Peter James – WSI Digital Marketing Consultant

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.

More and more companies are exploiting mobile marketing techniques.  This is a great way to communicate with both customers and prospects.  New advances in technology mean that mobile marketing is no longer the preserve of large companies.  In fact, it’s now an excellent and cost effective technique for small and medium sized companies.

In this and the following few articles, I’m going to outline some particulary effective mobile marketing solutions.  If you have any questions or want any more information then please do not hesitate to contact me.  First, I’m going to write about Google Places.  In the next two articles I’ll write about Text Marketing and QR Codes.  Following that I’ll write about some emerging and more advanced solutions such as Apps and Augmented Reality.

Google Places

Google Places is a free local directory.  Most companies already have a Google Places listing (Google has created them by scouring other directories).  Check by Googling your company name and location.  If you have a listing then you should verify that you’re the owner and develop the listing with further information (including pictures and videos).  If you haven’t got a Google Places listing then create one.

There is a Google Places app for the major smart phones (iPhone, Android and BlackBerry).   When a user launches this app, it will list businesses near to his or her current location (as determined by GPS).  The user can select a particular business type (e.g restaurants) and get all those nearby listed.  The user can also select another location for listings (e.g. a city to be visited).

So, a business can use their free Google Places listing to be found by mobile users.  Also, Google Places includes reviews (including those on review sites such as Qype).  Therefore, it’s not only important to be on Google Places (and to make your listing compelling) but also to know what reviews you’ve got listed on it.