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On a roll with mobile marketing, we decided to push forward and look at innovative ways companies are using mobile to reach and engage their customers. Within a short while, we found ourselves buried in tech words like geotagging, 2D barcodes, QR codes, MMS-enabled, and more. Our heads were spinning!

Last year we were introduced to Princeton-based mobile marketing firm, JAGTAG (www.jagtag.com) and, with everything we knew to date, this seemed like the perfect time to chat with them further about mobile strategies.

JAGTAG has created an easy way for organizations to send marketing messages and content to consumers, via their mobile phones at the moment they want it. It’s a pull approach, using permission-based best practices. No spam. Got to love that!

You can find out more from their website, but briefly JAGTAG creates custom 2D barcodes that can appear on print ads, direct mail, a poster, packaging, a t-shirt, a website, and so on. Responding to an invite, the customer takes a picture of the barcode using their camera phone and sends that picture to a provided text number. Within seconds, the customer will receive a response to their request. It could be a text message, video, audio, or an image, depending on the campaign. JAGTAG is a full service solution where they will help you to develop your campaign, respond on your behalf to the customer-initiated requests, provide analytics and help interpret results, store data safely, and more. While each campaign is different, we were told that a recent campaign saw opt-in percentages of 21%. That’s enough to make any direct marketer smile.

We hope you find the following interview with John Cashman, JAGTAG’s VP of Product Development, helpful as you explore mobile marketing as a way to connect with prospects and customers. While the questions center on JAGTAG and their 2D barcode solution, we feel that the answers will give you some insight into the factors to consider in any approach that you are evaluating.

1. Could you give us an example of how a company might use a tactic that combines multimedia messaging (MMS) and 2D barcodes to attract new customers or reward existing ones?

Sure, we had a consumer product company do a guerilla marketing campaign, where they had 15 people walking the streets of 3 major cities wearing t-shirts with a JAGTAG printed on the front. Anyone who took a picture of the JAGTAG and texted it to the number provided had their name entered into a sweepstake. They then received a message on their phones asking if they would like to be added to the database for future promotions. It was a really fun, unique way to get consumers excited about their product.

Some of your clients are institutions of higher education. Imagine being able to send informative, relevant content to prospective students while they are visiting your college.

2. Foursquare, a game designed for smart phones and a social networking site, is getting a lot of attention from the media at this time. What’s the difference between doing a mobile campaign using a web application like foursquare that utilizes location-based technologies/geotagging (e.g. current Starbucks campaign), and a campaign using 2D Barcodes as you would with JAGTAG?

Foursquare is app-based, so the consumer has to download an app onto their smart phone to participate. With JAGTAG, they must take a picture with their camera phone and text it to the number provided to participate. They are very different approaches. 

3. Our clients vary in size and budget. Are 2D barcode solutions an option to consider for small businesses?

Like any marketing campaign, the decision depends on how much you are willing and able to spend. It is expensive to optimize rich content like video, audio and images for mobile phones—this upfront cost could be outside some budgets. We’re in the process of setting up an online version of JAGTAG to make our solution more affordable for small businesses. I think this has great potential for local marketing.

4. If I were looking in my marketing toolbox today, where would a 2D barcode campaign fit in?

We talked about the guerilla campaign earlier. There are so many ways you could use this channel—we have some examples on our website.

2D barcode campaigns are definitely complimentary to any app-based marketing solution. If you have an app to deliver info to your customers, you could use our solution to pique the interest of a potential customer by sending them a sample of the information offered on an app.

Cool stuff, eh!

John recommended a website called Mobile Marketer if you are interested in keeping up with developments in mobile marketing (www.mobilemarketer.com). In the mean time, we need to catch our breath and take a break from all this writing.

Give us a call if you want to chat about your mobile strategy. We’ve got some great resources at hand to help you.

With mobile marketing being lauded as the next big thing, we thought it would be interesting to explore some of the things going on.

We dug up some examples of recent discussions taking place for consideration:

• Latest research from the Institute for Mobile Media Research at Ball State University found that 99.8% of students on campus have a cell phone, and smart phones now account for 49% of mobile communication devices. (Source: Smartphones displace computers for more college students, Ball State University News Center, June 15 2010).
• Some 75% of 12-17 year olds now own cell phones (Source: Teens and Mobile Phones, April 20 2010, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project). This report includes some very interesting points on texting habits of teens, as well.
• In the comScore’s blog last week, they referred to data from comScore research showing that smartphone penetration in the US market has grown from 11% of mobile subscribers in April 2009 to 20% in April 2010. (Source: blog.comscore.com)
• More than 100 million active users are currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices (Source: Facebook Press Room, June 15, 2010)

We’re not statisticians and don’t have a crystal ball, but it sure looks to us like we are in the middle of something big, again.  With people relying more and more on their mobile phones as a way to access online information and to manage their professional and personal lives, it’s time to consider the following:

(1) What does your current website look like on a mobile phone? Can people easily navigate information on your site via a mobile device?

(2) If you are going to create a mobile version of your website, what content should you include? Who are your site visitors and what do they want from your site? Think user-centered design.

(3) If you do email marketing, what do your emails look like on a mobile phone?

(4) Early adopters are exploring innovative ways to connect with potential and existing customers via this channel—through online games, apps, location-based technologies, and barcode solutions. Are you keeping up-to-date with these new opportunities?

Tomorrow, we are posting part 2 of The Now Big Thing. We did this great interview with Princeton-based mobile marketing firm, JAGTAG (www.jagtag.com), and can’t wait to share this with you.

As you might know, our Director of Education Services, Doodie Meyer, works with 20 or more students a year as an independent college admissions counselor.  We asked one of her clients, a seasoned marketer, who just went through the college admissions process with his daughter, if he could give us his perspective on the experience. Wow! He’s a champion! Having visited 20 campuses, here’s Barry Curewitz’s 6 Dos and Don’ts When Marketing Your College or University:

1. Market to parents as well as students. When marketing your school, remember that each prospect represents two constituencies: the students and the parents.  Each group has their own set of concerns and issues.  Talk to each, and address what’s important to them.

2. Know the Number One Thing. What’s the one thing you want prospects to remember about your school?  With the typical student visiting dozens of websites, reading multiple catalogs and visiting tons of schools, you must know what you want your school to be known for – and then communicate it in a way that will be remembered.  When my daughter finished visiting 20 schools she positively remembered the schools that knew what made them special. 

3. Be organized. Imagine how you might react after arranging to attend a school tour and interview, confirming the appointment one week before arriving on campus, and upon checking in with Admissions, they say they have no knowledge of your existence.  We traveled five hours to visit such a school, along with two others in the area. While we stayed for a later tour, this put a sour note on things and in the end, my daughter did not submit an application. Review your processes on a regular basis, do a walk-through as though you are the prospect, and challenge your recruitment team to make continual improvements to the visitor’s experience.

4. Prepare your speakers. Work with your speakers so that they represent you well, and reflect the quality of your institution.  Nobody is impressed by a speech littered with ums and ahs.

5. Make time for Q & A. Almost all the orientations we sat through were rushed, had too many people on the tour, and left very little time for Q&A.  As a consequence, we felt like many of our questions remained unanswered. Q&A is an important part of the process. If you are running out of time, offer opportunities for people to talk to you after the orientation.

6. Help your families navigate the financial aid process. Educate your families on your approach to constructing a financial aid package before you sit down with them.  Understanding the process is so helpful to students and parents as they try to work out how to turn a dream into a reality!

Barry Curewitz is a proud parent of a graduating high school senior who recently decided where she’ll be attending school next year.  Barry provides a unique perspective in that he has spent the last 20 years growing businesses for some of the world’s largest companies – by nearly $500MM in aggregate.