Tag Archives: mobile marketing

How To Be Successful With Regards To Mobile Marketing

You may have heard about mobile marketing. There are many ways you can advertise your business through mobile devices. With all of the different ways to promote your business via mobile marketing, it’s probably difficult for you to figure out where you should start. Follow these tips to get started.

To make the most of your mobile marketing campaign, focus on sending only the most relevant, useful, and interesting offers to your subscribers. Make sure your customers can trust you, do not go overboard with messages they will be annoyed.

Register your business on all the social networking pages. This helps your business get found. Keep things simple in the beginning and add more explanation about your products or services as your gain experience. At the bare minimum you should claim your business on Facebook, and set up a custom business page on Foursquare to start.

Use mobile marketing combined with other media on the web. Have marketing material that matches what you have on your mobile site’s landing page, and make sure that it’s designed to keep them on your website. Mobile marketing strategies that actively engage people, as opposed to simply providing literature, are generally more successful and lead to more sales.

You should buy short codes over sharing them. At around $2000, this method can be costly. However, it may eventually become linked exclusively to your brand. Eventually, users will associate your short code with your brand. Using code sharing can cause legal issues, as well. If the code sharing company abuses the system, you can be in trouble, too.

To be a good mobile marketer, you need to take small steps up the mobile ladder. This should be your strategy as well. Continue to interact with your customers by first sending texts, then calls and then video, building your network as big as you can. Make use of all the tools you have available.

Send out quizzes and trivia to customers who have signed up for it emails, and keep them mobile friendly. Many consumers will respond when quiz questions are sent to their mobile phone. This quiz program can be used to gather marketing data and entertain your customers at the same time.

Check to verify that your mobile web site works on every popular mobile web browser in use. You want your messages to have the same quality for any Android device, an iPhone or a Blackberry. It’s smarter and simpler to alter your message to fit all three platforms, than to try and tailor your design for each one. Mobile marketing is reliant upon the KISS principle.

If you are trying to phone or text people, keep in mind that the most important word here is “people”. Act in the proper way.

Try two different pages, called A/B testing, for your mobile page. Testing is important so you know that people can use your website. Develop at the same time, two platforms for your mobile page (A/B), and see what platform is most effective with your consumers. After testing the two pages, use the one that is most successful.

Any mobile marketing you intend to do should be checked for cross-platform compatibility. You have to take all different kinds of devices from random phones into account when developing your strategy. You are going to have to use scripting that is compatible across all of them to benefit from your campaign.

A helpful hint to help you get started with your mobile marketing plan is to do a test run before putting your plan into effect. Your campaign will be useless if you do not send out efficient messages. Also, try sending it initially to coworkers in order to see their impression about it before going live.

Using mobile marketing is a good way to get profits to soar. There are more and more consumers who are using their cell phones to surf the web, shop online, download apps and access social sites. Both of these places are fantastic marketing locations. You must be willing to adopt new marketing strategies based on the platforms that your customers are using.

When sending out a mobile marketing message, include a promotional code. Your customers will be more likely to visit your site if they see a discount they can get.

Whenever you are promoting an event, make sure to use multiple marketing mediums. Try sending a flyer in the postal mail to let your customer know about an upcoming sale. Let people know via an email about seven days before the sale happens and text them about an hour before.

Especially when it comes to your mobile website, you must remember that less is more. Lengthy descriptions, and action-packed landing pages filled with keywords will not work in your favor. With mobile marketing, you need to be short, sweet, and to the point.

It is important to do research about your potential audience. It’s important to know what your target audience needs and wants before you waste any money on mobile marketing. Which are they more likely to use: their cellphones or their computers? What OS is on their phones? Find out about the people you want to reach, and you will be able to reach them.

Avoid sending texts to consumers in the early morning or late evening. Regardless of how enthusiastic customers are about your products and services, and regardless of how appealing your text message content is, it is highly unlikely that a customer is going to be thrilled about receiving a text message while they are sleeping, or as soon as they wake up.

Look into designing a mobile app yourself. Doing so will prompt customers to check your app for new promotions and sales. It can increase recognition of your brand name, and have a positive effect on foot traffic, too. Enlist a professional to develop the application for you, since apps can vary wildly in scope and price, ultimately.

Mobile marketing can be a complex topic. Realize that every business is unique and will need to be approached with different marketing techniques. What might be useful for one business could be useless for another. The previous tips should have helped you start.

Mobile Marketing Ideas That Can Put Your Business On Top

What aspects of mobile marketing are you familiar with? Are you currently employing a marketing plan? Do you have the desire to make it better? Is the method you have in use meshing with your company or working against it? Are you confident that you are utilizing your plan in the best manner? If you’re admittedly new to mobile marketing, then read on for some valuable tips.

You must offer people a little something to attract their business. You need to offer incentives in your mobile marketing campaign. The incentive could be a free app or tickets to a local event. Additionally, you can offer coupons to bring in more customers to your website.

If you make it easy to share your mobile marketing, your clients probably will. You want to make sure that the recipient of your ad can easily forward it to others, while also including an incentive to the person who first viewed it.

Tailor your rewards to your audience. When you send a message to anyone outside your group of friends, it’s important to grab their attention. For example, if your target is business executives, offer a meal voucher to a high-end restaurant. Families of moderate income will respond favorably to family-oriented offerings.

Be consistent when promoting your mobile strategy’s call to action. Use Facebook, Twitter, your site and your physical store (if there is one) for promoting. This should give your marketing campaign the widest possible reach and attract a variety of different potential customers.

While mobile marketing can be difficult, it does have the benefit that you can tailor ads based on location. Mobile marketing lets your customers know where you are and what you are doing. This introduces you to modern location-based alternatives that do not correspond anywhere else. Location awareness is an important aspect of mobile marketing: make sure you plan your strategy accordingly.

Utilize the dedicated short code. While the price is higher, it can help your brand stay protected. In addition, it gives you a measure of legal protection.

Be sure that you test your sites usability across different dynamics. If your customers can not see what you are forwarding to them, your efforts will be wasted. Send test messages to yourself, employees, or household members, so that you can look them over before you officially launch any new campaign or content.

Use your main website to your advantage. If you need a simple way to get your viewers to take advantage of your mobile sites and smartphone apps, make sure they are aware of these by promoting them on your base website. Whenever a customer browses your conventional site, they will be delighted to learn that they can communicate with your company while they are out and about.

If you have any social websites that promote your business, make sure you include a corresponding link on your business homepage. This will make it easier for your customers to find you. They are unlikely to search for your social presence, but if you include a link, they can easily find the page.

When you consider what to include on your mobile page, remember that it’s important to say as much as you can with as little copy as possible. Avoid long-winded product descriptions or complicated pages filled with links. Be sure your message gives the user a chance to take an action, and make that action simple. With mobile marketing, you need to be short, sweet, and to the point.

Have a telephone number database to assist your mobile marketing efforts. Resist the temptation to merely accumulate a large volume of cellular numbers and incorporate them into your mobile marketing attempts. You want to be sure the people receiving your messages did actually sign up for them. This can often be achieved by having individuals fill out online forms, or even using advanced text features to relay consent.

If your mobile marketing messages contain a link, you should link to both your mobile site and your main site to cover the widest range of mobile devices possible. Keep in mind that if your regular website has flash, the link needs to go back to your mobile site.

Creating a mobile app with lots of helpful information for your target market is a great mobile marketing strategy. Choose an App that is entertaining or that provides pertinent information. To get more sales from your app, put in links to any related products/services, alternatively, you can make some money by selling the app itself.

Invite your mobile customers to communicate with you directly. Customer input is valuable, regardless of whether it’s positive or negative. You should seek out customer feedback at every opportunity.

When you call or text someone, remember to personalize it and treat the person at the end of the phone with respect. Adapt your mobile marketing calls to the circumstances of the person you are calling.

Buy your own short code instead of using a sharing service. The codes will be linked with your brand, even if the price is a bit steep. Before long, savvy surfers will start to remember your short code. It is a small price to pay to avoid legal problems, too. If the code sharing company abuses the system, you can be in trouble, too.

Mobile marketing customers can be influenced by outside forces and that can cause you to lose or gain customers outside of your efforts. For example, technology issues can cause you to lose some of your business, so it is essential for you to stay updated on advances in this area in order to keep up with or surpass the competition.

Make sure to note your location on social networking sites. If you don’t get your name now, you may find that someone else claims it and your account will remain hard to find. Start out simple with your social media sites for your business then move on from there. At the very least, create an online presence for your company on Facebook and Foursquare.

Are you more informed when it comes to mobile marketing? Do you have a new plan or a better plan now? Can you now use things that work with your business? Do you know how to properly apply your plan? With any luck, the tips above should have created better answers.

Mobile Marketing Secrets That You Need To Know

Mobile marketing represents a very promising opportunity for anyone who is willing to learn about its different benefits and techniques to benefit their business. It often proves an exciting venture as well. Using mobile marketing can give you excellent exposure, while saving you a lot of marketing money. Use the tips in this article to get the most out of your mobile marketing.

Do not forget to use SEO with your sites that are designed for your mobile users. Start your SEO process with Google, as it is one of the largest search engines in the world.

Give users a way to give feedback so you will know if your mobile marketing techniques are effective. It doesn’t matter whether the feedback is negative or positive. All customer feedback can help you improve.

Mobile marketing customers can be influenced by outside forces and that can cause you to lose or gain customers outside of your efforts. Always stay current with the newest technology out there or your business may suffer. Customers are always looking for the next best thing.

Think about making a mobile application geared to your product. Doing so will prompt customers to check your app for new promotions and sales. It can increase recognition of your brand name, and have a positive effect on foot traffic, too. The price of an app can vary considerably so consult a professional regarding the development process.

Be precise and easy to understand. Make sure you keep your number of clicks at a minimum to increase your success and keep your process simple. Keep in mind that a mobile keypad is small, so it is easy to get frustrated with a lot of typing. For this reason, you want to use text messaging in your campaign only when it is essential.

Use different types of marketing pieces that provide detailed information all at once for the best effect. Do this when you are having a big sale and you need to let your customers know about this event. Then a couple of days before the event is going to happen, send an email and on the day of the event, send a text.

The best mobile marketers out there take things a progressive step at a time, continuing to climb the mobile ladder. You need to do this too. You need to continue to socialize in your marketing network to build it up. Utilize all available tools.

QR codes can help you make your content more appealing and accessible to customers. These codes are an easy and popular way for businesses to give their customers special discounts and coupons, or even share promotions with them. It is easy for smartphone users to use QR codes. With QR codes you are able to reach your customers quickly and easily with relevant information.

Use mobile-friendly maps and driving directions on your site. Lots of people are using their mobile devices for GPS these days. Make it simple for people to find your location. Include a map to your location, and make it easy to read. Create a link to take users directly to Google Maps to get directions.

Before you attempt to start up any new type of campaign with mobile marketing, you should ensure that your first one is successful. When measuring the success of a campaign, be patient. In mobile marketing, longevity can mean more than sales. Apply the same formula to design a better campaign.

Dedicated short code is the best choice. Although it costs a bit more, it is a wonderful way to protect your company name. It can also provide you with some level of legal coverage.

Your emails will get a better response if they are mobile friendly. Make phone numbers click friendly so that smartphone users can start calls right from your messages. Make sure any links you include lead to mobile friendly pages, too. Email addicts use their phones more often than ever, and your emails should be designed from the ground up to take advantage of this.

Send offers once a week or less often. Research shows that the best redemption rates came from offers sent from between once a week and twice a month. You want your customers to feel as if they are going to miss out on a fantastic opportunity if they don’t jump on the offer immediately. If they know they will be getting another discount soon, they will not jump at the chance to make a purchase.

Mobile devices and users are thriving on social media. You must capitalize on this in your marketing strategy to ensure success. Ask your customers to write about your stores or products on their social networks, and give them a reward if they do. This sort of participation harmlessly co-opts your existing customers into your marketing effort.

Make attempts to go viral in order to ensure your advertisements are seen by many people. They just might pass it on to their friends and greatly increase your mobile marketing reach.

Keep in mind that mobile users have a more difficult time navigating webpages. If you have a mobile marketing campaign, you want both home and mobile users to view your page easily, so optimize it for mobile devices, even if it looks a bit simplistic on a computer.

If you think you can be successful in mobile marketing you can limit offers you give to the best ones. By doing this, you can ensure that your marketing communications are actually welcomed by the recipients.

You should always establish a home base for your mobile platform. Your strategies with mobile marketing should focus on getting people to and keeping people in your home base. It is important to note that your whole business should never revolve around a mobile platform.

Using mobile devices to promote your products, advertise your business, and increase your customer base requires a lot of knowledge and effort. The tips in the above article will help you start using mobile marketing quickly and easily.

What Every Business Needs To Know About Mobile Marketing

Marketing through a mobile setting is the newest way to get yourself out there to customers. This article offers up a number of useful ways to grow your business through mobile marketing.

Use MMS messages to offer deals and promotions. This can attract new customers or reward your existing customers in some way. Include promo codes within the coupons themselves to make it easier for customers. Tracking codes can link individual coupons to the proper deals on a mobile-friendly website. New customers can be attracted with coupons, but you can simultaneously reward loyal patrons with the same method.

Just as you would test your website and advertisements on different computer browsers, you must also test your mobile website and mobile ads on various mobile devices. There are a variety of different mobile browsers, and each device has a different screen size and resolution. Your website and content might look different on each device. It’s wise to test the most popular mobile devices to make sure that your website is user friendly.

Work for your customers. It’s crucial to know what your customers want. If you are unable to determine what consumers want, you are unlikely to win their business. Learn as much about them as you possibly can to be most successful.

Mobile marketing messages should be clear and brief. Make sure your customer gets your message not just physically, but mentally as well, in the brief window of their attention that you get.

Use a short code that is dedicated. You will pay more for this service, but it will assist you in protecting your brand. In addition, it gives you a measure of legal protection.

Use search engine optimization for your mobile website to get higher visibility and increase interest in your mobile marketing. Use Google as a good starting point since most of the searches that are done on mobile phones are with Google.

Evaluate your message with a usability test. If your customers are not able to properly view the content of your site on their mobile devices, it isn’t really worth sending it out to them. Ask people you know who own different mobile devices to let you send out some test messages and see how they look.

Don’t send random messages to your customers. If you contact your customers, make sure you are contacting them with a purpose. A marketing campaign that starts sending out random or useless texts will not be a success. Customers aren’t looking for humorous, personal messages from a business they patronize. They’re looking for valuable information and ways to save money.

You should test your campaign on as many devices as possible before launching it. If you send texts that do not make sense or work, you will not succeed. Also, send it to coworkers first and see what their impression of it is before going live.

QR codes can help you make your content more appealing and accessible to customers. These QR codes are an excellent way to expand and entice your customers by offering coupons and discounts. They are quite user friendly and simple to capture on cell phone. You can contact your customers in a easy way and with good information.

Your mobile platform should have a concrete home base. Your goal should always be to drive visitors to your home base or remain in contact with others who frequent your home base. A mobile platform should just be one part of your entire business.

Research about your audience. Know them and what their preferences are before you spend lots of money on mobile marketing. Which are they more likely to use: their cellphones or their computers? What type of OS is on their mobile device? Learn the people you desire to reach, and you’ll have an easier time reaching them.

It’s important to have your social networking links on your website. Today, people are very into social networking, so giving them another option to find you will be good for your business. If a customer sees a Twitter or Facebook icon on your page, they’re far more likely to click it, than they are to search you out themselves.

Don’t share short codes; buy dedicated ones. It will likely cost you a couple thousand dollars to do so, but it will be directly connected to your brand. If you keep using the same short code, it will eventually be linked to your company. It is a tiny price to pay and you won’t need to worry about legal problems as well. There is a chance that you may also be held liable if a code sharing company does something wrong.

Use your website to your advantage. Let visitors to your website know about your mobile apps. By visiting your site, your customers can learn how to stay in touch with you from their mobile devices.

If you want to be able to send out effective emails, make sure they are mobile friendly. Instead of using links to access content, allow users to select phone numbers. If you do use links, you must be sure that the target page can be viewed easily on mobile devices. The easier your emails are to read from a cell phone, the more valuable people will see you.

Do not forget to invest some cash into making sure that your site is mobile-ready. Creating an attractive and appealing mobile site can be incredibly difficult. It is advisable to use developers who are very familiar with the necessary coding and programming for your site’s successful mobile transition.

Send a reminder to everyone on your mobile marketing list a few hours prior launching a big sale or event, provided that it is an acceptable hour to send texts. Dropping friendly reminders like this can keep people from missing your big events.

Your advertising and promotional messages can always be made better. And keep close tabs on your primary competitors! Keeping your competitive edge should be easier with the help of the tips contained in this article.

Proven Tips For Being Successful With Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is one of the newest types of marketing, yet it actually incorporates elements of some of the oldest and well proven methods. Many of the same rules that apply to other kinds of marketing will apply to mobile marketing too. However, there are some noteworthy differences. This article presents some solid advice on getting the best from this brilliant advertising medium.

For the most technologically savvy customers, include QR codes on all printed advertisements. This makes it easy for smart phone users to access your site and use your coupons. QR codes should appear on business cards, brochures, catalogs and posters. The QR code provides additional information to people that are interested in your business.

It is vital to be sure that your customers can access your mobile marketing, regardless of what mobile device they are using. Your messages should work on all mobile devices no matter the platform. Remember, it’s much easier to send simple messages than to adjust them to each platform. The KISS principle shows up strong in mobile marketing.

If texting is part of your mobile marketing plan, clearly disclose how often you intend to text your subscribers before they subscribe. If you do not use SMS correctly, you will run into a lot of problems because of its ties with the systems that are set up for mobile devices notification. You can create a privacy issue. Go with the opt-in letting the customer decide whether to receive your messages. Again, be honest about the number of messages you will be sending and stick to that. Being upfront is one of the best ways to build good will with your customers.

When starting out with mobile marketing you should only launch one campaign at a time to determine what approaches are most successful. Take into account the longevity of the campaign in addition to the sales numbers. To get a successful campaign, you should follow this formula and be able to build new ones.

Be sure to test mobile websites and ads on multiple mobile devices. There are a variety of different mobile browsers, and each device has a different screen size and resolution. Your website and your ads can look totally different on one device than they do on another. The least you could do is test your campaign on the most popular models.

Make the most of your company website. You can easily boost the traffic on your mobile site by advertising their existence on your standard site. Whenever a customer browses your conventional site, they will be delighted to learn that they can communicate with your company while they are out and about.

Mobile marketing is a great new way to market that’s very effective. More people than ever are downloading apps and using social networking sites on their smart-phones. Mobile devices and social networks are great platforms to advertise your products and services. It enables you to reach so many more customers than traditional methods of marketing.

You should know that mobile marketing gives you amazing options for localization. Mobile marketing lets your customers know where you are and what you are doing. This ability opens up a world of possibilities that are exclusive to this particular type of media. Consider what it can do for your business and how a location-based marketing strategy could work for you.

Professionals will often take their mobile marketing strategy in small steps. You should too. Continue to interact with your customers by first sending texts, then calls and then video, building your network as big as you can. Make use of every tool possible.

Anything that you do on terms of mobile marketing needs to be simple and easy so as not to drive away the end user. Always consider that a mobile user might be short on time, and their devices are not conducive to completing long, drawn-out forms. If it is not easy to get on your mailing list, your customers won’t bother.

The many uses of social media on mobile devices make it one of the foremost ways to expand your marketing campaign. Ask your customers to write about your stores or products on their social networks, and give them a reward if they do. Getting word of mouth working for you is an effective advertising method, even online and on phones.

You have to understand that the type of mobile users you are addressing to is influenced by other markets. Stay up to date on the mobile market and adapt your own campaign. Mobile is still an evolving market, so technology trends can shift the market rather quickly. Know this and account for it.

Don’t get too aggressive sending out offers. Research shows that the best redemption rates came from offers sent from between once a week and twice a month. Your customer should feel as if they will miss out if they don’t accept the offer immediately. They won’t buy anything if they think a better deal is coming up.

Begin by building up your mobile marketing database. You should not however, add phone numbers to the database without authorization of the owner. Having cell phone numbers requires that you have the person’s permission first. You can do this through the internet or by having the individual text you using a code you have given them.

QR codes are a great way to bring in new customers and promote your brand. You can use these to promote specials you are running with your business. They are easily captured through a cellphone and they are very easy to use. Get the most important information to your customers in a fast and effortless manner using QR codes.

Adding maps to your website, that are mobile friendly, can help bring in new customers. Such maps let people easily find nearby businesses like yours when they need it.

Mobile marketing is very lucrative if you use it correctly. Use a methodical approach in using the tips learned from this article, especially if mobile marketing is new to you. This approach will help you to gain new customers.

Maximize Your Marketing Dollars With Great Mobile Marketing

The newest way to reach a broad audience is mobile marketing. Read the information below to see how to use mobile marketing to the benefit of your business.

Try A/B testing with your mobile landing page. This can help you understand what your visitors may be having trouble using or understanding. Develop at the same time, two platforms for your mobile page (A/B), and see what platform is most effective with your consumers. Then when you find what works, add that to your end game strategies.

You can encourage customer participation and enhance your brand recognition with QR codes. They are a method of getting discounts and coupons out to your customers. It is simple to capture these codes with a cellphone, and they are even easier to use. With QR codes you are able to reach your customers quickly and easily with relevant information.

Buy your own short code instead of using a sharing service. It may be a little expensive, around 2,000 dollars, but this will go with your brand. After a while, people will make a connection between the code and your company. Using code sharing can cause legal issues, as well. If code sharing companies abuse the system, you might get into trouble as well.

The best thing you can do to be successful with your mobile marketing is to always know as much as you can about the devices your customers use. This allows you to create easy-to-use and relevant sites and apps for customer use and advertising. Use a wide range of mobile devices to understand how they all work.

Include maps on your site for your local customers that are easily seen with various mobile devices. Such maps let people easily find nearby businesses like yours when they need it.

If your customers are savvy when it comes to technology, you should always place QR codes on the printed material and advertisements that you will be sending to them. This makes it easier for smartphone users to gain quick access to your website or promotion. QR codes should be printed on all catalogs, business cards, posters, and other marketing materials. Including the QR code will help those customers who are truly interested about your service or products to quickly connect and gather more information.

If you want to get a maximum effect from mobile marketing, use many different marketing pieces all at once to give in-depth information about an upcoming event. You can use direct mail that lets them know there’s about to be a sale, for example. You can email your customers beforehand, then an hour before the event send them a reminder by text.

If you want to improve how you market products through mobile marketing, be sure to apply search engine optimization strategies to your mobile websites. Start your SEO process with Google, as it is one of the largest search engines in the world.

Run a picture-to-screen campaign. Campaigns that use the picture-to-screen method enable customers to take pictures using their mobile phones. The customer will then text this photo and a certain code to a number you provide. These two things together will cause the picture to be posted on a specific webpage or screening. You can post their photos on however many screens you want.

In order to inspire your customers to sign up for your mobile mailing list, keep the sign up forms simple. It is much easier to fill out a lengthy form on a PC than it is to do so on a small, limited smartphone keypad. Your mailing list should be easy for someone to opt-in to.

You need to provide a simplified website for your new mobile customers. Make sure that the mobile marketing campaign utilizes easy to navigate, simple websites. Although these may seem boring on a computer, they are perfect for your mobile customers, and they keep the access there for both types of users.

Ask some friends to help you test your site, ads, emails and other aspects related to your campaign. You can pay an outside source to test your mobile marketing and give you an opinion of how they feel it will help or hinder your company.

Mobile marketing strategies are an effective way to broaden your customer base; however, in order for these strategies to be successful, they have to work on multiple mobile platforms. If your campaign does not work on all popular mobile devices, you will likely lose tons of customers due to technical issues.

A mobile application can be a great tool when you are thinking about mobile marketing. Apps have become very popular because they are so helpful. You can include links to your related products and services inside the app in order to generate more sales, or profit directly from selling the app itself.

Be simple yet clear and defined. If you lessen the amount of clicks, it will boost your success, and you will have to do less. It is hard to type well on small, mobile keypads. Keep your campaign to the point.

Give clients fun diversions in your mobile campaign. Consider things such as trivia and product-related quizzes. Many consumers will respond when quiz questions are sent to their mobile phone. While gaining interest from your consumers, you can gain feedback about your business through mobile quizzing.

Before starting any successive mobile marketing campaigns, stop and make sure that the preceding one was actually successful. Once you see some success, you need a measuring stick for your campaign’s longevity as opposed to just looking at sales numbers. Look to this formula as a guide to give your campaign long-term success.

To maximize your campaign’s success, you need to promote your call to action. Use a variety of promotional venues, such as Twitter, Facebook, your site or even your store’s physical location. Increasing your exposure through all of these mediums will reach a larger audience than if you promote on Twitter alone.

Be enthusiastic about improving your advertising. Know your competition and keep careful watch on their new directions. The advice provided here should give you some creative ideas on how to keep your own competitive edge alive.