With mobile marketing on the rise, many organizations are asking: “Should we invest in mobile communications?” Before investing time and money in developing a plan, discuss these key considerations:
- How are your customers using mobile devices – what features or applications are most popular with your key audience?
- What devices are they using? A variety fit the definition of “mobile” – cell phones/smartphones, laptops, “phoneless phones” (e.g., MP3 player), networked gaming devices (e.g., Sony’s PSP), e-book readers and tablet computers. There are also several “flavors” of smartphones, (e.g., iPhone, Blackberry, Android-powered, Windows-powered), so don’t develop communications for just one platform.
- Thinking about creating an app? Ask yourself (and your team) how it can help enhance your brand, and decide how you will encourage people to interact.
It’s also critical to come up with a real measurement and content strategy:
- What’s your primary goal?
- How do you refresh content?
- Determine the value of a like or share.
- Are 10K downloads worth it?
- Look at downloads AND usage to establish benchmarks.
- Develop key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine the campaign’s success.
Providing the means to reach audiences in a new and different way is part of mobile’s big draw. Today, mobile communication has a higher level of engagement because it provides a simpler form of information delivery, and adapts to a consumer’s personal style.
Building on traditional forms of marketing techniques, rich media ads that reveal promotions have proven popular. For example, Burger King advertised its “Free Coffee Fridays” on Thursdays via the Weather Channel’s mobile-ready site. Using “tap-to-map” technology, the nearest restaurants are displayed after determining the user’s real-time location.
Turning to new ways of mobile marketing, geofencing has become a popular, personalized medium to reach consumers based on location. To create a geofence, a retailer sets up a virtual perimeter around any location to trigger personalized marketing messages to a consumer. Customers opt-in to alerts through a company’s website, social network, or emails, and receive customized text messages after triggering the established geofence.
These are only a couple of examples, but many other forms of mobile marketing channels exist. Has your organization developed any mobile marketing initiatives? If so, how have you measured success?
Thanks to Kathyn Koegel, who presented “What PR Practitioners Need to Know About Mobile Marketing,” during last week’s PRSA webinar.