Marketers in the digital world are constantly trying to find the most opportunistic way of marketing to their target audiences.
Searching for innovative ways to market products and services, and just when we think we are on the ball, we are really just playing catch up to the next big thing.
Mobile marketing has several layers that work both individually and collectively to promote a brand’s awareness and drive positive consumer actions.
Engage your audience and you WILL reach them!
Engaging your audience is critical if you want to be successful. Your relationship with them ideally needs to be more of an emotional one rather than transactional in order for it to be long term. locally engaging them can provide you with the fastest route to gaining their loyalty. Amongst the layers of mobile marketing is NFC(near field communications) and LBS(location based services) services which have an instant impact on the customer.
It’s a given success used by some of the big brands around today such as Starbucks who offer discounts to O2 customers as they pass their local stores or Odeon cinemas who using Facebook places to offer a box of free popcorn. As far as marketing goes it drives foot traffic to the stores to enable the retailers etc to maximise all opportunities.
Brands need to put customer engagement at the same level of importance and weight as creating great products and services. Using mobile marketing to its full capabilities gives a more complete and valuable experience with brands, and allows for far more responsive services.
The rise…
Mobile marketing will continue to grow as we add more and more functions to handsets but we shouldn’t dismiss the SMS message when new features come on board. A total of 78.9bn texts were sent in the UK last year (compared with 56.9bn in 2007), an average of 1,213 per mobile phone owner.
Shortcodes are a great way of effective marketing giving the consumer the simplicity to act upon them as they are easy to remember.
The importance…
We are definitely moving into the future whereby purchasing on your mobile device is becoming easier and a convenience.
According to a press release from Gartner, who are the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, companies Will Generate 50 Percent of web sales via their social presence and mobile applications by 2015
Overall, mobile commerce is expected to enjoy an increase of 55 per cent over the next five years, as it is made easier to purchase goods using Smartphone’s and tablets and according to research from Barclays Corporate the amount of money spent on mobile and tablet devices is expected to reach nearly £20 billion over the next ten years. Forecast for m-commerce shows it will reach £19.3 billion by 2021, which is an increase from £1.3 billion this year.
Microsoft’s Ashley Highfield at IAB Mobile Engage says mobile purchases are more immediate sales opportunities. One of his key points was a startling statistic. On the web, he explained, the time gap between search and purchase is one month. However, on mobile the gap is one hour.
So really as we are continually improving the user experience on mobile devices we move into exciting times for consumers and the way we market to them. Mobile marketing maximises every opportunity you have and is a powerful tool to use if you want to be a successful brand.
Now is the time to go mobile!
For more information about advertising on mobiles: http://www.iabuk.net/media/images/Howtogetadvertisingontomobile_8492.pdf
Written by Victoria Savage, Big Dot Media
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