Cell phones have evolved from a luxury to something most of us can’t live without. Along with being a great source of entertainment and an effective tool for organization, they can also be a valuable tool in a marketer’s arsenal. This is especially true if it has a camera, and almost all cell phones do. They can be used for research, marketing, customer engagement and more. Here are some handy tips and tricks to help make your phone’s camera a helpful and effective search engine marketing tool.
Research
Your camera phone can be a helpful research assistant. Use it to take photos of logos and advertising you like. Later, you can refer to them for inspiration when creating your own search engine marketing campaign. You can also use it, with one of the available apps, as a business card scanner. At event and conferences when you’re networking, you can snap a photo of each business card you receive and it will automatically put that person’s info in your contact list. A neat and efficient solution that is much preferable to having to carry around a stack of cards that can be easily lost.
Social Networking
A camera is crucial for successful social networking these days. More and more people prefer to communicate in pictures rather than words. MMS is overtaking SMS in popularity, and entire social networks, such as Instagram, are springing up around photo sharing. Photos are a great tool, speaking volumes about your website and brand. With a camera phone, posting images (and even videos) to Facebook, Twitter, Tumbr, Pinterest and other networks is a snap, no computer, USB cables, drivers or software needed. This makes it easy to share at conventions, exhibitions, and press conferences.
QR Codes
Get your customers in on the fun by using QR codes. These codes, which look somewhat like traditional barcodes only they are square, can be great marketing tools. Customers and potential customers can scan them using the camera on their phones and depending on how you’ve set them up, can be sent to your website or a page displaying a coupon. QR codes can be put anywhere-billboards, magazines, mailers, flyers, email signatures, and even business cards. Their popularity continues to increase with most major brands now using them.
Content Creation
This is one of the easiest ways to use your camera as a search engine marketing tool. Content is king these days-the more high quality pieces of it you create the better, and a camera phone is great for this. It lets photos be taken on the fly and upload them immediately, making it simple to cover events, breaking news stories, and funny moments. Customers can even get in on it by encouraging them to take photos of your product or logo they find in interesting places. For example, Glamour.com has a regular feature where readers upload photos of themselves holding a copy of the magazine in exotic or funny locations. Marketing with images can be enormously effective-just ask Instagram and Pinterest, who’ve become monster successes by helping people do just that.
Camera phones are no longer a luxury. They’ve become powerful, fun and useful tools for everyday life and something most can’t imagine living without. Marketers can and should take advantage of all that they have to offer as they can help create effective marketing that attracts and retains customers and increases brand recognition. Try these tips and see what they can contribute to your marketing campaigns for websites, products or services. The results just may surprise you and make the camera phone become a must have marketing tool.