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Mr. Online and Mr. Offline are sitting in a bar discussing their various marketing tactics when in walks the young, voluptuous Miss Mobile; after a few drinks they strike up a conversation. "Hey, why not come over to Myspace and we can Google together" says Mr. Online. Immediately Mr. Offline pipes in, "Hey, forget that, I can get you on billboards or perhaps a magazine spread." Totally unimpressed, Miss Mobile strolls to the door, turning to say, "Sorry guys, it sounds like neither of you are in to TEXT."
At first you laugh, but then reality sinks in... when it comes to your business, when was the last time you used SMS TEXT? Yet, can you think of anything that is more pervasive and more intimate with the majority of your potential clients and customers than the communication medium of mobile phones? Let's examine the facts: 94% of SMS TEXT messages are viewed, 62% are remembered and 22% of value-add messages are forwarded to friends. Roughly half of mobile subscribers use SMS in the U.S today.
3.5 BILLION WHAT?
If those facts are not mind-blowing enough to pique your marketing interest, did you know that there are more mobile phones on this planet than automobiles, landline phones, credit cards, TV sets, or personal computers? Yes... 3.5 billion mobile devices are conveniently nestled in the pockets of the very people you'd like to reach and it's rare that anyone turns their mobile device off.
Now, I'll be blunt... are you using TEXT to connect prospects to your business? Do you have a mobile web site? Hmmm.... I wonder why?
ANOTHER SECRET MOVIE?
It's my guess that just about now you're thinking I'm going to launch into a dissertation on the secret's of mobile marketing, or maybe announce a smash hit movie (ha!) on the topic. After all, I'm the guy that orchestrated the internet strategy for the wildly popular smash hit movie, The Secret. Yes, THAT Secret! The funny thing is, the topic of Mobile marketing seems to be even more secretive, but Mobile is not my primary topic today; it's only a small slice of a much more important topic I'm soon to reveal. Let's first step back in time for a little perspective...
In moving forward from a project as massive in reach and revenues as The Secret, about a year ago I began to assess what might be that "next big thing" I'd focus my attention on. Not surprisingly, I was inundated with hundreds of offers, projects, widgets, movies, and whacky ideas; but nothing really caught my inner spirit. I wanted to return to my roots and genuinely fill a void by helping small business owners, networkers, and entrepreneurs improve their marketing results - yes, marketing, but marketing in some way that really connected.
Just as The Secret movie had gone back in time to rekindle brilliant ideas from years past, I began to realize that in marketing, a similar rekindling was long overdue. Marketing offline is NOT an old-fashioned strategy, marketing online is NOT the "be all end all" strategy, and marketing in the future will NOT center exclusively around Mobile devices. Good marketing is merely good communication and be it online or offline that communication can and should travel in all modes and media. At last my epiphany: perhaps we need to teach the new marketing dog some old tricks and then better connect the things we are doing - be it old, new or futuristic.
BRIDGING THE GAP
If you reread the "Mr. Online, Mr. Offline and Miss Mobile" joke I began this article with, you'll realize that the challenge underlying this joke is not that any one marketing media type is better, rather it is that they are NOT connecting. There's a GAP between them that IF BRIDGED would optimize how they flow and work together. It's an inconvenient truth that marketing via multiple media is a far better strategy for any business than to rely too heavily on just one. Unfortunately, so many businesses are either online or offline and they rarely venture across the GAP in any intelligent way. But the BIG question is: "How do I connect them?"
ARE YOUR PROSPECTS OLYMPIC POLL VAULTERS?
Your prospect or customer today often is required to travel across many marketing GAPs, say from a yard sign or newspaper ad, to an SMS text message, to a mobile web site, to a Free Recorded Message back to your internet site and ultimately compelled to join your email newsletter subscription list and get by mail a product sample. Or, perhaps a prospect hears by word-of-mouth about your product, then they search for more info on Google or Yahoo, they read a review or discover a YouTube video that connects them to a web site where they locate a phone number and call to get directions to meet in person or attend an event. Here we've explored just TWO rather common examples and yet your prospect was required to jump four or five GAPS each time.
This multi media GAP jumping is forcing prospects to become Olympic poll vaulters as they try to follow your GAP-ridden sales path toward the goal you have in mind and the outcome they seek. The bad news is most business owners and marketers are NOT making this any easier for the prospect. In fact, your "bridges" are often so rickety, cumbersome, or non-existent your prospect gets lost in the GAP.
SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
Put simply, regardless of what business you thought you were in, you have suddenly found yourself in the bridge building business. You have (or should have) marketing campaigns in the online, the offline and the mobile worlds, all working in synch to cast your marketing message out and reel your prospect in. Your best prospects desire a yellow brick road yet time and again you're giving them chutes and ladders; if that.
There's actually very little that's new here, we are just looking at your marketing a bit closer and with an eye toward connecting things better. However, it is so critical that the solution you need requires a new mindset, a new set of tools and a whole new genre of marketing.
THE ONLINE OFFLINE MARKETING REVOLUTION
Welcome to BridgeGAP Marketing, the online offline marketing revolution that focuses on optimizing the "connectors" across the various GAPs in your marketing media while always matching the message as prospects are connected by technology and smart bridges to their desired goal. It's the umbrella marketing genre that not only bridges our GAPS but connects all other methods of marketing.
Just 20 years ago had my professors told me I'd be clicking on text to travel to some online destination, I'd have laughed out loud. Yet today, right before my eyes I can click my camera phone and it will translate a simple bar code from a flyer, print ad or billboard. A click (once again), however this time it's bridging the physical world to the mobile world in a flash. This is not an oddity from Ripley's "Believe It Or Not," it's a marketing phenomena already underway and just one of many bridges prospects will be traveling.
You're in for a treat as you explore this new world of marketing. BridgeGAP Marketing is the rocket fuel that will set your business on fire, but it's YOU that must first strike the match.
BridgeGAP Marketing
Dan Hollings
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