Mobile Marketing has been getting a lot of publicity from QR codes, SMS (Text messaging) to Pay per call and rightfully so. I have felt for a while now that mobile marketing will be a very powerful tool for marketing.  From what I have noticed any business can benefit from it. I am not saying every business needs to use all methods of mobile marketing but at least one or two of them.  I will start with one for this post and post the others in following posts.

QR Codes

QR codes are great marketing tools and traffic drivers. They are only good with smart phones since the QR code must be scanned to see anything. The market for smart phones is blowing up and QR codes will only be more effective as time goes on.  I have actually seen QR codes on TV and really not sure if it’s effective or not. I really doubt it with the short amount of time for people to pull out a phone and scan. However it was probably just done to look cool.  Taco Bell is putting them on their cups too. So even the big corps are starting to jump on the band wagon. The cool thing is, even the small businesses can use them effectively! Below are some great methods on how to utilize this tool along with a FREE QR code generator to create them.

Below are methods that QR codes can be used for.

• Depending on what kind of business you can embed coupons in the QR code for your customer to scan and bring in to you.  
• You could advertise it on a newspaper or direct mail type of print media. 
• You could have it on a counter or in a check out area to entice people to impulse buy, by giving an offer.
• It can be put on product so consumers can scan to learn more about it. This saves room on the label instead a company trying to cram a bunch of information on the label.
• Can be used to send people to a landing page to collect emails.
• Great for Realtors to put on a flyer or on a sign in front of a house for people to learn more about the home.
• Can be used to send people to videos…For example a Realtor can put a QR code on a sign in front of the home to send people to a video they did in the home to give the consumer a nice visual of it.
• Reviews- You can use them to send consumers to a Google reviews page to give you a review instantly
• Send people to “Like” your Facebook page
• You can run scavenger hunts with them

The bottom line is you can get as creative as you choose. QR codes are great mobile tools and will only be getting more popular over the next couple years and as more smart phones hit the market.

If you would like to get creative with QR codes. Give me a call at 920-242-0087 or email adam@adamkomoroski.com for a free strategy session.

Adam Komoroski

Business owners, you have probably done this and I am sure you have heard many times from the sales reps selling advertising that you shouldn’t cut marketing when business is slow or down. I would agree that you shouldn’t stop marketing or advertising because sales are slow or down. That’s what keeps business new and old coming and if you stop doing it it could turn out bad.

Instead of hitting the “panic button” maybe it’s time to go through all of the marketing you have been putting money into and  see if you are capitalizing on your dollar. Also see what else is out there that you could be more effective with.  Sometimes as a busy business owner you may just set things on cruise and walk away without monitoring results. So advertising methods that you are using, may not be producing and slipping under the radar. If so, a  marketing intervention may be in order!

Start figuring out what’s really working well and put more money towards that instead and cut the dead weight marketing methods that you have been using. Start looking into new methods that can bring better results. For instance, have you tapped into the power of mobile marketing? Mobile can be tied into all of your other marketing. If you are not using probably the most effective form of marketing with what you are already doing, you are missing out big time!

So instead of getting crazy and panicking like a lot of business owners do, start monitoring what you are doing and see if it can be bringing better results using methods like mobile marketing. There is a lot of garbage marketing in the market and a lot of it can’t be tracked. Using methods like mobile can give you more accurate results to see if the advertising you are using really works or not.

I prefer to have as many tracking methods as possible when it comes to marketing. With the digital world now you can do a lot of tracking unlike years past.  With the digital marketing world even your newspaper ads can be tracked if you still use it.

So the bottom line is to not always just stop cutting marketing because business is slow and maybe start tweaking it to make it stronger. Marketing brings the business to you and do you really want to cut back on the major resource bringing in the business?

If you still intend to cut back, make sure you have a system tracking everything possible so when you do cut back, you know where to cut.

If you would like to learn more marketing methods on tracking or overall marketing methods that can drive more sales, call me at 920-242-0087 for a free training session.

Adam Komoroski

Marketing Maniac

Selling with Stealth!

Are you sales person who has heard this or are you a business owner who has given this excuse?

If so, then I have a little true story that I need to tell…

I am at a local shop and on the counter I see a blender or something like it for people to sign up and win.  On the slip people need to fill out to enter, but it doesn’t have an email section on it for people to give.  Blown away by that, I ask the owner, why don’t you have an email option so you can build a list to market too? He said,

(Role Play on)

HIM: Because that doesn’t work

ME: Really? You have tried it?

HIM: Yes I did and I barely got a response.

ME: Hmmm, why do you think that is?

HIM: I don’t know, just didn’t work!

ME: Ok, how many times have you tried it?

HIM: One time

ME: Oh, you only tried once. Sometimes you need to try multiple messages to get the response you want. Kind of like the rest of your marketing.  ( email marketing wasn’t costing him anything either, especially the way he was doing it which is coming soon)

HIM: Yeah I guess but I just didn’t think email marketing really works.

ME: Well it can work but must be done right with the right message.

ME: Let me ask you something, how were you doing the email marketing?

HIM: I would get the email and put it in my contact list, in my email account.

ME: (Right here I start screaming, on the inside of course) Well, Mr. Owner I think I know why you were having a very low response.

HIM: Really? Why?

ME: In order to market with email, you need an email system to send it out of. Otherwise you are spamming people.

(Role Play Off)

His major problem was that he was doing it with the wrong tools.  Most of the time, marketing is not the business owners expertise. It’s the product or service that they are offering that they are experts in. So we need to investigate by asking the RIGHT questions to get to the problem.  This person had the perfect situation for email marketing but didn’t know how to do it right. I also found out that the website was bringing in orders but on the site there was nothing to grab peoples email info from those who weren’t buying right away. Another mistake!

If you would like a free training session call me to set an appointment 920-242-0087 or if you would like a great sales book at no cost to you look to the right and sign up to get it.

“Sell with Stealth!”

Adam Komoroski