Chapter 1: 21st Century Marketing
Check out these two photos above. They were both taken in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican; the top one when Pope Benedict was announced in 2005 and the bottom one in 2013 at the announcement of Pope Francis. What a brilliant illustration of how rapidly mobile technology has changed the way we do things in our everyday lives now.
The almost universal adoption of mobile devices has completely changed how businesses promote and market their goods and services, especially for local business. Gone are the days when you ran a few print ads and reviewed your (very expensive) Yellow Page ad once a year. It’s a whole new ball game now, and if you haven’t kept up, you’re probably losing business to your competition!
“If you’re not using mobile marketing to attract new customers to your business, don’t worry — your competitors are already using it and are getting those customers instead.”
- Jamie Turner, 60SecondMarketer.com (Source: Ecoconsultancy.com)
These changes are not a “fad”, they’re here to stay and will evolve more and more. The internet changed everything and now it has gone mobile.
Paradigm Shift
OK here’s the only part of this book where I’ll throw some stats at you, but they’re worth knowing. Almost everyone has a cell phone now right? Well, over half of them are “smart” phones and the number is growing. Over 60% of emails are opened on a mobile device now (Source: Movable Ink Q1 2014). Notice I said opened – we’ll pay attention to this later. Most people have their phone within their reach all their waking hours. 75% of us have even admitted to taking them into the bathroom (Source:
From a marketing standpoint the shift is even more striking. In January 2014, more people accessed the internet on a mobile device than on a desktop or laptop computer (Source: CNNMoney). 79% of smartphone owners and 81% of tablet owners use their devices to search for info on local businesses (Source: Neustar Localeze).
Right about now you’re saying, “OK marketing dude that’s great. Customers find me on the internet all the time.” Yes, but check this out (last bunch of stats I promise);
74% of consumers will only wait for a mobile site to load for 5 seconds before moving on to the next one (Source: Compuware). 57% of mobile users will not recommend a business if they have a bad mobile website (Source: ecoconsultancy.com). 61% of local searches on a mobile phone result in a phone call to a business (Source:
OK Let’s “Boil It Down”
Consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to shop and buy. Almost all mobile users search for local businesses on their mobile device. If a business isn’t mobile-friendly online (i.e. their website loads slowly or their emails don’t work on a mobile screen or they can’t find or call the business easily in 1-click), then customers will move on to a competitor. Marketers call this a bad User Experience (whoops sorry, I promised not to use buzzwords didn’t I?).
What doesn’t show up directly in these stats is that mobile devices are very personal to people. Businesses now have a way to instantly communicate one-to-one with their customers. While this is a tremendous opportunity, you must be careful. Remember, mobile devices are personal. It is critical that you send people information that is valuable to them. With mobile it’s not all sell sell. Imagine this; your home is very personal right? Would you want someone knocking on your door at 4pm every day saying “Come eat at our restaurant now!”? Of course not. But, what if a friendly kid came by and left a notice informing you of things like a new menu or new happy hour pricing, every couple of weeks? That is valuable to you and not intrusive. That is how mobile marketing must be done or it will result in an epic FAIL.
One of the best things I’ve ever heard is that “Customers hate to be sold, but they love to buy.” (Sorry I can’t source that, it’s been around forever).
The KEY to future marketing success is building lists of happy, loyal customers (email addresses or phone numbers) who look forward to receiving info from your company, share that info with their friends, and keep coming back, and that you can continue to market to in the future.