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The host of Mobile Mixed, Greg Hickman shares his insights into mobile marketing and how business owners must start to incorporate mobile strategies into their internet marketing campaign. Learn from the best when it comes to developing your mobile marketing strategy in Episode 66 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Greg Hickman is the Creator/Host of Mobile Mixed. He is a Mobile Marketing Consultant focused on retail.  He is the Co-Founder of Thumbfound, Entrepreneur & Mountain Biker.  He started off as an agency guy having the opportunity to work on brands like Pepsi, Lipton, and Walmart, creating and managing digital, in-store and grassroots initiatives.

Out of college, Greg started at an agency doing project management for a company that represented Pepsi so he got a full grasp on all aspects of marketing.  His supervisor left his position and he pulled Greg over to help him at this new business in 2005.  The company would make ring tones and wall papers for professional sports teams and he was able to see how engaged people were from their phone.  When the iPhone came out, he knew the world was going to change and he knew that was where he wanted to be.

MobileMixed.com started in June 2012 while he was working with a company that represented 300 shopping centers around the country.  He didn’t have any role models so he wanted to reach out to people who were doing mobile marketing really well and he started to reach out to them for his podcast show.  He realized there was an audience following behind his show and he shifted his show from being interviews to solo episodes as well.

Through the podcast, Greg has developed relationships with a lot of the guests that have been on the show.  He’s been able to find mentors and through his podcast he got offered a job at a business leading the mobile strategy of a large brand.  Through the podcast, they found Greg and it was really an opportunity to work with those guys.  Greg was able to work for the big brand for a year, but things kept growing with Mobile Mixed and although he enjoyed working for a big brand, he enjoyed growing his own business more.

Because of his podcast a big brand found him.  When he stopped focusing on trying to work for a big brand and when he tried to make it a resource for mobile people, other people saw it.  Since he started the podcast it’s been a great tool to land speaking gigs to share his knowledge about how to incorporate mobile marketing into your business.

Greg will be speaking at New Media Expo, Social Media Marketing World, Mobile Marketing Strategy Summit and the National Podcasters Conference.

By 2015 more people will access the internet on their phone than on their computer.  More than 50% of all emails are opened on a mobile phone.  70% of Facebook users access their content from a mobile phone. 40% of global YouTube views are on a mobile phone.  61% of podcasts are listened to from a mobile phone.

To get started on mobile, make sure your website is mobile-friendly meaning you can use responsive design.  You can also create a mobile optimized site.

50% of all email is opened on a mobile phone so you need to make sure your email is presentable on a mobile phone.  The mobile phone has become a filtering device to even let emails into our inbox.  Knowing that your customer is doing these things on their mobile phone, how does that impact them. Web to lead marketing is extremely important to businesses to ensure they sell products, if you want to find out more about how this can impact your business, visit https://www.salesforce.com/products/guide/lead-gen/web-to-lead/

Greg says the best mobile marketing company is Starbucks.  They do the advanced stuff and they do the basic stuff and they always think about the full experience.  They think everything through from start to finish.

One of the things Greg is using now is MMS which is muli-media messaging service.  It’s text messaging with picture and video.  In Greg’s podcast, he will have a text call to action.  Through the messaging a person could record their question and they get a quick video in response to their question.

SMS messages have a 99% open rate and 90% of text messages are opened in less than 3 minutes.  The average open rate for emails is 20 – 22%.  You get a much higher open and click-through rate through text messages.

It’s just as easy to sign up on a text message list as it is to an email list.

If you realize that your website is not mobile friendly you should listen to Episode 49 of the Mobile Mixed Podcast titled, 6 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly, Episode 51: Email: The Most Overlooked Mobile Tool and 9 Tips to Get Started, Episode 65: 17 Mobile Marketing Mistakes You Want to Avoid.

Engaging Discussion Questions:

• How important is having a mobile strategy in today’s economy?
• Do you think mobile marketing can be done independently of a traditional marketing campaign?
• What questions do you have about mobile marketing?

Success Quotes:

• “Make sure that your definition is something that you own and is not based on someone else’s accomplishments.”
• “Success means being happy every day, being vulnerable and not being worried about what other people think.”
• “Your business objective is to sell more stuff.  You need to think how can mobile help you cell more stuff.”
• “How do I get my customer to do all these things I want them to do as easy as possible wherever they are at.”
• “Responsive design is a great way to make sure your site is presentable on multiple devices.”
• “74% of consumers will only wait three seconds for a website to load on their mobile phone before abandoning that site.”
• “Starting the blog and the podcast were the best things I’ve ever done.”

Links to Great Stuff:

• Mobile Mixed – Mobile Mixed is more than a web show, blog, resource and community of awesome mobile marketers (which it is of course)… Mobile Mixed is a freakin’ mission.
• New Media Expo –
• Social Media Marketing World – You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, andenjoy extensive networking opportunities in San Diego, California.
• Mobile Marketing Strategy Summit – GSMI is a leader in the industry of executive education, global conferences, summits, and training sessions that combine rich learning environments with the opportunity to network with today’s most relevant thought leaders, speakers and practitioners. GSMI’s annual events have reached 85% of the Fortune 500 companies, in over 30 countries, and cover topics that today’s leaders find most challenging and inspiring.
• Podcast Movement: National Podcasters Conference – For podcasters, by podcasters. Come together for a weekend of learning, lessons, and living life. For podcasters of all skill levels!