930,000 customers use Bank of America's mobile banking services. Android handsets have doubled in growth and surpassed iPhone in the last 8 months. Mobile click though rates average 8.9% to 49% on online mobile advertising. They are key reasons to take mobile marketing seriously.
You will find three incompatible os's on mobile smart phones. Blackberry handles e-mail and corporate applications well. Apple's iPhone, which broke the mold using its applications market and has led the for the last couple of years. In recent months, Google's Android is now leading the pack.
Why should marketers react?
Mobile browsers is still only 1% of website traffic, but you just consider the demographics of mobile users. They're educated, tech savvy with disposable income. Most mobile web browsing is done while commuting. This segment is the fastest growing market segment at present, with cellular devices, doubling every couple of months.
Who is already using mobile marketing well?
Most organisations that do this well began a kind of mobile program using the holy trinity of marketing, timely, personalized, actionable messages. The best practice is carried out be news (think Ny Times app) and media (movie and SMS ties ins etc) organisations, simply because they have the business design that supports it. However, there are more groups that this well too. In Sydney, the Oxford clothing store using mobile marketing as SMSs to promote its clothing sales to those that have subscribed.
Mobile Marketing App?
Just about all smart phones now use GPS to give users their current location. Reebok released a totally free app that allowed sports individuals to track their location, consequently giving more information to their coaches. This creates involvement and interaction directly using the brand. The possibilities for mobile marketing applications are almost endless. Whenever you combine GPS with WIFI, you can have location based marketing right down to the area, direction and speed of travel.
SMS marketing?
McDonald's, "send an SMS to Santa and receive your gift within seconds". This resulted in a stunning 25% response rate - a lot more than 1.5 million participations in five weeks. They promoted the use of unique codes on cups for consumers to send a text - right in the restaurant. Each code was a winner - the very first time with physical prices.
Mobile marketing is the next great pathway to customer acquisition and retention. Business advertise their products using a wide range of SMS marketing initiatives, including SMS coupon delivery, customer notification of specials and purchasers, event based SMS advertising to drive event participation plus much more.
Avoiding Basic Mobile Marketing Mistakes
Mobile Marketing is cool. But it is still new there are a handful of simple rookie mistakes that you want to prevent.
Here they are:
1. Approaching a Mobile Advertising campaign As an Email Marketing Campaign.
Unlike an email recipients sitting at their computers, mobile users don't wish to download your entire twenty seven-page Shocking Report. Instead, they're looking for quick information. Remember, a lot of their Mobile" time is spent... Mobile. They are driving... right? Keep the message simple, like you were designing a PPC ad. It's not that difficult and you can laser focus the attention of your mobile audience much better.
2. Not "Targeting" A crowd
Mobile marketing with texts only works whenever you send the content right people. Some business owners and marketers result in the mistake of treating texting like a mass marketing media instead of the targeting tool it was intended to be.
Mobile marketing campaigns would be best utilized on your existing customer base. These people are already acquainted with you and should have already opted-in for your SMS list. Your messages is going to be welcome and given attention.
3. Hard Selling in a Text
Dude... seriously. Mobile is a good way to interact with consumers, your really have only about 150 characters or so that you're dealing with... right. So think about it, if all of your communication by having an audience is focused on the hard-sell, then you will annoy the heck out of individuals who will turn a deaf ear to anything else there are here later on. When the recipients are part of an adequately opted in list, they'll simply opt out. Why bother?
Remember, improving customer retention will help you build more profitability in your business, so remember to focus on building relationships together with your customers. If you do that, the sales will follow.
4. Using Mobile Marketing Alone
While mobile marketing campaigns are effective when used on their very own, they pack much more power when they are used as part of a general marketing strategy. If you are using internet marketing, email marketing, or even TV ads and newspaper ads, mobile marketing could be a perfect fit to integrate into those methods.
For example, you are able to send texts with links to specific mobile squeeze pages which have a coupon awaiting your customer. Not only that, however, you may even add your business's QR (Quick Response Code) to your other promotional initiatives. Consumers can scan your QR code using their mobile phones and be taken to your website, receive an instant coupon, or even have a virtual tour of your business through a simple YouTube video!
5. Using One-Way SMS Marketing
Mobile marketing is a good way to communicate back and forth with consumers, but many businesses utilize it like a boring one-way communication channel. Such a huge mistake! Mobile marketing is an easy way to interact with consumers instead of just "sell" for them.
Your list will appreciate this many seem like you are building a relationship together. When you create a good rapport with your list they'll start buying from you.
For example, you are able to connect to them by asking them to email in an idea for something related to your company. Simply send them a text requesting their help and give them a contact link, or a connect to a survey in the text message. They'll feel more engaged and you will be more receptive to any or all of your marketing and sales efforts if you mix it up a bit and let them engage you inside a conversation.
Author Resource:
Check out this Mobile Mass Money write-up for best practices on mobile advertising. Mobile isn't new, but it is in its infancy. With more users than the internet if you are not optimizing and advertising via mobile then you're losing out on a massive possible client base.