Sometimes the best way to learn how to do something is to look at the mistakes others have made and see how you shouldn't do it. Let’s focus on five of the biggest mistakes that marketers make when trying to take advantage of a cold call opportunity via social media networking sites, targeted mailers or even other traditional methods used in marketing.We've all done these - just remember not to act in haste and remember what an opportunity each call represents. Since they are targeted calls [and they better be ;-D ], make each one carry the weight of a personal meeting.

Mistake #1 - Assume

We all know what happens when we assume. Sadly, many business owners do it all the time and wonder why they aren't getting more positive results from their marketing efforts. You should never assume that people will be interested in what you have to say - or sell. Even if it appears that you have much in common with one another, or that you are in similar business circles and industries, you should never assume that they will return the interest or have the time to make a connection.

SOLUTION: When this happens - and it will - don't let it get you down. When you make your cold call contacts use good manners, offer solid and valuable information and be persistent.

Mistake #2 - No Real Connection

Some marketers work on the 7-11 theory. If you build a store on every street corner, sooner or later they are going to come in and buy something. However, in the world of cold calling, it is important to contact individuals that you share a connection or interest with in some way. Some marketers will just go down a list of names and e-mail addresses or leach onto their friends' social media contact list, spamming their business or website with no real method to their madness.

SOLUTION: Make sure the connection makes sense and is relevant to what you are proposing; either via past relationships, mutual colleagues, niche market or B2B service and need.

Mistake #3 - Be Rude

We all have busy days that get quickly eaten up with e-mails, phone calls and other interruptions. No matter what method you use to approach your prospective contacts, you will be taking time out of their daily schedule. Some marketers are rude, pushy, take too long to spit out what they are trying to propose and/or don't even follow the rules of good business conduct. Think about how you would like to be approached, how quickly you just wish someone would cut to the chase and what you would want to get out of the situation.

SOLUTION: Be considerate, courteous, use good manners, be specific and succinct and make sure to thank your contacts for their time. Good business etiquette goes a long way.

Mistake #4 - Wasting Time

Have you ever sat down to dinner with your family and had it interrupted by a cold call from a telemarketer who wanted to sell you something you couldn't use? How responsive were you to the phone call? How did you react and treat the caller as a result? Why would you expect to be treated any differently by a contact or customer if you bring them an offer that is not worth their while, something they would never be interested in discussing in a million years?

SOLUTION: Contact people that you know will benefit from the proposal, offer, product or service you are selling. Using business-based services like LinkedIn can help you fine-tune the needs and interests of your contact list.

Mistake #5 - Be Cold and Impersonal

A cold call doesn't have to be cold. Some marketers think they will win new customers or clients through the use of canned, spammy wording instead of targeted, personal messages. Spammy messages are a dime a dozen. Our inboxes are full of them every morning and you only need to take a moment to look at Twitter or Facebook to see pages and pages of poorly worded posts and tweets that quickly become missed opportunities. Think about it from your own point of view: would you respond to a canned message from someone you don't even know?

SOLUTION: Make sure you add a personal tone to each and every contact you make. Target your message as much as possible to each individual in a unique way to increase response.

Remember that everyone you call should be interested in what you are recommending, and if the timing is not right for them to purchase, how you handle the contact can always make or kill the possibility of referral business moving forward.

Always introduce yourself. I learned that in the fourth grade where we did mock etiquette calls. How many times a day does someone call you and ask for a manager or you by name and not identify themselves? This really puts me off.

Always acknowledge that you understand you are interrupting their work flow, and if now is not a good time to speak ask to set up a scheduled call.

Do your research in advance – be familiar with their website, business model, and problems you could help them solve before you ever dial their number.

Reduce your offer to bullet points, but not to the point that it sounds scripted or read from note cards! Make it conversational.

Above all, LISTEN. Don’t be so focused on your elevator pitch that you miss cues from the prospect because you are not listening to them. Now get on the phone!

Back at the end of October we talked about developing successful mobile applications. Now let’s talk about what happens after you’ve offered that app to all your brand loyalists and new brand converts!

Customer retention is more important than ever these days. While there are millions of users out there who might become customers, today's marketer knows that the smart investment is in keeping customers happy, engaged and recurring. How engaged are your users? How loyal are they to your brand? Have you gone out of your way to offer services that are desirable to your users? …Services and upgrade options that will keep them coming back for more?

This is a vitally important area of any marketing campaign or development project. Think about how you want your customers to use your mobile site and app. Do you want them to access it daily to get updates on news, information or to view fresh content? Will you encourage ease of use that will help to connect them with other aspects of your site and product offerings? Here are some stats that you need to know in order to improve customer engagement and loyalty:

• VISITOR FREQUENCY - You need to know the ratio of visits to actual users over a period of time. Check this weekly, monthly and quarterly. This metric will help you to know how frequently your mobile site or apps are being used and it is essential to understanding your overall user loyalty.
• DEPTH - How deep do your visitors go into your site? Do they just look at one page and then move on? Tracking the number of screens viewed by the average user and then comparing it to the total number of visits will help you to easily see the engagement level of your customers.
• BOUNCE - This statistic can be hard to look at, but it is important just the same. Having a ratio of the single view visits to the total number of visits is important because it shows you how many users are launching the app and then closing it right away again versus how many are launching it and then actually using it.
• DURATION - You need to know how much time your users are spending on your mobile site or using your mobile app. Again, this will show the level of engagement your visitors have with your properties.

What is a Conversion?

Another metric that you need to stay on top of is your conversion ratio. You need to establish the actions you want your customers to take when they use your app and then measure how many of them have "converted" and have done what you desired them to do. A conversion can be any action that you want it to be, such as the purchase of a product, a membership, a registration for a promotional campaign or even the viewing of a gallery or video promotion. Measuring the level of engagement in this area is extremely important if you truly want to measure the success of your mobile marketing campaign. This is true of any mobile property - websites, apps or other SMS promotional campaigns.

To measure the success rate of your mobile project, you need to identify all the different ways your app helps you to achieve your goals. By mapping out the measurement to individual customers who have completed the activities required for conversion, you will be able to see the true value of your project. Think about the various characteristics of your target audience and how you can reach them through your mobile site, app or SMS promotion. If you keep your focus on your target market, you will be able to easily identify the critical elements of success. Also think about the activities you want to make available for your users, how they will generate revenue, save you money or help to brand your business in some way, shape or form.

Retaining Users and Encouraging Usage

If you own a smartphone then you understand how it’s possible for people to download dozens of apps that they ultimately never use! Retaining your customers and encouraging them to use your apps is one of the most important aspects of a successful mobile property marketing campaign. You want to offer features that will be useful and relevant to your users. The best place to start is to think about how your customers will use your app. If your app is highly useful, they will use it more often and will keep coming back on a daily or weekly basis. Here are some things to think about that will help you to encourage use and retain users:

• BE STICKY - We all know about developing a sticky website and it's no different when it comes to mobile property development. You need to find unique ways to keep your app at the forefront of your users' minds and you need to stay on top of it and keep it fresh. You can't stay sticky forever - there's always a newer, bigger and better app being introduced. Take steps to make sure you remind your users that your app exists, keep them informed about the features available for use through the app and stay ahead of your competitors by launching the newer, bigger and better app yourself!
• FEEDBACK - You need to know what your customers think and feedback is an essential part of gaining insight into the true user-experience. Make sure to offer opportunities for your customers to give you feedback, either a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down metric or an option to send you a paragraph or two in their own words. You can do this via your online app store showcase or via your main or mobile websites.
• DISTRIBUTION - Don't just hope that your customers will find you via the online app store. Make sure to distribute your app freely to as many markets and in as many opportunities as possible. Market your app via traditional websites, mobile websites, offline print marketing - anything you think will get new customers to download and use your app.

You’ve learned over the years how to successfully market your websites, now apply everything you’ve learned about site marketing to your app marketing efforts!

Search engine optimization can be a double-edged sword. If people can't find your website in the search engines, you might as well just give up and go home. However, if you spend more time developing the SEO of your website and neglect the elements and functions that make a good website great, you might as well just throw in the towel again, because you aren't going to win any sales there either…

Businesses spend a lot of time and money investing in website development and SEO. Finding the proper - and professional - balance between these two essential aspects of online e-commerce is the key to your success. You need to make certain that your website is properly optimized for visibility in the search engines, but you also need to make sure that your website makes a solid first impression and can sell.

Designing a Good Website

Think about your own experiences when you have visited various business sites. What elements are important and what elements are essential? We have all visited websites that neglected to add a "Contact Us" link on the home page. We have all visited websites where the navigation just isn't clear or doesn't make sense. And I think we have all been to a website that just didn't have enough information available to help us decide whether or not to make a purchase. You want your customers to be turned on - not turned off…

Oddly enough, website owners have spent tons of money investing in the development of a website only to find out later that it doesn't sell. Before you can do anything you need to make sure that your site is effective. Set goals for your website. Decide whether you want to inform, entertain, educate, sell or generate leads, and then build a site that will help you achieve those goals. Add opportunities for visitors to complete actions, such as registering to receive an e-mail newsletter, downloading some type of content, clicking to give feedback or adding an item to a wish list. All of these activities are indicators of the buyer's interest.

Designing for SEO

A website that is poorly designed, or designed using out-dated methods and code compliance can alienate the search engines. So even if you think you've dotted all your Is and crossed all your Ts, you might be missing something strategically important. Make sure your website does not contain any elements that would undermine all of your sales and SEO efforts. Some elements are so offensive to the engines that they could wreck your rankings and render your site invisible.

Flash is one of those things that can negatively impact the visibility, usability and SEO of your website. As we’ve discussed in other posts, Flash is on its way out - going the way of the dinosaur. Most tablet PCs don't even support it. Frames is another out-dated type of Web design that should have been "gone" a long time ago, but some developers insist on continuing to use it. It is annoying for the user and the search engines just don't like it.

Dynamically generated content once sounded like a good idea, but the data is basically hidden from the search engines. What's the point of having all that great content there if you aren't getting credit for it?  On the other side of the spectrum, a website that is 99% images and 1% poorly written text won't win you any awards or top rankings either. The engines can't read the text if it is included in a graphical image. Make sure you use actual text mixed in with your images to give a balanced and clear depiction of your business and what it has to offer.

Finally, another big mistake is to have hundreds of outbound links posted throughout your site. While you may be trying to offer more information or support to your site's visitors, Google will most likely see all these links and think you are running a link farm. Link farms - in case you didn't know - don't rank well with Google ;-)

Before You Start...

Don't even invest a penny - or a minute of your time - on SEO until you have a website that is user-friendly, current and has the ability to achieve your business goals. Once you have all of that taken care of you can begin to implement your SEO development. Even if your SEO works like magic and you start getting hundreds or thousands of new visitors to your site each day, it won't mean a thing if your site is ineffective and you can't sell a thing.

Design smart and you'll see positive results from your efforts!

Traffic is King! When you’re preparing to launch a pay-per-click or PPC advertising campaign, most of you may typically go straight to Google or some other search engine to get started. But let’s think again; there is another very viable option available for PPC marketing I want you to consider that has proven to be very effective in the last few years.

According to a study this year conducted by SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) and Econsultancy.com, many of today's top paid search marketers are turning to PPC options at social media networking sites as a complement to their more traditional placements at the top search engine ad networks. In fact, as many as 52% of those surveyed claim to have successfully boosted their PPC results over the last year through the use of social media PPC advertising in conjunction with a search engine PPC advertising campaign.

As more opportunities come available to marketers throughout 2012, and more and more social media networks offer PPC advertising options to their advertisers, the study also reveals that 47% of all North American companies surveyed were currently running PPC campaigns on Facebook, and 27% were running PPC campaigns on LinkedIn. As many as 18% of these companies were also running PPC campaigns at YouTube and another 15% claimed to be advertising at Twitter. In adult this is mimicked by the continued expansion of Exoclick, Ero-Advertising, and AdXpansion to name a few and a host of mobile PPC traffic generators as well. Investigate all the newly developing social options within adult as well. There has been a real consolidation in board traffic, the original adult social option, but alternatives are springing up and gaining traffic; Xbiz.net among them.

Of course these figures are still relatively modest when compared to the sheer volume of companies that utilize PPC advertising campaigns at the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo! 95% of all companies surveyed stated they were using Google AdWords and 70% stated that they were using Bing and Yahoo! for their PPC advertising campaigns. I know Yahoo! is friendly to Adult search business, but an issue some of my friends had after driving and successfully converting traffic was that their confirmation mails with usernames and passwords were blocked by their filters causing some real customer service issues! I will investigate to see if that has been resolved. Over half of those Google users also claimed to have used Google's other marketing tools and products, with 74% using the search network, 66% using the keyword-targeted content network and 50% using the site-targeted content network to increase traffic and visibility. These figures for ad dollars spent at the major search engine-based ad networks are consistent with spending seen in 2009 and 2010, as uncovered in the SEMPO and EConsultancy.com report.

However, there are still a lot of companies that spend their PPC ad dollars on smaller search engines such as Business.com and AOL - so there is a trend here that proves that bigger isn't always better. Today's marketers need to make these "roads less traveled" a priority in 2012 in order to make the most of their advertising campaigns. The SEMPO study showed a large increase in the use of social media channel PPC advertising without a decrease in spending on ads in the major search engines or the Google network. The future of PPC looks good ;-D

Key to your success in 2012 will be your ability to cross-utilize the social PPC and traditional PPC networks with complementary campaigns that raise visibility for your brand and drive traffic to your sites. We’ll talk about what to do with that traffic throughout the year. Now get busy!

Regardless of the type of business you do on the Web, either in the B2B or B2C markets, creating a quality form for your website should be a top priority.  But what makes a form good or bad?  Some developers think that if they cram in a bunch of color, well-written text and lots of plug-ins they've got the whole thing nailed down.  In fact, if you focus on just those areas, you will only solve a small portion of the problems that most developers face with regard to form usability.

Forms are essential to increasing your business.  They help you to establish a method for contacting potential customers or clients by adding them to newsletter mailing lists, shopping cart abandonment notifications or other essential marketing tools. They also help you to know what your customers want from your website and brand. Understanding what people want is half the battle. Once you establish a clear picture of your site visitors, you can adjust your marketing tactics and increase your conversions.

What Is Usability?

Standard website usability is defined as the effectiveness and efficiency with which users are able to achieve specific goals within a Web-based environment.  There should always be a goal established for your users - either to make a sale or sign up to receive free content or information.  In order to accomplish both of these actions, your users must fill out some type of form.  The viability of your form and its ability to elicit information from your visitors is essential to the success of your online business. Forms are used to help your visitors achieve their goals – and to help YOU achieve your goals - so they must be effective and easy to use. 

There are six primary ingredients that are necessary in order to create an effective form.  I want to help you understand these ingredients and find ways to implement them effectively in order to get the best results from your forms.  Once you understand how these elements work, and why they are so important, building a productive form will be easier than ever before.

#1 - Actions

Actions are the buttons or links that help the user to perform an ‘action’ like submitting the form or continuing on to the next part of the purchasing process.

#2 - Help

A help section should always be provided to give users information on how to fill out the form and answer any questions they might have about why certain information is required.

#3 - Input Fields

These fields are where users can provide feedback and information and include fields such as check boxes, radio buttons, basic text fields, password fields, etc.

#4 - Labels

Labels are used to describe what is required from the user in each field.

#5 - Messages

Messages are used to give instant feedback directly to the user based upon the information they input into the form, such as an indication that the form was completed and submitted properly or that more information is needed in order to complete the form.

#6 - Validation

This element is used to validate that the information submitted by the user is acceptable, such as properly formatted phone number or email address.

Different Types of Forms

You will ultimately use different methods or approaches depending on the type of form you are creating. What are your goals?  Do you want to elicit feedback from your customers?  Do you want the user to establish a customer account or sign up for a marketing newsletter?  Do you want to create a point of contact for potential clients?  There are three basic types of forms that are used by a majority of businesses.  Below you will find a basic description of each to help you determine which approach would be best for you and your goals.

Appearance Forms

These forms will help you to establish a conversation and relationship with your site visitors, customers and clients just by the way they look.  Design plays an extremely important role in the development of these forms. Make sure to adhere to the guideline posted above and include those six elements in your design. When you create a well-planned, aesthetically pleasing Web form, you will get better results.  Pay attention to the alignment of your fields, labels and actions to create a form that not only looks good, but performs well too.

Conversation Forms

If your goal is to establish a dialogue between yourself and the people who visit your website, this is the type of form for you.  Remember that a conversation is a two-way street - it's not just about customers giving you information and interacting with you about their experiences on your website, it's also about you communicating back with them to answer questions, solve problems and let them know about new products or services that are available.  Don't use aggressive wording and make sure there is a natural flow of conversation to ensure that your customers feel comfortable with this type of form.

Relationship Forms

Some forms are designed to help create a relationship between your business and your customers or clients.  Because relationships are built on trust, it's important to establish trust in your form.  You can achieve this through the use of proper wording, color, imagery and a well-placed and respected logo.  Users feel much better when they know the form they are filling out comes from a trusted source.  Use this form to get to know your visitors, asking appropriate and effective questions that will help you to paint a clearer picture of what your customers want and need from your business.

Experiment and innovate – forms are a necessary evil and most customers these days must first trust your brand before divulging personal information. Polls, surveys, purchases…web forms have become a central element of our Web interactive experience. Make yours as simple, easy and painless as possible!

Lately we've seen a lot of trending data that focuses on the online behaviors of low- to mid-range income Internet users, but what are the affluents up to when they surf the 'Net? A recent study that focused on Internet users who had an annual household income of $100,000 or more revealed that digital ads are just as appealing to the haves as they are to the have-nots.

Ipsos Mendelsohn conducted a study in February 2011 for the Interactive Advertising Bureau which measured the interaction of affluent consumers with digital advertising. It revealed a couple of interesting statistics, such as a partiality to video and paid search advertising, as well as a tendency of a majority of affluent consumers - 60% to be exact – to take some type of action based on digital advertising. Affluents were also slightly more likely to want to take an action with digital advertising versus consumers who lived in households that made less than $100,000 a year.

Compared to the under $100,000/year group, the $100,000+/year group was more likely to become aware of new products (55%) and new companies (51%) compared to lower-income households, who came in at just 49% in both product and company awareness categories. 17% of the higher-income participants stated that after viewing the digital ad online they went to their local retail outlet to see the product or purchase it, with another 16% stating that they purchased the item online. Figures were only slightly lower for the lower-income participants, with 16% stating that they went to a local retail outlet and 15% stating that they purchased the product online after viewing the digital ad online.

The higher-income participants responded the most to digital ads via video and paid search advertising, with 41% starting that they had taken an action after they saw one of these types of ads. The next most popular type of digital advertising was banner ads and e-mail advertising, with 37% claiming to have taken action after seeing one of these types of ads.

Another interesting twist was a greater understanding by affluent users of the need to provide marketers with more information about themselves in order to view advertising that is more targeted and tailored to their needs. One statement on the questionnaire that said, "I am usually willing to share some information about myself online so that I can get a more customized online experience," resulted in 32% of the affluent respondents to state that they agreed, and only 23% of the lower-income respondents responding the same.

When it comes to behavioral targeting, affluent users seem to be much more accepting of this technique than other users. This could be a reflection of their understanding of the need to divulge more personal information to advertisers and marketing programs. As many as 37% of these users stated that they are most likely to pay attention to advertisements that are relevant to the activities that they are involved in or are thinking about regardless of the content or theme of the website they are visiting. Only 32% of lower-income users agreed with that idea.

There is a marked difference between the digital ad behaviors of higher-income users and lower-income users. How will you use this information to increase your bottom line?

We hear so much about social media these days that sometimes it can get a little overwhelming.  But it is important to understand that while these tools can yield amazing results, the successes that businesses have seen from using social networking media have only come from using them effectively.  Anyone can create a Facebook account or start "tweeting" on Twitter, but to use these programs effectively takes know-how, ingenuity and a willingness to sort out "what works" from "what doesn't."

A study was conducted earlier this year by the folks at Worldcom PR Group and the Transworld Ad Agency Network, which surveyed 25 different ad agencies and 25 different PR agencies to see how effectively social media tools were being used by these groups. While all the numbers were different according to the industries that the various groups worked with, all agencies reported that their fees from social media networking had increased, yielding a much greater percentage of their revenues in 2011 than they had the year before.  16% of the ad agencies surveyed revealed that their revenues from social media were 15% or greater in 2010, with numbers increasing in 2011 to 20%. 

So what is causing the increase as the influence of social media evolves within the world of e-commerce?  Is it simply more users taking part in interactive advertising and media via Facebook and Twitter?  Is it because more ad and PR agencies are expanding their marketing campaigns to social media - or is there another reason?  In fact several reasons were revealed through this study as to why these agencies believe their social media revenues had increased in the past year.

As many as 84% of the PR agencies surveyed and 67% of the ad agencies surveyed reported that their PR efforts through social media resources have "kept pace" within the market.  However as many as 68% of PR agencies surveyed and 52% of ad agencies surveyed reported that their efforts within the traditional advertising industry were also "keeping pace" within the market.  What this reveals is the same thing that we saw in the earlier numbers which showed that PR agencies were much more effective in communication with customers and were better adept at dialoguing with their target demographic than the ad agencies were. 

This ability to communicate and dialogue makes the PR agency much more able to yield positive results than the traditional ad agency.  So while both types of agencies were able to yield growth and positive results from their social media efforts, the PR agencies did the best.  So what's the solution?  In order to "cover all bases" with traditional marketing and the evolving Internet-based, fast-paced social media marketing, firms would be smart to hire an agency that excelled in both PR and traditional advertising skills. 

As social media continues to grow and marketers integrate it more frequently into their marketing campaigns, you will need to focus on your social media skills on a day-to-day as well as long-term basis in order to keep up with and possibly surpass the efforts of your competitors.  Combining both marketing approaches together will help you to create a complete and thorough marketing campaign that will enable you to reach out to new demographics while still satisfying the needs of your current customer base. Good luck navigating the social seas and avoid turbulence!

It’s interesting to watch how SEPA has finally captured the attention of the payment community and at long last is bringing some welcome changes to the European transaction landscape. But what does the roll-out really mean for those selling to EU consumers online? What is SEPA direct debit; how does it work, what are the advantages, limitations and liabilities? How does it compare to other forms of debit? How does the Merchant offer it?

As the owner or payments director of an online site attracting European traffic, it’s vital that you know more about non-card payments – and that includes more than just placing a specific capability or platform on your sites. That strategy reminds me of the old ‘build it and they will come’ Internet website analogy – just adding a payment option to your check-out is not necessarily going to improve your sales, or find you suddenly with volume through that new method.

The European Union is a huge market, and has even less in common with the United States than you might think. The institution of the SEPA banking scheme is just one aspect of what is happening. Your online operation must still consider local language, customs, habits, currencies and education as you consider how to tap into this vast population which once completely online will be significantly larger than the US market. 

Do you know the difference between domestic direct debit and SEPA direct debit? Which would you suppose converts better? Are you considering adding non-card methods to your credit card capability? Have you added non-card join options and been disappointed in the results? Every implementation is different. Everyone has a different traffic mix. How do you present the option? How do you pay affiliates on the option? What is direct pay? What is a banking transfer and how is it different from the other two? Are they interchangeable? When can I do recurring billing, and when not? What is right for your business?

Need answers? Talk to me.  Make More Money - E-mail JoeD

Wait - don't click away! This post is for company owners, project developers and marketers - we'll leave all the technical mumbo-jumbo about how to develop a mobile app to the folks who know what they're doing. Today let’s talk about developing goals for your mobile applications, understanding the key indicators that will reveal the performance of your apps, how consumers are finding and using your apps - and the value of it all, whether your apps are engaging and retaining customers to your company brand.

As mobile apps continue to grow in use and popularity, many companies will jump into the mobile arena after developing an app for smartphones, and just cross their fingers hoping it works. Unfortunately, most of these people skip the most important part of developing a mobile market strategy - the planning and definition of their application development - and end up wondering what went wrong. It is important to know how to measure the performance of your entry into the mobile arena and if you don't have a clear strategy and objective, you will in most cases fail.

Another mistake that people commonly make is to develop mobile apps for each and every platform, throw it out into the wild and hope one of them catches on with consumers. Wasted time and wasted resources go into developing, publishing and maintaining an app only to find out that nobody is interested in what they have to offer. However, the worst thing you can do is to skip over the idea of developing an app altogether and put your focus into developing for mobile browsers. Apps aren't going anywhere - they're just getting started!

Measuring for Success

The first thing you need to understand before developing and publishing an app is what influences the purchasing decisions and other behaviors of your target audience as well as the typical mobile app user. All of this information is essential to developing a solid mobile marketing strategy. So before you even start developing that app, make sure you take the time to think about how and what you will use to measure the success of your mobile marketing campaign. Your research can be broken down into four main categories:

• DISCOVERY PHASE - Investigate how people are finding your current mobile properties and how they are using them.
• LOYALTY PHASE - Find out just how engaged and loyal your users are to your mobile properties, and how often they return.
• ENGAGEMENT PHASE - Find out what your users are engaged in on your mobile properties, what activities they are completing and how many are becoming customers.
• RETAINING PHASE - Find out the best methods to use to encourage customers to continue using your mobile properties and retain them for your brand.

Once you are able to determine the questions asked in the above phases of early development, you will be able to better understand what needs to be accomplished in order to turn users into customers. You will also be able to develop a solid plan for retaining those customers and improving the success of your mobile properties and marketing campaigns.

Raising Awareness

If people aren't finding your mobile sites and apps - you need to know about it. It is important to raise awareness within the industry, community and to raise interest with your target demographic. You can do this both from within and outside the traditional app markets. There are many different ways that you can promote your apps and mobile properties - what methods are you currently using now? Are you promoting them via your website, via social networking programs, via email and text messaging, via a specially-designed mobile site or through the use of advertising campaigns? Whichever method you decide to use to promote your mobile apps, make sure to monitor the following areas of your project carefully:

• DOWNLOADS - You will want to stay hyper-aware of the number of times your app is downloaded. What this will do is show you the volume of interest surrounding your application and it also helps you to get a clear picture of how many people have downloaded and used your app.
• USERS - This is an important test of the usability of your mobile app. You need to know how many unique users of your app there are over a period of time. More will download your app than will actually use it, so this is an essential metric to keep track of as you fine-tune your app development.
• ACTIVE USER RATIO - This is one of those quick-look stats that will instantly show you the ratio of the number of actually users compared to the number of total downloads. By looking at this figure you will be able to understand whether you are gaining or losing users over a period of time.
• NEW USERS - Another great statistic that you need to know is the number of users that first used your app during a specific period of time. This will help you to understand whether your downloads mostly occurred immediately following your launch, or if you are continuing to get new users downloading your app over time.
• VISITORS - You should also keep track of how many unique visitors accessed your mobile website over a period of time. This will help you to see if people are using your mobile site - or not.
• NEW VISITORS - Just like with users, it is also important to know how many visitors are accessing your website for the first time over a specific period of time. You need to know if you are just seeing the same group of visitors over and over, or if your marketing campaign is bringing you new visitors and customers to the site.

Next time I’ll talk about engagement and those vitally important concepts of conversion and retention!

A 2011 study of the online gaming market has revealed that more than 50% of all consumers have now spent money on online or mobile games throughout Europe and the US. The data for this analysis comes from GlobalCollect, an online payment processing company based in the Netherlands, and Newzoo, an international research firm. 

The study separates the online games industry into two separate and distinct markets - an emerging market which is comprised of Russia, Mexico and Brazil, as well as the well-established Western market which includes the US, UK and several EU countries. The emerging markets throughout Russia and Brazil are relatively low due to a limited Internet penetration in these areas, however with only 46 million online users in Russia and Brazil as many as 75% of those consumers play games online. In fact, studies show that Internet-users in these countries spend more time playing games than they do watching television - as much as 11 hours per week!

Despite their low overall numbers, 53% of Russian gamers and 47% of Brazilian gamers who play games online have spent money to play. Over two-thirds of those who pay to play spent money on add-ons for mobile and online games that are free to play. While these figures may not sound impressive, it is important to note that GlobalCollect has noticed a 103% increase in the last year of gamers who pay to play in Russia and an astounding 228% increase in Brazil since 2010. The increase has been determined to be as a result of the use of local payment options, such as WebMoney in Russia and Boletos Bancario in Brazil.

A study that was conducted in 2011 by National Gamers Surveys also revealed that growth is being seen in all three of these emerging markets.  Approximately 16 million are actively playing online or mobile games in Mexico, 35 million are active players in Brazil and another 38 million are active in Russia.  These figures are expected to grow as Internet penetration increases and knowledge of local payment options becomes more well-known and trusted in these markets.

Western markets are more established in the online and mobile gaming verticals, and there are as many as 145 million active players in the US. However, only 43% of 63 million of those players actively pay to play or purchase add-ons for free to play games. The percentages are much higher in other countries, helping to create the over 50% average in the Western market, with Germany boasting 36 million active players and 66% or 24 million of those players actively paying to play those games. 52% of the 31 million players throughout the UK, or 16 million, are actively paying to play online or mobile games.

We can learn much from observing the spending and playing habits of consumers in the Western markets and apply those statistics to the emerging markets to determine how some of the growth in those countries will evolve. The study also reveals that major changes have occurred in recent months with regard to the amount of time that consumers in Europe are spending playing games. These figures have caught up to the usage seen in the US, where spending for online, mobile and downloaded games now represents as much as 50% of the consumers' spending for online game playing. MMO games make up approximately 10% of their total monthly budget spending with as much as 80% representing spending on virtual currency. As many as 15% of Western consumers have now purchased Facebook credits to use for online games purposes, and this figure is expected to grow dramatically.

You’ve got the traffic, and everyone is playing games online - are you motivated to start working with some game developers yet?