Category: Mobile Supplements

One off posts on Mobile Subjects..

Mobile Marketing, Mobile Supplements

6 SMS TIPS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

The holidays are fast approaching, so it’s more important than ever to keep your digital marketing program running as smoothly as Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve. Over the course of nearly two decades in marketing, 10 of these in Mobile technology businesses I have been witness to the rise of mobile as a major force in the digital communications landscape.

Yet less than 50% of British businesses give more than 5% of their marketing budget to mobile communications. (Source: Forbes)

There are a number of factors in a business not taking full advantage of the mobile channel, from reluctance of senior management to take the leap through to internal infrastructure issues that ultimately need fixing before a mobile strategy can be fully realised.

However, it’s easier than you think to judge the success rates of mobile over other more traditional channels, it’s even easier to track the effectiveness of SMS in increasing open rates of an email for instance.

Mobile Messaging via SMS is proven to increase interaction, engagement and promote faster buying decisions from your customers.xmas sms

 

So… Its Christmas… and if you’re not using Mobile as part of your strategy already, then your behind your competition… the question is… what are you going to do about it…

Want some ideas to get you started?

Take a look at my six benefits to SMS Marketing this holiday season….              

Source: IPSOS Survey

 

6 Ways to gain more revenue this Holiday season through SMS marketing…

  1. Notify your customers of special offers, low prices, instore sales etc..

People respond to mobile, the average text message is read within 90 seconds of hitting a handset and is the number one channel for making purchasing decisions whilst on the move.

  1. Reminders for appointments

Run a leisure business, restaurant or salon? Use SMS as an appointment booking service and remind your customers when an appointment is due. Get the customer to respond to your reminder or booking SMS and opt them in to receiving marketing texts going forward.

  1. NEWS FLASH! Let your customers in on your secret… notify them early of pre-sales activity.

Send your customers an SMS giving them vital information on a pre-sales event in your store or online business. Make them feel special and offer some good deals or offers and you will gain not only price based loyalty but customer brand loyalty too.

  1. Competitions

SMS is a great way to gain instant buy in for a competition or an offer linked to a competition entry. Collect data by adding in a mobile web page as part of the sign up process. Make it a Christmas themed competition for extra interest from your customer base at this time of year.

  1. Gift Card Sales

Not sure you’re going to sell enough gift cards this year? Mobilise them by offering gift cards via text messaging…send your customers a message to get them to visit the website or go in store to purchase a gift card for a loved one this xmas. Give them a small discount code in the message that they can use at the till point to get some money off their gift card purchase.

  1. Footfall Driver Offers

SMS marketing is fantastic for driving footfall into bricks and mortar stores especially in the holiday season. Offer customers a free glass of Mulled wine with a purchase over £5 for instance or a free mince pie when they order a coffee etc..

The holidays are just around the corner and consumers are starting their quest for the perfect gifts and bargains. A well worded and timely text message to a consumer giving value can entice shoppers to buy your products or services.

“85% of shoppers are highly likely to buy from brands that offer highly personalised discounts.”

 

Good Luck

themobileexpert

Mobile Marketing, Mobile Supplements

Consumer Power

If your of a certain age, you may remember some of the great TV ads of the 70’s and 80’s.. Smash, PG Tips, Hovis amongst others all had brand defining TV adverts running pretty regularly during that time. They based their TV spend on sales generated in bricks and mortar stores as a result of the brand recognition they generated by their decade defining adverts.

Fast forward to the present day and we have changed massively as consumers, technological advances have given us a plethora of devices and channels with which to communicate on and there has been a concious move away from print as a daily key targeting channel.

We now have on-line channels like social media, mobile devices, tablet devices, apps,  text messaging, emails, TV and traditional media et al.. and we have to manage our brand presence and positioning across all these channels and devices in a convergent manner.

However, there is one huge change that often goes overlooked when putting together an overarching marketing strategy for your brand. In decades past, we were TOLD what to buy, how good something was or tasted etc… by traditional media channels. We made key purchasing decisions based very often on nothing more than remembering a really cool advert or a familiar jingle on the radio that made us remember a product or service business. You could call this the age of “Marketing Power” – we were told what to buy by repetitive marketing providing passive product knowledge and little or no ability to talk to other brand advocates / users.

Of course now we are in the age of “Consumer Power” we can talk to millions of people on line in seconds.. we can share reviews on our brand experiences, tell our peers where to get the best value for money and what the best deals are at any time, anywhere on the planet.  Passive brand knowledge has been replaced with active brand presence – I can become a brand ambassador / critic without leaving my kitchen table… (McDonald’s has 59 million fans on Facebook alone – all talking about their likes and dislikes of that mega brand)..

I can tweet, post and otherwise disseminate my thoughts about a brand, product or service and have a multiple way conversation with both the brand and other followers alike in real-time.

As a brand owner you need to be able to connect with me as your customer, not just today but tomorrow and in the future.  You need to engage and have a two way communication with me, give me variation in your brand communications so I don’t get bored and reward me for staying engaged with your brand on a regular basis.

Whilst the consumer has more power than ever before, they also give brands more opportunities to connect with them too. The tricky part is offering an engaging, targeted and rewarding experience to your consumers on a one vs one basis. Its only by truly understanding who your customers are and what they want as individuals that you will be able to fulfil your business goals, increase your brand coverage and grow your business and revenue.

Gaining customers is the easy part in today’s omni – channel, always on, consumer driven world, keeping them is the real problem. You have to analyse the data you have from your customers, from the website, from an app or plastic loyalty card, from on-line orders, basket analysis of purchases etc.. etc… and use this information to create compelling digital promotions and rewards that encourage interaction, purchase activity and the sharing of more customer information.

If your ready to discuss targeted engagement solutions for your business or you want to discuss the best way to create a reward or loyalty scheme for your customers then get in touch.

In my next post, I will talk about “Traffic Analysis” and how you can use this to increase your customer knowledge and preference information.

Regards

themobileexpert

 

Mobile Supplements

Top 10 location-based mobile advertising campaigns of 2013

Location-based ads gain steam

The rise of geo-conquesting, navigational applications and an increase in sophisticated data made campaigns from Toys “R” Us, adidas and Jack in the Box stand out in the mobile space this year.

Marketers significantly beefed up their mobile advertising this year with tactics that go beyond driving in-store traffic and instead use branded apps, search and integrations into third-party navigational apps such as Waze to lure in interested consumers. This will continue into 2014 as marketers tie in additional pieces of data indicating intent to make mobile campaigns more contextually-relevant.

Here are the top ten location-based advertising campaigns this year, in alphabetical order.

20pc of adidas mobile store locator visits result in in-store traffic
Adidas, iProspect and Google worked together earlier this year to measure the impact that mobile search has on in-store traffic.

First, adidas linked mobile search campaigns with location extensions to drive consumers who were searching for a store straight to the store locator page on the brand’s mobile site.


Adidas’ mobile site

IPropsect then used adidas’ internal data to estimate that one in every five clicks on the store locator page led to an in-store visit.

The companies then theorized that 20 percent of in-store visits result in a purchase with an average order value of $80, making each store locator click worth $3.20 and resulting in a 680 percent incremental lift in ROI.

Adidas’ campaign underscores the importance that linking up mobile and in-store traffic is playing for marketers. As marketers look to better understand mobile’s value, similar tests will likely be done in 2014.

Best Western mobile ad generates 0.95pc CTR
Best Western ran a location-specific campaign in the state of Washington around airports and competitors to encourage consumers to book a hotel.

Best Western worked with PayPal Media Network on the campaign that let consumers either book a hotel instantly or view a map.


Best Western’s mobile ad

The combination of geo-conquesting — or targeting consumers nearby to competitors’ locations — and geo-fenced ads around airports in Best Western’s campaign shows how marketers are making location the focal point of their mobile advertising efforts.

The campaign also shows the potential for mobile advertising to sway last-minute sales as consumers rely more on their mobile devices to make travel decisions on the spot.

Coors Light propels foot traffic via location-based mobile ads
MillerCoors’ Coors Light took a unique twist to drive traffic into bars and restaurants.

The beer brand ran mobile ads inside sites and apps such as The New York Post and CBS News during the football playoff games.


Coors Light makes mobile advertising local

When consumers clicked on the ads, a branded landing page with a map is brought up that shows nearby restaurants that serve Coors Light products.

Since Coors Light likely will not be selling a beer directly through mobile any time soon, a location-based ad is a smart way for the brand to drive consumers into locations to try one out.

Dairy Queen tries location-based advertising to increase summer foot traffic
Dairy Queen bet on mobile advertising this year with a campaign to show consumers where they can find Orange Julius locations inside the ice cream shops.

Banner ads within Fandango’s mobile site expanded when clicked on to pull in a map of nearby locations. The map could be zoomed in and out of to view directions and contact information.


Orange Julius locations plotted on a map

In 2013, mapping data and location has increasingly become more sophisticated, and Dairy Queen’s ad shows the gains that marketers have made in terms of driving foot traffic through mapping.

Fiat helps Waze users find nearby relaxation spots to avoid traffic
Automaker Fiat was one of several brands to leverage the mobile application Waze this year to serve up location-based ads to consumers.

Fiat ran the campaign in Brazil and targeted drivers that were near rest stops. When consumers click on a branded icon, copy encouraged drivers to pull over and take a break from the traffic.


Fiat tries Waze in Brazil

Waze was acquired by Google in June for $1.03 billion to help the company strengthen its location-based offerings, and other brands including Universal Pictures and Interscope Records have also leveraged Waze with local, relevant offers.

What is interesting about Waze as a marketing platform is that the app has its roots as a utility service that uses live maps to offer consumers turn-by-turn directions, making ads less of a distraction since they are surrounded by relevant information.

Jack in the Box delivers on mobile’s promise of location-based relevancy
In October, Jack in the Box ran a mobile advertising campaign that put location at the forefront. 

The campaign ran within the Pandora iPhone application and pulled in several pieces of information to eliminate the need for a landing page. Instead, consumers could type in their ZIP code to find a store location straight from the ad unit itself.


Jack in the Box’s location-based ads

QSRs lead the pack of industries leveraging mobile advertising to drive in-store traffic, and Jack in the Box’s ad shows the gains that marketers are making in perfecting the location-based ad.

Outback Steakhouse leverages mobile location to target competitors’ customers
Outback Steakhouse was one of many brands to take standard geo-fencing up a notch with geo-conquesting.

The steakhouse chain ran a campaign that generated a 78 percent lift in click-throughs for ads that were served within five miles of a competitor’s location.


The Outback Steakhouse mobile ads

Additionally, post-click activity was highest on the portion of the campaign that was targeted towards competitors. The campaign generated an 11 percent lift in conversion actions such as finding a nearby store than standard geo-fenced campaigns.

Outback’s campaign highlights the growing role of location for marketers this year in driving in-store traffic. As geo-fencing has become more mainstream in the past few years, geo-conquesting is a way for marketers to differentiate their campaigns and win over consumers with aggressive offers.

Peter Piper tries location-based advertising to build SMS database
Pizza chain Peter Piper rolled out a pilot program to several of its Texas locations this year that targeted in-app ads to consumers who were nearby stores.

The ads were day-parted to either serve lunch or dinner offers to consumers and included a call-to-action that prompts consumers to type in their mobile phone number to join Peter Piper’s SMS program.


The Peter Piper ads

To build an ongoing relationship with consumers after they clicked on the mobile ad, Peter Piper chose to start building up an SMS database, pointing to the need from marketers to load mobile ads with calls-to-action that drive long term engagement.

Piaggio Group Americas sees 4.69x increase in CTR for retargeted ads
Piaggio Group America ran a mobile advertising campaign this year that leveraged location data to serve up retargeted ads that drove a 0.75 percent click-through rate, more than four times what untargeted ads generate.

The brand used location data to identify consumers who had previously visited Vespa and Moto Guzzi dealers and then retargeted them with location-specific ads.


The location-based mobile ads

According to PGA, the average consumer buying a Vespa spends two to three months researching before they buy. Therefore, utilizing location data keeps the brand top of mind for consumers, and PGA was able to target only the consumers who are interested in its products.

Will brands latch on to post check-in foursquare ads?
Toys “R” Us and Diageo were two of the first brands out of the gate to test a new type of foursquare ad this year.

The post check-in ads aim to serve up relevant offers and content based on the location of a check-in. The ads can either be used on the spot or saved to the app to be redeemed later.


A post check-in ad from Toys “R” Us

Foursquare has been actively pushing itself away from solely a check-in app in the past couple of years since consumers are not as interested in check-ins if there is not a distinct value.

With a growing number of advertising opportunities, foursquare is hoping to lure in some marketing spend from big brands that want to target specific consumers by location and could be a big area of focus for marketers in 2014 if behavioral or social data is layered into ads.

Author: Lauren Johnson

Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York

Mobile Supplements

Is M-Commerce the future of mobile interaction – Part Three

Growth of Mobile Commerce – Retailers

Also, many companies have yet to be convinced that they need a mobile strategy; a recent 2ergo survey found that over 70% of companies surveyed outside our customer base were yet to be convinced they needed a mobile strategy for their business.

This is of particular significance to well-established bricks and mortar stores, especially those who will be seeing a good number of smartphone-using shoppers coming through their doors over the next couple of months.

Now is the time to be embracing mobile and all the things it can do for the retailer, from appointment confirmation, check in, offers, footfall drivers etc…

Within the 30% or so that do have a mobile strategy, the retailers are benefiting from their use of mobile rendered websites, strong product or service placement within mobile sectors and strong offers available via mobile and they are increasing sales as a result.

More than one third of smartphone users made a purchase through their mobile device in the last 6 months and nearly two out of three shoppers use at least one device to research and purchase while shopping, and 28% use two devices at a time.

Within the 10% of mobile users who have made a mobile purchase in the last six months, 84% look for local retailer information, 82% find online retailers, 73% find a specific manufacturer or product website, 71% learn about a product or service after seeing an ad, 68% find the best price for a product or service, and 63% search before purchasing in a store or from a catalogue using their mobile device.

Combine these kinds of statistics from the mCommerce ready audience with 56% of consumers believing mobile can make the shopping experience more enjoyable and you can understand why many marketers believe that there is a consumer payments revolution on the way with retail at the forefront of it.

Both sources mentioned here look into the numbers of people who are still hesitant when it comes to mobile commerce. The Intersperience research highlights that 37% of UK adults are not keen to buy via mobile, compared to just 11% who remain hesitant to purchase via PC.

According to Google’s stats, 69% of smartphone users who do not buy via mobile simply prefer to use their PC or laptop for shopping. Other concerns included ‘doesn’t feel secure’ (34%) and complexity (9%).

It’s quite clear that paying over your PC didn’t take off immediately in the late 90’s but the advent of payment providers like Paypal and the emergence of the banking sector into online payments has made paying over your PC an everyday “chore” almost, with people more than happy to pay over the internet.

Whilst mobile is going through that indifference and security concerns phase now, it’s clear than in the future as more and more banks and financial players like PayPal come into the market with industry leading products and services and as more security concerns are addressed that the future of payments via mobile as a “chore” is very, very near.

In the final post in the M-Commerce series we will look at future predictions in this sector.

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Supplements

Is M-Commerce the future of Mobile Interaction? – Part Two

Growth of Mobile Commerce ….. the Consumer

As devices become smarter and the user experience becomes faster, easier and more secure, so UK shoppers are beginning to make more purchases via their mobile devices.

Data published in October 2012 from a new tracking initiative by IMRG highlights the growth of the mobile commerce sector in the UK.

During Q2 2011 visits to e-commerce sites from mobile devices accounted for 7% of overall traffic, up from an average of 1.4% in Q1 2010.

The research also shows that UK mobile shoppers are buying more and are now making 3.3% of e-commerce purchases from mobile devices. This is an increase from 0.4% at the beginning of 2010.

UK mobile owners are making more purchases from their devices and are also using them when visiting offline stores.

According to Intersperience, 8% of UK adults buy through their mobile phones, while 21% intend to in the future. Comparatively, a smaller percentage (7%) of under-18s currently make purchases via mobile but 33% plan to in the future.

Mobile is also clearly playing a big part on purchases made in shops. Our Mobile Planet data sees 24% of UK smartphone owners taking their phones shopping with them in order to compare prices and inform themselves about products.

Additionally, mobile devices are on the cusp of becoming more than an in-store information source, with the release of apps and features allowing users to make payments through their devices instead of using cash or card.

Despite 24% of UK adults being in agreement that mobile phones are more likely to be stolen than wallets, Intersperience data shows that 17% would be keen to use their devices for payments. Again, youngsters are more eager, with 25% of under-18s keen to replace their wallets with mobiles at the cash register.

From a marketing point of view however, there is still a significant amount of catch-up to be done for mobile commerce to become as trusted as PC-based mobile commerce.

Look out for part three of this 3 part post when we look at the role the retailer plays in the growth of m-commerce.

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Supplements

Is M-Commerce the Future of Mobile interaction?

This is a three part post. In it, we will try and show why m-commerce is the future of mobile interaction from a consumer perspective and a retailer engagement one.

Mobile Interaction – Introduction – Part One

“By 2014 more people will use a Mobile Device to get online than PC’s..  (Gartner Research 2012)”

In terms of the technological age, mobile has been quickly adopted in comparison to other great inventions of equal or more significant importance. It took Alexander Graham Bell nearly 30 years to see his telephone invention of 1875 becoming widely adopted in America when AT & T created the first transcontinental telephone service in 1915.  John Logie Baird’s TV invention first built in 1925 took over a quarter of a century to be even 70% part of consumers general home life, due to costs, early development issues, the 2nd world war etc..

Mobile has become the fastest adopted technology ever seen, in less than 15 years since the first heavily commercialised mobile phones were released for public consumption many countries have mobile penetration levels well over 100%, meaning in most cases people have at least 2 devices.

The types of consumer facing mobile programs you can run has advanced to a level where you can register for a program as a new mum and receive texts each week for the duration of your babies infant years detailing how your baby should be developing and how to deal with certain issues as they occur, like nappy rash for instance.

You can use your mobile device as a communication method, to blog your friends, to access the internet, to switch on your heating at home, to talk to your Sky box and record your favourite programs, as a TV of sorts, play games, as a payment device for small purchases and in ever increasing regularity as a redemption device against larger purchases.

It will only be a matter of time before you can carry your phone and pay for everyday purchases almost as you would with a debit card.

It would seem the only thing you can’t do yet with your phone is open your front door and even that won’t be the case for much longer!

Look out for our next post on this subject when we look at the role the Consumer (thats me and you!) plays in the growth of m-commerce.

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Supplements

Near Field Communications – Whats it all about?

NFC is a wireless communication technology a bit like WIFI or Bluetooth, it allows the transfer of data between two devices like a mobile phone and an NFC Tag. You might use NFC to pass data from an NFC enabled mobile phone to another NFC enabled mobile phone, from a mobile phone to a payment terminal or from an NFC tag to a mobile phone.

NFC  is  used for things like contactless payments, loyalty and rewards offers and coupons, security controls, marketing, events and even product identification are all able to use this technology. And the great part is that all of these applications require just an NFC enabled mobile phone to get started.

The beauty of NFC is in its simplicity. Once the tag has been encoded with the desired information or action, the tag is ready to use. The user simply touches the back of the phone against the tag, this will launch the URL or service encoded. No lining up cameras with barcodes or anything to download.
NFC technology works only at close distances – typically about 3 centimeters away. This close range makes NFC perfect for interaction and means that tags can’t ‘accidently’ be read or used for unwanted tracking. The ‘tap’ action is quite specific and part of the appeal of NFC as opposed to other longer range RFID technologies.
Almost all new smartphones now have NFC built in. In fact, nine out of ten of the top mobile manufacturers have now adopted NFC. Apple’s iPhone is the only major smartphone without NFC support. However, there still remains a question mark over how long NFC will take to become mainstream given the amount of phones that are still out there that where made prior to 2012.

Data Capture by NFC devices

In particular, the GSMA is focused on driving the standardised deployment of mobile NFC using the SIM as the secure element to provide authentication, security and portability across many different handsets. Adopting SIM-based NFC as a global standard will also ensure economies of scale and interoperability, which will be critical to the widespread adoption of NFC, enabling people around the world to benefit from NFC services, regardless of their operator network or device type.

Capturing data by NFC is very simple and in general you don’t have to ask permission for the data as it is freely given at the point of contact with the sale, the big concern here is what you do with the packet data received from the mobile device. Where is it stored? Are you ISO 27001 certified? Is your solution provider? Are you in the UK or abroad? What are you doing with the data once you get it? Are you marketing to it? If so normal marketing rules for SMS will apply regardless of them giving their consent at point of NFC adopted sale.

Potentially a data minefield if you don’t get this right and in the short term without wireless capability you will lose many potential customers who don’t have NFC enabled on their older phones but nevertheless NFC can provide a fantastic user experience and generate much needed stickiness for any brand.

Mobile Supplements

Advanced SMS Campaigns

If you have ever thought that an SMS campaign wouldnt be of benefit to you and your business due to the intricacies of your consumer business needs then think again!!

SMS is one of the easiest channels to use for Dynamic Logic based campaigns, using simple text based scripts or lookup tables you can trigger the correct response message from hundreds of possible responses on an individual basis.

For example, you may decide that you will encourage your customers to join a program to recieve weekly updates and offers for your products or services. This program will be a month long program for five weeks and is  free to join and each person who joins will start the program with the first weeks message regardless of what day in the month they join.

This means your campaign will run for a maximum of two months as people who text into the program at the end of the target month will recieve the first weeks message and start the program from scratch.

Example:

The program runs throughout October and I can sign up via a short code and keyword at any point throughout this month (1st – 31st) this means that even if I sign up on the final day of October, then I will start the program and recieve my first weekly message. This means then that I will recieve my last message in the last week of November.
If I have your personal details like your first name or your account number etc, I can personalise aspects of the SMS messages your recieving, to give you even more relevant content.

If there is a particular format of messages required or if the messages are to be sent out in sync, then a simple logic based campaign will do the trick.

If you require a customer to text in a response like age so you can then verify that they are eligible for the content your about to send them, you can use a dynamic script or Smart messaging product to do that. Once your age is confirmed, then you can set up further messages based on the outcome… i.e.. if under age send “Not eligible” message and if correct age send “eligible” message.

If you want to send someone a message that has a time limit on it and have an expiry message set up to send to the customer if they try and join a program and arent succesful then you can do this and in the process send them on a different journey too.

SMS is the most versatile marketing channel around, it allows multiple responses, logic based responses, age verification, automated opt in and opt out programs, subscription programs, dyamic time based messages sent at multiple times of the day and much, much more!!

So.. if you think SMS isnt capable of meeting your business needs… THINK AGAIN!

Thanks

themobileexpert

Mobile Supplements

MMS Marketing

MMS or Multimedia Messaging Services are commonly known as picture messages but can have a variety of content in them from videos, text pages, QR codes and ringtones.

MMS was seen as the best way to offer a great user experience prior to 2008, when first the mobile web, WAP push and then mobile applications offered a much better way of engaging with consumers, whilst having much more functionality and many more options for marketers to achieve better results from much more varied call to actions in there campaigns.

Where MMS campaigns were used over traditional SMS messaging, there was a much greater response rate on the campaigns as consumers were drawn to the imagery in the MMS as opposed to the blandness of a traditional message.

However, there are many challenges to using MMS as a regular part of your mobile strategy, the first of which is cost versus gain ratio. The cost of MMS is prohibitive to using it for all your database of consumers, with traditional MMS messages costing between 8p and 35p depending on volume and length of message.

A traditional MMS message is 300k in size, this is a standard size to ensure compatibility with most mobile devices.

Other challenges you will face when it comes to adding MMS as part of your mobile channel strategy are;

Content Adaption and Handset configuration both these challenges relate purely to the types of devices out there and the fact that not every device will be catered for when you create your content or configure your phone settings.

Travel Agents in particular have used MMS messaging to great advantage in the past, with some holiday packages to more expensive destinations coming with an MMS message to your phone on booking the holiday showing your room, the hotel you would be staying in and nearby landmarks like the beach for instance. The message took on the effect of a simple slideshow of MMS messages and you can imagine how good this would be from a customer perspective, to be able to recieve an MMS showing you what your room will look like etc…

Due in part to the challenges associated with it and in part to cost of build and deployment, most companies no longer favour MMS as a bulk or mass market communication method, rather it has become a rare and exclusive medium with the vast majority of customers prefering WAP push or Mobile Applications as the cheaper alternative and the  way forward.

If you find that the challenges associated with MMS marketing are prohibitive to your strategy, then dont worry, use a mobile landing page to interact with your consumers instead, make the SMS message content relevant and interesting and add the url in for your page and encourage consumers to click on the link, then you can ask them to perform the call to action you want them to do on your landing page.

In the example below, you can see how a simple text message (1) containing a link to a mobile site or landing page (2) can be ultra effective at giving a positive visual and user friendly experience to the recipient.

The message flow is fully trackeable and you can provide full user statistics on call to action / response rates, sign up rates, click through from the intial message rates and added to the delivery reports for the first message you will be able to show how succesfully the campaign has been almost in realtime.

Mobile Supplements

SMS Marketing

SMS Marketing, and the process of communicating and exchanging information and value with our customers, is changing the way that marketers manage relationships with consumers. Used effectively, it can help you to generate brand awareness, convert prospects to customers, maintain customer relationships and allow you to take your customer care to a new level.

Each text you send is immiediate, with 96% of text messages read within 90 seconds of landing on the handset.

Its personal, with you all the time and generally speaking its always on and it carries with it a built in payment system, extremely accurate user statistics and is available at the point of creative or copy development.

When you start to think about your companies mobile strategy, you may want to use this formula below;

UA + CCO + CC = SMS

The formula contains the three things you will need for a succesful strategy for your mobile campaign.

“understanding audience + confirming company objectives + corporate commitment = Succesful Mobile Strategy!”

If you know who your audience is then you know what they purchase, what services they like, which they dont, what drives them to interact or buy from you etc… you will also know what catergories they fit into which type of customers buy what type of products and why. Make a list of the different type of customers you have, keep it short (no more than 5 types) here is an example:

Segment your customer base, try and put each one of your customers into a particular user profiles, like the ones below;

The Careerist –                    24 – 40 years old  / Has bill paid for by the company?

Early Adopters –                 They want everything first, before their peers get it

Young & Hungry –                15 -29 years old / Want the latest gadgets and are always texting

Over 40s –                             Generally happy with a phone that allows basic texting and calls

In Touch Organizers –          Like to keep connected / 30 – 64 yrs old / Have busy professional and Social Lives and like to organize their family and friends

Only by doing this deep analysis of your customer demographic will you give yourself a better chance of fulfilling their needs and having success with your mobile marketing program(s).

Now lets look at confirming your companies objectives and getting sight of what they actually want to achieve from this marketing channel.  To do this you need to answer the following three questions;

1. Who is my audience?

2. What value do I deliver to my audience?

3. What objectives am I trying to achieve with my marketing and how will I know when I achieve them?

Finally you need to gain corporate commitment decide what your corporate objectives are, consider available resources (Internal / External) and consider the affects on the rest of your business only when you have done this can you gain corporate commitment for your mobile programme.

Once you have gone this far into establishing your mobile marketing programme, you can now start concentrating on the Five Key Elements to any Mobile Campaign, these are below:

  1. Customer Knowledge
  2. Appealing Value Proposition
  3. Development of Creative / Assets
  4. Promotion Strategy
  5. Reporting & Evaluations

The next step is to create something your customers/ prospects will like, something that gets your message across in a simple, easy to understand way, without complicating the process from a technology perspective.

When starting, start simply.  Pick a simple program, one with the broadest reach and ease of use for all concerned; moreover, first focus on accomplishing just one of your objectives; don’t try to do everything at once.

Thanks

themobileexpert