Mobile Phone Marketing Alternatives to Mobile Apps

A Mobile App is great for interacting with your customers.  It's flexible, informative, increases customer engagement and pretty much does everything that a mobile website can do.

However, there are some disadvantages when considering a Mobile App for your business.   For starters, which platform will it be built on?  IOS? Android? Both?  Developers have access to tools and emulators that will create the code necessary for each platform, but the more complex the app, the more that individual platform coding will be needed.  This raises another area of concern for business when your app could potentially run differently on each platform.

Users have access to hundreds of apps and download many.  However, they are selective in which are running due to many reasons including battery life, unnecessary notifications and other.  If your app isn't active on their phone, they will miss your promotions, notices and updates.   Updates are crucial, especially if your app is taking advantage of new features and your users are on different versions.

And then there is the cost!  How complex is your app?  How many languages?  How will you handle app maintenance?  What happens when a new IOS or Android version is released?  Who will do the testing?  Keeping your app current can be costly.

However, there are alternatives to these gotchas!  There are various SMS Marketing platforms offered by different vendors with pretty much the same set of features.  You may be asking SMS?  How can that possibly compare to a Mobile App?  It can't.  But what IT CAN DO is provide you with the ability to create Mobile Web Landing Pages, Mobile Coupons, Include YouTube Videos, Links to Web sites and online store fronts for your marketing promotions.  How does it do this?  The text message contains a link to the Mobile Web Landing Page created by the SMS Marketing Platform!

It also eliminates the gotchas of Mobile Apps.  Text Messages are received across all Mobile Phones, Android and Apple.  According to statistics, Text Messages are opened over 90% of the time and within minutes of receipt.  No app programming or maintenance is needed as your message travels over SMS eliminating the high cost of creating and maintaining an app.

To learn more and to try SMS Marketing FREE for 30 days, visit sms-4sale.com 

Regards,
Ron Cregier
SMS-4Sale

Is SMS an Effective Tool to Promote, Market, Sell and Lease Properties?

In one word - YES   Wherever you drive today, you will see signs by Real Estate companies, Home Builders, Apartment and Condo Complexes and Property Management firms with signs that display one common trait - a phone number and perhaps a contact name to call. However, most people don't want to talk with a sales agent until they know more about the property, they just want the facts and property signs just don't give them that.  One way to overcome this reluctance is to communicate with prospects on the device that virtually every adult now carries and the tool that delivers your message instantly - SMS Text Messaging!  

So how can a SMS Text Messaging program help provide more information on properties, if it can only send 160 characters.  Advanced Text Messaging Platforms have the ability to create Mobile Web Pages that are designed to fit the smaller screens of Mobile and Smartphones.  These pages are easily created with wizard driven screens that allow its users to include the following information on their Page:

• Unlimited Textal Content that describes the property
• Property Pictures of key features and amenities
• YouTube Video links to provide even greater exposure
• Provide information on closeouts, specials and other incentives
• Web Links to other sites including your own Website
• Ability to include links to your other properties

The Mobile Web Page provides the Property Manager with an easy to use flexible platform that doesn't require an expensive developer to deliver a message to ALL prospect Internet capable Mobile and Smartphones. The Mobile Web Page link is simply added to the Text Message responder message when a prospect texts into your Texting Keyword placed on your signs.  Responder Messages are the messages your prospects receive back when they text into your Text Message Keywords placed on your signs.  An example of adding Texting to your signs might look like:  For more information, text abcproperty to 99999.  

If you would like to learn more about our SMS Text Messaging Mobile Marketing Platform, contact our office and we would be happy to provide a no obligation consultation on how SMS Text Messaging can help promote your properties! 630-534-0983
For more information, visit us at  www.sms-4sale.com

Consider MultiChannel Marketing to reach your Customers and Prospects

As we begin to prepare for the Holiday shopping season, Business should consider using all of the Internet Marketing resources available to them.  Forrester Research tells us that a growing number of retailers are becoming multichannel as more of their sales are coming through their web divisions than ever before.  This has been an ongoing trend as the web channel has outpaced the sales of the physical retail channel for years.  Source: Sucharita Mulpuru, Forrester Research.

So what is Mutli-Channel Marketing?  In the old days, this would include flyers, Newspaper Ads, mailings and other forms of traditional marketing.  But today, Multi-Channel Marketing uses the Internet to reach your customers with Social Media (Facebook & Twitter), attractive visual Email campaigns, Web sites, video and Text Messaging that can include both Web Pages designed to fit the smaller screens of Mobile phones and video from YouTube or your own videos stored on participating server services.

So why use Multi-Channel Marketing?

• Portable devices provide easy access to the Internet from anywhere
• Popularity of Social Networking such as Facebook and Twitter continues to grow
• Higher Bandwidth on wired and wireless connections making Video mainstream
• Technologies such as Text Messaging that delivers instant messaging to subscribers
• Customer referrals from easier sharing of information across all channels

The power and dynamics of the Internet has changed the way consumers get their information.   To grow your Business in today's Internet driven world, you need to stay in front of your clients and Multi-Channel Marketing helps you do that.

Ron Cregier
SMS-4Sale
http://www.sms-4sale.com
ronc@sms-4sale.com

Mobile Video Uploads Hit Record High

In case you haven't noticed, Video is everywhere today and can be seen by virtually every Internet Device including Mobile Phones. According to an article on eMarketer Click to read article  - Photobucket, a web-based photo- and video-sharing service site says users are not only uploading more video content than ever before, but a staggering amount of uploads are also originating from mobile devices.

So what does this really tell us? First of all, Mobile Devices have become the Army Swiss Knife of today's consumer. Its power and versatility is growing at an astonishing rate. Not only can we Browse the Internet, Send and Receive Email and Text Messages on our Mobile Phones, but also play, record and upload video from these devices. As Business Owners, this should be a valuable nugget of information in our Marketing strategies.

When compared to traditional print media such as flyers, brochures, newspaper ads, and other printed marketing messages, there is no comparison as video lets you create and send a more exciting, compelling and personal message to your clients. As the article from PhotoBucket points out, recording a video has become as easy as taking a snapshot. If you’re a business owner and looking to connect with your clients, consider putting a welcome video on your website and Facebook Business Page and follow up with promotional videos in your Text Messaging and or Email communications.

Welcome to the SMS-4Sale Blog

Going forward, we hope to provide marketing information on the growing use of the Smartphone by today's consumers.  The Smartphone has taken over as the primary method of communication for consumers.  When you consider that it can send and receive Emails, browse the Internet, watch video and send and receive Text Messages, the Smartphone is clearly the future of connecting with customers. 

According to exclusive research from Experion Simmons, a part of the Experion Marketing Services, 29 percent of cell phone owners today believe their phone will be the primary device for their entertainment needs in the future.

The report provides marketers with vivid insights for the mobile revolution, including how consumers use their phones to manage social connections, consume media, get information, plan shopping trips, interact with mobile advertising and more.

Other findings include:

• More than 9 out of 10 adults, 7 out of 10 teens and 1 out of 5 kids own a mobile phone.
• 56% of smartphone owners access the internet from their phone and 27% watch video

When considering where your marketing dollars are being spent, consider how to reach these mobile phone users, as they carry their device everywhere they go!