Ask the Wrong Question, Get the Wrong Answer

The headline was mildly disappointing, but nowhere near surprising:

Some Small Business Websites Are Still Not Mobile

The article, published yesterday, covers the results of a "last year's" survey, compared to results from "last year's" "last year's" survey.  And it borders on disheartening.

Let me be clear.  I respect the publisher of this information.  That's why I get their articles in my email.  They, along with a few others, are my "go to sources" for what's going on in mobile marketing.  But even those who are "on top of it" generally have no control over exactly what "it" is that they're "on top of".

It's their sources that provided 7-month-old data, compared to 19-month-old data.  And before you say "things take time" you should know that "last year's" survey,

polled 400 US small businesses...

Two multi-million dollar, international companies, and they didn't even as the right questions.

"Last year's" survey celebrated that 52% said their website is mobile-optimized; that 14% built mobile-optimized emails; and 11% market with SMS. That's the good news.

The bad news is that "mobile-optimized" hadn't been enough for "the mobile web" for six months - count 'em, 6, - before that.

Once you-know-who decided to change their algorithms to look for "mobile first", it pretty much ceased to matter that a snippet of code could make your entire (designed for desktop) home page appear on a 2.5" x 3.5" mobile screen.  

And, while I'm sure it's true that you-know-who isn't "penalizing" websites that are "mobile-optimized" but not "mobile first", their algorithms are going to find the most exact match to what they're looking for: websites designed to be easy to view, and easy to navigate "on-the-go", on a 2.5" x 3.5" mobile screen, first; a 7" x 9" tablet screen next; websites designed to still look good on desktop.

Because *they* - you-know-who - know just how "mobile" we as a society have become.  

They know - and announced at approximately the same time that the "last year's" survey compared results from "last year's" "last year's" survey, that

More than 50% of local searches happen on mobile devices.

For more on how “Marketers” neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here, here, and here.

How Local Is Your Small Business?

Most people automatically assume, when they hear the words "local business" (or, especially, "local marketing"), that the phrase means "local to this city" (or, as in the case of Phoenix, "this metropolitan area").  But - and this is important - in general use those terms may just as well mean "brick and mortar nationwide chain with a physical location in or around Phoenix".  

And sometimes it just means "an online business that sells and delivers products or services to Phoenix without even having a brick and mortar location".

Think about this:  When those who write articles about "local business" or "local marketing" do that writing, it's more likely that they aren't writing about an actual "local business", owned by "locals", who've hired "locals",  to sell products or services to "locals".  Here's a prime example, quoted verbatim:

If you’re just in Yelp or the Yellow Pages, you’re not truly “local” yet. You’re missing out on audiences native to a particular city.

Yes, you have to be in these big directories. But marketing in the true local web means creating campaigns relevant to audiences where they live.

GOT THAT?  This article wasn't written to advise you, the  "local owner(s)", of "local businesses", that hire "locals" to sell products or services to "locals".  

It was written for people who apparently don't even understand time zones; or that it's not a good idea to text a marketing message at the start of day "Eastern Daylight Time" (see yesterday's post).  

And you can bet "creating campaigns relevant to audiences" where "hot" means over 110 degrees" is a skill they haven't quite mastered yet.  Because they want Phoenicians - Arizonans - to *spend* somewhere else.

Local Motive Marketing IS a "local business" - created in Phoenix - to bring "local customers" to "local businesses", owned by "locals", who hire "locals".  We support our own, first.

For more on how “Marketers” neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here and here. For insight on how those factors relate to engagement, and  SMS text marketing, click here, and here.

"That Ain't How We Do Things Here"

You'd think "the experts" would know better.    And as a local expert, it stunned me when I read that 63 percent of "marketers" (worldwide!) to  are sending messages at the wrong time of day.  

This particular article was about mobile "push notifications".  But, apparently, this *disconnect* applies to more than just "smartphones";  "the experts" don't know when to send text-marketing messages, either.  Turns out that "many marketers do not factor in time zones".

How about that.

These are the people that have compiled the "big data"!  These are the people that have calculated when the best "engagement" will be most likely.

If they don't know how to use the information, who would?

We would.  We do.  Because we focus our expertise on local small businesses.  OUR market is Phoenix, and the Valley of the Sun.  And Local Motive Marketing understands local; understands small business; and understands locals. Because we live here.

"Marketers are failing to take into account how culture impacts likely times of engagement"

simply doesn't apply to us.  And because our purpose is to drive local customers to local small businesses, we have no need to

"merge the SMS numbers with the credit card and loyalty program to determine the time zone."

This is Arizona.  We know what time it is.  All year long.  And we don't need your customers' credit cards.

So we can send "push notifications" that are part of our local loyalty programs to local customers of  local small businesses.  We can send opt-in text-marketing messages to local customers of  local small businesses during the times of day when the best "engagement" is most likely.  We know when those times of day are.  Because we read the "big data".

Imagine your local small business offers, directed to your local customers, because you have Local Motive Marketing.

For another example how "Marketers" neither consider nor write for local businesses, click here.  For insight on how those factors relate to engagement, and  SMS text marketing, click here, and here.

What Customers Want, When They Want

"Providing your customers with what they want, when they want it..." began a great opening sentence of a great subtitle. 
http://marketingland.com/brick-mortar-revitalizing-omnichannel-success-171286
But then it went "off the rails" where small, local businesses are concerned:  "...sometimes means going offline."  But he small, local business probably never got farther than the headline, and certainly didn't go past "...it's not just about bricks and mortar; it's about having a consistent omnichannel presence."  The information in what was otherwise a very instructive article had gone into a deep, dark canyon, where small, local business owners never saw it.

First, most small, local businesses exist "offline".  "Brick and mortar" are where they are, and most owners of small, local businesses simply don't have time to keep up with "marketing news".  They're busy providing "...what they want, when they want it..." to their customers, the best way they know how.    Too many of them no longer really know "what customers want" (because customers, as a rule, don't really know, themselves), and only know "when customers want it" at the moment "the customer" shows up.  That they might prompt the customer's "want", or trigger the customer's decision to want it now, simply does not occur to them.

And it doesn't occur to the good people that write such instructive articles that the one thing they most instruct is that they could not care less about small, local businesses.  Using terms like "omnichannel", "martech", and "adtech" makes it crystal clear to those small, local business owners that those good people are writing for “the likes of Google, Facebook, Turn, Adobe, MediaMath, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and other household names”, not for  small, local businesses; for "brands"; not for those selling the "brands" in small, local businesses.

That's why we exist.

To let your customers know:  What your small business has, that your customers want, the moment they know they want it.

R.I.P. SMS 1999 - (Not So Fast)

At the pace in which we live our lives, 

it can come as a shock to remember that SMS Marketing, aka "Text Message Marketing", wouldn't even be able to vote (and no, the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission did not extend "personhood" to SMS, so relax!).  This is especially so when one hears the oft-repeated - but completely erroneous - urban legend that "SMS is dead.  Nobody uses SMS for marketing anymore.

Right.

The list of "dead" marketing methods is long.  And wrong.  SMS, like email, and direct mail, and print, aren't "dead roses" (h/t Rolling Stones) in the marketing bouquet.  Each still works.  That they don't work the way they did in their earliest incarnations is largely irrelevant.  Nothing works like it did at first.  No marketing method.  No machine.  No "person".  No human.

For example, one of my granddaughters was born in 1999, the same year that that Insequent tells us short codes were invented.  She just got her permit.  She certainly doesn't "work" like she did as a newborn, or toddler, or kindergartner, etc.  She grew.  She matured.

And so have all of those allegedly "dead" marketing methods.  Some have even "risen" from the dead.  Who, in 1999, would have foreseen the renaissance of "walking sandwich boards"?

I've written before that "‪#‎MobileMarketing‬ is the new ‪#‎MMA‬";  It's "Mixed Marketing Arts".  That includes SMS.  No, it doesn't work "instead of" other methods.  ALL of these, and everything that Local Motive Marketing (and its "sister", Phoenix Day and Night) does incorporates tools.  The right tool for one purpose is almost universally the wrong tool for other purposes.  Who tries to drive nails with a screwdriver?  Or turn a bolt with a hammer?

So I wasn't the least surprised today when I saw - in my email!!! - a Marketo article titled: "Spring Forward: Jumpstart Your SMS Marketing Campaign", or "7 Tips to Leverage the Power of SMS Marketing" from Convince and Convert Blog's newsfeed.

Don't know which tools will work best, how, for your business?  That's where I come in.

For more on SMS text marketing, click here.  Email effectiveness, click here.  Direct Mail, here and here.

Even "Bloomies" Gets It

It's actually a brilliant marketing ploy.  (h/t to Luxury Daily)

Take something that evolved from ancient folk games, and was so popular in the pre-WWII era that a "culturally significant" 1936 movie ("My Man Godfrey") is preserved in the National Film Registry), and create an interactive shopping experience resulting, Bloomingdale's hopes, in an emotional connection.

It's brilliant because its so unexpected.  At least, it is to me.  Sure, "brands" (a brewing company, an auto manufacturer, and even an airline)  have already done interactive scavenger hunts.  The first "internet scavenger hunt was in 1992.  And movies and TV series have done interactive scavenger hunts.  But this is... Bloomingdale's.

Bloomingdale's was around when Gossip columnist Elsa Maxwell made scavenger hunts popular in the early 1930s.  If there were ever a prime example of an "old school" "old economy" "flagship" company, Bloomingdale's has GOT to be close to, if not at, the top of the list.

Bloomingdale's.  Using a microsite.  With a hashtag (#BloomiesHack).  Using social media.  Heavily.  Integrating smartphones, because someone - at Bloomingdale's - who lives in, and knows he or she works in, the 21st Century, understood that in-store mobile phone usage while shopping is commonplace. That an interactive scavenger hunt would get Bloomingdale's into the participating consumers’ phones.

"The other guys" might still have their parade.  "They" might have "an in" (or even a relationship) with an "old school" "old economy" "flagship" broadcast media company.   But Bloomingdale's has definitely stepped up the game.

And it's IMPORTANT that local small businesses understand that marketing technology - "martech" - makes it possible for them to do the same thing, and engage their customers through their customers smartphones.  That they can reach their customers with Mobile Coupons; give their customers Mobile Rewards; make their customers Mobile members; have a Mobile (or mobile "friendly") website; offer WiFi (especially, Social WiFi).

They don't have to have Bloomingdale's square footage, or even a Bloomingdale's budget, to be as impressive as Bloomingdale's is with this.

For more on mobile search & research, click here. Smartphone content, click here, or here, here, and here.  Engagement, here, here, and here.  Social media, here.

Can Neuroscience Explain Mobile's Growing Popularity?

It should come as no surprise that I keep up, as best any #Entrepreneur can, with the latest data on #MobileMarketing.  I need to know what's up, so I can inform my Clients.  But my ongoing research encompasses "all things future" -- i.e., our present times -- because #mobile IS our fu...

Anyway, my last post included a video (h/t Futurism.com) about how the Jet Propulsion Laboratory plans to use holography to "teleport" JPL engineers to Mars as early as September. And, of course, I tied that to how mobile marketing can "teleport" small businesses into their customers' smartphones.

Today, I watched a video about recent neuroscience experiments, found here: http://futurism.com/scientists-just-made-mind-controlled-wheelchair/ (I already posted about this on Local Motive Marketing's facebook page.)

And (being me), I could not help but see connections between an anecdote within the 15 minute video -- about how a monkey essentially "embodied" a computer- avatar-hand, and how the monkey's brain learned, rather quickly, to recognize that as "an extension" of the monkey's limbs -- and how people have, in a relatively short time, adopted mobile marketing delivery systems as "natural" extensions of the way they receive marketing messages.

The data show that mobile marketing -- which didn't even exist before the cell phone, and was limited to "text" as recently as a decade ago -- has not only made it faster for small businesses to reach their market, but has made it possible for customers to actively pursue and obtain the offers and rewards they choose; to seek out those products and services they most desire, when they desire them, to find the best  combination of product quality and price point, and to act upon that information by downloading mobile coupons, mobile rewards cards, mobile punchcards; and to "reward" the small businesses that make the best that "combination of quality and price" on those "most desired products and services" most available by providing a mobile-friendly website, and making that accessible through free wifi.

Businesses have learned, just as quickly, that "the transaction" is no longer and end, but a wayplace on an "ongoing mission" of engagement that begins long before the customer even thinks of visiting, and continues long after; hopefully, with many other visits to follow.

And businesses can now further reward their own customers -- those who have already chosen to deal with them -- and simultaneously attract new customers, by making themselves and their products and services ever more accessible and affordable; giving loyalty for loyalty.

These are exciting times, indeed.

For more on smartphone content, look here, here, and here. Engagement, remarketing SMS and mobile data/usage? Here and here.