Mobile Marketing: What is Mobile Marketing and how can it help me?
Mobile Marketing – time to pay attention
Do you remember a time when you didn’t have a mobile phone? Nowadays, mobile phones are one of the most ubiquitous items in society. In a mere 20 years, they have gone from a joke item limited to the elite to an essential part of everyday life. With this mass adoption comes great opportunity for businesses looking to get ahead of the market – and things are only going to get bigger!
What is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile Marketing is simply conveying a marketing message to a customer on their phone. Typically this takes 2 distinct formats, SMS messaging and Mobile Internet (although Mobile Apps are a growing sector). The inclusion of GPS chips and QR Code scanners in smart phones has added to functionality as well as increasing the marketing opportunities available.
Mobile Marketing – Please Text Me!
SMS texts are now as commonplace as phone calls. Due to the direct nature of phones, SMS is a very powerful tool to use, but as with powerful tools, if it is misused, it can cause huge damage. People have their phone with them all the time, so offering time based promotions are a great way of using SMS marketing, and unlike many other communication channels, most people read every message they get, giving the medium great impact.
Of course, there are some downsides, not the least that you are limited to a short space to get the message across and as it’s a ‘text’ message (in most cases), you can only use text! The primary worry though is getting permission. Due to the personal nature of text messages, potential customers could be put off if they aren’t interested in the offer, or don’t trust the message. Getting opt-in is very important. In addition, there are regulations in place to ensure that customers know exactly who the message is from as well as that it’s a clearly a commercial message. Finally, cost needs to be accounted for in the use of text messages.
SMS texts can be a very powerful tool in marketing for certain types of business (e.g. a coffee shop trying to get activity in the mid afternoon lull can send out a timed offer text message to generate activity), but care and thought needs to be give to their usage.
Mobile Marketing on the Internet
According to recent research, there are now over 20 million mobile internet users in the UK and smart phones are now outselling computers. Globally, the number of mobile internet users has increased to over 1billion. Despite these incredible figures, only 17% of advertisers have a mobile optimised site. So the first thing you should do once you’ve got a website is ensure that it’s mobile optimised – if you don’t you’re missing a mobile marketing trick.
However, optimising your website is no longer the only thing you can do. Many social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube all offer a streamlined mobile experience, as do many of the local listing companies, stretching from Google places to Yell.com – and people are using these services. Youtube had over 200 million mobile views in the last 12 months. So harnessing the power of some of these sites is essential to improving your marketing power.
Mobile Marketing – there’s an app for that
Mobile Apps or Applications are a complementary solution to the mobile internet and dependent on your business type and scope could help you grow sales and increase loyalty. Consideration to design and target audience (as well as how you distribute the app) should be given as well as things like updates and relevancy. However, as the spread of decent internet coverage across the world increases, in many instances, a mobile internet solution may be a better idea than an app.
Mobile Marketing is not going away
As can be seen from the stats, mobile marketing is now an inherent part of the marketing tool box for all business types. Using the cost effective tools that are available can deliver a fantastic mobile presence and incorporating elements such as QR codes and Direct Mail will provide a truly integrated solution. Mobile Marketing has moved away from it’s niche and now needs to be part of a marketing strategy, as if you don’t do it, your competitors surely will.
