HEARD ON THE STREET - Part One

Today, heard on the street means a lot more than talk about the stock market. Walk along any street in America today, and you see people gazing into a small, handheld device and using their thumbs  in quick staccato, making a soft  tapping sound. With their heads bent and their fingers waving to a beat only they can hear , they seem like maestros of the streets.  The music these maestros are conducting is the growing beat of mobile marketing, a booming business sung to the tune of $6 Billion slated to be reached before the end of this decade. In 2010 mobile marketing generated $500 Million in sales. Certainly, music to the ears of early adopters to the mobile industry.

There's no doubt in my mind that mobile marketing is the future of enterprise growth. Mobile marketing has raised a whole new generation of business people learning  a whole new crop of words, including blue tooth transceiver (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe3lxzMo6gU&feature=related), app, QR code, geo-targeting.  Actually, I don't really care how the technology works -- I'm just excited to see what it does for business.

Recently, Ryan, a mobile marketing fan who works at Shamrock told me how easily mobile marketing  captures consumer attention -- and dollars. A gadget nut, Ryan purchased a blue tooth transceiver last year, played around enough to feel comfortable with the technology, and scheduled an appointment with one of our customers to demonstrate how mobile marketing can be used to generate profit for her business. They walked into the mall and an instant coupon for $5.00 off at the local vitamin store popped up on his phone. They walked into the store. Showed the clerk our online coupon and walked out with a good deal - for her, and the store clerk. She got $5.00 off - the clerk got a sizable new sale.

Mobile marketing should be called fast and furious marketing. Industry research shows that 90 percent of text messages are read in 4-minutes. The reason it's so timely is that most people have their cell phone on and right within reach for more than 16 hours a day -- and they respond more quickly to mobile messages.

At Shamrock we're so intrigued with mobile marketing and how it will change the way we all practice business enterprise, that we've invested hours of planning, learning and purchasing to set up a new mobile marketing division.

One Last Word

Look for the second part of this post in a few days, and I'll share some new mobile marketing ideas with you.

One Last Thought
I'd like to know if you've used mobile marketing for your company. Was the program successful? Did it meet your marketing goals? If not, why do you think it missed the mark?