What does a new customer really cost?

Mobile Marketing allows us to stay in touch with our customer base and build our list. Since the money is in the list, by building it we create a constant renewable stream of income for our business. By reminding our existing customers they may come in again even though they weren't planning on it. They can also make our marketing go viral. People like to share good deals with their friends and will forward our coupon offers and announcements. This not only brings our existing customers back in the door but can result in a stream of new customers.

As small businesses we have radio, newspaper, direct mail all at our disposal and they can be used to enhance our results when their effectiveness can be quantified. By using Mobile Coupons America to create a specific campaign for each marketing vehicle we can know the results we are getting from our marketing dollars. Thus we can put our dollars to work where they are most profitable.

This graph demonstrates what using MCA campaigns can do for our marketing costs. Eventually we'll be able to mobile market alone and thrive and expand.

Hi, my name is Martin Blakley and I'm a small business owner just like you. I'm also the author and builder of the this website. I started my career in 1982 with my first business as an instant printer at the ripe old age of 24 and I've been in small brick and mortar businesses ever since then. Things have definitely changed in the last 28 years. When I think about how I did page layout before computers I wonder now how I ever got through.

Having been one to embrace technology all along as my business needed it, I find us facing a brave new world of everyone going mobile. Owning a Family Entertainment Center has made me accutely aware of texting and communicating in the new mobile society. Everywhere you look people have phones to the point you have to look before you respond to hearing someone say hello. Are you talking to me or that bluetooth thingy hanging uncomfortably off your ear.

While Mobile Marketing is truly cutting bleeding edge technology in America, it has been around for some time in Europe and exploded there. Knowing that it is bleeding edge to jump in now I have taken out my grinder and worked it till it is only a butter knife when you jump on board. Staying in touch with your customers and being interactive really isn't rocket science.

Now if you missed the boat on the internet marketing cruise, don't worry about it. This doesn't even require you to have a website to use it. In fact, you will have a minipage prescence on the web with this website when you sign up. If you'd like to see a sample go here.

This is what they teach you in Internet Marketing 101. It really is no different in the offline world. If you have no list you are just running from one customer to the next hoping you hang on. When you have a list of customers who have bought from you, you can harvest it over and over again. Slow night at the bar, just send out an alert offering a special incentive at 4PM for that night only and let the system work for you. If you don't have a list you'll just be crying in your beer and nobody will want to buy it then.

Just imagine if you had a list of 500 subscribers. You could hold a special sale on something with say $10 margin. If just 10% responded to your announcement you would take in $500 in profit and it would be in a short time. How large of a list can you create and what would it mean for your business.

But How Do I Use It In My Business

Good question and lets look at some promotional ideas. First, obviously anywhere we are already marketing. Newspaper, Direct Mail, Radio, Billboard, Business Cards, etc. One of the promotional tools we provide with the service is a promotional piece to put on our front window or door. The system automatically generates it for us for any campaign we set up and it looks like this:

This promotional piece not only gets current customers but promotes to anyone who happens to be walking down the street in front of our establishment. We can promote those high margin products that we want to move out the door but may not sell so readily. We don't discount our narrow margin products. We keep our margin as big as possible as we want this to be a money maker not a loss leader.

Now lets do some business specific examples.

Bars and Restaurants

• Send daily specials - lunch, happy hour, early bird, more.
• Bars/Night Clubs can send schedule of featured entertainers.
• Send promotional offers - 2-for-1, free stuff, etc. Generate traffic.

Professionals Artists and Bands

• Announce info about your services, products, price list, etc.
• Real estate agents can broadcast a "new listings" alert.
• Bands can send "gig" alerts and reminders to their fan base.
• Artists can publish upcoming shows and gallery events.
• Professional speakers can provide info about featured events.

Retail Businesses

• Provide basic business info: locations, store hours, website.
• Send a text-based mobile coupon that offers attractive discounts.
• Announce current and future sales promotions.
• Publish a "Featured Product of the Day" and offer a special price.

Internet Marketers & Network Marketers

• Send out reminders to those signed up for your seminar.
• Send out this weeks product specials to your customers.
• Keep in touch with your downline and get them to meetings.