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If you haven’t jumped onto the mobile marketing bandwagon yet, you’re going to want to hitch a ride – and soon. Mobile is the wave of the future and it’s no secret that everyone’s attached to their mobile devices these days.  Everywhere you go, you continually see endless amounts of consumers completely engrossed in them.  You don’t want to miss out on the opportunities this presents for you and your business.  With the convenience mobile devices afford their users, they aren’t going anywhere but into the future.  Join us as Jamie Turner of The 60 Second Marketer explores the mobile world in this interview with Brent Leary.

Small Business Trends: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Jamie Turner: Sure. I am probably best known as the guy who runs The 60 Second Marketer which is an online magazine for business around the globe. I go on CNN and HLN occasionally and talk about digital marketing – anything from mobile to social.

Small Business Trends: There are so many things going on around smart phones and tablet devices. What is mobile marketing today?

Jamie Turner: In a nut shell, mobile marketing is anytime a corporation or an entity decides to use a mobile device to connect with customers.  So that may be a real estate agent who wants to go out and use a QR code to promote themselves, or promote a property that they are doing.  All the way up to a huge mega corporation like Coca Cola that is going to use a mobile app in order to grab people’s attention and get them engaged with a brand.

Small Business Trends: Just how prevalent is mobile marketing today?

Jamie Turner: You know if you do a Google search and look at the trends for people doing searches on mobile marketing it is growing exponentially. That said, there is still a little bit of hesitancy for the average business person. With mobile they get a bit intimidated because they think it is more complex and harder to use.  But the reality is, it is just as easy to use as social media. Once you have learned those fundamentals, it gets easier and easier.

Small Business Trends: What about location based services? How has that changed things?

Jamie Turner: One of the coolest examples I have come across is how Chili’s went out and said, “Anytime anybody checks into a Chili’s, they get free cheese dip.”  But what was so cool is that they said, “Hey, anytime anybody checks into any company within a 200 yard radius of Chili’s, they also get the same offer.” It was a great way for Chili’s to broaden their net as they went out and grabbed people from nearby locations and said, “Come on into Chili’s and get free cheese dip.”

Small Business Trends: Maybe you can briefly talk about how you go about layering the foundation?

Jamie Turner: With the “Go Mobile” book (co-written by HubSpot VP of Marketing Jeanne Hopkins), we said, “Let’s start with fundamentals of marketing. What is it that people are really buying when they buy your product?” A restaurant is a great example. On the surface they are buying food, but when you dig deeper people are buying a lot more than just food when they go to a restaurant.  They are buying an escape from the ordinary. They are buying the ability to communicate and connect with other people. They are buying the ability to not have to do the dishes when they get home.  So when you start with those foundational elements of marketing, that’s when people are buying your product or your services.

They are buying something more than what you think they are buying. You can build on top of that foundation a mobile media house that really stands solidly on some fundamentals of marketing.

Small Business Trends: Now in the book you have outlined a number of really interesting case studies.  Some great information. One that I have to admit caught my attention is the Domino’s Pizza delivery app.  Mainly because I have used it. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about why that is such a great example of effective mobile marketing.

Jamie Turner: This app is amazingly easy to use. Domino’s has used the mobile app to capture an audience and keep them hooked because once you have used that app, your reluctance to download a different app from a different pizza company is a lot higher than your reluctance to use a Domino’s app again.  So it is really a terrific tool for Domino’s to capture an audience and keep them captured.

Small Business Trends: Can you give me your impression of what Near Field Communication (NFC) could potentially do for mobile marketing?

Jamie Turner: NFC is a way for electronic devices to communicate with each other. Bluetooth can communicate from about 10 meters away while NFC devices have to be about 10 centimeters away from what it is communicating to.

It makes it perfect for people in the future.  Let me give a description of the future. You’re going to have your Android device or your iPhone; you’re going to have Google Wallet on your Android device.  So what is going to happen is you will load money into your Google Wallet at maybe $100 bucks at a time or $50 bucks at a time and it will hold that money in that account for you. When you go to buy a product at Target or any other company, you will open up that app, wave your phone in front of a little device at the cash register and it will go ahead and deduct that amount of money from your Google Wallet.  So it makes buying products a lot easier and a lot simpler.

Small Business Trends: In the meantime, what should people be doing now in order to take advantage of mobile marketing opportunities?

Jamie Turner: There are four things.  1.) Build a mobile website.  2.) Register a business with location based services.  3.) Run a QR code campaign  4.) Do a paid search campaign. Those are the first four things I would suggest for any small, mid-size or even large business.

Small Business Trends: Where can people get the book and where can they learn more about the other things that you talk about?

Jamie Turner: Go Mobile is available everywhere.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

From Small Business Trends

Jamie Turner of 60 Second Marketer: Mobile Marketing Maestro

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