Part 1 of 3 “Mobile Marketing – Get a Move On, Benefit From Your Wi-Fi Network!”

You may already have complete access to this “magical” innovation and not even know. This single application is able to put your message and benefits out in front of your customers in a whole new place…in more ways than one.

How about having the ability to provide targeted promotional offers and coupons right to your loyal customers…on their smart phones? Pretty cool, huh?

Does your company may already have access to putting mobile marketing into practice? Well, many of you may use a Wi-Fi network in your business for simple mobile worker applications. The author (Anonymous 2011) in the article “Aruba Unveils Wi-Fi Solution for In-Store Mobile Marketing” uncovers some interesting facts from a December 2010 survey querying retail IT departments…SO PAY CLOSE ATTENTION!

Major Wi-Fi findings were:

• 78% have in-store Wi-Fi
• 53% use a Wi-Fi network primarily for inventory control

Targeted deployment in the next 2 years:

• 38% Customer Wi-Fi Access
• 29% Self-Shopping

To help put these findings in perspective, 36% of results were from companies that operate more than 1,000 stores, while 19% represented companies that owned 50 or fewer stores. I’m telling you, using mobile marketing applications isn’t just for “The Big Boys”. If you have a Wi-Fi network, you can do this. If you don’t, find an IT professional to help you set-up a network. You won’t be sorry!

Emerging nature of mobile marketing

How about we refer to some Nielsen Research? Research projects that 50% of the US population will own a smartphone by the end of 2011. That’s not so long from now. 66% of consumers are projected to be researching products and prices online while in stores. Combine these findings with the results concerning the emergence of Wi-Fi and you can see how important it is that you capitalize on these trends. There are 3 more technological factors that support the importance of applying mobile marketing (Anonymous 2011).

• In-store customer Wi-Fi engagement
• Wi-Fi optimized smartphone applications
• Presence and location intelligence – in-store message targeting

In-Store Customer Wi-Fi Engagement

Securely capture customers and deliver personalized access as well as targeted messages that may be in the nature of product/service offers or advertisements. You can realize the advantages of Wi-Fi engagement by implementing Aruba’s Amigopod software.

http://www.arubanetworks.com/products/management-security-software-2/amigopod-visitor-management-2/

Wi-Fi Optimized Smartphone Applications

Offer a rich and personalized shopping experience for your customers by improving application responsiveness and improve the targeted-nature of offers provided to specific customers inside the store.

http://smartphone-software.handster.com/catalog.php?windows_mobile=wifi

http://www.bloghash.com/2008/04/turn-your-smartphones-into-wi-fi-hotspots-with-free-software/

Presence and Location Intelligence

Wi-Fi can supply real-time presence information that therefore permits store-level message targeting. Specifically, Aruba Wi-Fi software would enable you to deliver a highly-personalized and differentiated mobile shopping experience.

References

Anonymous. (2011 January), Aruba Unveils Wi-Fi Solution for In-Store Mobile Marketing. [2 pages] Entertainment Close-Up. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), Fanfare Mobile Introduces RemodelerBuzz for Contractors and Designers; Mobile marketing system gives remodelers and designers a new tool to generate neighborhood buzz. [2 pages] PR Newswire. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), In Touch Marketing LLC Launches Local, Mobile and Social Media Marketing Services. [1 page] M2 Presswire. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), Mobile Marketing Association; Mobile Marketing Association to Build Mobile Privacy Guidelines for Thriving Marketplace. [2 pages] Investment Weekly News. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), SkyWire Media Inc and Boyd Gaming team to provide mobile marketing solution for B Connected. [1 page] M2 Presswire. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), Smart Phones, Social Media and Local Search Create Marketing Mojo in the Travel Industry, New Report Says; Destinations and attractions with consumer-friendly mobile apps stand to benefit. [2 pages] PR Newswire. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Anonymous. (2011 January), TexTango Mobile Advertising Releases Beta Texting Application for BlackBerry and Android Devices. [1 page] Business Wire. Available: http://proquest.umi.com

Herzlich, J. (2011 January), Small Business: Boost your mobile app with marketing. [2 pages] Newsday. Available: http://proquest.umi.comTweet