A recent post with the same name as ours talks about how 2012 will change the way you do business with your customers, or you will lose them. In other words, you need to invest more time and effort with your customers because the competition is just a click on their smartphone away.

Here are a couple of the many points worth reading:

 Smartphones Are Everywhere

Smartphones galore:  Along with the evolution of open-source operating systems, such as Android, lower component costs, and an insatiable consumer appetite for mobile products there have been many new handset manufacturers entering the market, largely located across Asia, and that trend shows no sign of slowing down over 2012.

Your Customers Use Their Smartphones to Make Buying Decisions>

Smartphones aiding purchasing decisions: The use of the smartphones will continue to enhance the physical practice of shopping. With the advent of MMS, consumers began to take photos of an item in store, and send it to a partner or friend for opinion. Today, they can quickly scan a barcode using their smartphone to view  user reviews, price comparisons and retailers within walking distance. For retailers, this places greater pressure to compete instantaneously and not only with their physical competitors but online ones too.

Brand loyalty to create differentiation: With handset manufacturers struggling to make their smartphones stand out from the crowd, 2012 will see OEM brands look for more defining USPs. According to WDS: “We believe this will be in the form of an optimised cross-device user experience across the OEMs full device portfolio.” The firm cited Sony as an example, which recently bought Ericsson’s stake in their Sony-Ericsson joint venture. It will now bring its smartphone division under the parent brand alongside its other consumer electronics and may look to integrate its product offering to create a unified experience, in a bid to boost brand loyalty. 2012 is set to see some OEMs proceed with collaborations across different device categories and software platforms in a bid to remain competitive in this changing landscape.

Your Customers Want an Experience!

Emphasis on customer experience: With price wars over the years making the mobile handset market increasingly price sensitive, operators cannot continue to invest and encourage innovation under this degree of price pressure. They must reverse the trend and win back customer loyalty based not on price, but service and brand value.

2012 will be the year the you need to engage your customers more than ever. You need to acquire new customers; you need to service them; and you need to retain your existing customers – they are too valuable to let slip away!

The customer experience in 2012 is a post from: Dewell Marketing

Visa adds NFC devices to m-payment initiative

Payment and banking services provider Visa said Tuesday that it has certified NFC-enabled smartphones from Samsung, LG and RIM for use with its PayWave mobile payments application. The PayWave application is installed on a secure SIM card and allows users to make payments at points of sale using a contactless payment terminal.

The Samsung Galaxy SII, LG Optimus NET NFC, BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and BlackBerry Curve 9380 have been added to the list of Visa compliant payment products available for commercial deployment by financial institutions.

“The players are now in place for mobile payments to become a reality,” said Sandra Alzetta, head of mobile business unit and innovation strategy at Visa Europe. “We are working with our member banks, mobile network operators and key handset partners to ensure that future payment technologies are as easy, intuitive and secure as card-based transactions are today. Today’s announcement plays a significant role in getting those new technologies into the hands of the consumer.”

Visa payWave on mobile devices is compatible with existing contactless (NFC) payment terminals already installed at retail outlets worldwide. Research house the Yankee Group predicts that the value of NFC-based transactions will grow significantly, from $27m in 2010 to $40bn in 2014.

Smartphones instead of Credit Cards is a post from: Dewell Marketing

Website Analysis
As long as you have an analytics program installed on your webiste (i.e. Google Analytics), we will provide a report of how your site is doing, telling you what your site visitor profile is, how they search your site, how much mobile traffic you are getting, where your traffic is coming from overall, and a number of other useful statistics that you should be aware of, and which will help us tailor=design the following services to your business.

Mobile websites
This is a service to provide your business with a fully mobile-device optimized website that have easy to tap buttons and the content a mobile browser needs. Works on all Apple devices, Androids and Blackberrys. Includes a feature called “Mobile Detection” that automatically sends a visitor to the mobile site when they type the business URL into their mobile browser.
Your site can be up and running in 24-48 hours.

Google Place Page set up
Google has provided free mini-websites for all businesses in the US that have their business listed in some online or offline business directory. This page shows up for local searches if you have a physical location for your business.
We help you claim the page so that you can add content, add images and videos, hours of operation, your website link, and so on. This can be an inexpensive marketing tool for you business.
Your place page can be claimed and some content added with 24 hours, in most cases.

Mobile marketing
Over 60% of all local searches for businesses are being done on mobile devices as of Summer 2011. You need to harness this trend to your business or you’ll be left in the dust. We show you how to communicate with your customers, develop customer retention programs, use QR codes to inform the public and your customers and promote specials, events, etc.
This is a process that is ongoing, but can be started within minutes.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
To really take advantage of the internet, you need people to find you who don’t already know about you. SEO is the process of doing all the techie things to your website to get the search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) to find your site. Some of this is on-site work, some of it is off-site techniques like article marketing. Our team of specialists are experts in getting you found and getting you to be listed as far up the search results as possible.
SEO is an ongoing process that must run a minimum of 6 months for lasting results. This is not a one-time set up process.

Site Visitor Optimization (SVO)
Once SEO and other marketing has got people to find your website, do they stay and look around, or do they turn and run. Optimizing your site for real (not search engine) eyeballs is critical to turing the visitors that SEO has helped find you into paying customers. This includes page layout, ease of navigation, use of images and videos, inclusion of testimonials, industry awards, and other things that establish your credibility and authority. Prominent ways to contact you via telephone or email are essential to SVO.
This is also a continuing process. Your website, like your business, is always a work-in-progress.

Based on getting the quickest results, the priorities for these processes are:

1) Google Place Page
2) Mobile optimized website
3) Mobile marketing

Running in the background should be
SEO and SVO simultaneously.

Website design
If you have an older website already and want to move it to one of the blog platforms like WordPress, we can help you do this.

If you have no website yet, then none of the above services will work for you since they are all website-based.

Call us to discuss how we can get yoyr business Mobile-Local Optimized! (360) 894-8151

Mobile-Local Business Services is a post from: Dewell Marketing

The Washington Post carried an article on November 1st that explained the decision.

The voice vote reflected a consensus that new taxes on wireless mobile services have far outpaced average sales taxes on other items and have become a deterrent to the spread of wireless broadband technology.

“We need to encourage the development and adoption of wireless broadband, not tax it out of existence,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the sponsor of the legislation.

The article goes on to say:

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, have introduced identical legislation in the Senate.

“Wireless is a prime example of how every time a new innovation hits the market, governments invent new ways to tax it,” Wyden said. He has argued that with the advent of 3G and 4G technology, wireless mobile devices are the gateway to the Internet but that discriminatory and duplicative taxes and fees are regressive, harm lower-income people and make access to the Internet unacceptably expensive.

5-year-Freeze in Wireless Services Taxes is a post from: Dewell Marketing

So a clever entrepreneur has created a way to save you from yourself called Textalyzer available on the Apple App store for $0.99. Well worth what it might save you from doing!

Here’s what a recent PRWeb.com article had to say about how it works:

The app itself allows users to create a list of people they shouldn’t be texting when their judgment is impaired (exes, co-workers, discriminating family members and friends), and then runs the app user through a series of reaction-based games before they are allowed to send an outgoing text.

If the user is unable to successfully complete the games, their text is held for 12 hours, at which point they’re asked if they still want to send the message. The user can even create customized warnings so they never forget why they want to avoid sending messages to a specific contact.

Still have your beers, but stay out of trouble!

New iPhone App Prevents Drunk Texting is a post from: Dewell Marketing

Here are the details on this new mobile app:

SikkU provides a web, mobile and text application offering all three platforms integrated with local REALTOR(R) association data and more. The SikkU Text service delivers real estate info on homes for sale to mobile phones in seconds, 24×7, anywhere there is wireless service. With the SikkU text commands, users can search local homes for sale, request property information and get connected to local real estate and mortgage professionals.

Smart local businesses are moving with this technology trend. Don’t be left behind!

Real Estate Web and Mobile App in Seattle is a post from: Dewell Marketing

New Smartphones Penetration Statistics

The Pew Internet Project has just released its first survey looking at smartphones in use. Here are some of the stats:

=> 35% of US adults own a smartphone
=> 18-44 year olds – ownership is 50%
=> 38 percent of US mobile phones are now smartphones

A recent article on the Search Engine Land website had this to say:

“…it would seem that mobile internet access is the preferred method for a sizable group of people: as many as perhaps 22 million Americans. This obviously holds significant implications for search and search marketers.”

What does this mean for a small, local business? It means more and more of your potential customers are looking for you on their mobile devices. Can they find you there?

Get Found on Smartphones

Here are 2 things you can do to help them find you.

1) Claim your Google Place page, get some content in it, get some reviews and some citations. Put up a couple of images and a video, if you are really creative.
2) Optimize your website for mobile devices so that it looks good on a smartphone or pad.

This is the new wave – be on it!

Smartphones Taking Over the World! is a post from: Dewell Marketing

Brilliance is so seldom seen these days with mediocrity dominating everything from business to media to education to our own lives. Steve Jobs was a shining light.

Steve Jobs Takes on the World!

He was young and brash and ready to take on the world and he did. He went up against IBM and won. He went up against Microsoft and even though MS stole the Windows concept from Apple when they were down, it didn’t stop them from introducing ever more revolutionary computers.

And then came MP3 players, then phones and now pads and the beat goes on!

Steve Jobs as We Know and Love Him!

Here are 2 great videos of Steve Jobs at his best. One when he was very young and full of life and one when he was nearly gone and reflecting on death.

This is classic Steve Jobs – Dramatic and Brash!

Bear with the long introduction to get to Steve’s powerful reflection on life.

Steve Jobs Leaves Us a Better World is a post from: Dewell Marketing

Video Captures the Feeling!

Video captures the feel of your product or your service. Showing someone how something works is so simple with video and engages the viewer with your product. If you have ever demonstrated your product to a customer, you know that the chances of them buying are much higher than if they just look at a brochure or catalog.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a video of a holiday resort or a video fashion show or a tool demonstration. Video makes it come alive for your customer.

So, do the same demonstration on camera and you can reach anyone who visits your website, 24/7/365. Do you see how powerful that can be?

Video is getting so easy that any business can use it. I wouldn’t recommend just using a cell phone camera, but good stand-alone video cameras are on the market for under $300

Here’s how a recent article in Mobile Commerce Daily put it:

The look and feel of a product is an important factor of the purchase decision. A video depicts the product features and benefits exponentially better than a static image, text or audio and can better drive sales, especially during the holidays.

Video Marketing – Just Do It!

You don’t have to be Target or Louis Vuitton to be a video marketer. Just a simple video camera and a good demonstration and you’re doing it.

Of course, you can contact a profession video production company to help you, if you have the budget. Or maybe you’ve got a friend, or even a customer, who’d be willing to help.

Video engages customers and immerses them into your product or service. Don’t overlook this powerful, but easy, way to boost your sales, especially in the upcoming holiday season.

Better Holiday Sales with Video Marketing is a post from: Dewell Marketing

What is Your Personal Economy Like?

Check your bank balances and tell me if our economy is in a depression or not. As a small business owner, you, however, do have a better chance than the job holders. You can still control how your business runs and you should be doing everything possible to build your business strongly.

Don’t overlook the impact mobile marketing will have on your business. As long as people have money to spend. they will find places to spend it using their smartphones and iPads and other mobile devices.

You MUST be found when they are looking. Otherwise, you will disappear!

If you still tend to think our economy will get better soon, here’s what a respected trend research group, Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) reported recently:

“It’s important to understand that the recession doesn’t mean a bad economy—we’ve had that for years now. It means an economy that keeps worsening because it’s locked into a vicious cycle,” ECRI said in research posted a few days ago. “Here’s what ECRI’s recession call really says: If you think this is a bad economy, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

You Control Your Own Economy!

You can do something about this – build your business strong and don’t overlook opportunities to bring in the new generation of customers. Keep up with the latest trends. Don’t just win new customers, work hard and innovate to keep the ones you have. Make your own economy strong and working together and working smart we can beat this thing!

Build Your Business Strong Now – No One Else is Going to Help! is a post from: Dewell Marketing