Marketing

In what amounts to yet another compelling case study highlighting effective mobile marketing, National Wholesale Liquidators has deployed a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy to drive interest, traffic, and sales at the company’s discount retail chain of 12 stores. Having emerged from bankruptcy just four years ago, the company says mobile marketing is playing a key role in the retailer’s impressive comeback. In fact, the recent mobile marketing efforts have brought more mobile-connected shoppers into its stores, Drew Bickel, the company’s director of planning, allocation, distribution and special projects tells Internet Retailer. “We’re making it cool to come into our stores,” he says, pointing to his company’s reliance upon SMS marketing and targeted mobile text-message offers to inspire interest and generate sales among key demographics. The mobile marketing strategy even includes in-store digital signs that registered shoppers can capitalize on with a simple wave of the phone in close proximity. From there, special offers are sent to the device and frequently used by the empowered customer. So far, among the the 250,000 consumers who patronize the stores on a weekly basis, 50,000 have already opted into receiving text messages, Bickel reveals.

There comes a time for all PPC account managers when something goes terribly wrong. You may or may not even catch yourself saying, “I’ve made a huge mistake.” Maybe performance is sliding and your client (or boss) is livid and ready to leave (or make you leave). Perhaps you accidentally set a bid to $100 and racked up a massive 1-day bill in AdWords. Heck, everything could be perfect, but you forgot to respond to an email or phone call. Whatever the specific scenario, the end result is the same: you must now deal with a broken PPC campaign or a struggling client relationship. Here are 5 steps to help you weather the storm. Cool It Don’t panic. Whatever the issue is, just take a big, deep breath. And whatever you do, don’t make an immediate response when you are feeling angry, frustrated or upset. Take a few minutes to calm down, then come back to your computer and… Review It The glory of working in PPC is that everything is based on data. Performance metrics. Change history. Campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, bids, etc., etc.. It is all there in black and white. And if you are anything like us here at Clix, you keep a secondary record of changes to provide context and record for your team. Review the campaign that is broken. Review the angry client email. Or review the notes you took from the angry client phone call. Then review your PPC campaigns. All the data is there, you just need to piece it all together. After all, that’s your job! Own It Once you understand what happened and what the problem is – it is your job to own it. Your fault, client’s fault, 3rd party tool’s fault – it doesn’t matter. Own it. The oldest rule in customer service is that the customer is always right, yes? Construct an email (if appropriate) or make a call to explain the details of the situation. If it was your fault – admit it and explain how you can make it right (particularly if it involves money). If it was something the client did, this is where tact comes into play. Without pointing fingers, explain what the problem was and exactly what the solution is. Fix It Easier said than done sometimes. But again, that’s your job! Make campaign adjustments. Reimburse money. Apologize for and react to failed communication. Do what it takes to salvage campaign performance and your client relationship. Learn From It Mistakes happen. “To err is human” and all that mumbojumbo. The important part is what you do after a mistake. Now that you truly understand what happened and have fixed it, take the time to think through all of the steps that led to the situation in the first place. How can you keep this from happening again in the future? What lesson was learned that can be applied to other client relationships and other campaigns?

Increasing app engagement is no easy task. While it's hard enough to get new users for an app, retaining that userbase is no piece of cake either. Loyalty programs are one method that some app developers are now using to tackle this issue. Loyalty programs are nothing new, of course, nor are advertising efforts to engage users. Credit card companies already use these programs to encourage members to spend money and gain rewards. So what makes mobile app loyalty programs--like those from Pocket Change and others--special?

Since releasing iOS 7 beta to developers last week during the keynote kick-off at WWDC 2013, Apple and its developers have made waves for the enormous potential uncovered in the forthcoming major mobile OS refresh planned for later this year. Among the most curious discoveries this week is that iOS 7 may feature deep integration with LinkedIn. Inching up the social importance ladder that Facebook and Twitter previously ascended, Apple is apparently planning to add a third social network to the system-wide share sheet in iOS 7. Code-based references found inside the first beta of iOS 7 suggest that the Cupertino, California-based tech giant is testing deep LinkedIn integration. Analogous to the arrangement with Twitter and Facebook, the code points to a single-sign-on system for LinkedIn accounts, a development that would allow users to easily post content such as Web URLs to LinkedIn from native and third party applications. Although iOS 7 was widely expected to deliver extensive third party service support  anyway, the addition of LinkedIn as a social priority would definitely be a welcome surprise to many iOS fans.

Friend and colleague Jeremiah Owyang has been talking about his newest framework, the collaborative economy, where consumers provide services directly to other consumers, sidestepping normal supply chains and business processes. He asked SHIFT for our thoughts about how marketing and PR fit (if they do) in this new economy, and the SHIFT team was happy to provide some thoughts. Is there a role for marketing and PR in a world where consumers do business with each other? Read the blog post to find out (spoiler: yes, there is a role).

The history of the wireless industry is stuffed with executives who dominate headlines and discussions for months or even years, only to recede from the limelight as technologies evolved, trends shifted and once-prominent companies fell behind the pace of innovation. FierceWireless checks in with 10 onetime wireless movers and shakers to see where they are now.

Rdio is opening up its fledgling Vdio streaming video service to all consumers in the U.S. and the U.K. Vdio access was previously limited to premium Rdio subscribers.

With video ads emerging as the most effective and engaging ad units available in the entire mobile ad ecosystem today, it comes as no surprise that one of the top mobile ad companies in the world is working overtime to expand its video ad proficiency and capabilities. On Wednesday, Millennial Media unveiled a comprehensive suite of new advertising products for marketers to harness the power of mobile video on smartphones and tablets. For example, advertisers can now add customizable features to their video that let consumers engage with the content in ways not possible in any other medium. “When you combine the rich storytelling of video with the interaction and engagement of mobile, the result is a powerful branding experience that really resonates with consumers,” explains Marcus Startzel, Chief Revenue Officer at Millennial Media. “We’ve heard from our key brand partners that there is a desire to go beyond simply repurposing video from other channels, so we built these new products so brands can strategically optimize their video content for mobile. All told, MM’s new Video Advertising Solutions involve nine different products and are designed for advertisers in all industries. These include: Video SYNC – The first ad unit of its kind, advertisers can wrap rich media around the video player and sync different animations with specific moments of the video to highlight and identify key messaging moments. For example, a film trailer could play, and at the introduction of each new character, a rich media animation would appear highlighting the actor or actress. Video TOGGLE – Optimized for tablets, a large video is surrounded by three additional videos underneath, with the option to toggle which video is highlighted. The ad unit offers brands the ability to drive extended and additional viewing, and present multiple messaging and topic options. Video TICKER – This ad unit allows marketers to display dynamically updated, time-specific information, such as sports scores, movie times, or Twitter feeds, directly into their video ad. To learn more about MM and what the mobile ad giant is up to in video, click here.

On Wednesday morning, Distimo announced the launch of Conversion Tracking, a free Software Development Kit (SDK) that offers app developers a “one-stop shop” to measure and analyze their app transaction value and the lifetime value of their app users. The app store market data and analytics leader says that Distimo Conversion Tracking directs consumers to the right app store, and enables developers to easily identify what country and traffic source their app users are coming from and what devices they are using. “Until today, there has been no product available for developer that combines both data from app stores as well as conversion tracking,” boasts Vincent Hoogsteder, CEO and co-founder of Distimo. “The highly accurate insight provided by Distimo Conversion Tracking into the lifetime value of their app users combined with data from their marketing campaigns across all possible app store revenue sources will ultimately help app developers accelerate their growth and make better business decisions,” he said in a written statement this morning. Available now, Distimo Conversion Tracking is free to use and supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Adobe AIR and PhoneGap. To learn more about cross-platform app distribution and conversion tracking, click here.

Troy Alstead, Starbucks’ chief financial officer and chief accounting officer, dropped a mobile bombshell at the Jefferies Global Consumer Conference this week. Mobile payments are fast-becoming a hot way to pay for a hot cup of joe at Starbucks. “Mobile payments not launched all that long ago represents greater than 10% now of our U.S. transactions,” Alstead revealed during the presentation. The Starbucks executive praises the mobile channel for its ability to drive the efficiencies, speed of service, and a lower cost transaction within the store. All of the growth Starbucks has experienced of late is “really empowered by what we do digitally,” Alstead added. “We had significant success in reaching our customers digitally, significant benefits both in terms of cost, but also the halo that comes from providing these opportunities around payment methods and loyalty to the customer,” he concluded. “Starbucks card in all it’s entirety and that means the physical card, but also mobile forms of card, store value card payments represents now greater than 30%, almost a third of transactions in our U.S. system. The loyalty program in the U.S. just introduced a couple of years ago represents now 25% and rapidly growing of our U.S. transaction.”