AT&T Expands Mobile Marketing Portfolio

To meet the growing customer demand for integrated marketing solutions, AT&T is extending Mobile Barcode Services to its small business customers. According to the recent AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey, three out of five small businesses are planning to increase their investments in mobile marketing in 2012.

With AT&T Mobile Barcode Services, small businesses can adorn everything from business cards to storefronts and products with rich, scannable marketing content. The free AT&T Code Scanner mobile application for both consumers and businesses uses smartphone cameras to scan barcodes.

Mobile barcodes have become increasingly popular among consumers, with small businesses beginning to see the benefits of this "scan-and-receive" consumer mentality. AT&T estimates that 44 million people have scanner apps on their mobile devices. Of those 44 million, 20 million are active users, meaning they scan from 1-20 times per month. Further, more than a third of respondents in the AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey have featured mobile barcodes in their marketing materials, with 60 percent of those having found barcodes to be very or somewhat effective.

AT&T Mobile Barcode Services include the following:

• AT&T's Code Management Platform, which allows small businesses to create mobile barcodes and manage the associated content.
• Customized, pre-made templates within the Platform to create mobile-optimized Web landing pages, which appear on-screen when consumers scan a barcode. Having a mobile-friendly site has helped boost site traffic for many businesses, with 48 percent of the respondents in the AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey pointing to an increase of 10 percent to 25 percent in traffic, while 14 percent have increased traffic 26 percent to 50 percent.
• After creating mobile barcodes, small businesses can use the Platform's powerful reporting tools to gauge the effectiveness of any given mobile marketing campaign. And if users grant permission, businesses can receive demographic and location data from the users' scans.
• The flexible AT&T Code Management Platform also allows companies to keep content fresh by changing the results of scanning a barcode without replacing the physical codes.
• The ability to create various accounts within the platform and provide Mobile Barcode Services as an additional service or capability to clients.

AT&T's rapidly growing mobile marketing portfolio also includes the AT&T Messaging Toolkit and AT&T Mobile Web. AT&T Messaging Toolkit is an all-in-one tool that allows users to create multichannel campaigns, including voice broadcasts, social media, text messaging, and more.

For companies that need to develop websites specifically designed for viewing on a mobile device, AT&T Mobile Web can help. AT&T can work from the ground up, or optimize and format an existing Web site. Mobile Web is part of AT&T Mobile Barcode Services because all barcodes must be directed to a dedicated mobile landing page. It is also available as a stand-alone service.

"Mobile marketing has been a driving force for small business success, and with the explosion of smartphone use, it is more important now than ever for small businesses to actively engage consumers and gain market share by using a variety of mobile platforms," said Chris Hill, vice president of advanced mobility solutions at AT&T Business and Home Solutions, in a statement. "AT&T Mobile Marketing solutions enable small businesses to create customized marketing programs and content to help deliver added value to their customers."

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