It’s hard to overestimate the power of search in driving mobile traffic.
That’s one of the lessons Tim Repsher, director of mobile product and business development for Media General, learned shortly after the launch of TBO’s mobile site.
TBO.com, the Web site of The Tampa Tribune along with Media General affiliates News Channel 8 and Centro Tampa, launched m.TBO.com in early 2006.
Usage levels started to increase significantly in 2007, when more people purchased Web-enabled phones and getting mobile data plans through their cellular service provider. “When we saw cellular companies pushing their data services and the mobile Web, we started marketing ourselves a lot more,” Repsher says.
Mobile Search’s Role
Another upturn in mobile traffic came with the implementation of a redirect based on the browser accessing TBO.com.
The first tip Repsher’s team picked up by looking at their data was that many people with Web-enabled mobile phones were simply surfing to TBO.com instead of typing in the mobile site URL, m.TBO.com. Repsher created a “redirect” that would send anyone going to TBO.com from a mobile device to m.TBO.com automatically. “[Mobile users] understood how to go online. Trying to explain m.TBO.com was trying to change their whole viewpoint.” Traffic to the mobile site increased instantly with the implementation of the redirect in late 2007.
“Instead of trying to anticipate what works on mobile, if you watch your search engines, each market will tell you what they’re looking for,” Repsher says.
Analyzing search and traffic data has helped immensely in creating a positive experience for mobile site visitors, Repsher says. In addition to adjusting the order and wording of navigation links on the mobile site’s home page, Repsher says they started to analyze mobile search terms and adjusted the site to match regional terminology.
The same analysis has led to smart decisions about mobile advertising, too.
“It requires constant analytics to find patterns and recurring themes, but that data merged with contextual advertiser categories can give you a list of targets to go after,” Repsher says. “Advertiser budgets are tighter, and these advertisers are looking to spend ‘smart,’ [and] that requires them to target their dollars to get in front of consumers who would have interest in their products and services. Studying the data from mobile, much like online, can give you a view of what would make sense to advertise.”
The team also recognized the importance of getting mobile TBO.com content to appear on mobile browsers through search, which required optimizing search for mobile. This move, along with building up directory content, both helped build traffic further.
“Adding ‘mobile’ [to the metadata] is important, as many search phrasings include the word ‘mobile,’” Repsher says. As with online, solid SEO practices will give you high rankings for breaking news for your area – local headlines, weather, things to do. This helps web traffic and mobile as the traffic from mobile users who find your online site will be redirected to the mobile version.
“We haven’t seen a downturn yet,” Repsher says. Monthly page views on m.TBO.com are upwards of 400,000.
Locally Relevant Content
Repsher says when Media General started focusing on mobile; they already knew mobile was not being used for archived content. “It was, ‘What’s going on right now? What can I expect today?’ So, we started really concentrating on breaking news and weather.”
Weather is an especially robust area of TBO’s mobile site. The weather can change “every hour” in Florida and the region has a history of hurricanes. “Here, it’s ingrained in people to watch the radar,” Repsher says. They understand the radar and the red coloring.”
TBO responded by offering radar weather maps for mobile and localizing weather information for each community. Mobile users can update radar maps by simply hitting the ‘refresh’ button on their mobile Web browser. Several links on the mobile site’s weather page lead to static images of radar over each community, allowing mobile users to zero-in on certain areas.
In addition, TBO.com provides a link to the mobile version of the radar with all breaking weather news alerts.
Obituaries are oddly popular with mobile site users, which Repsher picked up on when he saw mobile users searching for people’s names and entering variations of the word obituary..
There is also a lot of interest in searching for summer jobs on mobile, and Media General is working to make that experience better. Tampa-area mobile users are also searching for cars (especially vintage cars), real estate and entertainment.
Repsher says the company is working on mobile directories that list entertainment and other best bets for certain locations.
Revenue
One of the biggest drivers of revenue for the mobile site has been the sales staff themselves. Media General made extra efforts to train ad sales reps to sell the mobile, including arming reps with demonstrations, PowerPoint presentations and other sales collateral. Each seller received 90 minutes of product training. Centralized online ad operations for insertion orders helped bring mobile ad products to market, says Butch Sarma, senior marketing manager for Media General Interactive.
The mobile site geared at advertisers, at www.mediageneralmobile.com, includes basic information for advertisers on how mobile marketing can work. The majority of the mobile sales training started in the fourth quarter of 2007 and is continuing. Sarma says getting the sales staff on board with selling mobile is of the utmost importance. This includes helping them build a compelling value statement and making sure they are familiar and comfortable with the technology.
“This isn’t a ‘gee whiz’ technology,” Sarma says. “It isn’t going away.”
One of the especially effective uses of mobile advertising is for car dealerships, Sarma says. Car dealers can use text messaging to provide information about used cars on their lots after regular business hours.
Although banner ads are an important contributor to the mobile site’s bottom line, TBO.com sales and online staffs are also selling services to help local businesses build their own mobile advertising and marketing campaigns. Using their experience and services in mobile, Media General is helping businesses build mobile microsites as well as offering text messaging services, which setting up and managing SMS campaigns. “That is proving to be where the major revenue is coming from,” Repsher says.
The mobile site will also be offering coupons through its “Daily Deals” section through XtraCoupons.mobi. Local mobile customers can sign up with their zip code and phone number and receive geographically relevant coupons on their mobile phones. The service is already available in Las Vegas and will be available on all Media General mobile sites soon. People without Web-enabled cell phones can text a category to a short code and receive text-message coupons. Repsher says a benefit to the coupons program is that TBO mobile users will be able to get coupons without having to leave TBO mobile.
In addition, Media General is starting to play with two-dimensional barcodes. The city of Tampa is developing a Riverwalk and an outdoor entertainment area that includes “waypoints” for mobile, where visitors can either experiment with a 2-D barcode or send a text message and receive historical, cultural or other information. The company plans to advertise the 2-D barcodes and look at usage patterns. In addition, TBO.com staffers have some phones that can read 2-D barcodes and are experimenting. “We’re watching to see when the consumer tells us it’s ready to go,” Repsher says.
One of the company’s most successful mobile projects was in conjunction with Gasparilla, a local pirate-themed festival. Robyn Spoto, marketing director for TBO.com, says TBO.com sent sponsored text messages to festival attendees about everything from parking availability to event time reminders. TBO.com also heavily promoted cell phone users’ ability to send a text message with “gasparilla” to 82672 (T-A-M-P-A on a phone) for information as part of a larger campaign promoting TBO.com as being “Better than Beads.”
Another successful mobile project came through a partnership with Disney’s Pirates and Princesses promotion. The project included banner ads on the mobile Web site and mobile contest registration with Disney World tickets as a prize. “When we looked at the results of the mobile banner compared to the results of TBO.com banner results, there was a significant difference,” Spoto says, with relatively high mobile click-through rates.
Marketing
In August, TBO.com will start a new branding and awareness campaign for TBO Mobile, according to Spoto. The campaign is part of the company’s preparations for the Superbowl, which will be in Tampa in February 2009. Tbo.com will be producing the mobile site for the Superbowl’s host committee.
Spoto hopes by the time the Superbowl comes, having people use their mobile devices for information “will be a behavior we don’t have to teach.”
The amount of instruction the company will need to give readers on how to use TBO’s mobile offerings will vary by demographic. “If you’re looking at the traditional newspaper, it might take a little bit more instruction because they might not know how to go to the browser on their mobile phones,” Spoto says. People in their 30s and younger may not need as much instruction.
One effective way to market the new mobile products is by appending messages about mobile to other marketing information. “It’s really easy to add [the phrase] ‘or m.TBO.com’ to a place where you’re already marketing TBO.com.”
Sarma says one lesson Media General has learned (the hard way) is the importance of always including a disclaimer about text message charges in every marketing message. “Otherwise, they’re going to show up in your lobby and ask for a quarter.”
Beth Lawton is manager, digital media communications for the Newspaper Association of America. More…