Merging of the Minds

27. That's how many times just today that I used my smartphone to do something other than make a phone call. Wow! If you're not using mobile technology as part of your marketing mix, think of the sales opportunities you're missing.

Some of those 27 tasks included emailing, texting, checking facebook and twitter, looking up an address on Google maps, and checking the store hours of a local shop.

How often do you use your smartphone to access the web to make plans or shop? While it may not be as often as me (I'm addicted to my phone), I bet you'd reach for it all day long if I took it away from you. So, reason would have it that if you and I are using our smartphones this much, aren't our customers and prospects? What do we do about that and how do we engage them in mobile marketing?

While most people still think that the internet will be the death of print, we at BPI Media Group beg to differ. We embrace the web and simply incorporate it into print and that's what smart marketers do as well. Here are four ways we encourage you to merge mobile marketing into your print campaigns:

• QR Codes. They're easy, they're quick and they're catching on.
• Short Codes. Great for promotions. Great for gaining phone #'s for future campaigns.
• Text Alerts. It's the best thing to happen to customer service for many places (think of your pharmacy or for dining out).
• Mobile Landing Pages. Use them for campaigns or promotions. Have a mobile-friendly version of your website & folks will be more likely to use it while on the go.

These are just a few simple ways to include mobile marketing and how to incorporate it into your print messages. Read more about ways to combine print with mobile in our next issue of BPI's Graphic Advisor. Want to subscribe to our quarterly newsletter? We'd love to add you to our mailing list!

Until next time...Elizabeth

Mobile Friendly Sites?

The BPI Media Group team met with a top customer today to discuss updating their website, adding dynamic videos, streamlining the ecommerce portion of their site, maximizing the use of keywords for SEO and exploring the idea of creating a mobile-friendly version of their website. Sounds like a lot, huh? Well, honestly, it is, but it is all very manageable with BPI's knowledgeable webmaster/designer Brandon at the helm. His expertise brings so much value to the table that we are lucky to have him on our team!

As an expansion of our printing, mailing and fulfillment capabilities, BPI also works with our customers to solve their web-based solutions. These solutions range from setting up landing pages for campaigns, designing websites, incorporating SEO into your new or existing website or setting up an online portal where members of your team can order all types of collateral.

As a growing part of our business, we are thrilled to offer such a wide variety of services to better help with your marketing and communication needs-be it on or offline. Feel free to drop me a note if you'd like to set up a time to chat more about how we can help with the various mediums in which your company communicates! We at BPI feel they are all important, so we want to focus on all channels with every customer and prospect.

Until next time...Elizabeth