Mobile marketing is on the upswing, and American consumers are responding, according to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). While there are many types of mobile marketing, mobile response advertising—which prompts viewers to some action via their mobile phones—is achieving particular success in the United States, indicates MMA research.
With the recent launch of a new mobile marketing tool, remodeling and home building firms can now take advantage of mobile response advertising to help build local awareness of their work and generate potential customer leads. Fanfare Mobile’s RemodelerBuzz marketing platform allows remodelers, designers, and other contractors to give passers-by an immediate peek inside their current or recent projects with the hope of cultivating more than a momentary interest in the project.
Using RemodelerBuzz, home improvement pros set up an account, add project information and photos (such as before-and-after shots), and create a keyword to associate with the project. A few days later, they receive an aluminum sign rider displaying the keyword and a number to attach to existing jobsite signs, enticing passers-by to interact and learn more about the project by texting the keyword to the number via their mobile phones.
Web-enabled smartphone users will receive a message with a direct link to the project page, which they can view immediately. Prospects without Web-enabled phones or who prefer to view the project information from their computer can have the link sent to their e-mail address instead.
Pricing for the RemodelerBuzz service is based on a per-month fee, and three monthly plans designed for small, medium, and large businesses allowing users to post from one to eight projects at a time are available.
According to the MMA’s June 2010 U.S. Mobile Consumer Briefing for its members, consumers’ response to mobile advertising was highest in media outlets that typically have the lowest ad awareness: print newspapers and magazines, cinema, and direct mail. The survey found that at least half of those who noticed mobile response ads in such media outlets had responded. And the preferred methods of response among consumers were either texting a keyword to a short code or calling a number. For designers, remodelers, and other home improvement pros looking for new marketing tools that will help them gain more local exposure, mobile response advertising using services such as RemodelerBuzz could help generate client prospects within the neighborhoods where they currently work.
