Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Slam Dunk For Dunkin' Donuts Edition

Dunkin’ Donuts recently launched the ability to toggle its mobile app to Spanish. Bueno. Hispanics overindex on most things mobile.

It was no coincidence that Facebook stock topped $50 for first time on the day we learned that 20 percent of all time spent on mobile is on Facebook.

Mobile ad budgets rose 142 percent in the past two years, according to the IAB. No surprise – if anything, I would’ve thought it was higher.

Hey, naysayers - Apple's iPhone sales alone are bigger than all of Procter & Gamble’s sales.

There has been four times the mobile traffic for Macy's in they last 12 months.

Also, Macy's has begun a heavy TV schedule promoting its new mobile app - "a shopper's BFF". The download call to action includes SMS.

Is it just me or does the virtual keyboard function in iOS7 make an iPhone look like a Blackberry?

There are 23 million results if you Google smartwatch, according to R/GA's Bob Greenberg who says that the timeline between science fiction and reality is short.

The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, says the Mobile Marketing Association’s Greg Stuart.

A Mediapost headline said that agencies are “embracing” mobile. I believe that many traditional agencies are way behind their clients.

Another story caught my eye, this one in Mobile Marketer - brands are moving from apps to "what's my mobile strategy?" That should've been settled 3 years ago.

Samsung says it will launch a curved display smartphone in October. Yawn.

According to Forrester, 71 percent of smartphone owners take photos/video with their mobile phones. I thought that was closer to 90 percent.

There are five times as many cellphones in the world as there are PC's.

Mobile Call For Quiet Amidst All The Noise

At a conference shouting that “Every Moment Is Mobile,” a comment made by a famed film and television director on the value of “quiet and arresting” broke through the noise.

Bob Giraldi, a legend on the big screen, told the Mobile Marketing Association’s SM2 audience in New York this week that many brands as well as mobile users creating content use media in “manipulative and loud” ways.” He called out ESPN for being the biggest offender.

“I believe in 15 seconds you can tell any story,” he said. “But go against the grain. Create something that is quiet and arresting.”

There was irony in the statement given the fact that arguably Mr. Giraldi’s claim to fame –actually Hall of Fame – is his direction of Michael Jackson’s loud and show-stopping-to-this-day “Beat It” music video.

Mr. Giraldi actually had to convince then MTV chief Bob Pittman that the footage was mainstream and that Mr. Pittman “could not deny the world” by refusing to air it.

While Mr. Giraldi stopped short of forecasting the future value of mobile, he did say that differentiating work that tells a compelling story will play well on the smallest and most personal of screens.

And he also told us that that same type of content delivered via another medium such as television has the ability to do what some think is the unthinkable – getting mobile users to look up and away from their iPhones, Androids, tablets and the like.

“Make something beautiful,” Mr. Giraldi advised the audience members. “This is why fashion works.”

The two-day conference was loaded with representatives from megabrands including Mondelez International, Walmart, Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts and Facebook, among many others.

The common theme was mobile’s success lies well beyond engagement and brand building: more dollars are flowing – and will flow into the channel – when the industry can more closely tie efforts with sales.

“At the end of the day, what I really care about is getting closer to that purchase number as possible,” said B. Bonin Bough, vice president of global media and consumer engagement at Mondelez.

“How do we get down to the sales level?” he said. “The key to that is working with your clients and making sure that your clients are relentless to craft programs that actually can look at a sales angle.

“There’s no reason for us to invest money in these channels if we’re not going to learn what’s working and what’s not.”

Walmart follows that line of reasoning and is doing a terrific job in tracking its progress.

For example, it is seeing that mobile application users spend 40 percent more and make twice as many trips to the bricks-and-mortar locations as other customers.

Like many quick-service restaurants, Wendy’s is using mobile effectively at key dayparts. Given the fact that lunch choices are often made on the spur of the moment, the company is employing mobile to be there at the moment of decision.

Still, Brandon Rhoten, vice president of digital and social media at Wendy’s, said that he cannot track sales directly back to mobile. The company believes that it is all of its marketing efforts working together that make the initiatives worthwhile.

Mr. Rhoten said that he cannot point to sales off of one airing of a television spot and mobile should not have any such requirement to get more funding. That made sense to me.

There was substantive talk about the growing importance of mobile loyalty clubs and reminders that core products such as SMS are inclusive and producing meaningful results.

Overall, mobile progress was palpable during SM2 and happily we did not go down the mobile and social silo rat hole. Of course, it is one mobile user interacting with brands as well as social networks.

The biggest wow was the learning that 20 percent of all the time spent on mobile is on Facebook. The savviest brand marketers left the show planning their programs to impact that loyal Facebook audience and to drive sales.

(article first appeared on mobilemarketer.com - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/16249.html)

Are Smaller Companies More Integrated With Modern Marketing Techniques?

The most surprising finding in a new BtoB study conducted by Oracle Eloqua is that a representative sample of SMBs say that they value technology competencies including analytics, conversion methods and targeting more than marketers overall.

Value, of course, is difficult to quanitify. But the data does support my belief that SMBs are becoming more sophisticated and adopting new technologies.

The study showed that SMBs are more likely to use email, content and search marketing than marketers in general. Also,, smaller companies' marketers are more reliant on technology and the vendors that supply that technology than marketers overall. There’s zero surprise there.

Rather than be intimidated, many of these SMBs are using digital media in attempts to compete and win in a changing marketplace.

 “We have the belief here that SMBs can compete online, creating content and pushing it out to the world,” Lance R. Schneider, e-business manager at Budnick Converting, a fabricator of flexible materials such as die-cut adhesive tape, aluminum foil and PVC foam gaskets, told the publication.

More SMB marketers (35%) said webinars and virtual events are important than did marketers overall (28%); they are more committed to digital PR, blogging and customer case studies (34% vs. 31%); and they say search marketing is more important (33% vs. 28%). On the other hand, small-to-midsize marketers tend to place somewhat less importance on social media, e-newsletters, microsites, banner ads and video portals, the study found.

When asked about the changes that have contributed the most to modern marketing, all marketers cited as No. 1 the ability to track marketing ROI using technology. However, SMB marketers seem more keenly aware of technology's impact, with 64% saying technology-driven ROI is factor No. 1, compared with 60% of marketers overall.

Missing from the study was the SMBs’ views on mobile. That’s perplexing given the increasing use by this group of text messaging and mobile loyalty clubs.

The full report is here - http://www.eloqua.com/content/dam/eloqua/Downloads/whitepapers/B2B_Mag_defining-the-modern-marketer.pdf

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Impact of Mobile On The NFL Edition

My friend Peter Knox has a four-screen NFL experience: Red Zone on the TV, Eagles on the iPad, fantasy tracking on the iPad Mini, video/chat on the iPhone. And some think that the Vince Lombardi era was the NFL’s heyday?

News that BlackBerry is pulling back from the consumer market was met by an “or vice versa’ comment by tech journalist Colin Gibbs. Exactly. Four years ago, BlackBerry had 51 percent of the North American smartphone market.

I was intrigued by a tweet on a "fully flushable toilet". I prefer one that flushes only 35 percent.

Tired of iOS7 and iPhone 5 and iPhone 5C comments? Judging by history, we're minutes from the rumor churn on iPhone 6. Maybe seconds.

Separate turns to desperate in iPhone auto-correct. I nearly gave someone a heart attack. WTF?

Several stories are out that seniors are now the growth opportunity for mobile. Yes, the technology generational divide is shrinking. 50-64 year olds spent more on tech than 18-29's over the last 12 months, according to Adobe.

End of television? Yeah, right. According to eMarketer, the TV ad spend grew 6.4 percent in Q2 2013 compared to 4.1 percent for digital display.

A mobile trend from Pew - Less "checking in"; more "here's what's near you". Yes, we’re talking about Foursquare, which now has Yelp aspirations.

Only 15-20 percent of Africans have bank accounts but 60-70 percent have mobile phones.

NPD says that over half of children in the U.S are now using smart devices.

The use of mobile news apps on smartphones and tablets has increased from 30 percent to 50 percent since 2012.

Forrester says the recipe for mobile marketing success includes big helpings of analysis. You think?

Mobile shopping is expected to take 16 percent share of holiday e-commerce says eMarketer.

A Passionate Marriage of Football and Victoria's Secret?

Victoria’s Secret is once again rolling out a series of games within its mobile application, signaling the importance that apps play for the retailer in building engagement and driving sales.

Here’s part of what I told Mobile Marketer:

“In a football-crazed world, it’s easy to understand why Victoria Secret would look to tap into the interest and passion of what has become America’s sport. The key is to make the games fun and compelling enough for a wireless user to take a look, then come back for more”.

Of course, coming back could lead to more sales. That’s enough to shake anyone’s pom poms.

The full article is here - http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/victoria’s-secret-makes-in-app-games-a-staple-of-mcommerce-strategy

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Assessing the Wearable Market

Are wearables the next big thing or overhyped? I ask in light of the wording in a news report that said that Jawbone raised more than $100 million to “keep up with consumer demand”. My view is demand is overstating it.

Do you know anyone who formerly resisted buying an iPhone because of a perceived hassle with the password process? Neither do I.

It would be interesting to know how many iPhone users employ a password.  I bet it is well under 50 percent.

My takeaway on the new iPhones? I still fail to see how color and a relatively slightly lower iPhone price changes anything for U.S. marketers.

Siri is getting extra powers, like being able to search tweets for keywords. While I’m among the most active on Twitter, I’d settle for Siri delivering the basics – understanding our commands and returning answers to simple questions.

Those who predict the demise of text message marketing have no understanding of SMB needs and budgets. There is ample evidence that it works – and is growing in importance.

A tweet from a mobile conference last week- “More people will use more mobile services on Black Friday this year vs. last year”. You think?

Sign of the digital and mobile times - Bill de Blasio won the NYC mayoral primary without sending a single piece of snail mail.

Every day, over 125 years of total time is spend on Angry Games. My 84-year-old mother-in-law is a major contributor to this number.

40 percent of SMBs accept mobile payments with 16% more going that route in next 12 months, according to BIA Kelsey.

The 18-24 segment has soared 40 percent in time spent on their smartphones in just six months.

Wise words as usual from Google’s Jason Spero - "’Mobile first’ is like ‘organic’. Often claimed. Not always true.”

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Free Amazon Phone Edition

On reports that Amazon is looking into giving away its own branded smartphone with no contract required, I say it’s like mall operators chauffeuring customers to the store. And offering them beverages, food, and their individual shopping preferences at prices that are competitive if not the best. How the economics would play out for Amazon remains to be told or perhaps even worked out. But Amazon would do this to sell more stuff.

An Advertising Age headline asked Is Apple's New iPhone Last Rites For Mobile Payments? My answer is no. Apple would be accelerator for near field communications. The model will take many more years to play out.

My reaction to Microsoft buying Nokia - why not given its cash on hand and woeful share of market? But it would've meant more years ago when Nokia was consumer preferred. Many of us started with Nokia phones.

Despite the Nokia purchase, Microsoft is reportedly “keeping an eye on BlackBerry” for a possible acquisition. It would be for the technology, not to take out a “threat”.

Fourteen percent of women ages 25-49 access the Internet only through mobile, according to comScore. That number will grow in all demographics.

Smartphone penetration in the U.S. has topped 60 percent for the first time. And you still don’t have a mobile optimized web site? Remember that 44 percent of smartphone owners have used their mobile to find details about a retailer.

Adobe says that 80 percent of tablet use happens at home. I knew it was high, but that number is surprising.

An example of a brainstorm gone wrong? The introduction of the word apptimization.

The hysterical headlines about “make or break time” for Apple forget the fact that 77 percent of mobile traffic comes from Apple devices.

I still fail to see the value in a larger smartphone unless it serves as both a phone and tablet. I want nothing bigger than a current iPhone for carrying in a pocket.

Do Brands Employing Instagram See The Big Picture?

Mobile has reinvented picture taking, but that doesn’t mean a photo-taking and sharing service like Instagram should be the only product used by a brand.

Lufthansa is employing Instagram to enable consumers to share pictures and memories. Here’s part of what I told Mobile Marketer when the publication asked me about the program:

“It clearly isn't a mobile end-all. For instance, an airline can sell more by building an opt-in database and sending texts with special offers. Instagram is part of the solution, nothing more."

The full article is here http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/social-networks/16087.html

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Too-Connected Edition

My definition of too much connectivity - reading emails on mobile at all hours, plus the inability to get away from Manziel, Cyrus, Weiner.

On a related note, a Pennsylvania hospital is set to open the country's first inpatient treatment program for Internet addiction.

An Apple Genius advised me to skip the iPhone 5S, saying it is minimal change to the 5. I actually have spent little time thinking about upgrading. We’ll see if that changes with next week’s introduction.

Hawaiian Airlines will rent you an iPad Mini for $15 per flight. For me, with no WiFi over the ocean, it has limited value. But if you are trying to keep the kids happy, I see the value.

73 percent of consumers are more encouraged to make spontaneous purchases after receiving local mobile offers, according to Harris Interactive. Of course, the offers need to be relevant.

The mobile phone provides more privacy than a landline, researchers say. More, not complete.

Sleep-texting is said to be a nightmare for some mobile addicts. It’s a real malady vs. an excuse for a late-night exchange that one quickly regrets.

From Pew: 46 percent of Americans have both a home broadband connection and a smartphone; 24 percent have home broadband but not a smartphone.

AT&T's straight man Beck Bennett is Saturday Night Live’s newest cast member. Those spots are among the best in mobile advertising history.

Amazon has added the ability to buy goods from within mobile apps. The company is more of a wireless industry player every day.

Facebook is projected to take 16 percent of the mobile ad market this year. It was zero not long ago.

Great point from my friend Garth Knutson - driverless cars already exist, and they're cheap. They’re called buses. 

Everything and Nothing Has Changed

Wireless Week asked me to assess where we are with mobile. Here’s what I told the publication:

“Even in 2013, years after mobile marketing has proven its worth, many brands continue to take tepid steps that leave them trailing their competitors and, even more importantly, disappointing and irritating their customers and prospects.

“A common challenge these marketers face is that they fail to acknowledge that everything and nothing has changed with mobile. The savvier brands know that the what is the same – they need to sell more product and build loyalty. It’s the how that is different.

“There is a large opportunity for those who map mobile strategies and programs to overall business goals.

“How large? Just ask mobile users.

“In survey after survey, we see that consumers are interested in joining a permission-based mobile loyalty club. The numbers consistently register at around one-third, which in the United States equals more than 100 million people. The more interesting number to me is how many say that have yet to be approached by a brand that they trust – more than 70 percent feel this way.

“The takeaway? We actually have a large number of consumers who have raised their hands and said that they are interested in being marketed to on their terms. Yet many businesses fail to pay attention to the customer, which, of course, is ill-advised whether we’re talking mobile or not.

“In my Mobilized Marketing book, Michael Bayle, a longtime mobile executive who is now Senior Vice President and General Manager of ESPN Mobile, said that consumers are rewarding brands that provide a positive mobile experience and punishing others who fail to deliver.

“Bayle assesses the situation this way:

“’They (marketers) have two choices – they can either ride the wave or watch the wave pour over them. We can equip them with a surfboard, equip them with the right tools so that it’s just not an investment and a spend but there’s tactically at the end of the day some return on investment we’re collectively monitoring that is better for their brand.’

“And better for the bottom line, not to mention the customer.

The full article is here - http://www.wirelessweek.com/articles/2013/08/magazine-ups-and-downs-ads-going-mobile

An App For That? Maybe, Maybe Not

While likely meaning well, a technology blogger for a Sandusky, Oh, newspaper has done a disservice to small business owners with her post http://www.sanduskyregister.com/blog/tech-know/4457651 on mobile apps.

Sam Chada, the Sandusky Library's associate director of technology, says in part, “creating apps for smartphone and tablets isn’t just for professionals anymore. Literally anyone with almost no technical capabilities can crank out a web or mobile app with ease.”

Ms. Chada, there is a difference between the ability to create one and the ability to succeeed with one.

More from Ms. Chada:

“There are a lot of advantages in building a mobile app. An app will enable you to easily share your information between mobile users while on the move. If you are an entrepreneur, small business owner, or website manager, you can now enter the mobile app space with a small budget and with minimal coding or programming knowledge.

“You can publish the app in two main app marketplaces: Google Play Market and iTunes App Store. If you’re hoping to distribute an Android version of your app through the Google Play Market, you will have to pay a one-time registration fee of $25. On the other hand, if you want to launch an iOS app through iTunes App Store you’re looking at a yearly fee of $99.”

There are more than 900,000 apps in Apple’s App Store alone. To be listed among the top 10 paid application, software reportedly must average around 4,000 downloads per day, while a top grossing app must earn $47,000 per day, a new study has revealed.

Do you know one small business that would qualify?

Also, it has been said that the average mobile user downloads approximately 60 apps, but regularly uses fewer than 10. A large number of apps are downloaded but are never opened more than once.

Apps are largely around discovery. A small business owner would need a substantial marketing effort to get it before prospects and even noticed by customers.

This is not to say that apps are a bad way for a small business to proceed. Some apps, like Foursquare and Stampt (a mobile loyalty product from my company, Mobivity), enable mobile users to find businesses around them – and for businesses to send local offers) Those two and others aren’t dependent on a business conceiving, creating, maintaining and marketing a one-off app.

Another option, or one that is often complementary, is for a small business to use text messaging to build a permission-based database and to send information and offers to those who seek them. There are ample success stories that prove that this method drives sales and loyalty.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Mobile Generation Edition

Surprisingly by about 70 percent, 90 percent of kids 8-17 say it’s OK for parents to set rules on how they use their cellphones, according to CTIA.

Meanwhile, Pew reports that 78 percent of teens have a cell phone and 23 percent have a tablet. Also, 58 percent of all teens have downloaded apps to their mobile or tablet.

I’m bored with gold iPhone stories. It's about personalization. If you don't want it, don't buy it.

eMarketer revises numbers upward to say that the U.S. mobile ad spend will rise 95 percent this year to account for 20 percent of all digital ad spend and 5 percent of total media ad spend.

Advertising Age asked if the iPad era is already coming to an end. My observations all across country loudly say otherwise.

Another from eMarketer: 86 percent of U.S. healthcare practitioners use a smartphone for professional purposes.

28 million will use Twitter on a mobile device at least monthly this year. The number is big but still under under 10 percent of subscribers.

It's not about channels, but about consumers, said a Gap mobile executive at last week’s Mobile Insider Summit. No gap in solid thinking there.

A report says that 3 percent of U.S. Internet users are on dialup. My experience says about 83 percent of hotel biz centers are, wasting our time as we wait for boarding passes to print.

The main in-store mobile activity is comparison shopping with 59 percent showrooming, new numbers say.

How much of Steve Ballmer’s resignation had to do with Microsoft’s mobile missteps? Lots.

Apple wins three times more customers from Samsung than Samsung does from Apple. Speaks to the loyalty shown by Apple users.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - An "App To Stop The Tears" Edition

Researchers have created an app that decodes a baby's cry. It’s for doctors to identify potential issues.

ESPN now lets iPad users call up scores and clips while watching live video. More evidence that the passive has become interactive.

In buyout, BlackBerry is said to get little premium per share. It’s a lesson on how things change in mobile.

Facebook says it has 101 million daily mobile U.S. users. Also, one out of three people in the U.S. check Facebook via mobile app at least once per day.  I like.

Groupon revenues now nearly 50 percent from smartphones. It is capitalizing on location-based opportunities.

Apple is pushing its new MacBook Pro via movie theater ads. Who wudda thunk it?

More change in the car - Audi's augmented reality app decodes your car dashboard so you know what the light on is telling you.

Per industry analyst Chetan Sharma, in the third quarter, the U.S. mobile data market grew 4 percent quarter over quarter and 14 percent year over year to reach $21 billion.

Hautelook says that 40 percent of its transactions are coming from mobile.

Google recommends that mobile websites load in one second or less. More on building mobile web sites in my Sept. 25 Market Motive online workshop.

We get so America-centric here, but it’s interesting that 5 billion of the 6 billion mobile phones are in developing countries. India remains one of the world’s largest mobile markets with over 825 million subscribers.

Time spent shopping on mobile devices has increased 385 percent since 2010.

One last stat - Nearly 80 percent of smartphones shipped worldwide during Q2 of this year ran the Android OS, says IDC.

What's Working and Not In Mobile

I am of the age where I must admit that my best Mouseketeers days are behind me.

Still, my mobile phone delivers an ad seeking talent for Disney. Oh, and by the way, I have no kids.

My luck is better than most – how else could you explain the level of success that I have attained?

But I am not so fortunate as to repeatedly be told through an iAd that I have been selected to finish a survey in exchange for a free iPad 2, $500 gift card or an iPhone 5. What is too good to be true is not too good.

Mobile is advancing, much like summer. But we still have a ways to go to deliver on all of the medium’s promise. Relevance, personalization and trust are not nice-to-haves – they are absolute necessities.

Here is some of what is working:

Loyalty clubs, many built off of unsexy but highly effective SMS, are delivering both for the consumer and for the brand. And it is happening even at the local level.

For example, this summer, a Chick-fil-a in Olathe, KS, saw a 46 percent response rate to a product offer sent to those in an opt-in database.

Three weeks ago, 45 percent responded to another offer.

In each case, sales numbers were hit despite the giveaways.

The store manager said that mobile is working for her because she is able to engage her customers, entice them to try a new menu item, and still meet business objectives.

Separately, Corona capitalized on the undeniable marriage between mobile devices and photo-taking by creating a program that enables customers to “find,” chronicle and share their summer. Winners will be featured in a Corona ad.

In addition, Corona rolled out on-product codes that consumers can enter via their handsets for a chance to win weekly prizes.

Consumers can submit a photo via MMS that shows how they celebrate summer to the short code 24455.

A bounce-back message then prompts users to reply with their birth date and their state’s two-digit postal abbreviation to be entered into the sweepstakes.

After a photo is submitted, a follow-up message encourages consumers to opt-in to Corona’s SMS program.

Beautiful. Mobile and photos go about as well as beer and a lime. Corona's target audience not only enjoys a good time, but they enjoy sharing those moments.

Elsewhere, Starbucks now sees more than 10 percent of its transactions in the United States are made with a phone. And Starbucks is installing wireless charging mats in more stores, not only extending its digital offerings but raising the expectations of a Venti-size group of heavily caffeinated consumers.

Of course, Starbucks is not doing all this for benevolent reasons.

“Our internal measures tell us that these various digital initiatives have added demonstrable impact to our U.S. business in the third quarter, with the promise of even greater growth in the months and years to come,” said Starbucks chief digital officer Adam Brotman.

We certainly can say the same about mobile.

The opportunity is huge, but it is not a slam dunk.

Summer will soon turn to fall. I have old, tired eyes, but I am not in the market for mascara. That is for my wife’s phone across the room.

The expectations for personalization and the deliverance of value have never been greater.

(first published on Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/15927.html)

Mistakes That Cost Businesses Time, Money, and Sales

To illustrate a lesson learned in the early days of mobile, I often tell the story of the campaign run by Snickers about seven years ago. The candy brand looked to engage with consumers through a giveaway promoted via a call to action on pack.

That all sounds good, of course, until I throw out one additional element – the CTA was inside the candy bar wrapper. Who the heck back then – or even today – would think to look inside a Snickers bar wrapper to see if the brand was asking me to do something?

As the commercials say, when you’re hungry, you are hungry.

I recall that moment when reading about a survey of small businesses that says 70 percent of SMB B2B websites lack a call to action. http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/08/b2b-small-business-websites-lack-call-to-action.html

Examples of a call to action might be:

The study by Small Business Trends reviewed 200 websites of small businesses.  The businesses all had under 100 employees. All were B2B, i.e., businesses that sell to other businesses, not to consumers.

But the need is the same whether it’s consumers or business pros that you are looking to entice – the call to action needs to be clear and prominent or it will result in inaction and a waste of effort and dollars.

The survey found other issues with many B2B sites:

Many web presences were not readily found by search engines.

Some do not have a phone number listed for site visitors to follow up.

Eighty-seven percent don’t do anything to make their “contact us” option stand out.

I can’t conceive a scenario where any of these mistakes are excusable. Getting these basics right isn’t a luxury – it’s a way to compete and win.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Back To School Means Back To Mobile Basics

Mobile Marketer asked me why retailer Kohl’s used text messaging to drive back to school sales. My response? Because they wanted to sell more stuff.

Specifically, here’s what I told the publication:

“Unlike email, SMS provides immediacy since more than 95 percent of texts are ready within four minutes. If Kohl’s relied exclusively on email, the retailer’s communication would likely be buried in many customer email inboxes Smart marketers long-ago planned for back-to-school, building databases and giving themselves a critical edge in breaking through the clutter.

"This back-to-school season is unlike the previous with more showrooming, calls-to-action at the point-of-sale, rewards for loyalty and purchases by mobile devices. Retailers who have failed to prepare with such basics as mobile Web sites will undoubtedly suffer.”

The article is here http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/kohl’s-ups-mobile-ante-with-incentivized-back-to-school-campaign

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Wife Again Had It Figured Out" Edition

An augmented reality app for the two minutes it takes for Haagen Dazs to "temper"? A certain wife cuts that to 10 seconds with a microwave.

Time spent visiting retail sites on tablets and smartphones has eclipsed that of time spent shopping via desktop. And the reason why you haven’t optimized your web presence for mobile is what?

A Wall Street Journal headline said Best Buy Works To Get Its Website Up To Snuff. Wow. Snuff is me-too. Snuff-plus is called for here.

The iPhone 5S event is reported to be Sept 10. I'm unlikely to bite for an upgrade from the 5 because of the incremental change. Someone in the Apple Store told me that it would be wise to wait for the next version.

Meanwhile, a report says that one third of new smartphone owners buy an iPhone. Also, half of previous iPhone owners buy another. The repeat buyers’ number seems low.

A story asks if we check our mobile device before we go to bed and as soon as we awake. You think?

Thirty-five percent of mobile owners do mobile banking, according to a new Pew report.  Thirty-five percent of more than 330 million is a big number.

Three more top executives have left BlackBerry. It’s about three years after many of us did.

Ninety-four percent of mobile payments in the U.S. are at Starbucks. Not only are they moving their business, they are moving the mobile industry along.

A tweet says The Hackable Japanese Toilet Comes With An App To Track Poop. Finally. It's the Year of Mobile.

Two hours into a flight last week, my new MacBook Air had 9:08 of battery life left. Certainly more battery life than I had.

Notes From a Mobilized Marketer - The All-Knowing Wife Edition

I saw a story titled Apps That Know What You Want, Before You Do. Duh - I have a wife for that.

Mobile ads with four words or less supposedly receive 28 per cent more clicks. Of course, they need to be relevant words.

BlackBerry was asking for a retweet if you have had one of its devices for at least two years. Careful what you ask for. That can’t be pretty. BlackBerry’s share of U.S. smartphone sales is now 1.1 percent. Too little, too late.

I had a range of Apple experiences within 24 hours. I need a “Genius” to spend nearly half hour syncing my calendars (and, without me know until later, screwing up my MacBook Pro mailbox). I set up a new MacBook Air in 10 minutes.

Power chargers that will hack an iPhone? Security is not on most mobile users' minds, much like PCs early on.

Great tweet from CNET’s Maggie Reardon – “Not sure why people get bent out of shape about "plastic" smartphones when these are the same people who put plastic covers on them. #MotoX

Samsung is readying a new flip phone. Will the masses go wild for it? No, this isn't 2004.

Nielsen says Facebook attracts more 18-to-24-year-olds than the four major TV networks during primetime.

With Google speeding up Starbucks Wifi speed 10X, how about tackling in-flight next? Please. Pretty please.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 reportedly burns down home. Beware - these type stories are almost always hoaxes.

I asked Siri to remind me to print a boarding pass. The reminder came back as jacket. This is acceptable all this time later?

Google has one fourth the mobile users of Facebook, but is said to have 4 times the mobile ad share.

Another calendar app is hardly news, except there is one coming from a 14-year-old who received funding.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Venti" Edition

More than 10 percent of all Starbucks sales in the U.S. are now paid for with a mobile phone. The impact is Grande and headed toward Venti.

The words “elusive & disappointment” were included in the New York Times story titled “I’m Still Waiting for My Phone to Become My Wallet. They ring true to me.

My appreciation for mobile ends when I'm accused of "butt dialing" - by my wife.

In a victory for common sense, some mobile app makers agree to additional disclosure about data collection.

Social sharing behavior is twice as high on mobile devices than desktops, according to the ShareThis network.

More numbers? Two-thirds of U.S. kids between 14 and 17 years old have their own smartphone, eMarketer says.

Prediction - "hysteria" over the recent iPad sales drop will be a distant memory when new versions hit and holiday buying arrives.

From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg: "Reaching 1 billion users was great ... but there's nothing magical about a billion. The real goal is to connect everyone in the world."

Text messages have a 98 percent open rate, says mobile automation startup Gigabark.

Headline: Kids Who Grow Up Using iPads Have Restricted Vocabularies. Is there an argument that tablets aid in the education process?

Texts spiked 40 percent in the UK when the royal baby was born. Surprised it wasn’t 10 or 100 times more.

Wise words from John Costello of Dunkin Brands -- "consumer insights drive mobile priorities. The key is to balance high tech and high touch."

90 percent of App Store apps are free, up from 84 percent last year. Freemium is the upsell answer for many developers.

I hate "set to explode" stories but I agree that mobile is giving TV a much-needed reinvention. It’s turning a passive activity into an interactive one.

Getting Beyond The Gut Feeling That Mobile Works

The pervasiveness of mobile in small and medium-sized business is undeniable. In SMB Group’s annual mobility study http://www.smb-gr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/pdf/Press_Release_Mobile_2013.pdf, use of wireless technology is at a whopping 91 percent. Employee use of internal applications for collaboration and more is up 20 percent from the 2012 study.

But how about the effectiveness?

Fifty-eight percent of SMBs report improved productivity as a result of internal apps, and 52 percent say these apps enable better and faster decisions. Nearly half say that "internal" apps have a significant external impact in the form of improved customer service.

Fielded in March 2013, the study surveyed over 700 U.S. SMB decision makers including very small business (1-19 employees), small business (20-99 employees), and medium business (100-999 employees).

But in these relatively early days of mobile, an SMB Group executive said that these businesses are gauging their efforts from their guts rather than cash registers.

"Do [SMBs] view [mobile] strategically? I think a lot of them do," SMB Group partner Laurie McCabe told Information Week. "That doesn't mean they have a great strategy."

Since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone, businesses of all sizes have decided that they “need an app”. Often, those beliefs and the dollars spent bringing an app to market have been foolhardy. In many cases, an app would be supplemental to more core and adopted mobile activity like text messaging and the creation of a mobile web site.

McCabe pointed to ways that small businesses can measure their app efforts, including through such endeavors as determining if an appointment scheduling applications resulted in an increase in bookings.

My take on the survey results? Adoption of mobile in SMB is understandable given the fact that the great majority of business owners use devices in their personal lives. Should we expect that all efforts would be more measureable and strategic? No. Even the largest enterprises struggle some with gauging results.

But the SMB’s success lies in its ability to make wise decisions in mobile. Getting the strategy nailed and executed is a competitive advantage.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program http://Goo.gl/t3fgW, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.