Greg brings a great overview of the tools he used at Cabela's in order to understand their customer flow - from interest to purchase - and what influenced their buy decisions. Knowing how far people travel to get to a store or the influence of discounts on certain products or having the right offer that brings them from the food court to your store are essential today. The tools and tactics we talk about in this episode helps to demystify this process.

 

It isn't rocket science but it may feel like it sometimes. Our goal is to set you on a path that will help you more effectively convert the customers and potential customers you are already paying to reach. Close the loop with some of these suggestions.

How do you know where to go unless you have the right data? That's what this episode seeks to answer. Having access to app store analytics gives developers incredible insight into the emerging trends but, more importantly, gives insight into the expected growth of an app. Using the service we highlight in this episode, developers will be able to see what categories and types of apps are ripe with opportunity while avoiding those that aren't.

Grabbing the attention of a consumer is THE challenge for marketers using mobile these days and beacons are in the middle of this notification revolution. They seem to be the answer to all marketing prayers and, according to a recent inMarket study, they work VERY well. Chuck summarizes the results in this episode but beware, there is a dark side to this bright light that could bring an end to your beacon initiative - and customer loyalty - if it is abused.

Welcome to episode #202. On the show: Urban Airship and Gimbal cozy up around beacons; Is that a drone on your wrist?; Dancing traffic lights; MoPub and Juice Mobile team up; Estimote maps the indoors; AirPatrol secures 2 patents; Path's best effort is...PathTalk?; xAd teams with Captivate Networks; Shazam is absorbed by Siri; Honeywell brings Google Glass to the air. Our special guest is SchneiderMike, VP of Marketing for Skyhook Wireless. Our resource of the week is Commute by MapQuest.

 

Full show notes can be found here.

We are entering the world of notifications. In fact, we should start considering notifications as an independent operating system that is layered on top of all other operating systems, right underneath the connectivity layer of what makes up the Internet itself. At the core of this No/s is communications - something that is an essential part of an effective mobile strategy as well - and right there in the middle of this communications revolution is a familiar infrastructure as a service company called Twilio.

 

Lynda Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio, joins us to talk about what makes this company an important piece of the mobile service puzzle. It is a timely episode as SmartThings - a company that leverages Twilio's services was just acquired for $200 million by Samsung.

 

Full show notes can be found here.

There is a terrible stigma to the mobile coupon. As Greg details in this episode, coupons have a bad rap because businesses almost always think of dollar off or discounts - but that need not be the case. The challenge is to be creative with the use of mobile coupons and start thinking of things away from the clip and save models that are dominating the mobile landscape. That said, if you are going to jump into the mobile coupon fray, build your strategy, know your outcomes and plan accordingly. The wayward coupon is a terrible thing.

 

As an added bonus, Greg reveals the single greatest coupon strategy on the planet. Seriously.

Late in 2013 Roy Smith, founder of AgeCheq, helped us understand the implications that COPPA is going to have on the mobile app industry. COPPA is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and we've all been waiting for something to happen - for the FTC to find and fine the first infractor. Roy promised to come back and explain the findings when this actually happened and, just this past month, the FTC levied fines on two companies - Yelp and TinyCo - for COPPA-related violations.

 

Roy held up his end of the bargain and here is that conversation. We talk about the infractions against the two companies, the implications on both Yelp and TinyCo and our industry as well as a list of 5 tips to ensure you are - and remain - COPPA-compliant. 

 

Full show notes can be found here:

Welcome to episode #201. On the show: We are LIVE from SM2 in New York City so this is a unique episode for us. We cover the top 2 stories of the week which are Shopkick selling to SK Telecom and PayPal's partnership with Samsung for wearable payments. We also have 4 live guests: Amit Shah of 1-800Flowers, Anthony Toguchi of Nestle, Sean Trepeta of Mobiquity Networks and Vikas Gupta of Factual. Enjoy!

 

Full show notes can be found here: 

MMS has been around for quite some time but perhaps it hasn't been appreciated as much as its relatives. Peggy brings us a glimpse into how MMS can help application developers bring users back into their apps and move downloads. She also highlights a new MMS service offering from Twilio and brings us the top 3 uses for MMS for your business.

Quick. Your biggest complaint when you walk into a Home Depot is? Retail has given us big box stores, streamlined ecommerce platforms, mass emails, coupons and real-time web customer support but have you ever been so frustrated by the lack of in-store customer support that you've walked out, vowing to never return? Well, mobile may be the answer to this.

 

Sears and Zappos (independently) are working on making your in-store experience a good one when it comes to getting some real-time help. Chuck explains how mobile is bringing customer service back to the physical store using some connected smarts.