Capturing the Mobile Consumer…..Where Do I Start?

Today, there are more than 311 million people living in the United States and according to the CTIA Wireless Association, there are more than 300 million active subscription plans to some form of wireless service.

A wireless service subscription can be many different types. There are the wireless internet cards you can buy for your laptop, which gives complete mobile access to the internet from your laptop anywhere your carrier has an available network.

There are monthly plans you can purchase to obtain wireless access to public “hot spots” like coffee shops, diners, airports, etc. I have found these to be of limited value as the “hot spot” must be using the network you have enrolled in or else it is useless.

We are seeing a tremendous expansion of the mobile web seen on today’s cell phones. Most cell phone today come with a browser which allow you to access the internet with the add-on purchase of a data plan from your carrier.

Next we get to the “Smart Phones”. Today’s hot phone is the iPhone 5. Android, Window 7 phones, and yesterday’s favorite, Blackberry, all make smart phones which give access to the internet via the various carriers’ wireless data networks at speeds up to 4G. (4G stands for “4th Generation” of cellular standards for those of you who are wondering).

And let’s not forget tablets. Apple developed the iPad and launched the product in April 2010. The product sold 3+ million units within the first 80 days to market. Since then, we’ve seen similar products produced by companies like Blackberry, Sony, HTC, Dell, and many more. We are smack dab in the middle of the wireless revolution.

With the birth of the smartphone and tablets, a new channel of marketing has evolved to present product offers to wireless subscribers. Today’s consumers start their day at the kitchen table reading the paper online, continue to check email and stocks on their smartphone on the commute to the office, take their tablets to lunch to review the latest version of their presentation or check on tonight’s big game, then finish the day on their laptop again reading “tweets” on Twitter or posting to their Facebook accounts.

Sounds like a lot of wireless? It definitely is. But if a company manages their advertising budgets properly, they can take advantage of it. According to a recent US Census Bureau report more than 48% of total US retail sales were made online.

I strongly suggest to those business development professional that now is the time to embrace wireless, not run from it due to budgetary restraints. Direct some of your marketing budget towards starting a wireless marketing campaign. If you do nothing else, at the bare minimum, make sure your company has a mobile web friendly landing page. There’s nothing better to show off your business than having a professionally developed mobile page pop up for the consumers searching your product line.

I enjoy hearing back from my readers so please share any ideas you may have for marketing plans and any success you may have already had with your programs……

Looking To Cut Operating Costs?

Looking to cut operating costs?   Monthly Real estate bills taking a bite out of your receivables?  Insurance premiums on the rise?  Payroll costs soaring?

These are all major concerns for today’s small and mid-sized businesses.  These day to day incidentals are necessary evils to stay in business and keep your company operating.  Or are they?

These escalating expenses are perhaps the largest concern of business owners and operators today.  Many product lines require a certain number of staff and inventory in order to keep the operation running effectively.  Over the last 5 years, a new class of businesses has been developed to address just this area of concern.

“Business Process Outsourcing” or “BPO” companies have sprouted across the country.  These BPO companies have made it their business to offer the back office services that many of today’s smaller businesses require to operate.  BPO companies can provide the staffing necessary to service, maintain, connect, deliver, invoice, and collect for the services your company may offer today.  All of these services are available without the overhead of real estate costs for the call center or warehouse facility.  No insurance premiums to cover health, dental, or life insurance for the employees.   No lost or down time because of short staff during the summer months when vacation time is at a premium.

Outsourcing has been around for many years.  I’m sure all of us have heard the commercials featuring

“Bob, from Account Temps”

where an employee is attempting to disguise his voice, calling in sick to his manager, only to be told

“Not to worry, Bob’s here.  Bob from Account Temps.  Bob has finished the reports you’ve had on your desk and reorganized the President’s files.   Why don’t you take the rest of the week off?  We’ll be fine.  Bob’s here!”. 

Well, you know the rest of the storyline but you understand where I’m heading.

Outsourcing for back office business needs has become a big business in and of itself.  The BPO companies are able to take advantage of the “demand” for staffing and services by providing the “supply” of labor and IT products to fulfill the needs of their customers, the small and mid-sized business owner.   Need a new phone switch for your call center?  Don’t spend $300k to $600k on new switch and phones.  Consider “Outsourcing” it to a BPO company and let them do the work for you.  Maybe outsource the call center function as well?  (and don’t be concerned about shipping jobs “overseas”….. There are plenty of BPO companies operating 100% within the United States).  

We all know the best way to grow any business is to add new  revenue producing customers.  Improving back office equipment is great when times are good but in today's tight economic situation why not consider an alternative?  In exchange for reasonable pay as you go fees, you can take the capital saved on the asset purchase and put it towards marketing and sales, which will help grow your business, not simply keep it operating in place.

In earlier years, outsourcing was limited to on site replacement labor of temporary workers.  Today’s BPO companies have taken it a step further and moved to providing off-site labor and IT services, covering a wide variety of on-demand business services as needed.  All benefits and salaries, real estate fees, insurance premiums, and operating licenses are the responsibility of the BPO companies.

If you are interested in outsourcing some or all of your business needs, or have any questions or comments,  please leave a comment here on the blog or you can reach out to me directly at @DaveHanron on Twitter or you can email me at dave.hanron@ildmail.com

If I don’t have a product to meet your needs, I have lots of business contacts I can get you in touch with to help……

Using Premium SMS for your Digital Business? Time to Switch to New Technology

In previous years, most digital merchants offering products on the internet used Paypal, credit card, and premium SMS (PSMS) services to receive payment on their services. Recently, the traditional phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Century linked have jumped into the market and started to allow “Information, & Entertainment Transaction Billing (IETB) direct on home or business phone bills for select, high profile merchants.


Internet merchants have struggled with payment options for years. Today’s identity breach concerns have forced many consumers to shy away from credit card use online. Paypal’s a little better but the Consumer still either has to provide a credit card or debit card number to Paypal, or make a pre-paid deposit into the Paypal system. A little more security but still a concern to many Consumers. IETB billing is better, but as more and more people move to a mobile phone only at their home, the merchants’ reach for IETB billing continues to shrink.

So Merchants began looking for yet another payment option and started turning to the “Premium SMS’ concept.

What is “SMS”? SMS stands for “Short Message Service”. The SMS concept was created in 1984 by Friedhelm Hillebrand and Bernard Ghillebaert. SMS messages are similar to “Tweets”. Restricted to 140 characters, you are limited in your message. The SMS market quickly determined a need to send an “SMS-like” message, but have the ability to charge a fee to the recipient for a digital service, like a ringtone. This idea evolved into the “Premium SMS” (PSMS) business we all see even today. When you see something like “Text to XXXXX and instantly receive your favorite team’s latest updates for $9.99 per month”, you’re using PSMS. You get the $9.99 billed monthly to your cellular phone bill each month and all is good.

Good for the Consumer. Bad for the Merchant! In PSMS programs, the cellular carrier keeps ~45% of the product fee, and the owner of the “Short Code” (a short code for PSMS is typically 5-6 digits long and cost between $500 and $1000 per month to maintain) will usually take about 5%, leaving ~50% of the product price for the Merchant. It was OK, but not great.

Today, “Direct Carrier Billing” has been developed for mobile phone accounts and is currently available and quickly replacing PSMS programs for merchants. Current restrictions are pretty stringent as the program is in its infancy. All products must be ordered and consumed from a browser. Price points cannot exceed $29.95, but this is quite a bit better than the typical PSMS limit of $9.99. Currently, no “in-app” products will be approved.

Direct Billing allows a merchant to invoice the consumer for their digital product directly on their mobile phone bill, with returns in the 80% range. The setup process is an easy, straight forward process, with a short application and small set up fee. A merchant can be approved and billing within 30 days of application filing. The merchant gets a much improved return over the PSMS program, and gets to place a description of the product ( Example: “ACME Home Warranty Monthly Premium -- $24.95”) directly on the consumers’ mobile invoice, making adjustments less likely as the Consumer knows what the charge is for.

Drop me a message @DaveHanron on Twitter or email me @ dave.hanron@ildmail.com for more information on this new wave of payments and take advantage of “Direct Carrier Billing”