Peter James – WSI Digital Marketing Consultant

As a mobile marketing consultant, I have to be mobile!  This is how I stay online wherever and whenever as well as what I do online and what this means for businesses that want to market to people like me.

How I Keep Mobile

In my job as a digital and mobile marketing consultant I travel a lot.  I always need to be online.  I used to lug around a laptop and a mobile phone nowadays I use an iPad and and iPhone.  The iPad is a lot lighter than a laptop and the batteries last a lot longer so for me it’s ideal. Here’s some tips and tricks that have been really useful to me…

1. Don’t buy a 3G/4G enabled iPad – just get the WiFi version.  I have a separate MiFi modem on a different network to my mobile phone.  I bought an ulocked Huawei E586 which I’m currently using on a ’3′ prepaid sim with 3GB of data for 3 months at £11.  I can also use my iPhone as a wireless hotspot tethered modem (just make sure that this is include in your mobile price plan) if I’m out of ’3′ coverage.  Thus, I have two networks behind me so I very rarely get coverage issues.  I can also put a foreign prepaid sim in the modem when I’m abroad to avoid extortionate roaming costs.  It’s important to note that, as well as putting in the sim card into the modem, you need to set the right profile (APN) into the modem.  This is easy to do and you can find details for most networks here for UK and here for overseas.
2. If you’re going to be out for more than a few hours take a spare battery of some sort.  I have one which can charge up my iPad to about 50% and also has adaptors for charging up my MiFi modem.
3. If you need a keyboard then there are a variety of combination keyboard covers for iPads.  I bought one for £20.
4. Use Dropbox to synchronise all your files so you have access from both iPad and iPhone.

What I Do When I’m Mobile

1. Obviously, I have access to email all the time.
2. I use Kindle and Newspaper apps to read newspapers and books.
3. I use Keynote for client presentations.  When online I can also take a client through SEO and website analysis reports.
4. I use the iPhone for weather and travel information including maps.

How To Market to Mobile People

When I’m looking for something local to me I use Google Places.  If you get business from travellers then you need to be listed on Google Places. A mobile website which is easy to view on an iPhone (or similar) without ‘pan and zoom’ is also a good idea.

Last week, I attended the annual WSI Global Excellence & Innovation conference in Paris.  This is where all we WSI Internet Marketing Consultants get together to exchange ideas and best practice as well as listening to some of the world experts in digital marketing.  As well as talking about the conference I’m also going to talk about some practical aspects of mobile marketing and mobile use in Paris.

Internet Marketing Conference

The keynote speaker was Avinash Kaushik.  There were also presentations on the future of organic search and paid search.  Here are some key take aways…

1. Print newspaper advertising in US rose to $60Bn by 2000 but has collapsed to $20Bn since then.  Although 29% of advertising spend is on print consumers only spend 6% of their media time reading print.  Therefore, it seems like print advertising revenue is going to fall further and digital (both Internet and Mobile) advertising revenue will continue to increase.
2. Successful search engine optimisation is mostly about great content.  Only 10% – 20% of searchers click on paid search adverts and 95% don’t look beyond the 1st page of search results.
3. The perfect landing page loads in less than 2 seconds and fulfills the promise in the ad or search results.
4. Think who are the most important (prospective) visitors to your website, how are they going to find you, what would be valuable to them and what you want them to do.

Mobile Paris with an iPhone and an iPad

I recently bought the new iPad and decided that I’d do the trip without a laptop.  The advantages of an iPad over a laptop are that it’s smaller and lighter as well as having a much longer battery life.  There are disadvantages such as you can’t use PC applications (and most of my applications are delivered as software as a service over the Internet anyway) and there is no easy way of getting files off a USB stick but I was able to live with these over a few days.  As long as I had a decent Internet connection I was fine.  Also, using the iPad for reading books and newspapers as well as surfing the web was great.

The other thing I wanted to do was to be online all the time but to avoid extortionate data roaming charges.  I had bought an unlocked mobile WiFi modem in UK and tried it with a french prepaid SIM card.  Unfortunately, this didn’t work (I now know how to do this and will post on that later) but a local Orange WiFi modem with 400GB of data only cost me €54.  So, I was able to use my iPhone to look at maps, work out metro connections (using the excellent Paris RATP apps) and keep up with email throughout my travels.

Of course, I used Google Places to find reviews on all the restaurants and cafes that we considered and also wrote Google Places reviews on them afterwards.  Google Places is now an essential marketing tool for any business (such as a restaurant or bar) with mobile customers.

It’s now important to know how to maximise the effectiveness of mobile technology both as a consumer and as a marketer – to find and to be found!

Sometime last week the 7 Billionth person on Earth was born.  Of course we don’t know who that person is or where he or she now lives but it’s the number which is staggering.

Well, here are some more staggering numbers in the Billions.

There were 1.8 Billion internet users at the end of last year.  That’s over 25% of the world’s population and the number is going to be even higher now.

You think that’s amazing?  Well, again at the end of last year, there were 4.6 Billion mobile phone users.  That’s over two thirds of the world’s population.

Let’s say that again.  Over two thirds of the world’s population use a mobile phone.

Those numbers are going to keep on rising as the Internet and mobile phones become even more pervasive in the poorer countries.  The ubiquity of the Internet will change the way people in the less prosperous nations communicate, interact and get information.  This better access to information and communication is going to help them improve their lives – not least via better education. 

 It’s worth noting that the number of people with mobile phones is more than double the number with Internet access.  The significance of this is that, for many, new Internet access is going to be from a mobile device rather than a PC.  This is actually just a continuation of an existing trend because, for many, their access to the telephone network is via a mobile rather than a fixed line phone.

So, let’s consider the implications of this…

1. There is going to be a huge demand for cheap mobile devices that access the Internet.  Some suppliers are already gearing up to meet this demand.  Similarly, mobile phone networks need to be able to support lots of fast Internet access from these devices.
2. This will drive further improvements to communication, interaction and education.  Again, this will result in greater wealth and more trade.

So, when we think of markets we should be thinking of today’s and tomorrow’s marketplaces and not yesterday’s marketplaces.  Our customers are going to be both informed and global.

Although August is traditionally the ‘silly season’, there have been some significant events in the mobile marketplace.  Here’s a summary of them with the implications for mobile marketing.

Google Buys Motorola’s Mobile Phone Division

This puts Google into a similar position as Apple whereby it can control both the hardware (from Motorola) and software (Android) on its mobile devices (both phones and tablets).  This will result in Google branded devices with better user experience as the hardware and software will be managed as a whole rather than Android being spread out over many different devices.  There will also be a solid Google Android focus for the competition against Apple.  It’s worth noting that the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS both outsell any other smartphone and that no other tablet has come even close to the iPAD (I reckon that Amazon have the best chance with a Kindle tablet).  The implications will be a better controlled platform for Android App development and lower prices as there will be a clear competitor to the iPhone.  However, HTC and Samsung (who make Android based devices) must be getting nervous.  RIM (Blackberry) have been losing market share to Android and this will accelerate.

HP Withdraw From The Mobile Device Marketplace

HP are giving up on WebOs and will be withdrawing from making smartphones and tablets.  Their much touted tablet offering failed to gain any traction at all (until its price was slashed to less than £100).  Generally, the problem faced by Apple competitors is that people don’t want a tablet – they want an iPad!  Again, this will focus competition.  One wonders now what will happen to RIM (under heavy competitive pressure) and the train crash that is Nokia.

Apple Announces iCloud

iCloud is Apple’s cloud based service for music/file storage and email/calendar/contact synchronisation.  It replaces the (somewhat unreliable) Mobile Me (which incredibly was more expensive than Google Apps).  The immediate benefit will be that you do not have to sync your iPad/iPhone/iPod with your computer – all your music etc will be held in the cloud and kept in sync automatically.  There will be a file storage service along the lines of Dropbox although I have my worries about reliability (I had a lot of problems with Mobile Me) and convenience (Dropbox has ‘normal’ folders in your directory structure that are kept automatically synced and backed up).   I expect we will see similar offerings from Amazon and Google.

Sony Playstation Network Hack

In an earlier post I said that privacy would be driven by consumer concerns and libertarian pressure groups.  The Sony Playstation network hack may have impacted 100 Million people.  Imagine their concerns.  Imagine the damage to Sony’s reputation.  Imagine the impact to their finances if they had to make a payout (even a small one) to many of those affected – we are looking at Billions and any regulatory penalty will fade into insignificance.  Look at what Big Brother Watch is saying about this.  Companies are now going to be more concerned about security and privacy because of the potential reputation and financial consequences than regulataory pressure.

Skype and Facebook (or Google)

There are rumours that both Facebook and Google are looking at either buying Skype or forming a joint venture.  For Facebook, acquiring Skype would make perfect sense as it would enhance Facebook’s position as a personal communications and interaction tool.  I’ve posted some thoughts before on this here, here and here.

Kindle and iPad Rumours

There are rumours flying around that Amazon is going to bring out a touchscreen tablet version of the Kindle in the second part of the year.  In my view, the Kindle is the iPad’s main rival.  The Kindle is a simple, lightweight and cost effective device with a great range of content.  Imagine how competitive a colour touchscreen version would be.  There are also rumours (perhaps less credible) that the next iPad will have a 3D screen.

I’m writing this blog post on my desktop PC.  I can’t use my laptop.  Why not?  Because, I upgraded to IE9 on my laptop and Word Press doesn’t get on well with IE9.  Yes, yes, I know I should use Firefox.

Actually, I do use Firefox.  I have to use it because Lyris HQ (my excellent email marketing tool) doesn’t like Internet Explorer.  Lyris HQ also doesn’t like Firefox 4 so I had to revert back to 3.6.

Don’t even start me off on Flash not working for iPhones and iPads.  A lot of Apple stuff is really slow and clinky on IE as well.

Try using the diffeent QR Code writers and readers and see the different results you get.

So, the big problem is interoperability and it’s getting worse.

It’s even more difficult with devices that have embedded software that may not ever get updated.  For example, my iPhone works with my car on a Bluetooth connection for making and receiving calls.  Will it play music over my car audio by Bluetooth?  No way!

When I’m driving to a meeting I have to enter the postcode for the location into my car satnav.  What I’d really like to do is to be able to wirelessly transmit the postcode from the calendar entry on my iPhone to my car satnav.  Dream on!

Imagine how much time we all waste because of poor interoperability.

We had a few days away last weekend.  We stayed, in Cromer on the Norfolk coast, at a great little hotel (The Red Lion)with excellent food.  We had a fantastic time and the weather was superb.

However, there was a problem.

I rely on always on connectivity.  I have an iPhone and a mobile broadband usb modem.  I am dependent upon decent 3G coverage.

However, that part of Norfolk is a Vodafone 3G blackspot.  No 3G coverage anywhere!  Occasionally the service managed to stagger into EDGE but it was mostly plain 2G.  The connections I got were slow and unreliable.

More and more, we need decent 3G coverage for our mobile devices.  We need that for email, for location based services and for maps.  Using an iPhone to get information about where you are on holiday is really helpful – Google Maps, Google Places and Wikihood are great.  However, if you don’t have decent mobile data coverage it all falls apart.

Amazingly, I also had Vodafone 3G connectivity issues when I was in central London last week.  I’m now getting problems with their coverage, reliability and speed in lots of places.

We are moving towards an allways connected society.  Mobile coverage and capacity, wherever you are, is becoming more and more important.  When are the mobile operators going to realise this?

What I’m going to have to do is replace my Vodafone 3G USB modem with a MiFi device from another operator.  That will give me a local WiFi network to which I can connect my iPhone, my laptop or any other device.  I can’t rely on just Vodafone anymore.

What does this mean to you?

QR Code for Peter James

This is a QR Code.  It’s like a two dimensional bar code. 

Pick up your smart phone.  Download a QR Code reader app.  With an iPhone you can download QRReader or i-nigma 4 (there are others).  The same or similar apps will be available from your Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone mobile.

Once you’ve downloaded the app then launch it.  Point it at the code above and it will tell you all about moi.  But, it doesn’t have to be about me – it can be about you and your business!

Imagine, have a QR code on your shop window, in your adverts, in your leaflets or anywhere you publish marketing material.  Prospects just need to point their smart phones at it to download details about your business.

Is this fascinating?  Is it compelling?  Believe me, this is going to be big!  Look around and you’ll see QR Codes everywhere: in newspapers, on adverts and in shops (bar codes are just so last century). 

Imagine, your customers and prospects can get details about your company and products easily displayed on their mobile phones!  Do you want to exploit QR Codes before your competitors?  If so then contact me – I can help you, this is what I do.

The only thing which might stop the advance of QR Codes is a rival product from Microsoft – Microsoft Tags.  Microsoft Tags are much more advanced and flexible than QR Codes but their adoption is not as widespread (however, they may catch up).

Microsoft Tag for Peter James contact details

Down load the Microsoft Tag reader onto your smart phone – it’s TagReader in the iPhone App Store (it’s free).  Then launch it and point it at the tag above.  You get my contact details which you can download into your phone.  You could also set up a tag to launch your website.

Which should you use?   How do you make them work for your business?  Contact me and I’ll help you. I make the web work for you!

For those of you stuck for time, you need to act now to buy gifts for your family and friends.  Here are some high tech ideas.

1. Augmented Reality Spectacles for Dogs  These mean that man’s best friend can forever chase rabbits, in any location, without actually catching them.
2. Augmented Reality Spectacles for Carol Singers A must for really bad singers so you can sing carols at virtual people without annoying any real people no matter how bad your singing is.
3. Virtual Snow this is the number one gift in UK and is completely realistic and totally unaffected by global warming.
4. Virtual Santa 3D screens and surround sound for your fireplace and roof so that Santa and his reindeer can really seem to visit.

There is an old Chinese curse – ‘may you live in interesting times’.  The implication is that you would suffer much upheaval.  Well, on that basis, digital marketing is well and truly cursed!  Tidal waves of change are going to hammer us over the next 12 months.  However, for those that can surf with the waves, it’ll be a blessing rather than a curse.  Nevertheless, those that can’t handle the pace of change are going to get seriously wet.

Here are my predictions for 2011…

1. Consumers will want to engage with content across multiple platforms.  They won’t care how they get it or who they get it from as long as they get what they want when they want it and where they want it (think mobile).
2. Successful advertising campaigns will feature engaging content such as interesting videos or interactive features (including games).
3. Mobile internet will continue to grow with social media and content consumption featuring highly.  Location based services, including augmented reality, will continue to grow but are waiting for a killer app. 
4. The majority of larger companies are going to use social networks as a marketing channel.  However, the big challenge here is how to integrate across all the channels (social networks, email, web, mobile and traditional).
5. We will see some new personal communications portals (see my earlier blogs on this) that begin to pull together all kinds of mesaging including email, instant messaging, voicemail and social network messaging).
6. Somewhere, a start-up service will evolve that is a mixture of a social network and a CRM to help bring companies and consumers together (see my ealier blog on this).
7. The use of Twitter as a real time communications and co-ordination network for events will continue to evolve.
8. Online privacy will become a hot debate but it will be driven by consumer concerns and libertarian pressure groups rather than government regulators.  Companies wil become acutely aware that privacy concerns can damage brands (and profits).  Driven by the need to monetize information companies will have to really worry about privacy, security and consent.  Trust will become a brand differentiator.
9. The technology tools for digital marketing will continue to get cheaper as well as becoming more powerful.  However, services will be required to bridge the gap between the power of digital marketing tools and the knowledge of marketing people.  Marketers that can’t bridge that gap (and in particular can’t make the switch from traditional to digital) are going to suffer big time!
10. Marketing will be more and more driven by digital principles.  In particular targeting, valuable content, interaction and measurement will be key.  Measurement of ROI will become crucial.