I’ll give you one good guess.

Wrong! Mobile is cited as the #2 reason

The #1 reason is the platitudinous “list fatigue” otherwise concluded so by some marketing expert.

Read it here.

I don’t think list fatigue can adequately describe the root cause, because the decline has been steady over the last couple of years, precipitously dropped last year, and seems to be a micro-cause related to an individual company’s use of email.

Rather, I think the real culprit is the burgeoning, splintering, myriad ways consumers can waste time or be productive on facebook, the mobile web, texting, smartphone apps, twitter, the iPad… you get the drift. People have less time to dawdle and read, and more businesses caught on to email so more cluttered inboxes. Add enhanced “security measures” that prevent images from popping, and you have the steady decline of a once-great marketing method quickly being reduced to junk mail status.

So what’s a business to do? I’ll give you a second guess.

Yep.

What do you think is causing the decline of email?

Evidently I have a fan out there. Which is really important to know because as far as I can tell, she’s the only one.

Ivana over at DIY Marketer has dissected my ramblings, errr, blog posts, and concluded I know what I’m doing. You can read her fairly insightful analysis here.

This is really a good analysis by her, though I wish I could say more of what I write about is part of a master blogging strategy. I guess I’ll need to conclude my blogging is based more on  auto-pilot at this point, but that only increases the worth of Ivana’s observations for other CEOs seeking to do good things with blogs.

Thank you Ivana!

It’s a Saturday, so naturally I’m working my tail off. But it’s also time for a little reflection. Today I just received some feedback from a couple of customers and thought I’d share it.

I just got off the phone with our favorite insane business owners, Web and Jordan from Psycho Donuts. They used the new Fanminder Offers feature to blast a one-day only offer for their “Cereal Killer” donut and shared the wonders of our automatic revenue tracking.

Said Web Granger, Partner, “I liked how I didn’t have to go and ask our Nurses (ie, Staff, yes I know, they are crazy!) how the Offer went, I could just go and look it up.

Exactly.

Earlier today I also had the pleasure of exchanging emails with Jennifer Ayre, the Owner of Savvy Cellar Wines, in Mountain View. Jennifer and her husband are indeed, quite savvy, but not just about wine. They’re also genius social marketers, and now, Mobile Marketers too.

I dub them “geniuses” because they have figured out a way to get the highest redemption rate of all Mobile Marketing programs we have had the pleasure of transmitting thus far: “About 80%” – according to Jennifer.

What’s her magic? I can boil it down to 2 simple methods any business owner can replicate:

• Great Offer - She offers 25% off a flight of wine for joining the list (see below)
• Relentless promotion - She advertises her Mobile Club on each page of her wine menu, and as you can see below, within email blasts, in addition to in-store and on her website. This tends to attract exactly the kind of customer most interested in engaging via mobile because it’s easy for those customers to find the message.

What are you doing to drive higher redemption rates?

Paul

The Mobile Marketing Association defines mobile marketing as:

“ a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” ¹

As this definition suggests, there are many ways in which a small business can engage in mobile marketing.  The 1^st Annual Fanminder Small Business Mobile Marketing Survey ² listed six popular mobile marketing programs, asking respondents to rank their interest in them.

As with the mobile marketing benefits, all six mobile marketing programs presented in the survey garnered high interest from respondents—the lowest rated program was still very or extremely interesting to more than 40% of respondents.

Respondents were most interested in a mobile website—a business website optimized for mobile devices.  A recent study by Pew Research Center in Washington showed that 40% of “American adults use their cell phones to surf the Web, e-mail, or use instant messaging,”³ so these business owners are definitely onto something!

Complete results for the 6 programs in the survey are:

What other uses do you think mobile marketing can be used for?

¹ Mobile Marketing Association website.

² 1st annual Fanminder Small Business Mobile Marketing Survey analysis based on 42 responses to an online survey.

³ Smartphone Use on the Web Goes ‘Mainstream’

Yesterday we learned of our first bonafide product review at Anita Campbell’s Small Biz Trends. It’s a very positive review that mentions some particular strengths we’re proud of:

• fast and simple set-up
• Almost effortless ability to grow the fanbase because the merchants’ customers (fans) enroll themselves via their phone)
• We give ideas to create signage
• Able to track texts, customers, and now, revenues

Mobile marketing for small businesses is still in its infancy, so reviews in mainstream small business publications like Small Biz Trends is undoubtedly a credible way to help business owners understand the whys and hows.

A big thanks to TJ McCue and Anita Campbell!