JEFF ARNOLD- Social Media & Search Engine Optimization Expert

For more than 25 years Mr. Arnold has been in leadership roles from start-ups to Fortune 500 firms. Having led several companies through periods of tremendous growth and spearheading several start-ups, he is well versed in crisis and change management, as well as managing aggressive business development initiatives.

Currently, Mr. Arnold is applying his diverse base of knowledge to the field of Internet and mobile marketing, where, through his consulting firm, he is helping small to mid-sized companies successfully navigate the marketing options available in an ever-changing Web 2.0 world.


Hill & Partners asked Jeff to share with us some of his expertise on the increasing use of mobile marketing in exhibiting efforts:


1.) How can exhibitors best utilize mobile marketing to increase booth traffic?

One way would be to run a contest that will take place during the show.  Indicate that you are going to select random winners throughout the day and you will notify them via text that they have won.  Everyone who wants to enter must opt in to the campaign.   Throughout the show you can send out promotional information to the attendees (periodically, not overwhelming).  They will look at your message because they may be a winner.  You can even run instant contests – “The first two people to show me this text message at the booth will win X”


2.) How can exhibitors best utilize mobile marketing before, during, and post-show?

You can use it to send out helpful information (depending on your business).  I have one client who sent out information to their clients about other vendors who may be beneficial to them (the client is a consultant and recommending other vendors is part of their job).  Typically there are other complementary services that are exhibiting at the same show, so even though you won’t be recommending a competitor, you may be able to recommend a service that your clients need.


3.) What would you say to marketers who are hesitant to get involved mobile marketing?

It is very inexpensive to work with.  Try it out and test some campaigns to see what drives traffic.  You can change your content instantly, so if one message doesn’t seem to work well, you can reword and try something else.  As with all marketing, you never know exactly what is going to click with your audience so you need to test, test, test.


4.) Research shows that 4 billion mobile phones are in use in the world. Out of those 1.08 billion are smartphones and 3.05 billion are SMS enabled. Half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices. On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile device which is 2xs the amount of time they spend eating and 1/3 the time they spend sleeping each day.


Knowing this information, how would you suggest marketers should best break into mobile marketing?

Don’t use ads to start, unless you have the time and energy to invest in doing it correctly.  Most businesses don’t drill down to the necessary level of detail needed to make the ad campaign effective, and therefore hit too broad of an audience, resulting in a test that is very expensive.

Try to work with interactive content that will drive a user to the booth or business.  Work with texting.  It is inexpensive and easy to adjust as necessary.  If you formulate a well-structured text campaign, you can use that database in an on-going basis to help drive business for years to come.


5.) What do you think are the best ways to tie mobile marketing into trade show exhibiting?

I think that the best ways to incorporate are to use a short code and keyword for text opt-ins, and have a compelling reason for the user to opt-in.  Then, deliver high quality, relevant content about the show, your products, and booth specials and promotions.

Then, when someone is in the booth, you can run cross promotions with having them post items to their social media for a chance to win some sort of prize.  This turns the visitor into a virtual marketer for your product/service.

It is all about thinking (at the risk of sounding very ‘inside the box’ and cliché) – outside the box.  There are literally thousands of ways that haven’t yet been thought of to use these services to maximize their usage.  It’s up to you – the professional who knows your business the best – to figure out the best way to engage your users via these mediums.

See more from Jeff at www.DynamicMarketingPartners.com

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