Netlingo has an extensive dictionary of SMS text shorthand (warning: some inappropriate language).  Just for fun, we picked out a few useful, fun, or just plain obscure ones.  See how many you know!

In a recent article (April 2, 2009), eMarketer forecast that mobile advertising will rise from $648 million in 2008 to $3.3 billion in 2013—a 5-fold increase in 5 years.  This increase is expected to be facilitated by more pricing plans that include data and phones that are better able to present mobile content.  While this is a large increase, the total amount is still a small portion of overall online ad spend, which is projected by eMarketer to be $42 billion by 2013, up from $23.6 billion in 2008. (Search advertising represents the biggest portion of this—more than twice as large as the next biggest category.)  That is enough to make that 5-fold increase seem small, as mobile captures an ever-larger slice of the online ad spend pie.

Every 5 years, the American Marketing Association reviews its definition of marketing.  In early 2008, The AMA changed the definition to be: “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”   This new definition broadened the concept of marketing beyond that of a function, and incorporates a wide range of participants in the marketing process.

How does this relate to mobile marketing in general and to Fanminder specifically?  There are a few words that stand out in the definition that capture the strength of our mobile marketing programs.

The first is “exchanging.”  This word was not a part of the definition of marketing five years ago, and its addition speaks volumes about the evolution of marketing over that period of time.  “Exchange” implies that marketing is ideally a two-way process, where there is a connection—and even a dialogue–between the offer (or the company making the offer) and the audience, who receives and evaluates the offer. This exchange is one of the strengths of Fanminder’s mobile marketing programs. Merchants can communicate with their customers (or “fans”) to share special offers, news, and other information (that has been requested by the customer), and the customer can reply right back to the merchant, instantly, from their mobile phone.

The second critical concept is that of “value.”  This is not a new addition to the definition, but it is one of the most important elements for any type of marketing, especially mobile marketing, where merchants have been invited to communicate via one of their customers’ most closely held devices—their phones. Companies need to create offers that have value to their customers. Without that value, customers will at best tune out the offers being made, or even worse, will choose to end their relationship with the company that sent them.

Yesterday I walked Chestnut Street in San Francisco with our new Customer Evangelist, Tina Yun. Tina’s will be promoting Fanminder to local small businesses and bringing them onboard.

The goal of the day was to help Tina internalize Fanminder by meeting with a whole slew of local small business owners. Of course we also were hoping to generate at least a few solid leads.

And what a day! Tiring – but highly rewarding. But the outcome was not quite assured at the beginning of the day. Frankly, I wasn’t sure if we’d get the time of day from these merchants so Tina could hear first hand from them. Owners are busy with customers. Drop-in solicitations are tough. They get drop-ins all the time.

Also, despite what we know already, I also wasn’t sure which merchants would make the best prospects to pitch. And we were going to try out our new mobile broadband card and demo process (worked like a charm: I highly recommend the MiFi2200!!!)

I’m happy to report a really successful day on every dimension we could ask for. Bonus Prize: As we both shared with each other, we actually liked spending time in each others’ company. Whew!

Tina (and I) found a receptive audience among a:

• Coffee shop/bar
• Day spa – an appointment-based biz bristling with opportunity to help
• Optometrist’s storefront
• A hip clothing store
• An even-hipper sneaker and shoe store
• Florist (with the oddest-looking, most interesting flowers I’ve ever seen)

We heard great questions about “how do I get my list into your system” and “can I store the information locally” and Tina saw first-hand the glow of excitement in two managers’ eyes when we shared we could reduce appointment no-shows and save time with text marketing. Cool!

The day also continued to help clarify the type of person/owner most receptive to our offering: tech-savvy, using marketing and/or email, already collecting names, and looking to expand.

But all was not roses and sunshine. We clearly saw who to stay away from: harried, anxious, nervous owners with neither the time, inclination, nor mindset for growing their business. That’s ok, after all, we were a drop-in trying to sell something and not every owner needs to be Type A.

And yet…one merchant blamed us for a customer walking out which bummed me out because we went out of our way to be gracious. Another shooed us out door, and a third told us they’re in a fight for their life with a new superstore opening up. Sometimes knowing who NOT to focus on is as important as knowing WHO to focus on.

We ultimately canvassed every type of store and shop imaginable and out of approx 20 or 25 “conversations” we have at least a half dozen solid leads. And best of all, Tina continued to pick up the service and can start spreading her wings on her own.

Today we released two new product features, some improvements and a way for us to track what you’re interested in so we can prioritize better.

•    New Feature! Previous/next buttons in your mailbox to read replies faster
•    New Feature! Ability to save your online text messages as drafts
•    Customer Request! Increased our time-out window to reduce the amount of times you have to sign in during the day
•    Changed the opt-out count on the Overview page to a percentage rate and added a red/green color indicator to let you know quickly if you are doing well or not
•    Cleaned up some error messages to look and read nicer
•    Added page tracking so we can learn what features you like and don’t like Don’t worry, it’s anonymous aggregated data. We’re not spying on you.

Our next big focus is system performance. Clicking from screen to screen can be slow at times and we can’t have that because let’s face it, you’re busy and mobile marketing for small businesses is all about easy, fast and instant marketing. So keep an eye out for more speed over the next couple of weeks.

Want something else? Email iwant@fanminder.com and let us know.