An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients?

bhuff85 · 26th Oct 2011, 03:08 PM

I've been going back and forth with the mobile design stuff now for the last couple weeks. Read so much great information stuff on this forum during that time, too.

With all of that said, I've decided on taking a unique approach to not only getting clients easily, but making a HUGE impact in my city.

Here is what I want to do: Create an app that lists every bar/restaurant in my main city and every suburb around it.

While I know there are already apps out there that do this, I figured one specific to MY city (and surrounding metro area only) would work better, as it could be updated easily and would be current, unlike the other similar apps out there that cover places all over the country.

Without getting into the details about the app and the features I plan to include, you might wonder how this can help me gain clients? Here are two ideas:

1) I will easily be able to find out what restaurants/bars do not have mobile websites. From here, I can compile a list and call on each business to offer them a mobile web design. My idea is basically "Hey - I'm designing an app listing every bar and restaurant in town, and I noticed that you didn't have a mobile website." After that, it will be nothing more than just explaining the benefits of having a mobile site. To me, it sounds like it would be an easy sale.

2) I will be advertising MY website on every single page of the app. Just a simple call to action about the benefits of having a mobile website for their biz. Then, if they click on my website, they will be redirected to MY mobile website that explains my entire mobile service and how to get in touch with me. Simple and easy lead generation without much effort.

I know it will be a LOT of work on my end to develop this app, but I know something like this would be AWESOME to have around here (especially for the bar crowd looking for late night eateries near them).

I think this would be a solid way to come out of nowhere and really take a stake in the local mobile biz market.

So, what do you guys think?

WizIMS · 26th Oct 2011, 03:49 PM

Yeah man that sound like a wonderful idea

But you need to get ready for tons of hard work

Good luck man

WillR · 26th Oct 2011, 05:47 PM

I can see some merit in the idea but I still struggle to see people using apps for that type of thing. I don't have any research on it so obviously I can't be sure but I would have thought people would much rather just fire up Google and find what they are looking for. Isn't it much easier for people to do things that way than have to download an app that will only show them a selection of what's available?

I may be wrong...

bhuff85 · 26th Oct 2011, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by WillR

I can see some merit in the idea but I still struggle to see people using apps for that type of thing. I don't have any research on it so obviously I can't be sure but I would have thought people would much rather just fire up Google and find what they are looking for. Isn't it much easier for people to do things that way than have to download an app that will only show them a selection of what's available?

I may be wrong...

Appreciate the feedback Will. The only reason why I think it might work is that it can save a ton of time. To me, going to Google and doing search on my phone can be a pain at times, especially if I'm out and about trying to find something quick (such as a place to eat in my area). With an app like this, straight to the point. No fumbling around with Google trying to find a new place to eat that sounds appealing.

Either way, I figure it might be worth a shot. I just know that from my experience, Google doesn't always deliver the answers I'm looking for. This could definitely bridge the gap there and work better than other apps.

Once I start working on it and release it, I will definitely keep everyone updated on how it goes. Could either be a bust or turn out to be a killer lead generator!

Warren Tibbotts · 26th Oct 2011, 07:40 PM

A few questions for ya:
*Curious to know what you intend charging for your mob sites?
*And are you going to charge these bars a fee for having them included in your app?
*Are you going to have the app GPS focussed, so it can work like Google and tell you whats nearby?

Best of luck
Warren

sandrasims · 26th Oct 2011, 07:47 PM

It's a great idea... though how will you get people to download the app?

Do you currently have a local info website? If not, what if you start a blog about local restaurants, bars, etc. If you have Groupon or other daily deals in your city you could be an affiliate for them for added revenue.

Then you'll be building a fan base who will then be more willing to download the app.

You may even have businesses contacting you when they see your site.

Another idea... I recently got the Offline Barrier Beaker WSO and am listening to their Q&A call. Wes and Rachel have a lot of ideas for getting offline clients that would be easier that creating an app.

bhuff85 · 26th Oct 2011, 07:57 PM

Originally Posted by Warren Tibbotts

A few questions for ya:
*Curious to know what you intend charging for your mob sites?
*And are you going to charge these bars a fee for having them included in your app?
*Are you going to have the app GPS focussed, so it can work like Google and tell you whats nearby?

Best of luck
Warren

Hey Warren,

I'm still working out my current rates. I'm also assessing some design firms around town and seeing what they charge for something similar (although most firms are designing for high-end corporations and larger clients, leaving the doors wide open for other business).

I don't want to charge anyone to be included in the app at this point. More or less, since I'm still learning app building and design, I figured this would be a good project to tackle and could lead to more business down the road.

And yes - the app would be GPS focused. Users would be able to click the map and get directions and find out how close it is to where they are at currently.

Originally Posted by sandrasims

It's a great idea... though how will you get people to download the app?

Do you currently have a local info website? If not, what if you start a blog about local restaurants, bars, etc. If you have Groupon or other daily deals in your city you could be an affiliate for them for added revenue.

Then you'll be building a fan base who will then be more willing to download the app.

You may even have businesses contacting you when they see your site.

Another idea... I recently got the Offline Barrier Beaker WSO and am listening to their Q&A call. Wes and Rachel have a lot of ideas for getting offline clients that would be easier that creating an app.

I have a few ideas in mind to promote the app itself, so I'm not too worried about that. While the idea of building a blog may be cool, there is too much clout for that. Just too many "review style" blogs about restaurants, bars, entertainment, etc. (at least in my city there is). I'm gunning to target mobile users AND possible business owners. If anything, just use it to build a little buzz and have it in the portfolio.

Appreciate all of your ideas though! I'll have to check out that WSO when I get a chance.

WillR · 27th Oct 2011, 03:31 AM

Originally Posted by bhuff85

Either way, I figure it might be worth a shot. I just know that from my experience, Google doesn't always deliver the answers I'm looking for. This could definitely bridge the gap there and work better than other apps.

I guess you never know unless you give it a go. How about instead of just an app that lists local restaurants, you could instead make it an app that lists all the coupons or discount codes for local restaurants. So you go around to restaurants and tell them you are putting this app together, what kind of deal would they like to offer to your members. You should then find it easier to promote and get people to download the app because it is going to save people money.

JToneyUK · 27th Oct 2011, 05:49 AM

I think this would be best served being an actual mobile website to start off with that can migrate into an App once it gets off the ground running.

Been thinking of doing something similar myself but more with an offers/coupons directory or just basically a local groupon. It could easily be spread around towns also as it grows as a business.

So you get loads of businesses on board in your first town and it is a success and you're generating some form of income by either a monthly charge to the businesses or having "premium listings" or taking a commision of sales.

You can branch out to the next big town or suburb, hiring some sales scouts and a region manager.

[UK county]mobilecoupons.co.uk
town/suburb1.[UK county name]mobilecoupons.co.uk
town/suburb2.[UK county name]mobilecoupons.co.uk

PaulWatts · 27th Oct 2011, 06:41 AM

Although I am fairly new to the forum, I agree with Warren above that Google can take your GPS location and send details to your phone of the nearest 'hot bar' etc by bars and restaurants already being customers and subscribed to a mobile phone product already available. I Would think there may be a danger your app be overloaded/overwhelmed in crowded areas of large towns.

Providing coupons in a groupon like manner seems to be a hot trend in these tough financial times though. Good luck anyway.

KCNL · 27th Oct 2011, 06:52 AM

Hi,

You could also setup a mobile directory first and turn it into an app later..

Look at this startup i just found that uses an app similar to want you want to do.

Scoupy

EvanBeck · 27th Oct 2011, 07:09 AM

This thread and the ideas you are knocking around are quite interesting. I always have questions about the app vs website thing. I some ways I think it would be easier to just building mobile sites so you have a portfolio, and then continue to build and get referrals.

bhuff85 · 27th Oct 2011, 07:30 AM

Great stuff here guys! I appreciate all of your input/ideas. You're all giving me a few more things to consider. Just need to pick one and settle on it.

I'm also going to build a couple mobile sites for a few buddies that own their own businesses, which will give me a couple sites to add to my portfolio to show other potential clients in the area. Just going to start taking action and going from there.

I do have a few questions for those already building these mobile sites:

1) If you host the mobile site on your own server, are you purchasing a .mobi domain for that? Are you just getting in touch with their web designer to have them place the re-direct on the home page?

2) If you do host each businesses mobile site, are you using a regular shared hosting plan for your mobile customers?

3) What do you think is better - Going for a single sale (i.e. $495 for the entire design placed on their servers for their control) or a recurring model (i.e. $249 + $50 per month recurring for hosting)? I'm leaning towards the recurring model, just for the sake of always having income funnel through without much work after the initial design is complete.

Thanks again for all the help guys. You rock!

JToneyUK · 27th Oct 2011, 10:58 AM

Here's my .02 cents on your questions:

1. There has been a fair bit of talk about the domain name issue. While the .mobi extension wascreated for mobile sites, some of the big players such as facebook and youtube simpy use a m. subdomain. Furthermore there is a video knocking about from Google whereby they specify that anything on a m. subdomain replicates anything on the main domain, it will not see this as duplicate content. These two factors pave the way to hosting on the same domain name alone.

2. I would like to know a good answer to this also. I have a hosting account with unlimited domains on a shared server. Due to mobile sites simplcity, this kind of hosting plan should be sufficient.

3. Given the arguement made in answer 1, and the fact it could be a deal breaker to the client, I will go the route of not charging hosting if they have a current site in place. The reason it maybe a deal breaker is that they are already paying hosting for their regular site and it's an expense they do not need. We are trying to help these businesses remember and they will be greatful for your honesty. There may still be some issues getting FTP access/working with their current web developer. Alternatively you can offer to host the regular site and the mobile site from their current hosts. Anyway, if you give them a great product, the idea is you build on that trust and try to upsell some other services to them later down the line in the hope to bring in some residual.

Originally Posted by bhuff85

1) If you host the mobile site on your own server, are you purchasing a .mobi domain for that? Are you just getting in touch with their web designer to have them place the re-direct on the home page?

2) If you do host each businesses mobile site, are you using a regular shared hosting plan for your mobile customers?

3) What do you think is better - Going for a single sale (i.e. $495 for the entire design placed on their servers for their control) or a recurring model (i.e. $249 + $50 per month recurring for hosting)? I'm leaning towards the recurring model, just for the sake of always having income funnel through without much work after the initial design is complete.

Thanks again for all the help guys. You rock!

bhuff85 · 27th Oct 2011, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by JToneyUK

3. Given the arguement made in answer 1, and the fact it could be a deal breaker to the client, I will go the route of not charging hosting if they have a current site in place. The reason it maybe a deal breaker is that they are already paying hosting for their regular site and it's an expense they do not need. We are trying to help these businesses remember and they will be greatful for your honesty. There may still be some issues getting FTP access/working with their current web developer. Alternatively you can offer to host the regular site and the mobile site from their current hosts. Anyway, if you give them a great product, the idea is you build on that trust and try to upsell some other services to them later down the line in the hope to bring in some residual.

Thanks for pointing that out. Makes sense for a business not to want to pay another recurring fee for hosting. What about an upsell them on a monthly maintenance plan (i.e. 2 hours of maintenance for "x amount of dollars") instead?

That's my only issue here - either do the mobile site outright for a higher amount or throw in a recurring fee for maintenance/hosting and give them the site upfront for a lower amount. Of course, that would only be if they used MY hosting. So, if they didn't want to do that, my only upsell option would be the maintenance plan.

Once I get things going, I'll work on offering the mobile site and let them know about the maintenance plan once I actually get a face-to-face meeting and go through all of the benefits and show them an actual demo of a site first. Just sort of work that into the final pitch.

JToneyUK · 27th Oct 2011, 12:39 PM

Yeah it depends on the nature of the business who the mobile site is for. A monthly fee for updates is plausible for frequently changing content, such as if restaurants have special offers which they change often. I would probably initially charge extra for a special offers page on top of their "basic" site, and the QR code can go direct to the special offers promo page. But yeah, you can charge them xx for monthly updates (upto 4 or 5 per month) or just charge them xx amount per update. The only danger here is that they use their other web developer to make those changes. I do believe however, that these types of businesses have had their sites made by the developer and just left, so you could potentially become their new webmaster overall.

Further upsells I would go for is SMS campaigns (monthly fee, costs per text), Facebook page (monthly updates again), and if you wish ongoing SEO services.

Obviously you could sell them a solution where they can make updates themselves if you have the skills to do that, or use a Wordpress site. And since its a content management system, you can whack a chunky price tag on that.

Originally Posted by bhuff85

Thanks for pointing that out. Makes sense for a business not to want to pay another recurring fee for hosting. What about an upsell them on a monthly maintenance plan (i.e. 2 hours of maintenance for "x amount of dollars") instead?

That's my only issue here - either do the mobile site outright for a higher amount or throw in a recurring fee for maintenance/hosting and give them the site upfront for a lower amount. Of course, that would only be if they used MY hosting. So, if they didn't want to do that, my only upsell option would be the maintenance plan.

Once I get things going, I'll work on offering the mobile site and let them know about the maintenance plan once I actually get a face-to-face meeting and go through all of the benefits and show them an actual demo of a site first. Just sort of work that into the final pitch.

Kiril S · 27th Oct 2011, 12:57 PM

To the OP,
The idea of creating an application sounds great, but you could achieve the same effect with a mobile website but with less work.

Every smartphone can access a website. However, people would need to download your app to access it which might not be the best solution for mobile consumers who are always on the go. Downloading an app is a tedious task, and not everyone will sacrifice their time to download one.

What you can do is instead build a local mobile directory, [area][city].mobi, and list every bar/restaurant there. Heck, you can even list all the businesses. At the bottom of each page, you could put a link "Powered by <yourcompanyname>" so people who are interested in developing mobile websites could find a link back to your site.

Then, when you would call up businesses to advertise your mobile web designing services, you can specify that you own a mobile local directory in your town and you have noticed they didn't have a mobile website.

You can even add a perk to this strategy. Since you own a mobile local directory, logically you would only want to list businesses who have mobile websites. Therefore, you can add in your cold calling script that you want to list their business in your mobile directory but since they don't have a mobile website, you won't be able to list their business in your directory. This way, you can offer them a mobile website PLUS a listing in your directory, which will make your offer even harder to reject. It's dirty but effective.

Kiril.

JBroyer44 · 2nd Nov 2011, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by WillR

I guess you never know unless you give it a go. How about instead of just an app that lists local restaurants, you could instead make it an app that lists all the coupons or discount codes for local restaurants. So you go around to restaurants and tell them you are putting this app together, what kind of deal would they like to offer to your members. You should then find it easier to promote and get people to download the app because it is going to save people money.

I was thinking all the bars in my little downtown have off night drink and app specials. could make a site that lists all these nightly deals and have an SMS opt in that sends out a blast 1x a week with the best specials at certain restaurants and bars that week.

m4rx · 2nd Nov 2011, 04:02 PM

About to chime in about this. I will agree with JBroyer.

I think instead of an app, do a mobile website(upsell) and to get people to use it, make some cheap cards and toss them out to the local bars and other businesses in the area.

I like the SMS, and if you could get it organized properly, you could have people sign up for multiple categories.

Interesting idea, and I might try this out and see what happens.

I'll stay away from Iowa though.

-Tyler

StepAhead · 10th Nov 2011, 06:49 AM

It sounds awesome if anybody prepare to work hard for hours. SMS marketing is growing on and on and on, no doubt.

KCNL · 10th Nov 2011, 07:39 PM

1) If you host the mobile site on your own server, are you purchasing a .mobi domain for that? Are you just getting in touch with their web designer to have them place the re-direct on the home page?

I have bought and host a few .mobi domains of potential clients so that i can have total control of the mobile site..

Just put up a simple 3 page mobile site and contact them showing that its already live and can be made to their personal flavour ( upsell)

That way their webmaster can only put in the redirect code and has nothing to do with the mobile side of their business.. that is if he is not a wso buyer

Still the debate goes on about to .mobi or not to .mobi....
Hard to say what big G will be favouring in the future...
But i think investing in some interesting .mobi names can never hurt you..

seoboca · 11th Nov 2011, 12:58 PM

What is the best platform to create an app for,Facebook app, Iphone or Droid App?

4webmaster · 17th Nov 2011, 02:55 AM

Well, here is an idea I will launch soon and is related to your post.
I own a dot tel domain witch is mobile and browser compatible it's a geo.tel
I will do what a member here suggest a business directory.
Why dot tel? because it's easy to build a directory without any coding knowledges.
Now, I will offer businesses mobile websites for a monthly or yearly fees. The problem is that it will be hosted on subdirectories of my main site a .com will look like: businessname.mysite.com, how will people get there? typing url? no way! QR code can be the solution, so I will have to print a sticker for each of my clients and give it so they put on their front store. Ok, but my customer will ask how to get there if I don't have a mobile with QR code or how they will find our business? (I assume this is for business owners that don't already have websites and domain name, don't laught, in my city there might be only 20% of business that have it) So that's were the business directory can help find their business. I will add it free!

Ok some will read and say, 20%? why don't I get these 80% potential customers for regular website design? To be honest everyone here tried (all of my competitors) and none did get it

business owners are tired of websites, they used to have one and don't see benefits but now it's changing with mobile devices.
How cool will it be when someone is searching for a restaurant and with a few tap on his/her mobile device from my directory lands on a restaurant of their choice that is near to where they are and click call to order or make a reservation.
So with the 4G we have here and new kind of website (mobile) it can change their minds!
I will do Demos and marketing speeches. Hope will work.

26th Oct 2011, 03:08 PM	#1
bhuff85 Your Next Writer War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Iowa Posts: 1,633 Thanks: 151 Thanked 462 Times in 256 Posts	An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: I've been going back and forth with the mobile design stuff now for the last couple weeks. Read so much great information stuff on this forum during that time, too. With all of that said, I've decided on taking a unique approach to not only getting clients easily, but making a HUGE impact in my city. Here is what I want to do: Create an app that lists every bar/restaurant in my main city and every suburb around it. While I know there are already apps out there that do this, I figured one specific to MY city (and surrounding metro area only) would work better, as it could be updated easily and would be current, unlike the other similar apps out there that cover places all over the country. Without getting into the details about the app and the features I plan to include, you might wonder how this can help me gain clients? Here are two ideas: 1) I will easily be able to find out what restaurants/bars do not have mobile websites. From here, I can compile a list and call on each business to offer them a mobile web design. My idea is basically "Hey - I'm designing an app listing every bar and restaurant in town, and I noticed that you didn't have a mobile website." After that, it will be nothing more than just explaining the benefits of having a mobile site. To me, it sounds like it would be an easy sale. 2) I will be advertising MY website on every single page of the app. Just a simple call to action about the benefits of having a mobile website for their biz. Then, if they click on my website, they will be redirected to MY mobile website that explains my entire mobile service and how to get in touch with me. Simple and easy lead generation without much effort. I know it will be a LOT of work on my end to develop this app, but I know something like this would be AWESOME to have around here (especially for the bar crowd looking for late night eateries near them). I think this would be a solid way to come out of nowhere and really take a stake in the local mobile biz market. So, what do you guys think?
	*Want to speed up your writing and* save time?** This book will show you how: --> Write Fast: 21 Powerful Ways to Cut Your Writing Time in Half! <--

26th Oct 2011, 03:49 PM	#2
WizIMS Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 89 Thanks: 9 Thanked 24 Times in 13 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: Yeah man that sound like a wonderful idea But you need to get ready for tons of hard work Good luck man

26th Oct 2011, 05:47 PM	#3
WillR Digital Marketer War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: Australia Posts: 12,475 Thanks: 1,984 Thanked 8,187 Times in 4,079 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: I can see some merit in the idea but I still struggle to see people using apps for that type of thing. I don't have any research on it so obviously I can't be sure but I would have thought people would much rather just fire up Google and find what they are looking for. Isn't it much easier for people to do things that way than have to download an app that will only show them a selection of what's available? I may be wrong...
	. ➨ Here's How to Make Your First $177 Online This Week Using the Piggyback Method... .

26th Oct 2011, 07:40 PM	#5
Warren Tibbotts HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: Auckland, New Zealand Posts: 178 Thanks: 32 Thanked 38 Times in 18 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: A few questions for ya: Curious to know what you intend charging for your mob sites? And are you going to charge these bars a fee for having them included in your app? *Are you going to have the app GPS focussed, so it can work like Google and tell you whats nearby? Best of luck Warren

26th Oct 2011, 07:47 PM	#6
sandrasims HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: DC with a Texas accent Posts: 181 Thanks: 52 Thanked 49 Times in 28 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: It's a great idea... though how will you get people to download the app? Do you currently have a local info website? If not, what if you start a blog about local restaurants, bars, etc. If you have Groupon or other daily deals in your city you could be an affiliate for them for added revenue. Then you'll be building a fan base who will then be more willing to download the app. You may even have businesses contacting you when they see your site. Another idea... I recently got the Offline Barrier Beaker WSO and am listening to their Q&A call. Wes and Rachel have a lot of ideas for getting offline clients that would be easier that creating an app.
	Sandra Sims Established marketing services website - view my Flippa website auction here!

27th Oct 2011, 05:49 AM	#9
JToneyUK HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: North West, England Posts: 267 Thanks: 97 Thanked 41 Times in 34 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: I think this would be best served being an actual mobile website to start off with that can migrate into an App once it gets off the ground running. Been thinking of doing something similar myself but more with an offers/coupons directory or just basically a local groupon. It could easily be spread around towns also as it grows as a business. So you get loads of businesses on board in your first town and it is a success and you're generating some form of income by either a monthly charge to the businesses or having "premium listings" or taking a commision of sales. You can branch out to the next big town or suburb, hiring some sales scouts and a region manager. [UK county]mobilecoupons.co.uk town/suburb1.[UK county name]mobilecoupons.co.uk town/suburb2.[UK county name]mobilecoupons.co.uk

27th Oct 2011, 06:41 AM	#10
PaulWatts Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Location: Dartford, Kent, UK Posts: 7 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: Although I am fairly new to the forum, I agree with Warren above that Google can take your GPS location and send details to your phone of the nearest 'hot bar' etc by bars and restaurants already being customers and subscribed to a mobile phone product already available. I Would think there may be a danger your app be overloaded/overwhelmed in crowded areas of large towns. Providing coupons in a groupon like manner seems to be a hot trend in these tough financial times though. Good luck anyway.

27th Oct 2011, 06:52 AM	#11
KCNL Active Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2010 Posts: 83 Thanks: 23 Thanked 29 Times in 24 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: Hi, You could also setup a mobile directory first and turn it into an app later.. Look at this startup i just found that uses an app similar to want you want to do. Scoupy

27th Oct 2011, 07:09 AM	#12
EvanBeck Mobile Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 123 Thanks: 31 Thanked 30 Times in 24 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: This thread and the ideas you are knocking around are quite interesting. I always have questions about the app vs website thing. I some ways I think it would be easier to just building mobile sites so you have a portfolio, and then continue to build and get referrals.
	Evan Beck rssmage.net Webtomobile.net MobileWebsiteDirectory.net

27th Oct 2011, 07:30 AM	#13
bhuff85 Your Next Writer War Room Member Join Date: 2008 Location: Iowa Posts: 1,633 Thanks: 151 Thanked 462 Times in 256 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: Great stuff here guys! I appreciate all of your input/ideas. You're all giving me a few more things to consider. Just need to pick one and settle on it. I'm also going to build a couple mobile sites for a few buddies that own their own businesses, which will give me a couple sites to add to my portfolio to show other potential clients in the area. Just going to start taking action and going from there. I do have a few questions for those already building these mobile sites: 1) If you host the mobile site on your own server, are you purchasing a .mobi domain for that? Are you just getting in touch with their web designer to have them place the re-direct on the home page? 2) If you do host each businesses mobile site, are you using a regular shared hosting plan for your mobile customers? 3) What do you think is better - Going for a single sale (i.e. $495 for the entire design placed on their servers for their control) or a recurring model (i.e. $249 + $50 per month recurring for hosting)? I'm leaning towards the recurring model, just for the sake of always having income funnel through without much work after the initial design is complete. Thanks again for all the help guys. You rock!
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27th Oct 2011, 12:57 PM	#17
Kiril S WordPress Enthusiast War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Location: Montreal Posts: 157 Thanks: 8 Thanked 20 Times in 16 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: To the OP, The idea of creating an application sounds great, but you could achieve the same effect with a mobile website but with less work. Every smartphone can access a website. However, people would need to download your app to access it which might not be the best solution for mobile consumers who are always on the go. Downloading an app is a tedious task, and not everyone will sacrifice their time to download one. What you can do is instead build a local mobile directory, [area][city].mobi, and list every bar/restaurant there. Heck, you can even list all the businesses. At the bottom of each page, you could put a link "Powered by <yourcompanyname>" so people who are interested in developing mobile websites could find a link back to your site. Then, when you would call up businesses to advertise your mobile web designing services, you can specify that you own a mobile local directory in your town and you have noticed they didn't have a mobile website. You can even add a perk to this strategy. Since you own a mobile local directory, logically you would only want to list businesses who have mobile websites. Therefore, you can add in your cold calling script that you want to list their business in your mobile directory but since they don't have a mobile website, you won't be able to list their business in your directory. This way, you can offer them a mobile website PLUS a listing in your directory, which will make your offer even harder to reject. It's dirty but effective. Kiril.

2nd Nov 2011, 04:02 PM	#19
m4rx PHP Programmer War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: /dev/null Posts: 138 Thanks: 6 Thanked 12 Times in 12 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: About to chime in about this. I will agree with JBroyer. I think instead of an app, do a mobile website(upsell) and to get people to use it, make some cheap cards and toss them out to the local bars and other businesses in the area. I like the SMS, and if you could get it organized properly, you could have people sign up for multiple categories. Interesting idea, and I might try this out and see what happens. I'll stay away from Iowa though. -Tyler
	We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a HABIT. ~Aristotle Bored. Learn everything you need to know about Organic Gardening.

10th Nov 2011, 06:49 AM	#20
StepAhead Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Posts: 36 Thanks: 0 Thanked 17 Times in 3 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: It sounds awesome if anybody prepare to work hard for hours. SMS marketing is growing on and on and on, no doubt.

11th Nov 2011, 12:58 PM	#22
seoboca Warrior Member Join Date: 2011 Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: What is the best platform to create an app for,Facebook app, Iphone or Droid App?

17th Nov 2011, 02:55 AM	#23
4webmaster Advanced Warrior Join Date: 2006 Location: , , . Posts: 736 Thanks: 33 Thanked 144 Times in 119 Posts	Re: An Interesting Way to Attract Mobile Design Clients? Share on: Well, here is an idea I will launch soon and is related to your post. I own a dot tel domain witch is mobile and browser compatible it's a geo.tel I will do what a member here suggest a business directory. Why dot tel? because it's easy to build a directory without any coding knowledges. Now, I will offer businesses mobile websites for a monthly or yearly fees. The problem is that it will be hosted on subdirectories of my main site a .com will look like: businessname.mysite.com, how will people get there? typing url? no way! QR code can be the solution, so I will have to print a sticker for each of my clients and give it so they put on their front store. Ok, but my customer will ask how to get there if I don't have a mobile with QR code or how they will find our business? (I assume this is for business owners that don't already have websites and domain name, don't laught, in my city there might be only 20% of business that have it) So that's were the business directory can help find their business. I will add it free! Ok some will read and say, 20%? why don't I get these 80% potential customers for regular website design? To be honest everyone here tried (all of my competitors) and none did get it business owners are tired of websites, they used to have one and don't see benefits but now it's changing with mobile devices. How cool will it be when someone is searching for a restaurant and with a few tap on his/her mobile device from my directory lands on a restaurant of their choice that is near to where they are and click call to order or make a reservation. So with the 4G we have here and new kind of website (mobile) it can change their minds! I will do Demos and marketing speeches. Hope will work.