Nielen does all kinds of research and ratings, etc.

Some really interesting recent stats revealed in most demographics smartphones are not a luxury anymore.

Nielsen’s “smartphone penetration by age” chart, which shows that 80% of those in both the 18-24 and the 25-34 age groups who acquired a phone in the last 3 months chose a smartphone.

Further stats show in the “recent acquisitions” area (Activated phones in the last 3 months) 69% of all phones activated across all demographics were smartphones.

80% of 25 to 34 year-olds who make 100k per year own smartphones.

75% of 35 to 44 year-olds who make 100k per year own smartphones.

Also notice how even folks with less income have smartphones. Interesting for sure!

As always – I like to give you the latest stats.

If you’re still not doing any mobile marketing you are falling behind.

To get your mobile website going visit…

Mobile Marketing CMS

Here’s a breakdown of 3 simple and effective Facebook Ad strategies…

Strategy 1-

“I want them to Like me”

This is when you set out to increase “Page Likes.”

Now some people complain because they feel they should not have to “buy likes.” Sorry – no way around it after you exhaust everyone in your circle. Unless your some famous celebrity people are just not searching to “like your business.” You have to interrupt them.

Be warned: Increasing page likes comes with the added duty of working your page.

Why would you want to do this? Don’t skip ahead but read Strategy 3 carefully when you get to it.

Strategy 2 -

“Mike Likes It” so should I

This is where you’ll leverage your likes. Think referrals but a lot less powerful for now. These folks are not gonna call you because their Facebook friend likes you. But they will be interested and possibly start following you.

What we do here is a social ad. This shows up on the user’s Facebook page and basically says…

“Mike Dolpies Likes ….”

What we are shooting are the friends of the likes. Chances are they’re similar.

Strategy 3 -

The Real Secret and The MAIN Reason You Are Building Your Likes

Facebook will NOT let you target the “likes” of another page directly. As great as it would be to target the women who like the big gym in your area – you can not get that narrow.

But you can target any set of people who like a page where you are the admin.

Really powerful for several reasons which I can not go into here. But the tip of the iceberg…

1- They are somewhat familiar with you. Call them a captive audience if you want.

2-This is one the only ads types that gives you the most slack for driving people to an external URL.

What I mean is Facebook frowns upon external links in ads. This makes perfect sense because once someone is your fan/like they’ll be more receptive to to going to a page off of Facebook, filling in a form and becoming a lead. After that, it’s up to you to move them down the funnel!

Make no mistake about it. This is NOT some start today and end up with a flood of new business tomorrow type thing. This takes commitment.

If you’d like a complimentary consultation to see if Facebook Ads are right for you visit:

Our Facebook Ads Service Page

Did you see the GoDaddy 2012 Superbowl Commercials?

GoDaddy’s marketing people are challenged to come up with an outrageous commercial or two every year.

2012 was no different.

What I noticed more than anything is their use of a QR Code.

Wow, am I that much of geek? That’s what I noticed? LOL!

It’s true! I am a Mobile Marketing junkie. What can I say.

GoDaddy reported an amazing record-breaking day.

Was it all the doing of the QR Code? Not sure and I doubt it.

A couple take-aways for you though…

1- I think they could’ve done a better job calling attention to the code.

Maybe an arrow or two? Words on the screen… “Scan this code and …”

So keep that in mind when you use QR Codes in your marketing. Give a clear call to action.

Take-away number 2…

Use of QR Codes. In 2009 scans of QR Codes were about 80,000 per month. End of 2011 that number jumped to 2,000,000!

And always – always be sure your codes go directly to a mobile web page that loads quickly and looks good on the small screen.

To create your mobile pages and generate your QR Codes under one roof go to…

MobileMarketingCMS

Did you know most online activities are very “task” oriented? Meaning.

People go online to find a restaurant or book a trip or search for a local service.

That’s why online lead generation works. Someone is looking for info. They find you. You make them an offer and they say “sure.” Over and done with. You call them and they come in. Or, if you’re selling online they hopefully buy.

But there’s one place on the net that’s not “task oriented.”

In fact it is totally about wandering. About getting lost. About 5 minutes turning into 25 minutes.

You know where that is?

Facebook. Yes – I sometime get lost wandering around and if you’re one of the 800 million Facebook users you know what I’m talking about.

I’ve been doing a lot of Facebook ads recently for both myself and clients.

Here’s what I like about it.

I’m old school!

Believe it or not Facebook ads remind me of direct mail marketing.

Meaning: One way to do direct mail is to a “cold list.” That’s a list you purchase. Done correctly you can get phone calls and generate business. You can also “warm up” the list via multiple steps.

You choose your cold list by demographics and geography. Or, if your pool of prospects are big enough you can get lists of magazine subscribers and many other “selects.”

But here’s what’s great about Facebook Ads…

Yes you can choose a radius around your business (like you would with direct mail). You can select certain demographics” (like you would with direct mail).

Where it gets better is you can dig deeper.

Say you knew that your best prospects were iPhone users. (Yes – you know know stuff like this). Well, you can target them on Facebook.

The message is you really should be exploring Facebook ads for your business. Remember your ad needs to interrupt them. And it’s OK, because they are wandering around. They are expecting to be interrupted.

Now go interrupt some prospects while they are wandering.

Someone wants asked a famous bank robber…

“Why do you rob banks?” His reply… “Because that’s where the money is.”

If your prospect doesn’t have the “dinero” they won’t become a client or customer of yours. Yes it some cases you’ll be able to put forth such a compelling case. You’ll be able to make them itch so much that they “scratch around” for the money to do business with you.

Yes, it’s possible. But it’s also better to play good odds and target prospects who have the money to invest with you.

Now, this short post will not cover even a half a percentage point of the myriad of marketing activities you can employ to reach the right prospect. But let’s narrow it down to how you can use QR Codes in your marketing as one of your strategies.

Check out these stats and pay attention to the 3^rd

Image via Wikipedia

1- Back in June 14 million people scanned a QR code with their mobile device.

But dig a little deeper…

2 -40% of consumers ages 25 – 34 have scanned a QR Code.

It gets a little better.

3 – One out of three consumers who have scanned a QR Code have a household income of 100k per year, according to comScore.

There’s no doubt QR codes should be used on everything from Business Cards to Brochures to Direct Mail.

You can call your prospects to action and get them to download some more info and you can even have them register for an event.

Some tips…

Give them extremely clear instructions.

“Scan this code with your smartphone”

Tell them why they should scan it…

“and get 2 weeks free” – “and hold your spot because space is limited.”

Then, make sure your code leads to a mobile page.

Reinforce the call to action and the clear instructions on the mobile page.

“Great, you made it. Now, take a minute and fill in the form below to get your (wizbang gift)”

Then you give them a few bullets and tell them one more time to fill in your form.

According to International Data Corporation, by 2015 more people in the U.S. will access the web through their mobile devices than through PC’s.

Generate your mobile site and QR codes here in just a few minutes…

For both my internal projects and for clients I’ve been doing a lot of work lately with Google Adwords.

In case your first name is Clue and your last name is Less Google Adwords is simply buying traffic (clicks) on Google. They are the “sponsored” links that show up on the right of Google. Ads can show up on top some times too.

Clients sometimes ask me: “Mike, can you take a look at my Adwords account?”

Most of the time my reply is… “sure thing.”

When I take a look I see some common mistakes. One of them is…

Only sending the clicks to your home page.

Here’s what happens…

Wet behind the ears at Adwords they’ll slap a campaign or two together. And what they’ll do is make the “destination URL” (that’s the page you want your clicks to go to) be their home page.

Big Mistake!

Not good for your prospects and it makes the Google Gods angry,

Let’s break it down. (“Hammer Time”)

The rookie wants to buy Google ranking for one of their services. They get the keywords and phrases for it. But then they send the traffic to their home page where it says something like… “Welcome, we’ve got all these great things for everyone and yada yada yada.”

Not Good,

The campaign needs to go to the specific page on their site for that service.

Then, you divide and conquer from there. (Moo Ha Ha!)

Are you also doing Adwords mobile? That’s where you dominate the searches on “Mobile devices.” You should be!

Bottom line…

The internet and the mobile world are always changing. Sometimes it makes sense to get some help to navigate all the changes.