Using Text And Multimedia Messaging To Sell Pizzas! -- Part 1

Aug. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Part 1: Using Text And Multimedia Messaging To Sell Pizzas!

Selling Pizza By CellPhone Could Be a Great Marketing Tool!

In our age today, there's a rapid increase of individuals using their cellphones to connect to the internet. From café tables to New York subways, people use their iPhones, Blackberries and other mobile devices to locate places they wan to go, from laundry cleaners, boutiques to sweets shops.

While most businesses focuses are focusing more on their online presence, they do not notice the potential market reach they can get from mobile internet. Throughout the world, even small businesses have a competitive advantage creating their mobile Web sites over to those who do not.

It's not as simple as setting up a Web site, however. The small size of a mobile phone's screen and the high price of transmitting data, for instance, create a number of stumbling blocks to transacting business by mobile phone.

Although, there's a good news, it's easy and affordable to creat a mobile web site to start attracting customers. And the best part is that it needn’t cost much. Here are five simple steps to follow:

Mobile web site

A mobile website is a browser based web service that can be viewed on small screens of cellular phones or PDAs. If you're going to create a mobile website, ease of access and usability is very important to successful create one.

Unless you're a multimedia programmer, chances are you're looking for a quick and easy solution. You can use Ubik.com to start with, an online service that provides free mobile web site creation and publishing. With a simple step-by-step approach, Ubik.com leads you through the process of setting up a mobile site in less than 15 minutes.

By removing the clunky, mobile-unfriendly components of your traditional site, you can create a simplified version that conforms to the parameters of small mobile phone browsers. If you're thinking of coding mobile web sites for hundreds and thousands of mobile devices with varying screen dimensions and resolutions, it'll probably take you years. Now with Ubik, you will only need to supply the text, images and menus and the rest is up to them!

Dozens of scenarios could be used to demonstrate the usefulness of having a mobile Web site. Here’s one: A group of friends exiting a movie theater one late night suddenly craved for a Sicilian-style pizza. They wonder if your pizza parlor is still open, one of them flips open a mobile phone and finds out. Here, having your mobile site ready to reassure them that they can satisfy their cravings until 11 p.m. is key to closing the sale.

Keep it simple!

Of course, you want to keep your customers using your mobile web service, so better keep it simple by removing unwanted texts and slow loading images. Mobile shoppers doesn't want to be kept waiting all day, they want a quick and easy solution they can act on, so better keep your message short with all the necessary details included. Even in these days of “all you can eat” data plans, many users are still paying for every byte they download.

Mobile customers needs something far simpler than the average PC Web site. Let's say these people are too busy and only has time to use their cellphones with a few key strokes. You can adapt your mobile web site to highlight information that's key for hungry and busy people on the go, such as this weeks specials, menus, establishment location, store hours and contact information. Make it simple, consistent with your brand's theme/look, while keeping the navigation simple and directly provide the right information. If you choose to focus on creating a mobile web site with clear, easy to access and navigate controls, you'll be driving more customers to your doorstep and not to your competitors.

Market by text

Treat your customers as your community. With SMS marketing, it generates an immediate response from them. People carry their mobile phones all the time, so keep in touch with them by offering an opt-in text messaging system to let them know about special deals and menu items.

You can even give them electronic coupons. Most people are more likely to respond to a text message than any other forms of communication. This can be an advantage for you to increase your sales by sending them notifications about their nearing expiration offer and they need to act now in order to get an even greater reward.

In fact, according to the Mobile Marketing Association, 89% of companies that used multimedia messaging in order to reach their audience in 2008, with nearly one third spending more than 10 percent of their marketing budgets on advertising in the text message marketing medium.

To have and edge agains their competitors, many restaurant chains are introducing mobile ordering services via text message. Typically, the customer creates an account on your Web site that activates the text message ordering service the moment they enter their mobile number and setting up a list of favorite orders, such as “large cheese.” The favorites list corresponds to an online customer account, gives you a buzz when to cook that large cheese when the “FAV” text message arrives.

Mapping your way to success

The latest handsets come with location-based capabilities and mapping software. How would you know that your establishment is listed and searchable when someone nearby search for what you offer? One answer is Google Maps for mobile, a popular application that is used in smartphones.

This free, downloadable application puts your business listing, maps and location directions directly in the hands of mobile users. People can search for your business establishment using Google's local search engine by name like "Joe's Pizza Shop" or by type such as "pizza parlor" or "pizzeria." People searching for what you offer will be able to view your business listing, your address, products, hours of operation, mode of payment, contact info, some pictures of your establishment and even be able to text or call you with just a single click on their mobile phones.

You can simply link directly to your Google listing from your web site.

To be continued... watch out for Part 1: Marketing By Texting: Sell Hot Pizzas Using Cellphones

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With over 20 years of experience in restaurant point of sale the author of this article is the Customer Relations Vice-President at http://www.pos-for-restaurants.com -- helping you use your Restaurant POS technology to be more more efficient and more profitable.

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