More than just printing…

Smartphones are becoming ubiquitous. The mobile phone platform is providing immediate, easy access to data in a way that has been unprecedented. Phone calls, Email, text, GPS, calendars, music, and search, games, TV and internet access all reside in our pockets. Our phones have evolved to become tiny computers which in some ways have lessened our need for desktop or laptop access.

Mobile phones allow the consumer instant access to a myriad of purchasing activities and can even target those activities based on geographic location now thanks to GPS services. Your customer can now find what they want on their phone, compare deals, purchase and have a product shipped to them all from the screen of their phone. No need to wait. In a recent report Forrester stated that 39% of all mobile phone users had smartphones by the end of 2011. Yet most integrated marketing plans do not have a mobile component or if they do then it is a small part of the program.

Dip Your Toe Into The Water With Mobile

One way to consider dipping a toe in the water might be to add actionable content via a mobile app driving traffic to your current website. Optimize the creative so that it works well on a mobile screen there is not much real estate for visual impact here. The message should be clearly discernible. Just sending traffic to a conventionally designed web site could spell disaster for a marketer. No one is going to scroll through a large busy website on their phone.

Consider making the message/offer timely and build in immediacy. Coupons and timed special offers could be a part of the mobile campaign. Use the phones portability to its advantage as well as the spontaneous interactivity that a phone can offer where a computer cannot.

Make Mobile Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Make the mobile part of your campaign work as an integral part of your overall strategy and help your customer use their device to its utmost capabilities, think click-to-call, click-to-order, click-for-directions etc. You can even run an SMS campaign for your mobile subscribers with special offers. You can extend the mobile themes of the campaign and optimize the content for use on iPads and other mobile tablets. Make sure you capture your data. How long are these customers spending on one part of your mobile site? What part of the offer is most often visited? Acted upon? Ask your customers for feedback.

Incorporate QR codes into the rest of your campaign even outdoor advertising, direct mail and in store displays. You campaign can all work together to better serve your customers, make it easier to do business with you, further engage and understand your customer base. And if you build in a good back end tracking system for capturing data you will have a great addition to your CRM.

Advertisers now expect each integrated marketing campaign to stand out, be attention getting, relevant to their audience, perceived as cutting edge and able to drive action or response all with the same campaign. I have heard it called a tactic, sometimes a marketing strategy, depending how well fleshed out the plan is, but there is a low-cost way of bridging the gap between print and digital and shows your customers that you are making an effort to communicate with them in the mediums preferred by them. Try using a QR code on your branded materials. QR codes are a good way of involving consumers by making an ad interactive. At the very least it will achieve more recognition of the advertisement and more traffic to the website or wherever the link of the QR code leads to.

QR codes took over NYC in June of 2010 when the Thompson Reuters Building began putting QR codes on the face of the building in Times Square so passersbys could use their smart phone barcode scanning app to scan the QR codes — which were featured in an animated sequence on the buidling from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. When scanning the QR codes, it lead to information relating to specific agencies including 311, NYC Department of Transportation, NYCulture Calendar, NYC Business Express and City of New York Parks and Recreation.

Dubai is dedicating the entire exterior of one of their newest hotels to the movie industry,The CODE UNIQUE HOTEL at http://holtermanndesign.com/blog/qr-code-unique-hotel-dubai-studio-city/. The entire exterior of the building is a huge QR code. Reality is that the use of QR codes need not be on such a grand scale to be effective. Each anticipated result would drive different implementations.

Macy’s Fall Backstage – QR Code Campaign – Scan for a chance to win a $500 Shopping Spree is their latest integrated marketing campaign. They’ve integrated social media, video, mobile, and the “What’s in it for me” factor is a chance to win a $500 Shopping Spree. What more could you ask for in an integrated marketing campaign that has customer interaction?

We know you can buy awareness and customer interaction, even results with bold tactics. You can test and prove that you can get increased attention and greater customer intimacy on a shoestring, if you have good knowledge of the product, audience and market by linking the web with your ad or direct response piece with a QR code, keeping your message and offer relevant and monitoring the result.

We know that timeliness is key in advertising and direct response. So offer something to your prospects that they want or need, tell them the offer won’t last forever and make sure that you give them the opportunity to respond via the medium that they find most comfortable to use by employing even just one integrated marketing tactic, using a QR code. It makes it just a bit more convenient for your audience just that much easier for your customers to reach out to you.

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