The Dawn Of Mobile Influence Factor Begins with Smartphone Shopper

Smartphone Influence Factors

Mobile Magazine | Power of Mobile Social Media

Mobile Magazine | Power of Mobile Social Media

Envision to Profit from  Power Of Mobile Social Media

Smartphone Offers Magical Location Based Function

Imagine this situation – Your customer is on their lunch break wandering around town looking for a slice of pizza. When they happened to pass by  a few blocks from your pizza shop, a coupon automatically shoots to their smartphone. It offers a lunch deal for today only and if they click on it, it gives them a map whihc  guide  them  from wherever they are to your shop.

It sounds like a science fiction film, but it’s real. Businesses can now do this through the magic of mobile. It’s called ‘locationbased marketing.’

We Know Where You Are

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed for military operations. It actually shoots a signal to outer space that bounces off satellites and triangulates to tell exactly where someone is. Now we can use this state-of-the-art science fiction technology to offer a slice of pizza at just the right time. Pretty cool, right?

Location based services use GPS, which is astandard feature of smartphones. They connect your customer to your service (or another service) based on where you physically are.

 

Location Based Apps

The best way to reach your customers through their mobiles is to create apps. An app is an interactive software program that helps them, entertains them, or somehow makes life easier for them. Companies make apps for branding. If you get an awesome app that you use every day and it’s got that company’s logo in it, this builds serious brand awareness. Let’s look at a few ways apps can be used.

Mobile Coupons

You can create a mobile coupon and configure it so that it’s sent when they’re in the vicinity. You do this by designating a certain zone. When they enter the zone, the system automatically sends the message. Interestingly, this original zone system was used to keep track of prisoners and employees. Companies created a zone and when an employee wandered out of it, they knew they were up to something.

 

Maps and Directions

 

Most people use their smartphones’ GPScapabilities to find places. With the click of a button, they can get maps and directions telling them exactly where to go. You can create a mobile app that helps them find the places they’re looking for by integrating with sites like Google Maps and Yelp. For example, when they’re looking for a gas station, they click one button and access your app, which shows them all the gas stations in the area as well as prices per gallon.

This doesn’t get you business directly, unless of course you’re a gas station. But it’s something that helps them out. That’s the idea behind apps – they’re programs that make life easier. Whenever they use your app, they see your brand name.

GPS Enhanced Shopping

Another app idea is to help them shop. Lots of people these days use their smartphones when they’re shopping offline. While looking at products in stores, they’ll check online to get a price comparison or more product details. You can create an app that helps them do that. It could be a search function that looks for prices or reviews online.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many things you can do and you’re only limited by your imagination. Location based services offer a whole new way to market to customers directly.

The QR CODES Story Picture

QR Codes – What They Are and What They Do for You

 

You've undoubtedly seen a QR code before. These are square black-and-white pixelated codes that are appearing all over the place. They're not just weird, futuristic decorations. The QR code is the modern-day bar code. Instead of using a scanner, you scan it with your smartphone.

 

QR codes are smarter than bar codes. They can hold much more information. They're designed to redirect your smartphone's browser to a selected URL. When you see a QR code, you whip out your phone, scan it, and you're instantly redirected to the website, coupon, video or other service.

   Compliment :  wikimedia common

If you use a smartphone, you can probably understand why this is so cool. Typing a URL into a smartphone's browser isn't exactly the most fun experience in the world. With QR codes, you don't have to mess with any typing at all. Just scan and you're there. QR stands for 'quick response,' and that couldn't be a better description of how they work.

 

Marketing with QR Codes

 

For marketers, QR codes are even cooler. For one thing, you can put them absolutely anywhere. They're black and white, and you can print them as stickers. Lots of companies use QR codes to take mobile users to their websites, but that's far from all you can do with them. You can create a QR code that, when scanned by a phone, it instantly signs the user up to your email list; making it just a little bit easier to sign up.

 

QR codes can be used as part of a promotion with social media. When they scan it, they instantly 'like' or share with their friends. You can combine this with a coupon where after liking your business, they get a nice discount for your products or services.

 

Your QR code could lead to an instant download. For example, you've got a flyer advertising a free report you've written for your customers. All they have to do is scan the code and they instantly get the report.

 

Information On Demand

 

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you have access to all of the world's information at your fingertips. This is even cooler with smartphones, since they're pocket-sized. You can whip them out anywhere and find out about a product you're thinking of buying, a bottle of wine you're drinking, or a service you're thinking of trying.

 

More than ever, people are researching on their smartphones as they shop offline. They're looking for prices, reviews, and product information. You can put QR codes on your store's products that lead them to the information they're looking for. This information pushes fence-sitters off and turns them into buyers.

You can use QR codes to deliver thereal-time information they're looking for. Some weather agencies and mass transit companies have taken advantage of this, embedding their codes with a link to updated info about what's going on now.

If you're not already sold on QR codes, one more thing to entice you is the fact that they're free and easy to generate. There are websites where you supply the URL to embed and it does it for you. You get an image file that you can copy and paste, or print. You can create as many as you want without spending a dime.