a way to use mobile apps to help run your business. While there may never be a mobile app that takes out the trash, there are mobile apps that can help you manage your books, track your time, upload files to the cloud and communicate with customers across a variety of platforms (including social networks, phone, email, chat rooms and more).

Our friends at Salesforce.com were kind enough to sort through the best mobile apps for small business and compile them into the infographic below. The result will give you a good idea of the essential apps you need to run your small business from your smartphone.

Check out the apps below. And be sure to add your favorites in the comments section!

The post The 13 Best Mobile Applications to Help Manage Your Small Business appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

1. Heineken Hits the Back of the Net with Dual Screen Game

In 2011, UEFA Champion’s League sponsor Heineken introduced an innovative ‘dual screen’ app that let fans interact via their smartphones as games were taking place.

Using the StarPlayer app, viewers were able to react to what was happening in the game by pressing buttons to predict the outcome of set pieces such as corner kicks, penalties and free kicks. Options included a goal, a miss, a save or a clear and if you guessed right, you won points. Bonus questions about the teams were also posted throughout the game and the faster you answered, the more points you scored.

The Heineken marketing team were onto a winner with this one. It tapped into the surging popularity of dual-screening, where you use mobile devices to play along with live sporting events and shows, but also the competitive nature of the app meant that people were sharing across social media and forming leagues to see who got the best score, guaranteeing huge exposure for the beer brand.

Want to learn more? Check out the detail on this YouTube video.

2. Starbucks makes grabbing a coffee even easier 

Giant coffee chain Starbucks recently used smartphones to make a coffee on the go even quicker for its US customers. By downloading the Starbucks Card mobile app, customers were able to charge it up with credit and then pay for their drink by simply having their mobile screen scanned at the checkout.

It proved to be a resounding success, with customers excited to have access to a new, faster way to pay and, after launching the app on iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry, Starbucks quickly extended the scheme to Android users.

3. Adidas Lights Up New York City

The goal of this campaign was to encourage mobile users to visit New York City’s Penn Station to view an Adidas ‘Light You Up’ promotional light show – an event featuring Argentinean footballer Lionel Messi, who was promoting the launch of the new Adidas Adizero F50 football boots.

In an ingenious piece of marketing, Adidas targeted all mobile users within a 3-mile radius of Penn Station in the hours leading up to the event with an ad that read ‘Adidas and Messi – After Dark Tonight’. Clicking on the banner lead consumers to a landing page where a promotional video described the event’s location and time. The event was a huge success thanks to the mobile marketing campaign drawing in thousands of interested onlookers.

Want to learn more? Click the image below to watch the YouTube video.

4. Text it like Beckham

This marketing masterpiece from Motorola was aimed at people taking flights from Hong Kong airport and used two of the most well known names in Asia – footballer David Beckham and musician Jay Chow – to enhance the experience of saying goodbye to friends and family.

This worked in two ways – mobile users could either take a picture on their mobile and send it along with a text message, or have a special message recorded by David Beckham and Jay Chow, which were then played to people at the airport via large digital advertising screens.

The campaign was a huge success and had a dual effect – it massively increased the popularity and sales of Motorola and meant that advertising space at Hong Kong airport was suddenly selling at a premium.

Want to learn more? Click the image below to watch the YouTube video.

5. BMW

This astonishingly effective example from 2008 saw BMW launch an innovative mobile marketing campaign designed to sell snow tyres to its German customers.

The company used data it had on file – car model and wheel type – to determine which sort of winter tyre would work best on each customer’s car. Attention was focused only on those BMW customers who had owned their car for less than a year and had purchased it in the summer or autumn, as older cars older would already have winter tyres purchased during the previous year.

On the first day of snowy weather in Germany, all the targeted customers received a text message showing an image of their car type with the recommended snow tyres. It also included a link to a site that enabled the customer to experiment with placing different BMW tyres on their virtual car before making a purchase.

This campaign combined great timing with clever targeting of a section of BMW’s customer base that was most likely to buy snow tyres. The results were impressive to say the least – with a conversion rate from messages sent to actual tyres purchased of 30%, whilst the campaign earned a staggering $45m in new business.

These are just five examples from the wide world of mobile marketing, but they all used the medium to deliver a strong sales message that engaged with consumers effectively and led to excellent results. Have I missed some out? If so, please leave a comment and let me know about your favourite mobile marketing moments!

About the Author: Triin Linamagi is a Key Account Manager for mobile marketing company TextMagic. She has previously worked with UK Startups and loves to write about online marketing trends, startups and business development. 

The post Want to Get Started in Mobile? Learn How From These Top 5 Campaigns. appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

Not long ago, we uploaded a video to the 60 Second Marketer channel on YouTube called Your Survival Guide for Getting Started in Mobile Marketing. It’s a short, 6-minute video that provides some good tips and information on how to get started in mobile marketing.

Included in the video are some facts and figures about the size and scope of the smartphone user base. More importantly, we have information about how to set-up a mobile website, how to use QR codes, how to run a text message campaign and other tips and techniques.

If you haven’t had a chance to see the video, you can watch it below. (Or check it out on the 60 Second Marketer YouTube channel.)

Enjoy!

The post Mobile Marketing 101: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

Those are just some of the facts I learned from an infographic published by Flowtown. We’ve included the infographic below so that you can read and digest all the fascinating data. Enjoy!

Flowtown – Social Media Marketing Application

The post How Social Media is Changing Because of Smartphones appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

Today, more and more businesses that want to expand their online presence are embracing Google+. But what steps should you take to leverage G+ for more online exposure, internet traffic and sales?

First off, an important thing to understand about Google+ is that it isn’t just another social network. Pretty much any Google service you take nowadays (YouTube, Gmail, Picasa) incorporates Google+ at least to some extent.

So, Google+ is more like social fabric woven into all other Google’s properties, which ultimately gives all those venues a social aspect. What this means is that, what you do on Google+ now has the potential to echo across all other Google products – and you’d probably want to know how to use it to your advantage.

So, in this post, I’d like to discuss the mechanisms of how the things you do on Google+ can help you get more visibility in other Google services, thus increasing online exposure of your business in general.

1. Use G+ as a stepping stone to YouTube

One of the ways to increase online visibility with Google+ is to post video content to it. Thing is, every video you share with your Google+ followers also makes its way into their YouTube feed.

Google began adding G+ elements into YouTube a while ago, although pretty gradually. These days one gets updates about videos posted by their Google+ contacts right in YouTube, even when one’s G+ and YouTube accounts are not linked!

Mine aren’t. Well, the “Connected as” may tell you a different story, but actually I’m just connected to those people as Alesia Krush on Google+ (not on YouTube).

2. Tap into Google+ to dominate Local Search

If you have a business that has local significance, you simply must own a Google+ profile, and here is why: in May, 2012, Google turned all Google Places listings into Google+ Local listings pretty much overnight. These now appear as Google+ pages that can be rated, commented on, uploaded images to and shared via Google+.

Besides, Google may be collecting information about your business without you knowing about it (by means of Street View, Zagat, local directories, etc.). So, make sure that the random data Google may have compiled presents your business in a favorable light.

So, to rank higher in local search, encourage people to follow you on Google+, leave reviews and upload photos or your business, either through loyalty programs, competitions (best food photographer contest, for instance) or by other means.

3. Use G+ to appear in people’s Web search results

Another Google service that’s deeply integrated with Google+ is “Search plus Your World,” which was rolled out about half a year after Google+. The essence of this feature is that you may see pages posted, shared or +1’d by their Google contacts right in Web search.

The “your world” results are mostly taken from Google+ and YouTube, but you can also connect your your Twitter, Facebook and other profiles to your G+ (by going to Settings -> Account -> Manage connected accounts), which may result in people seeing your updates from those other networks in their search results, too.

So, the more Google+ and YouTube contacts you make among your target audience, the more people are likely to notice your business in Web search thanks to Search plus Your World.

4. G+ helps you rank higher in Google Discussions

Google Discussions is a section of Google search that provides results from blogs, forums and Q&A sites. A good way to get extra exposure there is by taking part in Google Groups.

Curiously enough, Google Groups were redesigned just a month after Google+ came out, which led to the content from Google Groups ranking high in Google Discussions ever since:

Now, the deal with Google Groups is that you need to use your Google profile to participate. If people find your post useful, they can give it a +1, which may lead to your posts showing up higher in Google Discussions. And then, if people like your posts or your group in general, they may follow you on G+.

So, create a nice-looking Google+ profile to get more exposure on Google Groups, which, in its turn, will boost your visibility in Google Discussions.

5. Be part of the Knowledge Graph

The purpose of Google’s Knowledge Graph is to provide immediate answers to your questions (it’s been dubbed “Google’s Wikipedia” by some). For instance, if you don’t know what Empire State Building is, Google will show you a picture of it plus some reference info right in the search results.

But how do you make your company’s information appear on the Knowledge Graph? Well, one of the ways to do it is by having an info-rich, popular G+ account (Google uses Google+ data among other things in Knowledge Graph results).  Besides, if you’re a local business, having a nice Google+ Local profile may also secure you’re the hot spot on the Knowledge Graph.

6. Get more exposure by verifying authorship with G+

Google authorship is about Google attributing certain Web content to an author based on the content being linked to the author’s Google+ profile. And, being a verified Google author has a number of advantages.

First of all, your headshot and your name may be displayed in Web search, right next to the content you authored, which definitely inspires clicks. Second, rumor has it that, in the future, Google may rank content by popular authors higher – a possible change that was in a way confirmed by Eric Schmidt who recently shared an excerpt from his upcoming book with The Wall Street Journal:

“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification”

7. Get more clicks on your paid ads with G+

Now that Google can easily piece together the information about your business spread out across different accounts, the stuff you do on Google+ may even affect how your ad performs in Google AdWords.

Signed-in users can plus-one Google ads. Besides, when the snippet from your Google+ profile is displayed along with your ad, this encourages clicks. Alan Osetek, President of Resolution Media, says that, for his customers, “in the majority of cases, lift in click-through rates ranged from 2% to 15%”.

So, even though not many people might plus-one your ad before they actually click on it, a decent Google+ following flashed along with your ad is likely to entice clicks.

Google+ marketing tools

Of course there are tools that help one manage different Google+ related activities more effectively.  For example, Google Alerts can be used to track brand mentions on Google+. To set this up, use

[keyword] site:plus.google.com

Instead of just [keyword]

Besides, in Google Webmaster Tools, you can check what web content Google attributes to you as the author. Simply go to Labs -> Author stats.

And, if you’d like a more efficient way to connect with just the right people on Google+, you could try Link-Assistant.Com’s BuzzBundle for Google+ business page promotion.

Final words

As you see, there many ways Google+ can be used by business owners to boost their brand’s online exposure. And perhaps the main reason marketers are so eager to embrace Google+ is not because it’s a social network, but because it branches out into so many other Google’s properties that it’d be silly not to grab this chance.

Do you know another way Google+ can be used to promote a biz? Let everyone know in comments!

About the Author: Alesia Krush is a blogger and a Web marketer at Link-Assistant.Com, home to the industry’s best SEO and SMM tools. The software developer’s most recent initiative has been the release of the revolutionary BuzzBundle SMM tool that lets one easily manage their brand’s reputation and wage viral campaigns in social networks, blogs, forums, Q&A sites and other Web 2.0 properties.

Image credit: PhotKing via Flickr.com

The post 7 Essential Ways You Can Use Google+ to Build a Web Presence appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

Not long ago, I received a call from a client prospect who wanted to meet to discuss an urgent need for a mobile app. (My company, 60 Second Communications, develops social media and mobile marketing campaigns for businesses around the nation.)

“Hold on,” I said, “What are your business objectives for developing the app?”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” she said. “Just meet us next week at our offices.”

So the following week, I drove out to their offices where I was greeted by the CEO, the CMO and several other executives. The client prospect kicked off the meeting by saying, “We need a mobile app. How much is that going to cost?”

There are a lot of People Who Will Start a Meeting That Way. But it’s a clear sign that they’re thinking tactically without taking into consideration their objectives and strategies.

I spent the next few hours asking them questions about their business, their sales process, their marketing plans and how they envisioned mobile would fit into those plans.

By the end of the meeting, the CMO said, “You know what? I don’t think we need a mobile app after all.” (I knew they didn’t need a mobile app going into the meeting, but have found that unless people arrive at a conclusion themselves, they don’t generally believe it, which is why I asked them a series of questions that led them to my assumption.)

Thinking Strategy First and Tactics Second. This experience led me to the conclusion that members of the 60 Second Marketer community might benefit by reading an excerpt from Go Mobile, the book I co-authored with Jeanne Hopkins.

What follows is a detailed description on how to plan, set-up and launch a mobile marketing campaign. Hopefully, it’ll guide you as you move dive into mobile marketing. After all, your customers are in mobile already, so it’s time for you to be there, too.

The First Step — Do Some Background Planning. When starting any marketing campaign, you should begin by asking the following questions:

• What is the objective of this campaign?
• Who is your target audience?
• How long will this campaign run?
• Are you using other media to support or supplement your mobile media plan?

Define Your Objectives. What do you want your campaign to accomplish? Are you trying to increase awareness of your company, boost sales of a certain product or service, establish your branding, or something else? Clearly identify what it is you want to accomplish with your campaign before moving forward with further planning.

Identify Your Target Audience. Immediately after defining the objective(s) of your marketing strategy, you should identify your primary target audience. This will help to ensure that you tailor all elements of the marketing strategy specifically to this audience, enabling you to communicate with these customers as effectively as possible.

A good way to identify a target audience is to create a profile of a sample member of this group. Answer the following questions to get started:

1.   Who would have a need for the specific product or service you are trying to market?

2.   What is the ideal, manageable size of your primary target audience? Avoid being either too specific (e.g., “31-year-old male businessmen living in Manhattan”) or too vague (e.g., “teenagers”) to find an audience that is the right scope for your campaign.

3.   Which methods of communication would work well in connecting with this audience?  Look at demographic information about which age groups and types of people use mobile devices, and how they use them.

Different groups of people respond variously to what they see and read. Their tastes and preferences will affect how well they respond to the type of communications they receive, so make sure to research your target audience thoroughly before making other plans.

Develop Your Campaign Approach. Now that you have clearly defined your objectives and identified your target audience, you can start planning campaign strategies. Even though you are planning a mobile marketing campaign, you should decide which methods of mobile communication you want to use (audio? video? mobile websites?). You should also choose whether you want to push information to customers, or pull them to your company to start a dialog.

Push-based campaigns mean you send information out to customers and hope they respond by purchasing your product or service. Push can include sending text messages to everyone on a mailing list or informing them of, say, an album release or new promotion.

Pull and dialogue-based campaigns will require more planning and effort, but they also tend to be more effective at turning potential buyers into actual sales. Pull-based campaigns focus on “pulling” customers back to your company, such as by using SMS to send out a link to your website, or building an application customers can download, which will inform them about your product.

Other Considerations. There are several other factors to consider when you’re in the strategic planning stage of a campaign. Is your campaign intended to be brand-oriented or promotion-oriented? A brand campaign is designed to create a connection with your customer over the long term. A promotion campaign is designed to give your customer a reason to buy your product or service immediately.

The diagram below illustrates how several different kinds of companies might explore the nature of their campaigns. The Y-axis indicates whether the campaign is brand-oriented or promotion-oriented. The X-axis indicates whether the campaign is location-centric or nonlocation-centric. For example, if your company is a brick-and-mortar retailer, your campaign will be location-centric, because you want to drive people to your location. If you’re a nonprofit organization, your campaign won’t be location-centric, because you don’t usually need to drive people to a specific brick-and-mortar location.

Determine the Length of Your Campaign. Once you’ve specified strategies for your mobile campaign, the next step is to decide how long it will run. Will your campaign be a one-shot action, or will it be a series of actions? The length and duration of the campaign will affect how you design it. If you want this campaign to run for an extended length of time, be sure to repeatedly “inject” it with advertising activity. Otherwise, customer response will slow to a halt.

Incorporate Other Media. Finally, determine what other media you will be using to promote your mobile marketing strategy. Are you going to inform customers about a mobile application through email and web advertising? Will you tell people to sign up for text message updates through radio commercials? How you use other media should have a profound effect on how you design your campaign. Likewise, your campaign objectives and your target audience should affect your selection of the types of other media you will use.

The preceding are basic considerations, and may even seem obvious, depending on your marketing background, but they are worth addressing here because they are so important. Without clearly defined answers to these preliminary questions and considerations, your mobile marketing campaign won’t set off in the direction it should, to succeed.

Budgeting and Scheduling. Now that the preliminary background planning phase is complete, you’re ready to move on to budgeting and scheduling. Ask these questions to help you determine the budget you’ll need to produce your campaign, and how to schedule it:

• When do you need the campaign ready to start?
• How much money do you intend to spend on mobile media?
• How much do you intend to spend on other forms of media?
• How many messages are you planning to send?

Set the Launch Date. Choose a date you want the campaign to start and work backwards from there to draft a preliminary schedule. For example, if you want your campaign to start on June 8, and you need to have advertising materials ready to deliver a week in advance, set the deadline for advertising material to June 1. Work backwards in this way for all campaign components until you have established all the dates for your campaign. Don’t forget to include the dates for other forms of media (if you are using them).

Assess the Costs of Mobile Media. There are several cost considerations to make when planning mobile media for your campaign. Creative, promotion, and messages all have their own costs. How much will it cost to set up a mobile website or to develop a mobile application? Determine these line items before moving forward.

Calculate the Cost of Other Media. If you are incorporating other media into your mobile marketing campaign (such as print ads, Internet ads, radio, etc.), factor in those costs as well. Mass media is very expensive. Make sure supporting your mobile media campaign with other media is worth what you’ll have to pay to do so.

Determine the Number of Messages. Finally, determine how many messages you intend to send as part of your campaign. This will depend on your campaign strategy, as discussed earlier. Are you focusing on a push, pull, or dialog-based campaign? Deciding that will help you figure how many messages you need to send and how frequently you need to send them. Note that the cost per message decreases the more you send. For example, the cost per message to send 5,000 messages might be $0.055 per message; but if you send 20,000, that cost would drop to $0.035 per message.

After you have lined up your budget and schedule, you can begin planning the actual message of the campaign.

Content and Production. With the background information, budgeting, and scheduling completed, and with a good idea of the scale of your campaign in mind, you can start planning the types of message(s) you will send. It’s important to wait until this phase to plan the details of your message so you can accurately assess whether to deliver it all at once or in waves, whether you want to target it to a large or small audience, and other considerations.

Answer these questions to help direct you as plan the content and production of your campaign message:

• What kind of message do you want to use in this campaign?
• How will you distribute your messages?
• Who will produce the message content or mobile application?
• Who will test the campaign?

Choose Message Type. Decide on the type of message you will use as part of your mobile marketing strategy. Will you send out SMS? Mobile display ads? A mobile application? Examine your target audience and background information before deciding on the method(s) of communication that would be most effective for connecting with your customers.

Make sure to consider the strengths and limitations of each type of message. For example, SMS messages are inexpensive, and are read by customers almost 100 percent of the time, but they are limited to 160 characters. Examine the benefits and drawbacks of each method of communication.

Decide on Distribution. Decide who will provide the platform necessary to implement your campaign. Are you going to do everything in-house, or will you outsource the implementation of your campaign to another firm? Look at your resources, with particular focus on the time frame and skills of your marketing team, to determine whether it would be more cost-effective to do it yourself or to have someone else take care of it.

Choose a Production Strategy. Once you’ve decided who will distribute and implement your campaign, you next need to choose how you will produce the messages you send out. If you are using a mobile application, will you produce it in-house, or will you hire an outside group to develop it? Who will design the SMS campaign or mobile website? Again, evaluate all your resources before making this decision.

Conduct Testing. Testing your campaign is probably the most important step. Simply put, all of your other planning will be wasted if your campaign doesn’t work. You must leave sufficient time to conduct exhaustive testing before launch, to work out the bugs in the technology. You must test each and every aspect of your mobile campaign (SMS, mobile application, mobile website, etc.).

After you’ve taken these steps, you are ready to move on to the final stages of planning for your mobile campaign.

Other Considerations. At this juncture, you understand essential background information about mobile marketing, you’ve established a budget and schedule, and have taken care of content and production. Now you’re ready to plan the final elements of your campaign.

Here are three questions to answer before you enter this final phase:

• Who will organize and coordinate multiple media implementation?
• Where will you get your customer contacts?
• What will be measured?

Coordinate Multiple Media Implementation. If you are going to use multiple forms of media, decide who will coordinate how your media works together. Have the activities for other media been properly planned? If your mobile marketing campaign relies heavily on other media forms to support it, it’s very important to make sure this has been addressed.

Collect Customer Information. If you plan on using SMS or other push methods to communicate with customers, how will you get their information? In the United States, selling opt-in lists is prohibited by law, so how else can you collect customer information? You might consider directing customers to a website where they can sign up for updates, or provide a phone number where they can text a keyword to sign up.

Take Measurements. Another very important part of any marketing campaign is to determine how you will measure the success of your campaign. Many metrics are available for mobile marketing, such as number of messages sent, number of messages actually delivered, number of “stop” messages, number of customers who follow through with a message, and others. Establish the metrics you will you so you can evaluate accurately how effective your campaign is.

Action Steps for You:

• Treat mobile as a channel by testing mobile-specific features such as SMS messaging, applications, or location-based services.
• Use mobile as connective tissue, with the potential to link the online and offline consumer experiences with brands. Michael Becker, managing director of the Mobile Marketing Association, uses the expression “connective tissue” to describe the capability of mobile to become an indispensible, fully integrated part of marketing and business overall.
• Don’t name an internal owner of the mobile channel. Without a designated in-house mobile expert, a mobile strategy will not be effective.
• Don’t place mobile in a silo, where it may be left out of the overall marketing strategy. Communicating cross-functionally (not just with the marketing team) and cross-company is crucial to achieving long-term success with mobile.

The post How to Launch a Mobile Marketing Campaign. A Step-by-Step Guide. appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.

Not long ago, my friends at BKV Digital and Direct Response wrote a blog post called “5 Quick Tweaks to Optimize Email for Mobile.” The post included several good tips on how to optimize emails for the mobile screen.

I wanted to share the tips with you on the 60 Second Marketer blog since it was packed with great advice that I thought you’d find helpful.

Here goes:

1)      Subject and Pre-Header Length

Limit your subject lines to 35 characters and your pre-headers to 80 characters. Several studies have shown that shorter subject lines dramatically outperform longer ones. This will also ensure that your message can be fully viewed when opened on a mobile device.  Make sure that when your email is opened, your pre-header is linked and located above the “view this message as a webpage” option.

2)      Keep your Preview Pane in Mind

Here are some hard numbers: about 53% of B2C email subscribers and around 80% of B2B subscribers view emails in a preview pane. So, by moving your offer up and having copy and CTA on the left, this ensures that Android users don’t just see a background or partial image. If you’re optimizing your email templates properly, these few inches of space can entice viewers to move from preview to open.

3)      Font and Button Size

Assume your audience has bad eyesight and large thumbs: using 16px font size and 48px wide buttons are a good place to start.  Sure, your desktop version’s fonts could end up being a bit larger than your readers might be used to, but that’s OK – your mobile users will be happy.

4)      Consider Your Content

Evaluate the content of your emails: What links garner the most clicks and what are your best converters?  Not everything deserves the same real estate, and some of your content might not deserve any at all. Include the top 3 or 4 navigation links and lose the rest.  You can always test links back in later.

5)      Fake It ‘til You Make It

Initially, you can create an optimized email marketing template without going anywhere near the media queries required to fully adapt your email. Plus, you can do it without sacrificing the desktop experience.  Think of your email as a single column of stacked rectangles:

Then just fill in your content! This works because it’s simple, easy to scan, and clickable.

By making these relatively painless changes to the user-experience, content, and structure of your email template, it will make the transition over to a truly optimized template easier in the future.

The post Five Mobile Email Marketing Tips and Techniques appeared first on 60 Second Marketer.