Marketing Archives

In the World of Mobile, Think Apps Not Ads (Post 2 of 5)

Most of us spend more time with our mobile phones than with our spouses or children. Ludicrous? Think about it. Your phone is the first thing you may interact with when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you touch at night. You carry it around with you all day long, checking it frequently for important messages.

When work is done, you probably have some fun with your phone playing games or posting on Facebook, getting headlines and stock quotes or whatever helps you unwind. When out with family and friends, your phone becomes the event archivist as you snap photos and shoot video of the fun and instantly send it to Facebook or directly to folks in your contacts list.

It’s time to admit it: we’re having a love affair with our mobile phones! Maybe that’s why it’s so annoying – and even sometimes disturbing – when advertising pops up on those personal little screens.

Harvard Business Review devoted its March issue to the topic of “Advertising that Works,” including an interesting article by Sunil Gupta called “For Mobile Devices, Think Apps, Not Ads.” Gupta’s three arguments for why mobile ads don’t work:

1- People don’t like them. Surveys show that people find mobile ads more intrusive than desktop ads because mobile is a more private venue. In fact, fully one in five say that mobile ads are “unacceptable.”

2- There’s no right side. PC users are conditioned to find ads in the right margin of the screen—they appear that way on Facebook and in Google search results, for example. But mobile screens are too small to have a usable right margin, so ads pop up in unexpected places.

3- The “Fat Finger” effect. Advertisers closely track how many users tap on an ad. But many of those taps are inadvertent because the ads are so tiny—so it’s difficult to judge an ad’s effectiveness.

Next time I’ll share Gupta’s thoughts, and my own, about what does make sense for marketers interested in reaching consumers through smart phones.

In the World of Mobile, Think Apps Not Ads (Post 1 of 5)

“Public”, “social”, and “mobile” took on new meanings in the aftermath of the Boston terror attacks. Not only were many people on the streets as the terrifying events unfolded, many more were connected via text, photos and video that was created and transmitted in real time by people to their loved ones in other locations. This instant reporting from the bloody aftermath of the bombings both terrified and reassured those not on the scene.

The use of mobile devices soon took on an even more noble purpose as the surreal week progressed. Police used texts and tweets to provide important public safety announcements. Most significantly, they released photos of the suspects that were obtained from the cell phones of marathon supporters, as well as video shot from a nearby security camera. Once those images were released, social media mavens began posting the photos. (Even folks in Minnesota posted the grainy suspects’ photos on their Facebook pages in an attempt to spread the word and facilitate their capture!)

I heard at least one seasoned broadcast journalist remark during the harrowing Friday manhunt that this was the first time a serious crime investigated had been “completely crowd sourced.” He was referring to the pervasive use of social media tools by police and the public in managing and, ultimately, resolving this public safety crisis.

The comment reminded me of an interesting article I read recently in Harvard Business Review about mobile advertising and effective apps. I’ll share my thoughts on that article in my next few posts.

Marketing Director Wanted!

This is a deviation from my normal posts. In the past, some of you have inquired about working at Intertech. This position reports to the Intertech Partner in charge of training sales but has “dotted line” reporting to me. If you have interest or know someone who may, please apply at Intertech’s website (http://www.Intertech.com/Jobs). We’re looking for candidates in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Below is the copy from the job posting on our site.

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Intertech, an award-winning firm named the #1 mid-sized employer in Minnesota by Minnesota Business magazine in 2012 and eight-time winner of the Business Journal’s Best Places to Work competition, is looking for an exceptional Marketing Director.

This role will continue the drive in Intertech’s growth (Intertech is an eight time Inc. 500/5000 winner).

As a Marketing Director, we’re looking for someone who can provide direction to the leadership team yet organize and implement the day-to-day marketing activities. We’re looking for an extraordinary individual who can:

Provide a yearly marketing plan with execution details
Manage activities and events like our newsletters, user group, and conference exhibiting
Engage our customers on social media
Create phenomenal content
Work with our outside marketing design firm on branding
Work with our outside retained public relations firm

Additional Skillsets Needed:

The ability to get the big picture and get things done
Past marketing experience
An undergraduate degree in marketing, business, or English is preferred
Excellent writing skills
Solid organization skills

Why Join Intertech?

There are many reasons Intertech is the employer of choice. Below are just a few:

The ability as the Marketing Director to have an important voice and visible role in our firm
Flexible schedule including standing work-from-home day(s)
A remarkable environment. We’re the recipient of over 35 awards for work environment and growth
A three month paid sabbatical for every seven years of service

All the other stuff needed to be recognized as the #1 mid-sized employer in Minnesota… good pay, comprehensive benefits, …

Not every bat is a hit

Trying new stuff is part of the fun of running a business. During the past ten years or so we’ve tried five new business ideas: one was a flat out failure, one is slightly better than a financial wash and three have worked quite well. (That’s a pretty good success rate considering the old baseball adage: you must bat 10 times to get three hits!) And while the wins are the most fun and profitable, I don’t regret the things we tried that didn’t work out either. As my father used to tell me, “If you do nothing, you’ll make no mistakes.”

The failed venture involved licensing a specific software application we developed. Similar to the findings described in the new book Just Start: Take Action, Embrace Uncertainty, Create the Future, our new venture was a modest undertaking. It involved only myself and one employee and a limited test with one client. When it didn’t work as planned due to technology limitations, we simply abandoned the effort with very little lost revenue.

Determined to continue exploring new revenue streams, however, we decided to try selling our courseware directly to other training firms. As the authors of Just Start report, successful serial entrepreneurs “use the means at hand” when embarking on a new venture. That was the principle at work in this example from Intertech. Our investment in developing software training courseware is already built into our business model since that is what we use in our existing classroom and virtual training classes.

We also employed another Just Start principle: “stay within your acceptable loss.” To sell our courseware directly we used Yahoo (www.intertechcourseware.com) to create a storefront, which limited our upfront investment.

And we’re also embracing the final Just Start adage to “manage expectations.” While relatively small given our overall sales, we are doing better than just breaking even. Not bad for a venture with little upfront cost or risk!

Next post: Winning big by starting small.

Social Media in Business

10 tips on the web and social media. This was done for a friend who has a paint business with dealer reps: