Mobile Marketing and American Elections

By Bob Morris October 5, 2008 by Steven JoneshGet To Today's Consumers

Mobile phone marketing, otherwise known as digital marketing, is the present evolution of direct advertising. Direct advertising has always been favored by companies as a personalized and focused method of reaching new consumers and, with the advent of mobiles, SMS marketing has risen in support. SMS marketing is perhaps best defined as the practice of advertising products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personalized and economic way.

The most popular example of mobile marketing is SMS marketing, which has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia. It is thought that several hundred million promotional messages are sent through SMS every month in Europe alone. SMS stands for 'short message service' and is a communication form specific to cell phones where a short message can be quickly sent to any mobile phone user. As well as sending material to customers, advertisers can often encourage customers to participate in promotional and brand exposure campaigns by encouraging customers to SMS a particular number at an event in order to enter a competition, to receive a gift or to have their text displayed on a multimedia wall at an event. All of these methods engages the customer through the medium of SMS and creates brand awareness.

There are many other types of mobile marketing. One example is sending texts via MMS, which is a multimedia version of SMS, allowing consumers to receive texts with color, pictures and video. There is also mobile web marketing, where brands advertise marketing goals through websites accessed by cell phones. Promoters often make innovative use of SMS marketing such as location-based services where consumers are offered custom promotions and other network-related information and marketing information based on their whereabouts. With the range of techniques and options available to promoters, it is unsurprising that a recent marketing survey found that 89% of major brands planned to advertise their products through mobile marketing by the end of 2008.

Mobile marketing is an example of what is known within the industry as "push" marketing. The idea behind push marketing is that that the business has to send (push) the information to the consumer in order for the material to be

received. This is different to "pull" marketing, a passive form of promotion, where it is customers who seek out the content from sources such as websites or blogs.

There are lots of advantages to SMS marketing. Primarily, the attraction is that this form of advertising can be personalized to the subscriber. This is the gold standard in marketing as it means getting the material specifically to the group it's focused on, rather than wasting money on an broad campaign. The specialization allowed by this mode of promotions, which results in a more cost-effective campaign, is one example why a high return on investment is possible with SMS marketing. Another advantage of SMS marketing is the detailed tracking and reporting of users it allows. Through this medium, companies can track how many subscribers received their material and also access specific data about each consumer such as their name, their age, their demographic and where they're located. This allows a marketer to raise profiles of their subscribers; data which then guides future promotional campaigns and, ideally, their success.

It is noted in the industry that push marketing, of which SMS marketing is a form, can help drive new cash flows and brand reinforcement if it is used correctly and sensitively. This is because it makes users aware of recent events that they may not think to enquire about already and the way a message is phrased, and even the fact that the material is being delivered by a innovative, hip medium such as SMS, can say a great deal about a brand and a business.

Tiptoeing into mobile marketing

October 8, 2008
Jose Villa is CEO of Sensis

Text messaging remains a “must-have� feature for mobile phones, according to a study by Amplitude Research. It is widely used as one of people’s prime communication methods.
According to a November 2007 survey from comScore M:Metrics, approximately 100.7 million United States consumers use text messaging.

Other research found that that 73 percent of Hispanic mobile phone users send and receive text messages, making SMS even more attractive for advertisers wanting to reach the multicultural marketplace. SMS is highly regarded as the safest form of communication from the user’s point of view.

Again, people are used to text messaging, so it isn’t an unfamiliar form of communication.
Additionally, because of increasing consumer demand, more and more wireless carriers are offering unlimited or high-volume rate plans that allow subscribers to send and receive text messages at will.

These types of plans ultimately make advertisement text messages free in the consumer’s eyes.
Text messaging is also by far the most often cited mobile marketing method – accounting for 70 percent of consumer mobile marketing responses according to the Direct Marketing Association.
However, mobile marketing as a whole remains a relatively untapped marketing medium, thus consumers are not yet inundated with so much advertising that they are turned away. If you want to take a first step into mobile marketing, SMS is a successful and tried and true method that can make your first experience a pleasant one. The reason behind this is that people keep their mobile phones on them at all times. Thus, no matter if they’re online, driving in their car, watching television or reading a magazine, they can easily respond to a call-to-action ad at that moment. As more people respond to the ad, you can start to create a database and develop long-lasting relationships with weekly, bi-monthly or monthly advertisements that offer additional incentives to visit your car wash. But before throwing mobile marketing strategies into your overall campaign, take a step back to evaluate how your target market will use mobile technology and what unique value mobile technology will present your audience. Throwing mobile marketing in just to have it isn’t worth it and can often annoy sought-after customers.
There must be an added value that makes sense to have on a mobile phone. This is why mobile marketing works well to promote special offers or send event reminders. A text message reminding a ticket purchaser of tomorrow’s event is quick, easy and something he or she will receive immediately – as opposed to an email that may take days to see.  

Text Marketing Campaigns 09/30/2008

We all know the law of 80-20. 80 percent of our income comes from 20 percent of our customers. The question is, what are you doing to communicate and market to that loyal 20%?  We often take our repeat customers for granted; all we give them every day is a smile and a nod without letting them know how much we really appreciate their patronage.
Loyalty programs have been around for a long time and really do work. Take coffee shops for example, the buy ten get one FREE punch cards work very well. They keep the customer returning over and over again knowing that they are getting rewarded for their loyalty. But the times are quickly changing and technology now provides ways to reward loyal customers without the hassle of punch cards, stamps or bar-codes.
Take a second and think of every person you know who does NOT have a cell phone.... Did you think of any?  Even those who can't use a calculator have a call phone and have become quite proficient out of necessity.  Text massage loyalty programs allow you the business owner to reward your customers without the hassle of pulling a card from their wallet.

Imagine this, one of your customers comes in for their regular small coffee and you simply ask them if they would like to join your VIP club. You explain that they will receive occasional specials offers and coupons directly to their cell phone and all they have to do is sign-up. The next week the customer receives their first text coupon that reads, "Come in and try our new pumpkin spice mocha for FREE! Simply show this message to your server".
After redeeming this coupon, your regular "small coffee" customer is now hooked on this new flavor and might consider upgrading to these higher price drinks! If they don't upgrade it's not a loss, because you were simply rewarding them for being such a great customer.

The possibilities are endless with text marketing and the benefit of being able to promote your product instantly is a huge benefit!  Here's an example. One of our clients owns a small smoothie shop and has developed a VIP club of around 400 sign-ups. On a rainy Monday afternoon they had had zero business that day.  By simply sending out an instant text message to their group, they were able to attract 45 customers within one hour of sending out the campaign! They did this by simply offering $1 off in text massage. If this is the kind of response you need for your business, consider text marketing. It’s affordable and effective without the hassle of traditional programs.

Marketing News

New research has predicted the amount of money spent on mobile marketing could rise by 150 per cent in the next five years. Research by mobile phone provider O2 found that around two-thirds of the businesses polled believe the channel can help them to create highly-targeted promotional campaigns. It was also revealed that the most popular way to use mobile marketing was for information campaigns related to the financial and retail sectors. Simon Dean, head of mobile media at O2 UK, said: "As SMS continues to grow, there has never been a better time for brands to engage with their customers via mobile. "In today's economic climate, mobile is proving to be a cost effective, targeted way for businesses to interact with exactly the people they want."

The Direct Marketing Association recently launched a range of guides designed to help businesses consider the use of mobile promotions

Study: Mobile marketing budgets to grow 150% by 2013