Mobile Marketing best at fostering brand-consumer relationships

Research finds most retailers have still not adopted a mobile strategy.

While reading Response Magazine the other day, I ran into a few articles that looked at the adoption of mobile at various retailers. While nothing shocks me, it still resonates that most businesses are operating without a concerted mobile and social strategy.

Consider some of these statistics:

• Only 33 percent of businesses currently have a mobile strategy in place. All respondents to a survey suggested they plan on having one in the next 12 months (source: King Fish Media).
• Less than 20 percent are currently conducting mobile commerce, mainly through the mobile web, and respondents suggest it will grow next year – in 2012.
• 24 percent reported that their mobile strategy “exceeded or performed as expected” while another 30% had not measured it at all.
• 34-percent of the group said they would be keeping track of results.

As retail continues to embrace mobile marketing and mobile commerce, data analytics and reporting will become the focus and centerpiece for this key channel. Another statistic from the survey also found that forty-one percent of those surveyed said “future mobile marketing programs will need to show a positive return” for them to continue with such initiatives. Without key metrics in place, it will be like the wild-west with direct response and brand marketers shooting into the air versus shooting fish in a bucket.

At QWASI, we recently unveiled our updated Synchrosy Methodology for enterprise clients. Specifically within retail, we have had great success helping our clients analyze their business through a variety of lenses and then we create solutions that drive the desired interaction and/or transaction. It is different for each business, so our engagement approach varies too. However, based on the variety of ROI metrics retailers embrace, it’s most effective for their management team to monitor and track while staying in the drivers seat running their day-to-day business.

We hope you’d give us a chance to introduce your business to Synchrosy and drive results with a fresh, innovative and results-oriented mobile and social strategy.

May 26, 2011 in Blog   |   No Comments

2011 Mobile Budgets allocating "More Mobile"

As the end of the third quarter comes to a close this year, corporate budgets are being reviewed and Mobile is finally getting respect within the organization from the top down. However, as this new channel continues to grow, departments are beginning to take a closer look at where they can grow and how they can save using mobile messaging, marketing and mobile apps.

In the past, most marketers took from digital budgets to fund a mobile.

For 2011, budgets have grown from single campaigns to funding a complete mobile strategy. This has created the need to create a new line item on the budget so companies can graduate mobile from an “emerging technology” to a proven channel – it’s own format.

WRESTLING BUDGETS
How are companies wrestling money from other budgets? Many take it from digital budgets. That type of thinking though is short sighted as digital marketing and interactive services all achieve different goals to drive sales, increase retention and even reclaim lost revenue through cost savings. Many agencies are adding to the complex budget process by pulling in dollars for their “digital agency” where these monies typically get put into distinct components of a budget leaving little room for mobile. What is fueling most of the mobile spend within these agencies is shifting the budget from traditional media to digital.

THE SHIFT
As spending shifts from traditional media to digital media and mobile, new lines will be expanded on budgets to better clarify the type of spending. This will lead to a greater need for mobile analytics and reporting. How much is my iPhone App generating? What is the ROI for my Mobile Advertising campaigns? What is the lift in spend from my customers receiving SMS Alerts on a daily basis? ROI tracking will become another budget requirement within the digital category. While many agencies push back on measurement, studies and direct spend to return calculations, companies will demand greater oversight and results from their investments.

According to a MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) survey released in June 2010, they found that marketers in the US plan to increase spending on mobile 124% next year – up from $2.3 billion to $5.5 billion – with a budget allocation for mobile representing almost 4% of overall marketing budgets. That total includes paid and unpaid mobile segments including SMS, mobile websites, location-based services, mobile video and mobile email. Forrester, on the contrary predicts US spending on mobile marketing will grow from $561 million this year to $748 million in 2011.

It’s time to start planning your 2011. It’s time to get MORE mobile.

September 13, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Mobile Marketing Center Lets Companies Reach On-The-Go Consumers In 2010

QWASI updates its integrated mobile marketing platform to provide superior mobile marketing services to its clients.

PHILADELPHIA, January 7, 2010 – QWASI Inc., one of the leading enterprise mobile marketing application companies providing interactive mobile solutions for the US mobile market and small and medium-sized businesses (the SMB market), announced today the official launch of the QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0. With this release, it’s never been easier to build, manage and analyze mobile marketing campaigns through a self-managed online portal. Companies of any size can seize the opportunity of enterprise features that mobile marketing offers through the power of QWASI’s mobile marketing platform.

With twice as many users of SMS than email globally and over 125 billion text messages sent every month in the United States, 45% of brands have already deployed text messaging campaigns, with a projection of 89% planned to go to market by 2010. There has never been a more important time to engage customers via the mobile communication channel. QWASI is committed to helping clients and companies navigate effectively through the mobile landscape as they reach SMB consumers on-the-go. The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 now provides its clients with the platform that will help to launch their campaigns into the mobile marketing space and realize the power of mobile.

QWASI provides its clients with a variety of key services designed to better promote marketing campaigns with mobile services. With the ability to quickly set up interactive text messaging and mobile campaigns from any browser, QWASI gives its clients the power to control their own interactive mobile marketing solutions.

The QWASI Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 provides such popular features and new services including:
• SMS Auto Responders (NEW): Power drip marketing via text messaging to opt-in users.
• Info-on-Demand: Providing information via custom Keywords. Capture opt-in users for future message blasts including email addresses (NEW).
• Blasts / Alerts: Send text messages to subscribers. Keep customers informed of promotions, offers & events.
• Mobile Coupons: Distribute coupons to potential customers who have opted-in to receive your promotions. Track usage with Promo Codes (NEW).
• Text-to-Win: Enable potential customers to text in a special keyword to instantly enter-to-win a prize.
• Text-to-Vote: Have interested customers text to vote on a topic and provide real-time results.
• Ringtones, Wallpapers & Mobile Video: Deliver rich content to customers with MMS and mobile downloads.
• Website Widget: Build a subscriber list from web-widgets .
• Custom Applications: The Marketing Center API allows companies to build any custom mobile messaging application.

“Many of our new features in this release have been in use for QWASI enterprise clients. We’re now making them available to small and medium size companies to leverage the mobile channel,” states David Geipel, COO and Co-Founder of QWASI, Inc. “We enable companies to power a simple mobile campaign and provide them with tools that connect companies with their customers. We’ve seen an insurgence of companies desiring to utilize a short code to power one-to-one mobile messaging. With the Mobile Marketing Center API, we’re also enabling other companies to power highly interactive campaigns using the same API our platform uses. QWASI has been providing successful and cost effective mobile campaigns for over 5 years.”

QWASI’s Mobile Marketing Center 2.0 also enables companies to white-label a powerful mobile marketing platform using a shared short code provisioned on wireless carriers including Alltel, AT&T, Boost, Centennial, Cellular One, Dobson, Immix, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, Virgin, Verizon and other second and third tier carriers. The platform provides companies the ability to give their clients access to further provide control over their marketing campaigns. In addition, the service can be connected using a dedicated short code (vanity or random).

ABOUT QWASI
QWASI, Inc, is a leading mobile solutions provider of interactive applications for clients across the US utilizing SMS (text messaging), MMS, WAP and iPhone applications, QWASI makes complexity to simple with mobile marketing, mCommerce (mobile commerce), private label mobile search tools, click-to-chat, click-to-text, Mobile IM (MIM) applications, interactive property marketing services and customized alerting for Fortune 1000 businesses.

QWASI CONTACT
Patricia Scanlon, QWASI, 877-747-9274, patricia.scanlon @ qwasi.com

January 7, 2010 in Press Releases   |   No Comments

Google Analytics adds Mobile Analytics to Reporting

According to Google’s blog, Google Analytics will now include reporting for mobile Websites and mobile apps with a new soon-to-be-released server-side code-snippet in the coming weeks.  This will allow Google Analytics to track traffic to your mobile website from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript.  The release is reported to support PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX-based sites, and will be in addition to allowing users to track visits to their regular website coming from high-end, Javascript enabled phones.

In addition to expanded mobile reporting, Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now track how users engage with apps. For Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement. In the future, Google promises the ability to see breakout data on mobile devices and carriers in the new “mobile reports” area of the Visitors section.

While it has taken some time for this to be introduced, it certainly is a welcomed improvement. The ability to include Mobile Analytics to further help break out ROI and Campaign Response Rates will allow marketers to see the value of delivering converts through mobile communication and applications. Mobile publishers and advertisers using this solution will be thrilled to have these new Mobile Analytic tools at their finger tips.

QWASI offers advanced mobile analytics and mobile reporting so clients can have a complete view of the mobile ecosystem and their customers. Contact QWASI today for more information @ 877-747-9274.

October 22, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments