Category: Mobile Marketing

Using the best practice methods for quick response codes will go a long way toward success.

If there is one form of mobile marketing that can be considered highly controversial at the moment, it’s QR codes.

While some feel it is one of the best technologies currently available, others feel it was dead before it started.

No matter how you may feel about QR codes, the fact is that some companies have used them in order to achieve tremendous responses and highly successful campaign results. The difference between the efforts that have been a complete flop, and those that have broken records is in the techniques that are used. After all, the technology remains the same, no matter how it is applied.

QR codes are not all that complex, but need to be made worthwhile or they will not be scanned.

Among the issues to consider are best practices as basic as the following:
• Placement – if your QR codes are positioned in a way that they will not be noticed, then the odds are that your results will be minimal to nonexistent. You need to make sure that they are visible enough that the viewer will spot them, as well as being the right size that they will be easily scanned. Make sure that they are not located in the crease of a magazine or in a spot that the user will not be able to conveniently snap it.
• Call to action – when you apply QR codes as a marketing tool, you need to make sure that you are encouraging the customer to do something, such as make a purchase, learn about a relevant product, or take advantage of a promotion. By simply linking to a homepage, you will be creating a dead end for users as they have been provided with no further instruction as to how to proceed. The success of these barcodes is based on using them to accomplish a specific goal.
• Landing page – the page to which consumers are directed after scanning QR codes don’t need to be complex or large. They simply need to be mobile optimized, useful, and interesting. They can include written content, but they should be designed in a way that provides a little bit at a time and encourages the user to continue to learn more. Additional content options such as videos can help to improve interest, provided that it does not overlook the call to action.

Even if you aren’t in the fast food industry, there is still a great deal that can be learned from its largest brands in terms of mobile marketing, as these companies have been some of the first to embrace this channel.

Both the advances and mistakes made by these brands offer important lessons.

Many of the largest companies in fast food have now introduced mobile marketing websites and mcommerce apps to help them to encourage customers to buy more, and shop more often. Examining their past strategies can be very helpful in assisting you with the creation of your company’s strategy or campaigns in the upcoming months.

Mobile marketing will be especially important throughout this holiday shopping season. With Thanksgiving right ahead, it is important to eliminate all of the quirks in your campaigns.

The official start to the holiday shopping season to begin at the end of this week, if you are hoping to use mobile commerce to help in your successes this year, then the time is now to avoid some of the most common mistakes.

Your presence for smartphone and tablet shoppers must be established to take part in this huge marketplace.

Last year, according to comScore, consumers spent 15 percent more on holiday shopping than they did the year before, bringing it to $37 billion. According to figures from the U.S. Census department, almost 51 percent of the American population widely used mobile commerce and the internet over their smartphones and tablets in 2011. It is expected that mobile commerce use and holiday shopping will come together significantly this year.

Therefore, it will be very important for you to have your mobile commerce campaign in order in time for the holiday shopping season to take off. That said, it isn’t just a matter a presence, anymore, but you need to get it right and avoid common mistakes, as well. Small errors have a way of rapidly snowballing so that they cause notable harm to potential sales. It is important to eliminate them as quickly as possible and not simply wait until Christmas Eve.

The following are some of the top mobile commerce mistakes that can be the most destructive to your campaign.

• Failing to draw attention to holiday discounts, deals, sales, and promotions. Almost every holiday shopper, particularly those using mobile commerce, are seeking for the best prices and savings opportunities on the gifts they are buying. If they don’t realize that you have something special to offer, it won’t take them long to move on to the competition.

• Failing to provide stock status and shipping information – the closer the date comes to December 25, the more vital this becomes. As things become more last minute, shoppers start to concentrate less on price and more on making sure that the gift will arrive on time.

• POS error messages – if a smartphone or tablet user is using a mobile commerce checkout, and he or she submits the wrong information or accidentally leaves a required field blank, make sure that the error message clearly states what was not correctly submitted. If the customer can’t tell, he or she may become frustrated and give up, abandoning the shopping cart and buying somewhere else, instead.