PayPal upgrades iPhone app to enable mobile check capture

via Mobile Commerce Daily by Dan Butcher on 10/7/10

Use your iPhone to deposit your checks directly into your PayPal account

PayPal Mobile’s application for Apple’s iOS now lets consumers transfer checks into their accounts for free by taking a photo with their iPhone.

The mobile check capture service is powered by BankServ. PayPal launched this new feature to encourage its accountholders to skip their next trip to the bank when they receive a check.

“Mobile check capture eliminates consumers’ need to visit their bank every time they receive a check, helping consumers save time and energy,” said Anuj Nayar, director of global communications at PayPal, San Jose, CA.

“We use technology provided by BankServ to make this possible for our U.S. customers,” he said.

PayPal has been quite active in the mobile space.

In June, PayPal, an eBay company, made its highly requested Guest Payments feature available to developers via its open global payments platform PayPal X (see story).

In July, PayPal rolled out a mobile version of its Express Checkout service for iPhone and Android that lets merchants offer the same PayPal experience for their on-the-go customers (see story).

In August, PayPal updated its iPhone application to let users donate to more than 23,000 charities, including The American Cancer Society, Save the Children and UNICEF (see story).

Mobile check capture
Mobile check capture is just one of the new features that PayPal added to its recently released iPhone 2.7 application.

Once users have photographed their check, PayPal recommends that they hold on to it for 15 days before throwing it away.

To get the iPhone application, consumers can visit http://www.PayPal.com/mobile or download it directly from the iTunes App Store.

“We are always on the lookout for ways to improve our customers’ experience in all 190 markets in which we operate and decided to implement this great new service in the U.S.,” Mr. Nayar said.

PayPal continues to ramp up the features of its mobile apps

PayPal has not announced whether or not it will expand mobile check capture to its applications for Google’s Android or Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices.

Laura Chambers, senior director of PayPal Mobile, announced the addition of mobile check capture to her company’s iPhone application in a blog post.

“We all agree that the future of money is digital, so it’s hard to believe that there are people and businesses in the U.S. still using an analog technology that’s 400 years old—yes, I’m talking about checks,” Ms. Chambers said.

“Have you ever been handed a check and thought about when you’ll have a chance to get to the bank to deposit it?” she said. “I’ve carried checks around for months before finally making the time to run to the bank or ATM to deposit them.

“That’s all about to change.”

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Commerce Daily

The Awesome Power of Mobile Marketing

via Western Massachusetts Mobile Marketing by admin on 10/2/10

Instant Marketing with Text Messaging

If you’ve been involved in Internet Marketing in the last ten years, then you know that traffic is king. Even if you have the finest product in your industry, if nobody ever sees or hears about it, it might as well be the worst. You may have also heard the term “the money is in the list”. That term still rings true, but the lists and the ways they should be managed have all changed. Since the inception of the Dot Com Era, consumers have been inundated with massive amounts of marketing and advertising. As a result they have become callous almost to the point of indifference, subconsciously filtering it all out. This consumer indifference creates whole new set of challenges when trying to reach a target audience.

Enter Mobile Marketing

One might attribute the power of Mobile Marketing to lie within it’s newness. The welcome change that comes with a fresh approach to consumer affairs. Mobile Marketing is the one tool that consistently reaches it’s target audience relatively unencumbered by the staleness of campaign drones. In fact,an estimated 97% of text messages are actually being read. Not only that but they are being read with 15 minutes of being sent. Globally businesses are experiencing huge success with the incredible power of instant marketing through a mobile platform. Record breaking sales are happening right now as more and more businesses are turning to this powerful new advertising medium.

Did You Know?

* There are upwards of 5 billion Mobile phone users in the world… and growing

• Almost every cell phone in circulation can receive text messages
• There are 5 times more mobile users than those using the internet.
• 50% of internet connections are now coming from Smart Phones
• Apple recently sold over 2 million new iPhones
• Android is activating over 160,000 new smart phones every day
• The majority of people keep their phones within 3 feet of them at all times

“A recent study showed that most people would rather be without their wallets than their cell phones”.

Text messaging is fast becoming the largest growing market segment and the most used service on mobile phones. Since Mobile Marketing is a permission based platform there is a much higher consumer confidence. A targeted buyer who has opted into a promotional campaign is far more likely to buy that particular product and service. This marketing media instantly reaches people where they are! Mobile Marketing through text messages enables businesses to send updates, announcements and invitations to segmented groups within their customer base.

This is the beginning of a new marketing era. The majority of businesses are yet to implement a mobile marketing strategy, partly because it is uncharted waters but mostly due to the simple fact that they just haven’t heard about it yet.  However it is just a matter of time until they discover the benefits which include:

* Lucrative lead generation
* Continuous “at will” marketing
* Instant updates, coupons, announcements and promotions
* Easy consumer analytic s for a targeted data base
* Powerful company branding capabilities
* Pinpoint location marketing

and so much more…

The golden rule of opt-in permission based marketing is simple… Provide value. Time and time again it has been proven that those who give the most, get the most. Providing value to customers is the best way to ensure buyer loyalty. There has never been a time when it was so easy to provide value. With the push of a few buttons, it is now possible to provide value to an entire group as easy as it is to a single customer. It is absolutely possible to use Mobile Marketing as a stand alone campaign but Integration of Text Message Marketing into existing on-line and off-line endeavors is more powerful still. Converting existing customers into text club members is as easy as an email, social media, some signage, and some face to face interaction. The ability to build a massive list of targeted subscribers is changing the direction businesses are focusing their marketing efforts forever.

Technorati Tags: mobile marketing

How to Promote an Event with Digital Marketing

via mobileStorm by Mobile Guru on 9/30/10

From a business perspective, events are an effective way to reach out to customers, prospects and colleagues on a personal level.  Without the proper promotion, however, you compromise all the potential benefits.  A multi-channel approach using digital marketing is one of the most efficient and effective ways to promote an event, but how do you leverage each channel to your advantage?

Starting early, the most important goal is to build a presence on as many digital channels as possible.  Whether it’s SMS, email and Online marketing, social media or any other channel, start spreading the word about your event as early as possible.  This builds an initial foundation for future promotion that you can optimize and use to build the most awareness.  Simply blasting out information isn’t as effective as diversifying your messages on numerous channels to ensure you reach your audience no matter which channel they prefer.

Each digital channel has unique benefits as well as limitations, and it’s important to leverage the strengths of each to build the most effective promotional campaign possible.  Channels like SMS and certain social media concepts like Twitter promotion are limiting in terms of the message you can broadcast, but extremely effective in acquiring real-time responses.  Online and email marketing provide the opportunity to divulge much more information about your event, but present their own set of limitations and drawbacks.

Take a hard look at the strengths and weaknesses of each channel and design a unique campaign around each.  Broadcasting a blanket message on all channel compromises the benefits of a multi-channel approach in the first place.

It’s also important to use each of these promotional channels to drive traffic to a central location that attendees can reference at a later time, such as a dedicated web page. This way, when the time of the event draws near, attendees can go back to that page for additional details rather than trying to locate the email, sms message, etc., that initially notified them.  It’s also valuable to integrate an RSVP strategy into the event planning.  This is valuable because it can tell you how well your campaign is performing, can help you plan for the number of attendees and can increase attendance overall by asking recipients for a small commitment to attend.  This also gives you the ability to send them reminders and additional information about the event.  RSVPs can be collected by a dedicated email or use a RSVP manager such as the one offered by mobileStorm.

mobileStorm recently held an event at the Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas Nevada to celebrate a decade in business.  Customers, prospects and business partners were invited to the event in order to meet face-to-face with mobileStorm executives and sales people in the hopes that this would lead to stronger and longer lasting relationships between all.  In order to make sure it was well-attended, mobileStorm created a multi channel marketing strategy that included a dedicated landing page, custom emails, print advertisements and web banners.  Customizable email templates were also distributed among the mobileStorm sales team so that they could add a personalized touch to invitations.  All of these marketing vehicles directed traffic towards an RSVP manager that collected names, email addresses and phone numbers.  This information allowed mobileStom to plan for attendance, evaluate marketing performance and send additional messages to registrants as the event neared.  In all, over 400 RSVPs were recorded with attendance at around 250, making the event a rousing success.

Global Mobile Advertising Industry Grows 17% in Q3, According To BuzzCity Index

via Mobile Marketing Watch by Justin on 10/5/10

New data released today from mobile media firm BuzzCity indicate the global mobile advertising industry grew by 17% during Q3 2010, with specific regions showing growth as high as 154% during the three-month period ending Oct. 1st.

The results, which were published in BuzzCity’s “Global Mobile Advertising Index for Q3 2010,” indicate a total of 54 markets each delivering monthly traffic exceeding 10 million impressions per month — an increase from 44 markets in Q2 and 32 markets in Q1.

Some interesting takeaways include the fact that while Indonesia ranked number one worldwide in terms of ad-banners served (3,685,538,814), its overall growth during Q3 declined by 16%.  Mobile advertising in the U.S grew 70% in Q3, putting it in third place in terms of ads served, while a newcomer to the list — Libya — grew an incredible 154% during Q3 alone, placing it in the number 8 spot worldwide.

In total, 14 countries have witnessed double digit growth in mobile advertising over the last three months, with three markets, Libya, Korea and Kenya, seeing triple digit growth.  It’s important to note that the index tracks activity across BuzzCity’s network of over 2500 publishers across the globe, so it doesn’t necessarily paint the clearest picture of the mobile ad industry as a whole.