Alexander’s Blog

This is the third article in the “Mobile Marketing in…” series. In the first two I wrote about “Mobile Marketing in Media” and “Mobile Marketing in Retail & FMCG“. You might feel that “Sport & Leisure” is similar to both “Media” and “Retail & FMCG” and in some ways it can be, because you could access sport results or learn about new products on your mobile. But I am more thinking of how you can use mobile marketing to promote actual sport & leisure activities, such as running, cycling, skiing, hiking etc.

So this article is addressed to all those who are involved in communicating to the community what is happening in sport & leisure, be it on club, regional, national or international level for both active participants and fans.

Let’s look at “Peter”, a keen cyclist who is a member of local cycling club “Example Wheelers”. The club offers him different levels of involvement, from cycling for fun to racing in various categories such as road, track, MTB and BMX. There might training rides, a club championship series, entry forms for races, lift clubs to get there etc. Add to that a number of social activities around the year (get togethers, year end party etc.), and you have a calendar full of events that Peter would want to know about. If you are in charge of marketing and communication at Example Wheelers you might want to look at using mobile as a medium to keep Peter up to date as well as to grow the club’s membership base.

Why? Because everybody own a mobile phone and it is “always with me, always on, always personal.”

This can also work great to create and grow fan bases and keep them involved with their favorite teams. A team with a good case study on how this is done effectively are the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

But let’s get back to Example Wheelers and their member Peter. How would you use mobile to keep Peter updated on club activities? Well, when Peter joined your club, you could have asked him to opt in to receive SMS updates such as “Training ride at 07h30 this Sunday. We meet at Joe’s garage”. However, this is both limiting to your communication objectives and to Peters’ needs. Remember that you would go mobile to reach Peter at any time and at any place and to also allow Peter to contact you.

You should allow your existing and new members to sign up for mobile updates, that means they give you permission to send them club updates via SMS. But you should also have a mobisite where you publish the latest club news, offer registration forms for races, club events etc., training tips and news from the cycling world including e.g. a link to Lance Armstrong’s Twitter page. You can also strike a deal with your local bike shop where most of your members will shop anyway, and offer to inform your members of new stock arrivals, special deals, promotions etc.

Now you can SMS your members much more powerful updates with a hyperlink to your mobisite for more information. In this way you also make the mobile experience for your members interactive! 

You can also send prospective members of your club to your mobisite by setting up a simple “SMS keyword to short code” system. Anyone can then e.g. SMS Wheelers to 55 666 and will receive a response SMS with a link to your mobisite. On the mobisite they can inform themselves about what your club offers, its membership fees etc., and they can fill out a form to join. You can advertise your keyword and short code in your local newspaper, in bike shops and other retail outlets or with flyers, hot pockets and pull tabs. And you would obviously have a Tell a Friend function on your mobisite to allow existing members to invite new ones.  

So don’t procrastinate. Take your sport & leisure activity of choice mobile and benefit from the biggest, most personal communication medium ever.

I hope that you will also join me at the live Webinar “Marketer’s 10 Worst Excuses To Miss The Mobile Train” on Thursday, 18 March 2010 at 3 pm GMT+2 (check your local time). To reserve you seat simply click http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

Google seems to race Apple for the domination of innovation. Definitely worth a read: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/search/5568.html

Live Webinar: Marketing’s 10 Worst Excuses To Miss The Mobile Train - how to get onboard and beat them TODAY

Wednesday, 18 March 2010 at 3pm GMT+2
(check your local time)

Reserve your spot for the FREE Webinar: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

Mobile marketing is upon us. So are the excuses by some marketers and advertisers not to engage it. Often these excuses come from a misunderstanding of this exciting new marketing channel or they are based on sound knowledge of what has worked in the past.

If this sounds like a paradox to you, read on.

Can you agree to any one of the following statements:

1. We rely on tried and trusted traditional marketing tools.
2. We have exhausted our budget with our current campaigns.
3. We will look into it later in the year because we first have to launch our online/current campaign.
4. We don’t see the need for it right now.
5. We’ve tried mobile but it just didn’t work for us.
6. We need more metrics to make an informed decision.
7. We need a database to send out SMS’s.
8. We always receive these annoying spam SMS’s. Mobile marketing would hurt our brand.
9. We already do mobile marketing.
10. We want an iPhone app

If you can agree to at least ONE of the above statements then you need to be worried because the real mobile marketing train is leaving the station fast and you will be left behind.

Get onboard, beat these excuses and decrease your marketing spend while increasing your results!

Join Alexander Gregori, Mobile Marketing Winner$ team leader and internationally published author on Mobile Marketing for

“Marketing’s Top 10 Excuses To Miss The Mobile Train

– How to get onboard and beat them TODAY”

This live 30 minute FREE Webinar, broadcast on the myMOBworld Webinar Channel on Thursday, 18 March 2010 at 3 pm GMT+2 will help you understand the power of optimized Mobile Marketing and the urgency for you to adopt it today.

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

Mobile Marketing Winner$ clients have created over Rand 1 million in client sales opportunities using these strategies. Alexander himself has generated over 53,000 online sales in just two months. 

In this fast paced, 30 minute Webinar discover:

-       5 excuses for NOT engaging mobile marketing TODAY and why they will hurt your business tomorrow

-       why metrics like LSM’s, a rented database and spamming will NOT work in mobile

-       how one company LOST thousands of leads for which they paid millions of Rand

-       3 key tools that can get you MORE bang for your bucks, even if you already do mobile marketing

-       why you are probably better off WITHOUT an iPhone app

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

And right through the Webinar you can email Alexander your questions. We reserve a few minutes at the end of the Webinar to answer questions but if Alexander doesn’t get around to answer yours he will personally respond to you via email.

But that’s not all!

All registrants will receive a sneak preview of the mobile marketing handbook “Everything you ever wanted to know about Mobile Marketing but didn’t know who to ask” as a FREE download.

PLUS you can claim a 50% DISCOUNT on a 60 minute mobile marketing strategy session with Mobile Marketing Winner$ team leaders Alexander Gregori or Lauretta Ngakane.

So don’t delay. Register NOW by clicking the link below!

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

Your Mobile Marketing Winner$ team

P.S. This Webinar will be recorded, so sign up NOW, even if you can’t attend!

http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend

Okay, this might be a rather bland title, but it is a very exciting subject. I understand that words are often used loosely and their full meaning only becomes clear within the context that they are used. So let me just clarify that I am talking about how media, particularly television, radio and print, are using mobile marketing to their advantage.

Why is this subject so exciting? Well, media already own communication channels (TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines), they already have tons of content and they have long-standing relationships with advertisers. Going mobile gives them an exciting new alternative medium to repurpose their existing resources.

It is therefore not surprising that media were among the first to dive into mobile. Often they are still leading among companies who embrace this space. However, they also had to adjust their business models because you cannot just dump existing content from another medium onto mobile. Mobile follows its own laws…

Media who are successful in mobile followed three simple steps.

Firstly, they created a mobile “base camp”, a continuous presence on mobile for their channel, in the form of a mobisite or an application. Note: only one mobisite for the whole channel, not one mobisite for every program, competition or other content item. The immediate advantages of this approach are clear. Reinforcement of the brand, easy penetration of the market by offering a one stop shop under a known name, capturing and, based on the type of individual interaction with the mobisite, detailed segmentation of users to further streamline marketing efforts.

cnnmobile.com is a good example:

Secondly, they repurpose their existing content for mobile. The first rule to follow here is to keep it simple and concise. It seems obvious, but has to be said again and again: the mobile screen is much smaller and so is the attention span of its users. Provide a clear menu, only allowing users to scroll up and down, NEVER sideways. Stick to hyperlinked headlines and offer more information such as a full articles, video downloads etc. by drilling down. Keep it relevant and update content often to keep it exciting and give users a reason to visit often. Engage users with competitions, questionnaires and polls. Another USP would be to provide additional content and services that users cannot access anywhere else, such as exclusive behind the scene interviews or, if you are a radio station, information about the song that is currently playing with a link to buy it right from the phone. 

Thirdly, and here media have an unfair advantage over any other business, they advertise their mobile presence heavily on their main channel. You will always see ads for cnnmobile.com on the main CNN channel. You can also advertise your mobile offering to your online community, for example by allowing visitors of your website to insert their phone number in a text field and get sent the URL for your mobisite straight to their phone. Lastly, use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise your mobile presence.

These three steps allow your audience to always have “you” with them in their pocket and to access you whenever they want and wherever they are. This also allows you to get better connected to your audience because you can start creating user profiles. This will not only strengthen the bond between your channel and its users, but it will also put you in a stronger position with advertisers because you can offer a more clearly segmented audience. This will not only help you to monetize your mobile presence but can also have a positive effect on the advertising sales for your main channel.

So if you are in charge of marketing at a television- or radio station, or at a print title, go mobile now and do it right. It is not complicated, you only have to watch out for a few pointers and will quickly gain an advantage over your competition!

Please also attend the FREE Webinar
“Marketing’s 10 Worst Excuses To Miss The Mobile Train – how to get on board and beat them today”
on Thursday, 18 March 2010 at 3pm GMT+2.
Register here: http://www.brighttalk.com/webcasts/9081/attend