Call Us
(855) 889-3939
In the News
by Jason Wells, CEO, LogMyCalls
Last fall I gave a presentation in Silicon Valley about mobile analytics. Before the presentation someone asked me what the biggest difference between mobile analytics and “regular” online analytics is.
My reply was simple: Pretty much everything.
Mobile marketing is full of myths
The principal problem with mobile marketing right now is that mobile marketers grew up as online marketers. Thus, they have built-in biases, habits and traditions. Mobile marketers think like online marketers. They market like online marketers. They look at analytics like online marketers. And they optimize their marketing like online marketers.
The only problem is this: mobile marketing is vastly different than online marketing.
How is mobile different?
The biggest difference might be in how users engage with mobile marketing compared to how they engage with regular online marketing.
by Jason Wells, CEO, ContactPoint maker of LogMyCalls
There's little doubt mobile marketing is the future of direct response marketing. New data out nearly weekly shows that the public's usage of mobile is increasing and its stomach for mobile ads is getting more tolerant.
A recent study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found that 70% of consumers now welcome mobile ads, and actually want to receive mobile ads on their smartphone. That alone is fairly stunning.
Additionally, the study found that mobile Internet usage will surpass desktop web usage by 2014. Some reports suggest that by 2014, a quarter of all mobile web users will never or rarely even use desktop Internet. Their Internet usage will be exclusive to mobile phones. Add to that the fact that mobile marketing budgets are expected to increase tenfold in the next five years.
Mobile engagement and marketing is increasing because it works. We have mountains of data showing, fairly clearly, that mobile marketing produces more results more quickly than any other direct response marketing channel we've ever seen. Here are some of the reasons mobile marketing is starting to look like the most effective direct response marketing tool ever.
1. Fast conversions. Mobile marketing truncates the lead-to-sales pipeline dramatically. A stunning 70% of all mobile searches result in action within one hour. By way of comparison, 70% of online searches lead to action within one month. This statistic alone is pretty surprising. Think, for a moment, about the implications inherent here. The sales pipeline goes from days to hours in the mobile world. Additionally, research from Google shows mobile users are ready to buy quicker. They're not searching on a mobile phone or clicking on a mobile ad to get information; rather, they're ready to buy.
Read the article at Direct Marketing News
Read more: Mobile Marketing: Best Direct Response Marketing Ever?
To date, local merchants have largely been at the mercy of the old advertising mantra. They might say, “I know that half of my hyperlocal promotion efforts work. I just don’t know which half.”
A number of companies have promised to solve that problem for small business owners — with both Groupon and Bloomspot among them. But no major players have yet achieved sufficient traction to realize true critical mass. And the deal purveyors that are offering robust ROI analytics for merchants have largely been hamstrung by their unwillingness to deliver truly comprehensive analysis across multiple product and company offerings.
Further, the boom and crash of mass-market daily deal efforts has clearly resulted in fatigue for both merchants and buyers. I was at a Mobile Monday event in San Francisco where a tech-savvy crowd was asked how many people used Groupon a year ago and how many used it now. Nearly all the hands came down at the second question, a telling show of sentiment that explains precisely why Groupon is aggressively diversifying away from its daily deal reliance. Of course, the vast number of hyperlocal promotional products and platforms has created insane overall market confusion.
The good news? My prediction is that 2013 will mark the date the worm turns and merchants start to gain the upper hand. That gain will come from lessons in the consumer market, where simple UI and UX have become paramount for success and sophisticated filtering has given way to three-click processes. The reality is that most mom-and-pop shops do not have a marketing person or agency and lack the time to really think about marketing. The savvy ones run big social media programs. A handful use geotargeted AdWords on Google or other platforms.
But without a dedicated person or at least a quarter of one to run programs, it’s very difficult for merchants to understand what happened or do any real ROI analysis. Start-ups like Copilot Labs (an innovative supplier of deal ROI analytics for restaurant and whose CEO is a fellow Street Fight contributor) and call-tracking service LogMyCalls make it incredibly easy for start-ups to figure out where they are getting the most value for their dollars.
In our last SEJ article, we talked about four specific ways mobile search is different than ‘regular’ search. This article will focus on a few best practices specifically for mobile paid search. If you are a PPC manager or marketing director, then you should read this article.
It is critical to understand that mobile PPC is very different than ‘regular’ PPC. Thus, the best practices are different. Hopefully this article helps.
Mobile Search Background
Mobile search will surpass desktop search sometime in 2014. In other words, more people will find your website on their smartphone than on their desktop or laptop. That should change the way marketers function and the way businesses think about search and allocate their money for SEM.
Mobile search produces phone calls and map look-ups more frequently than any other actions. How’s that for different?
The bottom line is this: The things you’ve known about paid search for 10 years need to be fundamentally redefined to succeed in a mobile environment. Mobile paid search is a different and, in many ways, a much more frightening animal.
Nearly every marketer today understands the importance of mobile and the importance of data. But do they understand the peculiarities of mobile analytics? ContactPoint CEO Jason Wells explains.
Only 15 years ago, if you told a friend you were in marketing, they would probably conjure up images of creative types drawing pictures, writing copy, or cobbling together stories for brands. Or perhaps they would envision the Mad Men-esque wood-paneled boardrooms of Madison Avenue agencies.
Today’s typical marketer is neither a creative ninja nor an ad agency exec. Certainly there are still wood-paneled boardrooms, and there are, of course, still creative types that make things look pretty. These positions and the stereotypes associated with them will never disappear. They are critical to the machinery of marketing.
But today the most common type of marketer is one who is obsessed with numbers, analytics, data and results. This marketer may be an executive at a big media firm, an enterprise-level company, or the owner of a small business. Every marketer at every level is in desperate need of analytics.
Analytics and Big Data
Marketing has, as many have noted, moved “from art to big data.” This is a massive shift.
Depending on the study you’d like to cite, roughly 20% of businesses have mobile websites. That’s not a lot when you consider that mobile search will surpass desktop search sometime in the next 18 months or so.
Why are companies so slow to get a mobile website?
Well, there are probably a few reasons, but anecdotally, we are hearing from our clients that confusion is chief among them. Most companies don’t know what they would do with a mobile website or even how to go about getting one.
That’s why mobile landing pages are becoming more popular. Having one or several mobile landing pages is a simpler solution for many companies than a full-fledged mobile website. Mobile landing pages are cheaper than mobile websites. And, it is very likely, that companies opting for a mobile landing page will eventually upgrade to a full-fledged mobile site.
Sales training is great. Many of the hundreds of companies that provide sales training do a great job. Their content is dynamic. Their speakers are inspiring. And their track record is impeccable. Their sales training teaches valuable skills and produces immediate results.
Unfortunately, 30 days after the training, very little behavior has changed.
Sales training only truly changes behavior long term if there is true accountability. The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) says that only 19 percent of people who receive one-time sales training see any kind of sustained performance improvement.
That's really low.
If a Major League Baseball player hit 19 percent of the pitches he saw (batting .190), he wouldn’t play in the Majors for long. If a quarterback only completed 19 percent of his passes, he would be moved to another position. If your marketing team only returned 19 percent of the money it spent, the entire team would soon be unemployed.
Read the article at Sales and Marketing Management
Read more: Sales Training Without Accountability Is Pointless
by Alan E. Hall, Forbes Contributor
It’s been a busy season. Last week capped Grow America’s Fall Competition in Utah, where we awarded $250,000 in cash and service awards to 9 lucky companies, from a field of 150 finalists and a base of more than 600 applicants. If you have an idea, start-up or growth company who missed this competition, it isn’t too late – we’re preparing to launch our national program of competitions and entrepreneurial resources in January, and you can stay abreast of our progress by registering at www.GrowAm.com. Here’s an article that tells a little more about the program that just came out in the New York Times.
Read more: Grow America Results: Crio, Jigabot, ContactPoint
