However, people DO want things to be convenient and accessible when they need them.

They want to know about things that are important to them. And they are especially grateful to anyone or any company that makes their life easier.

Making life easier for someone is one of the six ways you can provide value with mobile.

Here are a few ways you can make your customers life easier with mobile:

• Build an easy to find mobile site that has commonly sought after stuff like your phone number, directions/map and hours right up top. Unlike your desktop site, if they need this information they need it NOW.

• Offer a text message reminder service for your customers. If there is something your customers want to be reminded of as it relates to your products or services, set up a way for them to be reminded.

• Provide a mobile alert system for things are extremely timely about which your customers want to know. This could be an open appointment or available seating. It could be a pricing alert or an availability alert. Anything for which email is too slow is a good match for text messaging alerts.

• Create a mobile loyalty program. Don’t make people carry around another card in their wallet. Honestly, it is too much to ask people to do.

With mobile marketing it is so important to focus on the end user because their mobile device is so personal to them. Really anything that is sent to it or seen on it has the potential to either interrupt and annoy or provide value and delight. Focus on delighting your customers and your mobile marketing campaign can succeed beyond your expectations.

In marketing you can push your message to your customers or you can pull them to you. Because mobile marketing is 100% permission based you have to use pull tactics with mobile.

For people to come toward you when you are marketing to them you have to make your customers’ lives better in some way for them to accept mobile marketing from you. Otherwise, they will ignore your campaigns just like they ignore anything that is irrelevant or annoying to them.

In this blog post series I will cover the 6 Ways to Provide Value to Your Customers via Mobile. Here is the second of six ways to add value:

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Timely Information

If there is something that your target market needs to know in a very timely manner, when even getting it via email might be too late, this is the perfect value to provide via mobile.

An example of this could be a pricing alert (gas prices are going up in 4 hours), an availability alert (your favorite hair stylist has an opening in 3 hours or the hard-to-find item you have been waiting for is now in stock) or a combination of the above (we have open tables tonight and if you come in before 7 pm, you get a free dessert).

This could also be a readiness alert (when something you need to pick up is ready) because once you are home to check your email or retrieve your phone messages you don’t want to head back out again. Getting a text message on the way home would be ideal.

Travel alerts are a perfect example of timely knowledge. If a flight is delayed or gate is changed and you can find out about it instantly wherever you are, that is very valuable information to know immediately.

Other Posts in this Series:
What Your Customers Want via Mobile

In marketing you can push your message to your customers or you can pull them to you. Because mobile marketing is 100% permission based you have to use pull tactics with mobile.

For people to come toward you when you are marketing to them you have to make your customers’ lives better in some way for them to accept mobile marketing from you. Otherwise, they will ignore your campaigns just like they ignore anything that is irrelevant or annoying to them.

In this blog post series I will cover the 6 Ways to Provide Value to Your Customers via Mobile. Here is the first of six ways to add value:

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Location-Specific Information

This is the no-brainer category of information to provide for your customers via mobile. Location-specific knowledge is the number one reason that people access the mobile web for mobile search.

They are out and about and need to know where something (in this case, your business) is located. Or they need to know something related to that: your hours, whether or not you have free parking or driving directions. Maybe they want to see a photo of what your storefront looks like so they will recognize it when they arrive. Location specific info includes anything that will help someone find your business physically or is in any way related to your location.

To provide this value, make sure you build a mobile friendly website and include all the location specific information your customers will need. Be sure to make this information very easy to find on your mobile site – maybe even put it right on the home page. After all, if they need to know where you are, it is likely they need this information in a hurry. If they have time to read more they can click into additional information.

Once you build a mobile site, be sure you have gotten your business listed in every possible local search engine / local directory that you can. Not only will you be able to be found if they search inside a local directory, but these directories also feed their data to the big search engines. It is just plain smart to be listed in these directories.

Start here with Google Local Business Center , Yahoo and JumpTap. All are free. I’ll write more about local mobile search in future postings.

Stay tuned for the other 5 ways to provide value to your customers with mobile.