Mobile Marketing Tips & Tools

In 2009 it's time to think carefully about what you want to achieve through mobile marketing. To help you out, I've prepared this mobile strategy guideline. It breaks down some of the major areas you will need to consider before you proceed further into your mobile marketing endeavours.

This article outlines a list of questions to ask yourself before entering into or expanding your mobile marketing strategy. Even if you answer half of these questions you'll find some insights, focus on your mobile marketing goals and you might even come up with a great plan to promote your business. Right, let's get down to business:

1. Mobile Messaging Continues to Grow

In 2009 mobile messaging will continue to grow despite the current downturn in the global economy. As mobile data revenues increase and voice revenues are under pressure, mobile messaging will be seen as the lifeline to the mobile industry, as especially youth see it as cheap, fast, private and easy way of communication. Recent figures from M:Metrics state that the number of people using SMS has increased 3.3% year on year even across mature markets like the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The growth rate of MMS in the same market is even higher at 9.2%. According to Nielsen Mobile, the 13-17 age group in the US sends around 1800 SMS per month, that is 60 SMS per day!

Most new subscribers to mobile services will come from less economically developed and newly industrialised regions, many of whom have a low disposable income. Most of the phones shipped to these markets have little more than voice and text capabilities so the growth potential for SMS in these markets will be significant. According to ABI the number of messaging users will grow with a rate of over 10% per year in countries in Asia, South America and Africa.

The use of MMS will continue to grow especially in China where MMS is booming. Its growth will be helped by ever improving handsets and the demand for user generated content, blogging, social networking and mobile marketing. According to ZTE, the application-to-person MMS traffic in China makes up for 70% of all MMS traffic.

2. Personalisation is Increasingly Important

As consumers have become increasingly demanding, the importance of personalised messaging and greater user experience is vital. The era of blanket mass messaging is coming to an end as you can now deliver your message, with added personal touch, without any added costs. Linking your SMS messaging into existing CRM systems can create highly personalised experiences. Personalised messaging is also built-in to our online mobile marketing tool - SL Interactive SMS & MMS Messenger Pro, and it is available to all our customers with no added costs.

3. Go Local and be Relevant

If your message is relevant and well targeted, it can generate an extremely fast and very profitable result for only a few cents per message. Mobile marketing is one of the most inexpensive forms of marketing and it can be executed almost immediately. But the success of SMS and MMS marketing is all in the targeting and relevance of the message. If you've got a special lunch offer, don't send info about it to someone who lives too far or never visits your establishment during lunch time. Location based advertising has been made very easy in the SL Interactive SMS & MMS Messenger, where you can choose your target customers based on their postcode.

4. Don't forget Call-to-Action

Make sure that there is simple and specific call-to-action in every message you send. Be clear in letting people know what you want them to do and why they should do it. Some popular options are different types of competitions, discount vouchers, instant wins or free content of some sort. Keep in mind that the most effective message is personal, relevant, timely and valuable.

5. Create a Genuine Value Offering

The best call-to-action mechanisms give the respondent a clear and immediate return. Mobile is fantastic tool for fast response marketing and if you offer people something they value, they're much more likely to give you something you value, such as opting in to a promotion or offer. I have included a great example from Scandinavia where a private hospital sends their patients notifications if the doctors are experiencing delays. Patients are recommended to wait at home with an estimate time when the doctor will be ready for the appointment. The introduction of the service lead to significant reductions in patient waiting at the hospital waiting room as well as improved the quality of the appointment through reduced stress levels and improved atmosphere.

6. Be Mindful of Privacy and the Law

I'm sure we all agree on Spam emails being highly irritating and a complete waste of time. With mobile there is zero-tolerance for Spam. The laws on spamming are very specific and people will be extremely upset, and may even take further action, if they haven't opted-in to receive your message. You should very clear that you have the recipient consent for messages and that you always provide an option to opt-out from your list.

7. The Era of Mobile Internet Has Begun

The use of the mobile internet will increase significantly by the end of 2009. According to IBM more than 50 per cent of consumers would substitute their PC based internet connection for their mobile. As the majority of new phones come with internet access as standard, it is not hard to foresee that the number of people accessing the internet from their mobile will increase dramatically in the years ahead. According to T-Mobile Germany, iPhone users have lead the way of mobile Internet browsing with a significant margin over other handsets.

8. Save Time, Money and Resources

Smart marketers will look for cost effective tools, such as the SL Interactive SMS & MMS Messenger Pro, that can help them reach specific customers with offers that are most relevant to them and at the right time. You have to be careful with mobile marketing because it could too easily turn into spam, which could even result in negative reactions from your key target audience. Research and experience shows that provided the customer has expressed interest and willingness to receive offers, the right offer, at the right time and place, can generate a particularly positive response.

Checklist

Your activities:
1. What are your mobile related activities?
2. Do you have a mobile friendly version of your site?
3. Do you have the means to drive traffic to the mobile site?
4. Are you doing all the talking or do you encourage interactivity?
5. Do you have a genuine value offering for your customers?

Your competition:
1. What are your competitors doing in the mobile space?
2. Have they already worked out how to engage their audience?
3. What are the advantages of your competitor's mobile activities and what will you need to do to beat them?

Your industry:
1. What is your industry achieving by focusing on the mobile space?
2. Are there any trends you should be aware of?
3. What are the ideas you like?
4. How can you play a bigger role in this industry?

Your audience:
1. Who are you talking to and why?
2. What is your niche audience?
3. What do they like to do?
4. What type of information you would like to gather from your audience?
5. How can you help make their lives better?
6. What will get people talking about you?
7. How can you be different?

Your resources:
1. What is your scope, time line and budget?
2. Who's going to manage it?
3. What are the software requirements?
4. Do you have the necessary knowledge in-house?
5. Have you researched alternatives?

Your marketing:
1. How will people know about it?
2. How can you spread the word?
3. What is the launch plan?
4. What are the PR opportunities?
5. Are there any viral opportunities?

Your responsibilities:
Who's in charge of the following:
1. Data entry and validation;
2. Mobile site management;
3. Linking to content on the mobile site;
4. Visitor tracking,;
5. Opt-in list management; and
6. Conversion measurement?

As a marketer, if you can't find compelling reasons to answer all of the above mentioned questions, or at least most of them, you might be selling yourself short mobile, and worse still, allowing your competitors to take ownership of the space. As one of the pioneers of successful mobile marketing campaigns we look forward to assisting you in developing or refining your mobile marketing strategy.