Marketing To PDA Users

One of the hottest hi-tech gadgets on the market today is the PDA — Personal Digital Assistant. Sort of like electronic daytimers and mini computers all rolled into one, products like Palm Handhelds and Handspring Visors allow uploading, downloading, and portability of information.

Although some PDAs can actually access the wireless Internet in real time, most PDA users currently get their information through a process called “synching,” updating the PDA and receiving new information via a content distributor. Since each handheld PDA only has limited memory, the amount of information that can be synched from each distributor is also limited. The two top PDA content distributors are Avantgo and Vindigo.

Each content provider has its own distinctiveness. AvantGo distributes information in the form of “channels,” which are the PDA equivalent of traditional web sites. Web site content providers such Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal, FoxSports, etc. use AvantGo to distribute their news, sports and information to handheld users. Vindigo’s approach is a bit different. It specializes in delivering targeted regional content, mostly to enable you to do activities. For instance, if you’re in Atlanta for only one evening on business, Vindigo can tell you which restaurants suit your needs, what kind of music is playing at local nightspots, or what’s playing at the local movie theater.

So, now let’s tell you how you can use this new technology to your advantage. Let’s start by defining who is using PDAs and respective content services. AvantGo reports that 85% of their members are male; Vindigo boasts that 45% of their users make between $75-$200,000 per year (not too shabby, huh?).

If you own a web site and you develop fresh content on a regular basis, you may want to look into creating your own AvantGo channel. It’s free, relatively simple to do, and the advantages of doing so are best described on AvantGo’s site.

As an example of how you can utilize AvantGo, consider the case of ClipACoupon.com. On their innovative AvantGo channel, users can access local coupons from their PDA of choice. The user inputs where they are, what they are shopping for, and how many miles they are willing to travel to buy the discounted product. Once in the store, the customer simply shows their PDA to the cashier and the discount is received. For more information visit ClipACoupon.com.

You can also reach PDA users via advertising. Both AvantGo and Vindigo services offer advertising. Vindigo’s CPM campaigns range from $25 to $68 for a minimum of 500,000 impressions (a bit pricey for a local business). If you are a local business and would like to be listed with Vindigo, get yourself listed in your own local newspaper’s entertainment/dining section because Vindigo has relationships with local newspapers to obtain such content. You can also contact Vindigo to find out which source they use for information from your area.

Since AvantGo is more like the traditional Internet, there are several ways to advertise. The first way is to directly through AvantGo, however, they have a fairly high minimum commitment ($35,000). An alternative is to purchase ad space via an Internet advertising network like Advertising.com, which distributes ads throughout different targeted AvantGo channels. Advertising.com’s campaign minimums beginning around only $750.

Of course, you can always contact a channel owner directly to see if they’ll sell you ad space themselves. Just check out AvantGo’s listing of channels and then search for the same publisher online. Once you find their web site, contact their advertising department and see what kind of deals you can work out to get your message across to their PDA audience.

Since advertising in this PDA medium is even more new and more untested than Internet advertising, who’s to say what kind of results you’ll have or what new innovations will be coming our way. What’s for sure is that there’s only going to be more talk about PDA’s and the “Wireless Web” as technology keeps forging ahead. Why not give PDA marketing a try and see if it’s for you while the terrain is still relatively uncluttered!

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