5 Steps to getting started with mobile marketing. Step 2

#2: Claim your business on location-based platforms

You should claim your business on location-based platforms like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places, especially if you have a brick-and-mortar location.

Claiming your business just means that you’re raising your hand to these services and saying, “I’m an official representative of XYZ business and want to be listed on your platform.” Claiming your business is similar to calling up the phone company to get a free listing in the Yellow Pages, only now you’re reaching out to these location-based services instead of Ma Bell.

Once you’ve claimed your business, you can start using these platforms to run mobile promotions. For example, Chili’s ran a promotion where everyone who “checked in” to their locations using Foursquare got free cheese dip.

Better still, Chili’s improved on the promotion by making it so that anybody who checked in at another store within 200 yards of Chili’s got the same offer. Yup, you heard right—if you checked in at the florist next door, you got a digital coupon for free cheese dip at the Chili’s a few steps away. Brilliant!

Raising brand awareness is what Plum Reward does best. Putting your company in customers pockets helps your company become a houshold name. It also creates loyalty with your business' customers by allowing them to register visits and earn rewards. Included in this serice gives the business owner the ability to send promotions to current customers who have opted in to attempt to build slower times to make them more profitable. Check out PlumReward